You Did Not Create Us to Kill Each Other

Rev Douglas Taylor

September 22, 2024

Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/YhArffGrIUs

Yesterday, September 21^st, was the official UN designated International Day of Peace, or World Peace Day. The original proposers of the day back in 1981 were Costa Rica and the United Kingdom. It was 20 years later that they locked the celebration’s date onto September 21^st specifically and began calling for a day of ceasefire.  Celebrations, and commemorative events began developing around the world as well.

“A survey by the Culture of Peace News Network found internet reports concerning more than 942 celebrations of the International Day of Peace from 93 countries around the world in 2023.” http://cpnn-world.org/new/?p=32258

Perhaps this year, we will see reports of over a thousand events from over a hundred countries for yesterday’s celebration of the International Day of Peace. I’ll watch the news for reports.

Spirit of Peace and Life, may our World Day of Peace stand as a symbol of humanity’s common vision of a world at peace. May it remind us to seek peace and harmony in our lives as well as in the world community. May peace prevail on earth.

One significant feature to the day is the call for ceasefire and non-violence in places around the world experiencing conflict. And yet our wars continue. The decades long war in Myanmar has killed over 12,000 people so far this year. Nearly 22,000 people have died this year in the current version of the war in the middle east. Russia’s war with Ukraine has seen just over 34,000 deaths in 2024. The insurgency in Maghreb has also passed 10,000 fatalities so far this year. The ongoing Sudanese civil war and the Mexican drug war are also on the list with under 10,000 each for this year. “The List” I refer to here is simply the Wikipedia list of “ongoing armed conflicts” around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts

Our world is too steeped in violence and war. And while the United States is not actively engaged militarily in any of these wars, we are involved in several of them through humanitarian aid and military support – such as with Ukraine and the Middle East. One part of our individual work for peace is to apply what pressure we can on our institutions and government officials to promote peace.

Ultimately I must share, I am not a full pacifist. I understand the ways in which careful use of force can aid in the creation of peace. I acknowledge that there are situations, Ukraine is an example, in which it is not enough to simply say ‘no’ to a bully. And the use of force, for defense and to stop a bully’s aggression, is warranted. I know this makes the conversation more complicated because now we may need to parse out exactly where best to draw the line, but I believe that is the world we live in and this is the real struggle we face. Where do we draw the line to say this violence and war is acceptable, and that is not? I’ve given a general answer for where that line might be for me, and I hope you will spend some time struggling with that question yourself – not just with wars, but perhaps all forms of violence.

War, however, is my topic for this morning, with World Peace Day, and I want to spend some time with the aspect of war that is tangled up in religion. Religion is a common element in war. It is often mis-used and perverted into a tool to perpetuate war. I am among the camp of people who believe the only legitimate interpretations of religious beliefs, doctrines, and scriptures are those interpretations that are life-giving instead of life-denying. As such, when religion is used to promote violence and war, I see it as a perversion of the truth in religion.

Consider the Israel – Hamas war; it presents as a war between Islam and Judaism. It is, of course, also a war about nationality, a war over land, a war fueled by political extremism, but religion is a huge part in the conflict.

Religion can be a call toward peace, a call for harmony and grace. Religion can also be used as a call for sectarianism and division; a call to do violence against the heretics and the unbelievers, the heathens and the infidels.

This, despite Islam’s claim that Peace is so central to their faith the word Islam translates as Peace. This, despite Christianity’s claim that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. This despite Buddhism’s claim that peace is the path. The behaviors of violence witnessed in the name of religion do not align with the language of loving peace offered by those same religions.

Spirit of Peace and Life, may this day of peace shine as a reminder that every day can be a day of peace. May our religions speak their true messages of peace for all people. May peace prevail on earth.

Thankfully, there are numerous voices among religious leaders calling for peace and peaceful behaviors, urging people toward deeper understanding of one another. Pope Francis recently shared these remarks at an interreligious youth event in Singapore:

“All religions are paths to reach God. They are—to make a comparison—like different languages, different dialects, to get there. But God is God for everyone. If you start to fight saying ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t’, where will this lead us? There is only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christians; they are different ways to God.”          (September 13, 2024)

It is interesting he used ‘different languages’ as a comparison. We can learn to talk with each other, we can learn each other’s ‘languages’ without fearing them, and then communicate with each other about important things we share.

