"Blessed Are the Peacemakers." A meditation for the Interfaith Prayers for Peace" at Littlefield Presbyterian Church.

Some of the leaders and participants at Interfaith Prayers for Peace at Littlefield Presbyterian Church, 2018.

"Blessed Are the Peacemakers"

Matthew 5:1-16

         The verses we just heard are from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.” We heard Jesus speaking what we call the Beatitudes:  "Blessed are the poor in spirit...  the mourners...  the meek... the merciful...   Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you....  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven."^[1]

            Blessed are you who mourn. 

            For those of us who long for a better, more peaceful world, this is a distressing time. There are so many things to mourn.

            More than 400 children who were separated from their families at the southern border are still separated from their families.

            The mass shootings happen so often that we don’t even hear about most of them.

            People struggle to deal with the ways trauma from assault changed their lives, and the hashtag #Why I didn’t report is trending in social media.

            The list could go on and on…

            There are so many things to mourn.  Like poverty and injustice, in our communities, in our nation, and in the world.

            In the United States of America--one of the richest countries in the world. children remain the poorest age group. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, nearly one in five children--12.8 million in total-- were poor in 2017. Over 45 percent of these children lived in extreme poverty at less than half the poverty level.

            3 million children in the U.S. live in families surviving on $2 a day per person.[1]

            The federal poverty threshold is $12,140 for individuals and $25,100 for a family of four. One in seven people in the United States live below the federal poverty threshold. That’s 13.9% of the population, or 44.7 million. According to this federal threshold, a single adult making $12,141 is not poor, though they are considered “low income.”   The wealthiest 1 percent of American households own 40 percent of the country’s wealth, which is more than at any time in the past fifty years. [7]
            When we look around and see all the injustice and need, it can feel overwhelming and despairing.  But we don’t have to work alone.  I find myself mourning all this violence and need, and longing to do something. 

            So, what can we do? 

           We can begin by praying together and forging bonds of friendship and solidarity… getting to know one another better… opening our hearts and minds to one another… and finding ways to work together to change the world. 

            Sometimes, it’s a matter of seeing a need and working together to relieve suffering and let people know we care, like the time a group of interfaith friends gathered needed items for Syrian refugees and got together in somebody’s basement in this neighborhood and packed them for sending them.  People of different faiths work together with Project Dignity to feed desperately poor people in Detroit and address the needs of women and children through Zaman International.

            More than fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared in his famous speech “A Time to Break Silence” that, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

            Last May, on the Monday after Mother’s Day, in our nation’s capital and in state capitals around the country, people who are committed to work for a fairer society gathered to launch the first phase of a new Poor People’s Campaign. This is an interfaith movement, made up of older people and younger people, Jews, Muslims, Christians, people of other faiths and people of goodwill who aren’t part of a religious community. It’s a movement that gives voice to people who are directly impacted by poverty and injustice, that brings people together in solidarity as we work together in a series of actions to try to change the conversation in our nation about systemic injustice.

            There’s hard work to be done.   But we can work together to make a difference.  There are values our faith traditions hold in common—values that have to do with love and justice and peace. 

            For all people of faith and goodwill, this is a time for us to find ways to come together and work for a better, more peaceful, merciful, and just world--for everyone.
            As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish together as fools."

            Our commitment to peace and justice and reconciliation, and our love for our own children, demands that we provide a better inheritance for them.” There’s hard work to be done.   But we can work together to make a difference.

             After worship, we invite you to stay for a time, to enjoy some refreshments and conversation.   We hope you’ll make a new friend today.  Talk with one another about your families—especially your children or grandchildren and about what kind of a world you want to leave for them.

            Talk about what teachings from our various faith traditions inspire and challenge you…and about what common ground you see in our various traditions. Talk about the people who inspire you and challenge you in your commitment.

            Let’s renew our commitment to change the world-- beginning today. 

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

September 23, 2018

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[1] Child Poverty, at Children’s Defense Fund website:  https://www.childrensdefense.org/policy/policy-priorities/child-poverty/

      

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[1] Child Poverty, at Children’s Defense Fund website:  https://www.childrensdefense.org/policy/policy-priorities/child-poverty/

"The Divine Dance," A Sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on Trinity Sunday.

