Sermon by Michele Rizoli
Peace Sunday
November 4, 2012
Texts: Psalm 24:1-8, Isaiah 65: 17-25
This week I saw an ad in the subway that said: “Two hundred years of peace make it easy to forget a war.” I thought “AMEN, thank goodness, let’s celebrate two hundred years of peace, Ain’t gonna study war no more, ain’t gonna study war no more.”
Oh, wait, there’s one more line to the ad, it says we’re supposed to remember the war of 1812. What? like what we need after 200 years of peace is motivation to set ourselves against our neighbours to the south!
I guess being a Christian who, believes in, seeks and celebrates peace gave me an atypical reaction to that ad. Plus I had been thinking about Peace Sunday, and that usually means some kind of emphasis on our Mennonite church’s historic stance in favour of pacifism and against war and violence.
But today it’s not quite that straightforward – peace never really is, is it? We are being invited to expand our understanding of peace through the issue of mining justice. This is about peace that touches on creation care, economy, conflict, solidarity, and consumerism, and connects us with our global neighbours.
Before we go any further, let me ask you something: How do you imagine peace? What does peace look like in your mind’s eye? (take a moment)
The poet in the Isaiah passage we just heard
imagined it as a place, a mountain, a holy mountain.
It is a place where: the past will not come haunting there will be no cries of distress.
A place where there wont’ be premature or untimely deaths, where old age will be a blessing
People will have places to live, food to eat and simple sustaining livelihoods that are not under threat.
People will still work – and enjoy their work — and raise children knowing that they are not destined for calamity.
People will be attentive to God and God attentive to people.
Nature is reconciled, even wild animals will get along.
They shall not hurt of destroy.
This is an idealized view of peace as a holy mountain – also known as shalom. It’s a whole lot more than an absence of war or celebrations of war. Shalom does not include people suffering — from any kind of distress: lack of work, lack of food, lack of land or water, arbitrary displacement, sick children. And shalom includes peace with nature.
Compare that metaphor of a mountain, with the giant craters and underground hollowing that are the result of large scale mining. [If you search for images of mining on the internet you’ll get an idea of what we’re talking about.]
Compare that Isaiah vision of people living sustainable livelihoods with the perspectives we’ve heard in the readings.
How does a mining crater work as a metaphor?
The mining industry is complex, and, IMPORTANTLY, it is not all bad or irresponsible.
But when it is irresponsible – as it has often been – mining has disrupted a mountain of peace. As we heard earlier in the service, it has: disregarded the inherent land rights of Indigenous Peoples; displaced people from their land; destroyed forest, agricultural land and homes, used enormous amounts of water and contaminate water supplies, contributed to violence and human rights violations in some communities, failed to do proper clean-up and remediation after they close; benefited Canadians at the expense of people living in poverty.
Some of these effects, are simply the result of the huge scale of mining in a global economy that treats profit like it’s the be-all and end-all of our existence. One of the reasons for this huge scale of mining is the huge scale of things “we” consume in our lives and our culture’s idea that everything is endlessly disposable and replaceable with bigger and better and improved versions of itself. [example of cordless phone, where batteries are more expensive than replacing the whole set. creates a mountain of waste.].
And, just so we don’t think this issue of large scale mining is all about some other place in the world, there is currently controversy in our own province over a proposed megaquarry that would use up 2,400 (twenty four hundred) acres of farmland between Orangeville and Collingwood.
What does mining have to do with peace? (modified from MCC website)
We are called to love our neighbours.
Jesus taught his disciples that the greatest commandments were to love God and to love our neighbour (Matthew 22:37-40). Indeed, love of God could not be separated from love of neighbour. Love should be reflected in actions of care and compassion (I John 3:17).
In the globalized world, in a sense all people are our neighbours. The actions of one group can have an impact on the lives of another group in a faraway place. As we hear what brothers and sisters are suffering and asking for help, our faith demands that we be in solidarity with them. We need to figure out how.
