Remember Peace

Today is "Remembrance Sunday" here in England. While this whole week has been about remembering the veterans, today is when the whole country actually pauses for two minutes during church service to meditate on their sacrifice. As a symbol of remembrance people where a poppie on their coats. The most striking thing about remembrance day is how widely it's celebrated, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, wears one. On Thursday night I went to the Paramore concert in Sheffield, and even they had poppies on! Needless to say I've had lots of time to think about conflict and peace this week. Last Sunday I tried out a new church near the city center. In actuality it is a German Reform church, but in the afternoon the Peace Studies program at Bradford College has a service called "Soul Space." Today was the second Sunday in a row I've been there, and so far I really like it. The format is considerably different than most churches I've been apart of, because Soul Space uses "fresh expressions"; alternative-creative-worship-practices. The congregants are young and old, students and professionals, English, German, Japanese, Dutch, African, etc... with two smiliar interests: Jesus and Social Justice. With a focus on peace, this church decided to wear a different kind of poppy, a white one.

A peace poppy.

I want to be clear, I love the veterans. It is my deepest belief that service men and women fight with the best intentions at heart. They love their country, their families and their values. However, my problem with some conceptions of Veterans day and celebrations like it, is they focus on the "victory" of us over them; and as one man in church today put it: 'in war, no one wins.'

'But Leigh,' you say, 'they sacrificed their lives for a greater purpose,

doesn't that in itself make them winners?'

Well, proverbial disagree-er, I would say this: are veterans the only people who sacrifice their lives for war?

1 in 6 deaths that occur as a result of war are soldiers. This means 5 of 6 are civilians.

No, it seems to me there's lots of sacrifice in war which has nothing to do with pride. War is hell and Jesus came to bring us peace.

In Chicago we were asked a very challenging question: are you a peace supporter, or a peace maker? Up until now I feel like I've been a peace supporter, paying lip service to the nice ideas about peaceful living... but where does peaceful living begin? How does peace come about? Martin Luther King Jr said this, "Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal." I realized today peace has as much to do with the Gaza strip as it has to do with my own home, my own heart - it's all brokenness - it's all conflict calling for rest, for contentment, for grace. "Shalom" is a Hebrew word meaning: completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony,etc...

God wants us to be peacemakers, and according to Dr. King if we live at peace with one another the result is Shalom in the world. Even if you cant get North Korea to stop being freaking crazy, you can call that friend you've been avoiding and make peace. Or that relative you can't stand -you know the one who makes every family reunion unbearable- and just talk things through. Live peace.

Peace be with you.