"The Divine Dance"

2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

Trinity Sunday 2017

 

Sometimes after choir rehearsal on Sundays I pick up lunch at the Subway on Wyoming on my way home. I’ve been there often enough that they know I’m a local pastor. They’re usually pretty busy, but one time I was the only customer.  The server asked, “So, about the Trinity: one God or three?”  As he made my turkey sub, this young Muslim man and I had a theological conversation about the nature of God.

            Over the years, I’ve had a number of front porch theological conversations with Muslim neighbors, in which they’ve asked about the Trinity. I remember one woman was really concerned for my soul, because she was afraid I worshiped more than one God. I did my best to reassure her and to clear up the confusion.

            In the Christian calendar, this is Trinity Sunday—the only Sunday in the church year dedicated to a doctrine of the church.  

            For centuries, Christians have sung, confessed our faith, prayed, baptized, and received new members into our community in the name of a Trinitarian God who is traditionally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  But for many Christians in our time (and for some in earlier times) the doctrine of the Trinity has been a problem.

            How many of us have heard a conversation in a church school class or study group that goes something like this: “Do we really have to believe in the Trinity-- that God is three-in-one and one-in three--to be a Christian?” “What does it mean? How can you put three persons together and get one, or divide one into three and still have one?”

            If you think about it, you can understand why our Muslim and Jewish friends have a problem with the Trinity and wonder if we really do worship one God.

            The defenders of the faith--the traditional faith--might blunder through a fuzzy explanation and then conclude: “There’s a reason we call it a mystery that no one can fully understand.” Maybe they say, “We just have to accept it by faith.”

            I agree that the Trinity is a mystery no one can fully understand.  The doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that there is always more to God than we can conceive… always more of God than we can explain… always more than we can sing or preach or prove.   

            So—what do we do with the Trinity? 

            I think theology is important.  I think bad theology can hurt people…and hurts the church.  The language we use when we speak and sing of God is important.

            Apparently, some ordinary Christians in ancient times knew this.  Theologian Elizabeth Johnson observes how fascinated people of the late fourth century were with speaking rightly about God.

            She quotes a famous remark by Gregory of Nyssa that describes the situation: “Even the baker,” he said, “does not cease from discussing this.  If you ask the price of bread, he will tell you that the Father is greater and the Son is subject to him.”[1]

            It’s difficult for many people today to grasp how bitterly this conflict divided the Christian world for several centuries.  The Nicene Creed was hammered out to defend the faith tradition against the Arian claim that Christ was not eternal, but created. 

            The burning, big question in the ancient church was “Who is Jesus Christ, in relation to God the Father and Creator?” The Nicene Creed was the ancient church’s answer to the questions of its time, using the best philosophical constructs and language available to it at that time. 

            As Dr. Shirley Guthrie wrote, the doctrine of the Trinity is “the church’s admittedly inadequate way of trying to understand the biblical and Christian understanding of who God is, what God is like, how and where God is at work in the world, what God thinks about us human beings, does for us, requires of us, promises us.”[2]

            We need to be clear with ourselves and in talking with others that we don’t “believe in” the Trinity. We believe in and trust in God, and the Trinity is a way Christians think about and speak of God.

            During times of crisis or controversy, the church has found it necessary to re-interpret the gospel for new times, in response to new situations and questions.  If you look through our Book of Confessions,[3] you’ll see that the Scots Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the 2^nd Helvetic Confession, and the Westminster Confession were worked out during the Reformation period, in response to concerns particular to that time.

            In 1934, the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church met in Barmen, Germany.  They “sought a common message for the need and temptation of the Church” in their day. The threat was the way the Christian church was cooperating with the Nazi regime.  The resulting confession of faith was what we know as the Declaration of Barmen.

            The 1960’s were turbulent times, and the Confession of 1967 was adopted by the Presbyterian Church “to call the church to that unity in confession and mission which is required of disciples…”[4]     The theme of the Confession of 1967 was the church’s ministry of reconciliation, which has been a strong theme in the mission of this congregation for decades.

           

            The Presbyterian Church split at the time of the Civil War, over the issue of slavery, and it took over a hundred years for the northern and southern Presbyterian churches to be reunited.  At the time of the reunion, the General Assembly voted to re-state the faith as a way of affirming what we believe together.  The result was “A Brief Statement of Faith of 1991,”[5]  which we often say together in worship.  The “Brief Statement of Faith” is a Trinitarian statement, which begins by stating that we trust in the one triune God, whom alone we worship and serve.

