A Divine Irony: The God of Peace and the War Against Violence

My wife and I worshiped with my sister-in-law and her church community while out in Seattle, WA on New Year's Day. As is their custom, the church did not follow their regular worship routine, but instead had an open mic time for people to share how God had been at work in their lives during the previous year. I did not have a chance to share that day, so I thought I would jot down what came to my mind on my blog instead.

If I had had the chance to share that day, I would have told of the ways God has brought peace and reconciliation to my neighborhood. My neighborood--a 12-unit condominium complex--has been my mission field for five years now. Since I moved into my unit in May 2006, I have wanted to make a difference in the lives of all who live their by showing them the love of God, adding value to their lives, and by fostering community among our small association. The results of my efforts have been mixed to say the least, but 2009-2010 were particularly dismal as fights, conflicts, and association issues dominated my interaction with most of my neighbors.

I found myself often playing the role of mediator and peace-maker as the fighting continued. Often I had friends on both sides of the fight and was stuck in the middle trying to preserve relationships while also needing to weigh in on what I thought was just and fair. It was a struggle for me and often drove me to desperate prayer. God acted on those prayers in a huge way in 2011. The details or specifics of the fights and how they were resolved are not really that important. Instead, I simply wish to convey that the fighting miraculously stopped. It is true that we all worked hard to try to come to agreements on different things, but no matter how close we got issues would just persist. God ended it all in 2011 though, bringing ending to conflict and new community among our neighbors.

Conflict decreased and community increased in a couple of ways. First, the conflicts and issues simply took care of themselves by no effort of our own. One day we all of the sudden find out something had been fixed without our knowledge or something had changed that made a fight irrelevant. The second change came about through a yard sale. Andrea and I decided to collect a bunch of stuff from friends so that we could sell it all and donate the proceeds to charity. We were surprised to find that though we raised and donated $1,200, our biggest accomplishment was creating more community in our neighborhood by organizing a shared project for us to undertake together. A bunch of our neighbors chipped in to help and we were able to thank them by having them each over for dinner, finally giving us a chance to become a little more involved in their lives.

This is the story I would have shared if I had been given the opportunity during that open mic time. I wouldn't have shared the details of the story, but the profound and ironic truth that struck me as I reflected upon what God has done. The truth is simply this: we worship a God of peace who is waging a war against violence. God loves peace and reconciliation and crushes all conflict and discord that stands in the way. I love the irony of Romans 16:20 - "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." I also love Psalm 18, where God is pictured as ripping apart the heavens and thundering through the skies to rescue his people from destruction and to bring peace amidst a world of violence.

I guess my good news for 2012 (based upon what I saw God do in 2011) is this: we worship a God of peace who is waging a devastating war against violence, death, and destruction. Through Jesus Christ God has already defeated the powers of death and destruction in an irreversible way. The Christian community is a sign and foretaste of this peace, both pointing the world to the coming peace of God and giving it a true taste of what that peace will look like.

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, ²¹ equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Heb 13:20-21)