There is changing peace though (sometimes there is no “why”: part 2)
In case you missed part one, which I recommend reading first:
From the last blog post: “[God] is not going to give me peace about the suffering that comes from starvation, slavery, or a friend’s suffering next door. God is not going to take the edge off of that which will drive us to reach out and love. He will not comfort us in such a way that we feel content to sustain that status quo.”
“Ok, well what kind of peace IS given? Isn’t there some sort of peace to be experienced?”
Is there peace to be felt? Certainly, but that peace comes from Jesus, not from feeling better about what is happening around us. For myself it usually comes as a bittersweet peace that provides comfort and deep breaths of relief. I say bittersweet, because there is always a gap in the peace, it is not complete. To be sure, it is everything that I need, but the gap comes from knowing that my personal experience alone is not everything that everyone (including myself) needs.
And in that sense, it ISN’T everything that I need. I have my peace, but a person suffering next door or on the other side of the world does not. As a member of the kingdom, I find it hard to feel real satisfaction in my personal, one on one, experience with God, when it is separated from the rest of the world. Is the peace I feel from God life giving? Yes. Is it refreshing? Absolutely. Does it feel me with hope? Often. But if that peace is just for me it seems severely lopsided.
When God responded to Jesus with new life, that life was not just for him. That life was for all. When God responds to me with new life, that life is not just for me.
So, to return to the fact that God will not help us to sustain or support the status quo, God certainly does give us peace, but is not a peace that allows us to carry on as usual. It is a strange sort of peace that creates space for change. And that change begins in small places. Sometimes these places are so small that they are not even visible; such as the internal discomfort of thoughts, opinions, and values shifting. What we love begins to shift. Don’t discount the internal discomfort. It takes courage to allow hard questions to dislodge deeply rooted ideas and feelings. But when we open ourselves up to experience change, we also open ourselves up to dream again, and that is a beautiful experience to have. This part alone is a pretty grand adventure, and remains with us indefinitely (as far as I’ve gone so far… which who knows how far I’ve actually gone). For myself, the liberation, freedom, and adventure that questions bring has become a kind of internal companion. Though, this again, is not the point.
If the changes that this peace creates are allowed to roam freely, eventually they MUST burst out through the moving of arms and legs and hearts and mouths. Sometimes it only takes a few moments for this to happen, sometimes it takes quite a long time (years even). And that’s ok. Everyone is different. Grace abounds, and I think for God immense joy and pleasure is experienced with every different journey that he walks people through. But no matter how long it takes, I am convinced that eventually it has to come out, though I am also convinced that it looks different in every person (sometimes even unrecognizable to others who have traveled a similar path). This outburst (even though it may be very small much of the time) begins in the healing of relationships (both with ourselves and others), or at least the attempt from our side. It brings with it the beauty of reconciliation, and the healing of anxiety in learning to trust both God and others. From there, the possibilities are endless for those who want to wrap their lives in healing the world so that it may have new life, whether that means committing oneself to honesty and integrity in the practice of fair business, working with diligent dignity on the systems that we usually take for granted (plumbing, construction, custodian, etc), cutting back on luxuries to instead help those who have none, or living on almost nothing to do life with those who suffer the most in our world (homeless, slaves, sexworkers, children). And it may be that for many of us our lives consist of some or all of these things blurred together, but the point is that all of these and more are irreplaceable. All of them are necessary. All of them are beautiful.
So, God will not give us a peace that allows us to stay the same. Instead he gives us a peace that is much more fulfilling that compels us to love others. That means, and this is key, that the loving and sacrificing for others, is not born out of guilt or pity. I will end with a couple of quotes from Jurgen Moltmann:
“If the poor, the sick, and the rejected are called “blessed,” then they are not the objects of Christian charity, generosity, and love. They are rather first of all fellow members of the Kingdom (Matt 5:3) and “brothers” of the Son of man (Matt 25:31). They must be respected for their dignity, honor, and worth; therefore they are subjects in the kingdom of God, not objects of our sympathy. Every act of help is preceded by our fellowship in common, and ever act of caring has its origins in Christian fellowship. Before you can be for others you must learn to live with others.” (Moltmann, Hope for the Church, 25)
(Not a quote, but my paraphrase of someone else) Those who want to stand up for the oppressed must stop participating in oppression on all accounts. Usually the game is to feel bad about what has happened, then give a little money. Moltmann says that this is unacceptable, that all this accomplishes is to sustain the oppression (by taking the edge off of the need for true change) and appease the conscience. The decision to begin to liberate the oppressed by ceasing to be an oppressor has nothing to do with feeling guilty, but has everything to do with “striking out a new direction towards the future of one’s own humanity (in which there is an overflowing amount of grace and patience that is part of the package when one starts this process).” (Moltmann, Experiences in Theology , 188)