            The 2016 General Assembly made history by voting to add the “Belhar Confession” to our Book of Confessions.[6]  Belhar is a moving call for reconciliation and a condemnation of racial injustice written in South Africa during the struggle against Apartheid. We adopted Belhar to be a resource to the church during a time when racial tension, injustice and violence in the United States make headlines nearly every day.

            We are part of a living, growing tradition, and we continue to address new situations and questions by re-stating our faith.  One of the great themes of our Reformed Tradition affirms “the church reformed, always being reformed, according the Word of God, as led by the Holy Spirit.” 

            I believe that the controversies of our time over sexuality are being worked out, and I hope this frees us to work through other important questions for living faithfully in our time. For instance, how do we confess and live our faith in Jesus Christ in a pluralistic world?  How do we speak of God in conversations with our neighbors who are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, or “spiritual but not religious”? What does our faith require of us in the face of injustice?

            When we struggle over theology, important things often get worked out.  We often learn something—sometimes in spite of ourselves. It’s hard for a lot of people to re-think things they’ve always believed or change their mind. Even though we might want to dig in and defend what we have always believed to be true, we have the Holy Spirit nudging us, reminding us of what Jesus did and what he taught.  We learn and grow, as the Holy Spirit leads us further into the truth—just as Jesus promised

            Jesus told his disciples that he still had many things to say to them, but that they weren’t ready to hear them yet.  He promised that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, would guide his followers into all the truth.[7]

             

            From the earliest centuries of the church, discerning theologians have stressed that all our language about God, including the Trinitarian symbols, are inadequate and relative. The Bible uses many other images or metaphors for God, and other theologians have offered a number of possibilities for speaking of God.[8]

            I believe God continues to speak a new word to us in new times--things we weren’t ready to hear before.  We still have many things to learn, so we need to be learners--theologians. We need to listen for what God’s teaching Spirit has to say to us.

            In my study this week, I was reminded that the Western Church’s model of the Trinity has typically looked like a triangle, while the typical model in Eastern Orthodoxy is a circle.

            John of Damascus, a Greek theologian who lived in the seventh century, developed the understanding of the Trinity with a concept called perichoresis.  I don’t bring a lot of Greek words into sermons, but this one gives us such a beautiful picture of God. “Peri”-- as in permimeter--means “around.”  “Choresis literally means “dancing”-- as in choreography.

            This isn’t an approach to the Trinity that most of us in the Western part of the church are as familiar with, but some contemporary theologians, like Jurgen Moltmann[9] and Mirosalav Volf[10], have written about it.

            Recently, Father Richard Rohr has written a very accessible book: “The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation,” that invites us to take a closer look at the mystery of the Trinity.  

            Father Rohr says we need a larger God, because God is not what most people think.  God is not an angry, distant moral scorekeeper or a supernatural Santa Claus, keeping track of who’s been naughty or nice or handing out cosmic lottery tickets to those who attend the right church or say the right prayer dominate our culture. God isn’t a stern old man with a long white-beard, ready and eager to assign condemnation and punishment.[11]

            Increasingly, I find the metaphor of a dancing God more compelling and beautiful and life-giving than some of the traditional constructs, and I think it is more faithful to the story of God’s self-giving love we hear in the scriptures.

            Imagine it: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- or Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer-- the three persons of the Trinity are like three dancers holding hands, dancing around together in harmonious, joyful freedom.

            The two New Testament texts the lectionary gives us for today are last words of love.  

            In the gospel lesson we heard the command we know as the GREAT COMMISSION.  Jesus tells his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” It ends with a PROMISE:  “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

            How do we proclaim the good news of God’s love in our time? To those who have been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we need to proclaim the new, open, love-filled space of our Triune God, the space where we are to love God with all we’ve got and our neighbors--all our neighbors-- like ourselves.  

            I’ve been thinking that maybe this isn’t a time for us to hold an adult education class to focus on the classical doctrine of the Trinity or to insist that we have to “believe in” traditional understandings of the Trinity.

            Maybe in this time we need to push back the furniture a bit and make space to dance with the divine. Maybe that’s a better way to teach us all about God’s self-giving love and how we can be part of the dance.

            As we join in the dance, we can practice trusting in Christ’s promise that he is with us, always, to the end of the age.  We can practice trusting that the God of love and peace will be with us.

            And so, my friends, I leave you with these ending words of love: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all!”