So peace is about living out love of neighbour near and far.
We are called to live justly and care for the vulnerable.
The Bible is full of admonitions and directions against the practice of injustice, particularly the way in which the rich gained their wealth at the expense of the poor (Isaiah 5:7-9; Amos 5:11-12). There are aspects of the mining industry, as it operates internationally, that represent great injustice. Most importantly, the mining industry generates vast amounts of wealth for owners and shareholders, while only a tiny proportion is shared with the workers and local people. Sometimes mining activity displaces people from their homes, destroys their land and source of livelihood, and harms their health.
So peace is about seeking justice and not being guided by greed.
MCC’s mining justice project suggests that Canadians take a close look at their investments to see whether we are investing in companies that are involved in irresponsible mining practices. Proverbs 16.8 gives us the following biblical investment strategy: Better is a little with righteousness than large income with injustice.
We are called to care for creation
An ecumenical group that came together to talk about mining justice concluded that: “We …need to deepen our theological understanding of resource extraction, and to move away from concepts of dominion and ownership … to a sense of being part of God’s Creation, understanding that it is our common responsibility to care for Creation.” We would do well to learn from indigenous peoples about not taking from nature without also giving back.
So peace is also about the scale of mining and endless consumption; besides going against creation, when resources are all used up, conflict ensues.
Finally, we are called to be peacemakers
“Jesus condemned all violence and taught his followers to live peaceably with those around them, including their enemies and opponents (Matthew 5:9, 38-44). His loving response in the face of persecution, torture and murder was his most profound witness to peace (Luke 23:32-34). Around the world, mining operations frequently contribute to conflict and violence. Communities are divided, labour leaders are arrested, mine opponents are harassed and sometimes killed, and organized resistance is quelled with armed force.”
So peace is about finding ways to reduce violence.
It’s not easy to know how to respond to all this, as they say — it’s complicated. We don’t know how to live without consuming or investing. [In the system we live, going without consuming is rather like trying to go on a diet by not eating anymore, it can’t be done.]
I confess that, as a white North American, I always f
ind it hard to think about my actions – good or bad – as having an impact in other places of the world. It feels to me like there is an element of arrogance to that kind of thinking, or, on the other hand it completely overwhelms me with a paralyzing sense of responsibility and catatonic guilt.
This week I was thinking about mattresses. They might help understand this sense of connectedness with others around the world from a less judgmental and more empowering perspective. You know those handy pocket coil mattresses where two people can sleep comfortably in one bed and not disturb one another? Even dropping a bowling ball doesn’t overturn a wine glass? Being in a globalized context is not like sleeping on one of those mattreses. Being globalized, is like being in bed with someone on the old kind of mattress, or in a hammock. One movement or hogging of blankets or bed real estate by any one, has an impact on the other, they are left uncovered or conffined to trying to sleep in a tiny corner of the matress. Sharing the bed together in peace requires some negotiation, some peacemaking. This is the world we live in.
As remembrances of war circle around us this week:
Try to remember that we can’t guilt ourselves into finding God’s peace. Our actions come from how we dare envision a new earth.
Try to remember that “we believe that the fruit of the peace, justice, and reconciliation that God wills for creation must already be present in the seeds we sow to achieve it.” Ends and means matter.
And above all, try to remember that the strength and wisdom to imagine a mountain of shalom in the face of craters of destruction, comes in the same measure as we allow God’s Spirit to be at work in our lives. It is our commitment to follow Christ and openness to the Spirit that can transform self-centeredness and lack of vision and move us into fruitful action.
Today, on Peace Sunday, I pray that we become faithful peacemakers and that we not lose our capacity to imagine peace.
Isaiah 65:17-25 (adapted)
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice for ever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create [a holy city] as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in [my holy city],
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my [loved ones] shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labour in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by [God]—
and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
and the [serpent’s food] shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain,
says the Lord.