For religions, violence and the urge for dominance begins with making a group into ‘the other,’ with the dehumanizing of a set of people. It begins with “mine is true and yours isn’t.” But if we can remain human with each other, there remain opportunities for peace. If we can meet and talk, the whole world becomes possible. Catholic theologian Hans Kung has said, “No peace among the nations without peace among the religions. No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions”

We must be able to talk with each other and see one another as fellow human beings. Circling back to the example of the Israel – Hamas war, one significant impact in Israel of the walls and the check points and the two-tier justice system and the rhetoric is to keep Palestinians and Israelis from meeting each other as fellow human beings. Certainly part of the point is to create safety for one group and cause harm for the other. But another impact for both Israelis and Palestinians, is that is dehumanizes the people on the other side of the wall. It keeps the two groups separate and not talking to each other.

For dozens of years, countless Non-Government Organizations and other grassroots unofficial groups have worked to bring peace and to bring change for Palestinians and Israelis. Certainly there are many outsiders lending support, but most notably there have been a significant number of Palestinian and Israeli people working together to build bridges of understanding and to dismantle the structures of violence and injustice through whatever means possible.

Some are activists, some are business people, some are former combatants, and some are artists. I remember learning a lot about the situation ten years ago when the Children of Abraham hosted a program and a speaker on the topic. I learned then about schools that were teaching both Arabic and Hebrew. I learned about theater groups and music groups comprised of people from both sides creating art with a message of unity and peace. I learned about a publishing house putting out graphic novels to reach as many people as possible. All working non-violently to build a better future for all the people in their area.

I imagine much of that work is lost in the rubble after this past year. One poignant lesson I take from this is that it really is through the efforts of regular people that anything meaningful can be achieved. However, if that work does not also move the governments to participate in the work for peace, there will be no peace.

Spirit of Peace and Life, may we always stay open to the possibility of peace though our words and our actions.  May the violence and horrors we still find in the world neither dishearten us nor tempt us into cynicism. May peace prevail on earth

What can we do to keep each other human through these wars?

Some players on the world stage do not want peace. They want power and money and one way to obtain that is through the chaos and destruction of war. Be mindful of the motives of your leaders. If you want your neighbor to stop attacking you and threatening you – seek out their motive, what do they fear? What are they trying to protect?

In the Middle East, those seeking war and resisting a peace process are doing so out a yearning to eliminate a perceived threat. I don’t think it is unrealistic to say they want to make their people safe. But the path they are choosing is the path of war – to eliminate the perceived threat.

It certainly seems as though Netanyahu’s Israel is not seeking peace. Neither is Hamas leadership for that matter. But pressure from their partners such as various Arab countries and the United States could push them toward the negotiating table and toward a two-state solution which would bring dignity to the many different people in the area.

But this leads me back to that question: What can we do to keep each other human? I don’t have any influence on the leaders in Israel or Palestine. But I do know Jewish and Muslim people here at home, and I can do my part to ease the division, to keep my colleagues and my neighbors human. I don’t have any sway with the current US administration to pressure our leaders to use our leverage for peace. But I can reach out to you all here and to elected officials closer to home with my message of hope and peace. We can write letter and attend rallies of solidarity. We can build our own grassroots networks here that can build peace in the places we have influence, and trust that it will have an impact, and trust that it will grow.

We must call up the true words found in each of our various faiths leading us to peace. We must challenge those interpretations of the religious texts that call for violence. We must challenge those beliefs that call for separating out those who are different, that dehumanize others. We must call out for peace with all our hearts.

Spirit of Peace and Life, may our minds be set on peace with freedom and justice. And may a song of peace take root in our hearts and sing to us gently through all the tumultuous days ahead. May peace prevail on earth.

In a world without end

May it be so

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Note: My sermon’s title comes from a line in the prayer I read this morning. The prayer was composed in mid-October 2023 – shortly after the war began – by two religious leaders together, one Muslim and one Jewish. https://www.jenroseyokel.com/p/sunday-poem-12-prayer-of-the-mothers

“Prayer of the Mothers” By Rabbi Tamar Elad Appelbaum and Sheikha Ibtisam Mahamid

Translated by Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

God of Life

Who heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds

May it be your will to hear the prayer of mothers.

For you did not create us to kill each other

Nor to live in fear, anger or hatred in your world

But rather you have created us so we can grant permission to one another to sanctify Your name of Life, your name of Peace in this world.

For these things I weep, my eye, my eye runs down with water

For our children crying at nights,

For parents holding their children with

despair and darkness in their hearts

For a gate that is closing

and who will open it while day has not yet dawned.

And with my tears and prayers which I pray

And with the tears of all women who deeply feel the pain of these difficult days I raise my hands to you please God have mercy on us

Hear our voice that we shall not despair

That we shall see life in each other,

That we shall have mercy for each other,

That we shall have pity on each other,

That we shall hope for each other

And we shall write our lives in the book of Life

For your sake God of Life

Let us choose Life.

For you are Peace, your world is Peace and all that is yours is Peace

And so shall be your will and let us say Amen.

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