            Amen.

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

June 11, 2017

        

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[1] Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (Crossroad, 1992), p. 3. 

[2] Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, Revised Edition (Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), p. 71.

[3] https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/pdf/boc2014.pdf

[4] The Confession of 1967, article 9.05 in Book of Confessions of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

[5] https://www.presbyterianmission.org/what-we-believe/brief-statement-of-faith/

[6] https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/theologyandworship/pdfs/belhar.pdf

[7]John 16:12

[8]If you’re interested in exploring this, you might want to see William C. Placher, Narratives of a Vulnerable God: Christ, Theology, and Scripture (Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), pages 53-83 or Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology (Eerdman’s, 1991), pages 56-79..

[9] Jurgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom (Harper & Row, 1981).

[10] Miroslav Volf, Allah: A Christian Response (HarperOne, 2012).    

[11] Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (SPCK Publishing, 2016).

 

"Why Interfaith?" From an Interfaith Panel Discussion on May 6, 2017

"Why Interfaith?"

From an Interfaith Panel Discussion on May 6, 2017

Shalom....  Asalaamu alaikum…   Shanti…  Peace be to you all.

            I thought I’d start with a little history. Some of our local religious communities have been involved for years in interfaith endeavors.  So much of our interfaith work has been about relationships, so I’d like to talk about my experience with this.

            The congregation I serve--Littlefield Presbyterian Church-- has been involved in interfaith work since the late 1970’s. At this point, it’s one of the few remaining Protestant Christian churches in east Dearborn. 

            In the beginning, almost 90 years ago, it was a neighborhood church, in an area that was predominately Catholic. Over time, the neighborhood changed due to white flight and new neighbors moving in. Most of the new neighbors were Muslim. The congregation could have moved to the suburbs or closed, which is what some other churches did. But they did a mission study and decided they were called to stay where they were and be good neighbors to the people who were moving in, and to witness to God’s love where they were planted.  

            Littlefield called the Rev. William Gepford to help them in their “ministry of reconciliation”[1]  and to build mutual respect and understanding among Christians and Muslims, and over the years. Dr. Gepford was one of the pioneers in interfaith work in the metro Detroit area and beyond.

            In the early years, Littlefield invited their Muslim neighbors to a series of a gatherings, during which people got to know one another over meals and conversation.  Over time, they built relationships in the community and worked together on projects like the annual holiday food baskets that served up to 100 needy families.  Dr. Gepford worked with a team of interfaith leaders to plan the first interfaith Thanksgiving service, a tradition that continued many years until a number of communities were holding their own interfaith services.

            I was called to be the pastor of Littlefield in 1997  and became involved in the interfaith work.  When 9/11 happened, it gave many of us a renewed sense of urgency about nurturing our interfaith relationships.  

            Those first few days were fearful times.  The church put up a sign on the doors that said, “This is a Hate Free Zone,” and some of our neighbors asked if they could come in and pray.  We went to one anothers’ houses of worship to show our support.

           

            We continue to visit back and forth between churches and mosques, attending worship and meals and other events.  We offer one another care and support.  Our Muslim neighbors invite us to break the fast at Ramadan iftar meals.  We invite them to join us for our Christmas Eve Lessons & Carols service.

On the Sunday in September closest to the International Day of Peace, we hold a service of Interfaith Prayer for Peace.  We encourage people to practice “respectful presence,” which means that we participate in the parts we can, and listen respectfully and learn in other parts.[2]  We typically have a Jewish cantor, an Imam, and a Christian pastor, and we’ve also occasionally had someone from the Sikh or Buddhist community.  We experience elements from each tradition, and we pray together “with one voice” in a litany for peace in our communities, our nation, and the world. We make new friends over refreshments following the service.   

            Because Littlefield has worked to build relationships in the community, our Muslim neighbors trust us and send their kids to our annual Peace Camp in the summer. The kids build a neighborhood of peace and justice out of cardboard boxes, they sing songs of peace, and learn some peace-building skills. And we all make new friends.

            Our Dearborn Area Interfaith Network builds relationships and works together on some events.  On the first Thursday in May, we hold our annual National Day of Prayer Interfaith Prayer gathering.  Each January we sponsor an interfaith convocation in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.

            Some years ago, when Terry Jones came to town to protest what he wanted to see as “sharia law” in Dearborn, he wanted to protest outside the Islamic Center of America.  Religious leaders from around the metro area gathered and encircled the mosque to show our support. 

