Blogswarm against the war

Today marks five years since the US started bombing Iraq.

While others out there will offer reflections on what it has meant, I am simply going to post the service, readings and meditation we had the day after the bombs started to fall. Context is everything: I serve a congregation that is half a mile from the nation's oldest private military college and needed to be aware of people's thoughts even as I was and always have been totally against this so-called war.

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A Service for Peace in a Time of War
20 March 2003 • 6.00 PM

The Holy Eucharist

Gathering
Blessed be the God of our salvation:
Who bears our burdens and forgives our sins.

Iona Litany for Peace
In the midst of hunger and war,
we celebrate the promise of plenty and peace.
In the midst of oppression and tyranny,
we celebrate the promise of service and freedom.
In the midst of doubt and despair,
we celebrate the promise of faith and hope.
In the midst of fear and betrayal,
we celebrate the promise of joy and loyalty.
In the midst of hatred and death,
we celebrate the promise of love and life.
In the midst of sin and decay,
we celebrate the promise of salvation and renewal.
In the midst of death on every side,
we celebrate the promise of the Living Christ.

Readings

A reading from Jeremiah
My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Disaster overtakes disaster, the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in a moment. How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ‘For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.’ I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. For thus says the LORD: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.

A reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly…. Do not pay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves…. No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Holy Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Jesus said to them: You have heard it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

Reflection
The first reading you heard this evening is from the prophet Jeremiah. It is also the first reading in today’s daily office lectionary. Imagine how those words stopped me as I read them this morning. Sometimes scripture and life come too close together for comfort.

I have been struggling to put into words the heaviness of my heart and the conversation I have been having internally about where I stand on this war. I speak as a committed Christian, as an individual, but also as a priest and servant of this community.

As we gather tonight, remember that it is 2.00 in the morning in Baghdad. There are bombs falling as we gather. Call it an over-active imagination, but I can’t help but think that the same moon shines over that city, as it would here if the heavens weren’t weeping tonight. I try to imagine the million civilians of Baghdad hunkered down in their homes, hoping to ride out this hurricane of military force. The words of Abraham’s bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah echo in my heart:

‘Will you really sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Perhaps there are fifty innocent within the city. Will you really sweep it away? Will you not bear with the place because of the fifty innocent that are in its midst? Heaven forbid for you to do a thing like this, to deal death to the innocent along with the guilty….’ Abraham gets God to spare the city for fifty, then twenty, then ten.

I get stuck because surely there will be innocents who will suffer on account of their leader’s cruelty and this attack on their country. I get stuck because the colour of their blood is the same as mine.

I get stuck because people might interpret my opposition to this war as being unpatriotic and unsupportive of the US troops that are over there. Hardly so. A priest from Delaware wrote into the House of Bishops/Deputies list serve this morning words that reflect this dilemma:

‘Under the banner of patriotism, members of my Episcopalian congregation are being labelled unpatriotic and called traitor if they express any opinion contrary to that of the current administration.

‘The best support we could give our women and men serving in the military today is to continue not only to exercise our rights and liberties for which they have been sent to fight, among which are the right to freedom of speech and the liberty to dissent, but also to support those who speak their minds when they dissent, even in war, even if we do not agree with that dissent.

‘Those of us who dissent appear to be only 25% of the population, according to a poll I saw on the news this morning. For the majority to demand that we shut up or toe the party line is tyranny, just as it would be if the shoe were on the other foot.

‘Meanwhile, although most of my primarily elderly, otherwise conservative congregation do not support war against Iraq, they are going about collecting articles needed by those being deployed — Bibles, chapstick, non-fragranced lotion, stationery, etc. — to be collected by the USO for distribution. Dissent does not preclude supporting those sent to fight in our name.’

And that is where I come down. I will continue to exercise the right to free speech granted each one of us in the constitution and more important because the baptismal covenant demands my speaking.

While in El Salvador, I spent two hours talking with a Nicaraguan woman who had moved to El Salvador twenty years ago and now is a naturalised citizen of El Salvador. She was upset with another member of the congregation because she felt that the other was acting in an unchristian manner because of her involvement with the FMLN, a left-of-center party. She felt that the other shouldn’t be involved in politics in any shape or form. What I said to Esperanza (her name means, ‘hope’!) was that there are times when injustices in the world demand that a Christian speak out. There are times that the vows of the baptismal covenant, especially the fourth and fifth ones, dictate that I speak out against oppression and injustice and I do so as an individual.

Most of all, I pray. Dr Robert Pierce, founder of Samaritan’s Purse wrote: ‘Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.’ Tonight my heart is breaking. But I pray, trusting that God hears our prayers as well as those of the world and that even in moments like this, there still will be hope and rebirth. I pray that for all who are involved in this current conflict that they will have hope and be safe… and that this broken world somehow be reborn into a world where we will finally learn war no more, where nation shall no longer take up sword against another, no longer become the violence we abhor, and where none shall be afraid.

Prayers of the People
In peace let us pray to the Lord, saying “Kyrie eleison.”
For the children of God, for all humankind, that we be become people of peace in our time.
Kyrie eleison
For the Holy Church of God that we may live the prophetic dream to turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and do war no more;
Kyrie eleison
For this congregation here present, that we may become known as instruments of peace in our communities and places of work;
Kyrie eleison
For our nation, and all the nations of the earth, that we might take risks for peace, and cease resolving our differences and hatreds through violence and war;
Kryrie eleison
For all who live in times and places of fear, hunger, homelessness, in the midst of war and violence, without safety or care;
Kyrie eleison
For prisoners of war, refugees, political prisoners, for people abandoned and forgotten;
Kyrie eleison
For children, widows and orphans, for the wounded and dying, especially those in Iraq, Kuwait and any other country affected by the current military campaign tonight, those who live constantly with the violence of disease and suffering;
Kyrie eleison
For ourselves, our families and friends, our neighbors and colleagues, that we might find peace in our hearts, and peace in all our relationships, being reconciled, one to another, and be agents of God’s reconciliation;
Kyrie eleison
For all nations at war, and for those who this day suffer violence and terror, especially for the people of Afghanistan, of Palestine and Israel, of Northern Ireland, India and Pakistan, and all other places torn by war and strife and for the safety of our armed forces currently deployed in Iraq and Kuwait.
Kyrie eleison
For all who have died this past year through violence and war, and for all who gave of their lives for peace, for all the saints and martyrs;
Kyrie eleison
Jesus our brother said in the Gospels, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the realm of God.”
Help us, O God, to be instruments of your peace.

The World Peace Prayer (together)
Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts,
our world, our universe. Amen.

The Peace

Eucharistic Prayer A

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More thoughts will emerge as the day goes on.