This blog is part of a series on our Fall study topic: Waging Peace. On Sunday mornings and in a special event on October 26, St. Stephen’s is embracing Gods’ vision of a world healed in justice and peace. This course focuses on laying a secular and religious groundwork for real change in our community.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” — Isaiah 52:7
God created humankind for friendship with each other, with God, and with all creation. In our sin, we have turned from this vision and wrought violence upon each other up until the present day. Throughout the Bible, God promises us a future of peace, where God’s dominion extends to all heaven and earth. This peace, or shalom in the Hebrew, is more than just the absence of violence. It is a positive presence of justice, a state of plenty, a community of friendship.
At the same time, humanity has made great strides in the pursuit of peace. World War II saw the deadliest conflict in human history, and yet from its death and destruction emerged unprecedented movements for peace. A robust legal framework of international human rights was developed, along with the United Nations and other international organizations. Yet, these institutions —and our domestic rights—are under threat once again.
As many in our country fear for our future, we recommit to the pursuit of peace. No matter one’s political persuasion, each of us is baptized into a covenant with God that includes the promotion of justice and peace in the whole world. Both major US political parties have some policies that promote human rights and others that threaten them. Our task is to educate and equip ourselves to discern a future world and to take action for the sake of peace.
This week, we look at the three key pillars for peace: security, subsistence, and participation. Henry Shue’s book, Basic Rights, boils all human rights down to these three. All of humankind deserves to live in safe and orderly communities governed by the rule of law. Similarly, our basic needs must be met: food, shelter, employment, and leisure are all fundamental rights. Finally, people need to be able to participate in how the other two rights are guaranteed. This may look like direct or indirect elections, civil society, or the like.
Join us on Sundays after 9:30 AM Worship to discuss this and the many important facets of building peace as Christians within our pluralistic society. Together, we will learn the depths of God’s love for the me and the whole world. We will define peace for themselves and the contexts in which they live. We’ll examine the Biblical witness to peace in dialogue with secular sources, and we’ll translate our learning into action for the sake of the Gospel.
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