            At a committee meeting a few days after our most recent interfaith service, several of our members talked about how grateful they are to live in Dearborn, to be neighbors and friends with people from Lebanon and Palestine and Bosnia and elsewhere. 

            As one of them said, “Isn’t following Jesus really all about love?” 

            I believe that’s true.  My Christian faith teaches me that “perfect love casts out fear.”[3]  When we get to know our neighbors, when we grow in understanding, we don’t need to be afraid of one another. 

            When we get to know each other, we discover how much we have in common.   As children of Abraham, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship the same God-- the God of mercy and compassion. We are all taught by our faith to love God and neighbor. We worship  the God who is one.   We are all "people of the book."   The "family tree" of our faith makes it apparent that we are family.  We're connected, all the way back to Adam and Eve, and we trace our ancestry back through Isaac and Ishmael to Abraham.     

            When we study history, we are aware of how each of our faith traditions has had a tendency to be exclusivist, and to believe that it has the only path to God.  But there have always been valued streams of thought which are very respectful of the religious behavior and ideas of other faith traditions.  I am glad to be a part of that movement.

            I’ve read a lot of helpful books on interfaith work. One I read recently is helpful:   The Interfaith Alternative: Embracing Spiritual Diversity. [4]   The author, Steven Greenbaum, talks about the concept of “right belief,” which he says has been an organizing principle of our spiritual paths for a very long time.  If a religious community believes that we have the only way, that we are the only chosen people, and that we follow the only right spiritual path, the result can be distrust, hatred and violence.   

             Greenbaum offers an interfaith alternative, which respects each spiritual path and recognizes what we all share in common:  the call to love and to be loving and compassionate.

            He suggests “Maybe dividing ourselves into righteous pockets of spiritual belief is not the best way to bring about love.”  We humans are great at building walls between ourselves and those who are different in some way. For too long, too many of us have been stuck in a paradigm that demands that we search for or protect the one “right belief.”  

            I think Greenbaum is right when he says “Who has the right belief?” is the wrong question,  and that we need to be more concerned with a different question: “How do we live as a result of our beliefs?”   We need to stop arguing about which religious tradition is “best” or “right” or “true,” and find ways to be in conversation with one another and to work together to honor God/Allah/Hashem or whatever we call the One God we worship, through works of compassion, mercy, and justice.

            How many of you know the story of “The Blind Men and the Elephant”?   It’s an Indian fable. We had a picture book version at our house when my son was young, and I bought a new copy recently.  The story originated in the Indian subcontinent and is widely known in many traditions, including Buddist, Jain, Hindu, and Sufi Muslim traditions.

            In various versions of the story, a group of blind men (or people in the dark) are led to an elephant to touch it, so they can learn what an elephant is like.  Each person feels a different part.  In some versions, their differences lead to violence, as each one is convinced he has it right and tries to dominate.  In some versions of the story, they stop shouting, start listening to each other, and work together to “see” the whole elephant. 

            I think it’s time we all become more conscious and more intentional about this.  It’s time we stop trying to defend our one right truth and find ways to be in conversation with those who may have experienced a different truth?    We need to heed the common call of all our religious traditions, the call to love and compassion.

            As we come to understand the depth of our neighbors' relationship with the God we both worship, we learn to respect and value their faith, even while we recognize and affirm our different paths.  

            For those of us who long for a better, more peaceful world, it’s painful to see so much of what’s going on-- to see the racism, Islamaphobia, and anti-Semitism in our world. We live in such a fearful time, and political rhetoric has magnified it. Fear breeds animosity and hate. Hatred breeds more fear. It’s a vicious cycle.  

It can feel overwhelming.

            Because I follow Jesus, whom I know partly as the “Prince of Peace,” I believe I am called to be a peace-maker. That means I need to be working for reconciliation and justice.  Working against racism… working to alleviate poverty… working to promote understanding between all God’s people.

            The more we come to know one another, the more we understand that we have common ground. A few years ago, a large number of Islamic scholars and leaders signed a document, A Common Word between Us and You, which affirms what we, as people of the book and children of Abraham, share in common.[5]

            A Common Word affirms the “Shema,”or the "Great Commandment" to love God completely and to love our neighbors as an important value we share in common. Wherever we find such common ground, it can help us find ways for us not only to live together, as good neighbors, in peace. It can help to deepen our friendship and help us to find ways to cooperate with one another and to work together in the public square for the common good. And we can leave a more just and peaceful world for our children and grandchildren.

