The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Thanksgiving Ecumenical Service

Nov. 23, 1999

Only a "dry as dust" religion prompts a minister to extol the glories of Heaven while ignoring the social conditions that force people to live in earthly hell.

We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

These words by Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. and Nelson Mandela capture much of the shadow and the light of this century we are preparing to leave. These past 100 years have witnessed some of the most lethal and diabolical manifestations of wayward world. We need only name a few such things, such as, the Battle of the Somme, the existence of the KKK, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Omaha Beach, Mai lia, Auschwitz and Kosovo. Such a list reminds us that the world has not yet learned to sit around the table of a common humanity and give thanks to the Lord that said, and does say, yes to life!

The vision of the prophet Isaiah has not yet come to pass. Instead, it serves as a permanent and guaranteed reminder of the future God has planned for us, something that engenders hope despite what we see. Despite human evil God’s grace claims the right to have the last word about our lives, history and the cosmos. Yet at the same time this God honors our right to be wayward, to choose paths that lead us away from God—paths which always lead to those things that are destructive of ourselves, others and the creation.

We see this in the parable of the prodigal son. Certainly, I believe that most people can identify with some elements of the younger son. Just like him, our culture promotes the notion that we must get everything right now! But we know we need time to understand and to grow into the new things given to us. Otherwise, we are most likely to be rash and impulsive like the younger son who squandered all he had and found himself alone, hitting rock bottom—feeling deserted by others and God.

The century we live in at present is something like this younger son. The power of the atom, genetic engineering and our technical prowess came too soon for us to understand all of the implications for the human race and the planet. Gen. Omar Bradley once remarked, "We are technical giants and moral pygmies." As a consequence we have constructed part of our world around the capacity to destroy it within a few hours time. Must we do so? Absolutely not! Will we do so? I don’t believe so and I pray we not do so!

As dire as some of this seems, that we live in a world of these shadows—we also live in a world where God’s light and love are stronger. We live in a world of unprecedented medical discoveries and advances in the living standards of many people. Technology guided by sound ethical thinking and practice may lead us to a world that will make it possible that all people live in conditions that honor their human dignity before God. Yet, we have some ways to go. Still, 40,000 people die from hunger each day, and wars and rumors of wars persist.

The churches too have contributed to some of the shadows of this century. Often enough church bodies have remained silent, or even embraced policies

of nations and local communities contrary to Jesus Christ our Lord and only Master. Yet we also know that in more recent times the churches have spoken out against those things that are destructive of life. Who can ever forget the thundering eloquence of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. calling this nation to a new human understanding and way of life? Who can forget that his call to non-violent love, even when suffering for it, was not simply about ending segregation in America but one directed toward raising the entire society up to a new level of reconciled humanity? Who can forget the Christian witness of Dorothy Day, Archbishop Oscar Romero, D. Bonhoeffer, Jean Donovan and so many others? Such people remind us that God’s cornucopia of light and love are still alive in this world directing us, and inspiring us to embrace life and to embrace hope.

The churches have been guilty of sin, but they have also mediated God’s redemptive love and hope in this century. We know we have some distance to traverse to get to the feast. Yet, like the younger son we know we need only turn together toward home and begin to approach the Father’s place. And when the God of Jesus sees us, this God will run out to greet us, lavish us with kisses and fine robes and call us to the banquet! Each church is trying to make its way, but we need the other churches to get there. And here is the catch right? We can only get there by journeying back home with one another! This will take time, effort, charity and trust—but it must be done for God’s Spirit wants to bring all to unity.

Perhaps this is best summarized by the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa from his recent book entitled; No Future Without Forgiveness, when he relays his experience of his voting for the first time in April of 1994:

White people found that freedom was indeed indivisible. We had kept saying in the dark days of Apartheid’s oppression that white South Africans would never be truly free until blacks were free. Today they are experiencing this as a reality. I used to refer to an intriguing old film The Defiant Ones, in which Sidney Portier was one of the stars. Two convicts escape from a chain gang. They are manacled together, the one white, the other black. They fall into a ditch with slippery sides. The one convict claws his way nearly to the top and out of the ditch but cannot make it because he is bound to his mate, who has been left at the bottom in the ditch. The only way they can make it together as they strive up and up and up together and eventually make their way over the side wall and out.

As the Church of Christ we are call to enflesh our journey by a change of heart that is made concrete is charity, justice and peacemaking in the world among the churches and all the children of God. Such enfleshment is a result of the hope we share in the final banquet! So let us give thanks for our God who journeys with us in our struggles and accomplishments. Let us give thanks for the churches that challenge and support each other on the road to new life. Let us give thanks to a God that desires that we sit at the feast in a time when love and joy is our only means of discourse. We give thanks to a God who desires that we be one. Let us give thanks to the God that has manacled us together with the Love in the Holy Spirit so that we can only get to the banquet if we walk together.

So at our thanksgiving tables let us give thanks for the promise of the final banquet. Let us give thanks for one another as fellow wayfarers with our God that leads us to the promised banquet. It is the banquet that we can only get to through the power of the Holy Spirit that bids all of to come to the festal feast.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000