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[1] 2 Corinthians 5

[2] https://www.presbyterianmission.org/wp-content/uploads/respectfulpresence1.pdf

[3] 1 John 4:18

[4] Steven Greenbaum, The Interfaith Alternative: Embracing Spiritual Diversity. (SkyLightPaths, 2015)

[5] http://www.acommonword.com/

"Fear Not". One of 2 sermons preached in our Interfaith Prayers for Peace at Littlefield Presbyterian Church on September 18, 2016

"Fear Not"

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.  Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.  We love because he first loved us.  Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.  The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sister also. - 1 John 16b-21

For those of us who long for a better, more peaceful world, it’s  painful to see so much of what’s going on in the world… in our nation… and in our communities.  There’s so much bigotry and hatred and fear.  Fear of the “other.”  Fear of “them”—of “those people.”  Fear of change.  Fear of anyone who doesn’t look and act like us.  Fear of terrorism and crime.  Fear of losing status or privilege.  Fear of economic insecurity.  The list could go on and on.   

Last week we observed the 15^th anniversary of 9/11.  Since that time, the longest series of wars in American history, violations of human rights, trillions of dollars spent, and loss of thousands of lives have all failed to resolve or reverse the causes of the violence that struck us, or to make us safer or less fearful. 

We grieve the loss of American lives, and we also need to grieve the loss of civilian lives due to our nation’s military actions.  Our armed forces apparently don’t keep track of deaths resulting from our military actions.[1]  But the estimated documented civilian deaths from violence following the 2003 invasion of Iraq is estimated to be between 163,000 to more than 182,000.[2]

Fifteen years after 9/11,  as we remember and reflect, we need to ask ourselves whether our reliance on war and violence have made the world a better and safer place—or more divided, polarized, and dangerous.  I don’t have any simple answers for you today.  But as people of faith we need to be praying about this. 

            In our nation, in the midst of all the violence and hatred and injustice in our society… in the midst of racism and Islamophobia and anti-Semitism… in the midst of all the need-- it’s easy to feel overwhelmed… and despairing.  We live in such a fearful time, and the rhetoric of the political campaign season has magnified it. Fear breeds animosity and hate.  Hate breeds more fear.  It’s a vicious cycle.   

It can feel overwhelming.  What can one person or just a few people do?  

            We can begin by praying together… and forging bonds of friendship and solidarity… getting to know one another better… opening our hearts and minds to one another… and finding ways to work together to change our communities… and change the world. 

            Some of us have been working on these things.  Imam Elahi and I have been working together in our Dearborn Area Interfaith Network group (and its predecessor Dearborn Area Ministerial Association) for the last 19 years.  Cantor Roger Skully has been involved with other interfaith groups in metro Detroit.  Years before—back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the Rev. Bill Gepford and others did some pioneering interfaith work in Dearborn and the metro Detroit area.

             

            Our commitment to peace and justice and reconciliation, and our love for our own children, demands that we provide a better inheritance for them.”

            On this Sunday before International Day of Peace, we are challenged to re-commit ourselves to PEACE… to live our lives as if we believe that peace is possible.

            Christians…Muslims…Jews…Sikhs…Hindus…Buddhists… and all people of faith and goodwill —this is a time for us to find ways to come together and work for a better, more peaceful, more loving world.  We can work for a less fearful world, because love casts out fear.

            There’s hard work to be done.   But together we can work together to make a difference.  

             After worship, we invite you to stay for a time, to enjoy refreshments and conversation.   I hope you’ll make a new friend today.  Talk with one another about your families—especially your children or grandchildren and about what kind of a world you want to leave for them.

            Let us renew our commitment to change the world, beginning today. 

            May it be so!


Rev. Frances Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
September 18, 2016


Note:  This was part of our Interfaith Prayers for Peace event, in observance of International Day of Peace.  We also heard a sermon from Imam Muhammad Elahi from the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, and Cantor Roger Skully from Downtown Isaac Agree Synagogue in Detroit sang prayers and a benediction.  

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[1] “We don’t do body counts.” – General Tommy Franks.   https://www.iraqbodycount.org/

[2] https://www.iraqbodycount.org/