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As we move to a more organic view of the spiritual journey, away from the images related to kingship and war, we move into a different metaphorical-world.
Related to kingship and kingdoms in ancient times, as with empires later and nations now, is war. I was reared in warfare Christianity. This included not only using “God” as for “us” and against “them” in actual war, but a teaching that a Satan was everywhere, and we must be involved in a strenuous war against him at all times.
A favorite hymn from my childhood, and no longer on my favorite list, written by Sabine Baring-Gould (1864), is “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Now, I would rather sing, “Onward Christian Servants,” or something else more edifying, like “Onward Lovers of Everyone,” in a world torn by warfare and religious conflict, a world still harmed by religious tribalism of different faiths.
Frankly, I hope many of us have grown tired of the name of “God,” “America,” and “Christianity” being socialized into the violence of killing, as though we have a tribal God who is always on our side and we are always the right side. Have we not had enough of violence and using religion and the name “God,” and patriotism, as an excuse not to see the potential blasphemy that we have engaged in through a warfare religion? Indeed, if one calls such into question, it seems she is termed unpatriotic, maybe liberal. Ironic, that popular Christianity follows the Prince of Peace and has used his name in shedding so much blood. This shows us that we can more easily speak of following this Prince of Peace than actually following his Way. And, this propensity to warring is not just evident on battlefields, this evidences in families and churches, too.
In Passive Prayer, wherein we cease fighting, repent of being fighters, we learn to live peacefully and gently; we learn to be divine lovers. Madame Jeanne Guyon, in Experiencing Union with God through Prayer, writes, “Struggling directly with distractions and temptations will strengthen rather than weaken them, and will draw your soul away from that devotional attention to God…. We should simply turn away from the evil and draw ever closer to God.”
Jesus taught this same teaching on nonviolence, on nonharming, after Peter had attacked a soldier in the Garden of Gethsemane and, according to one tradition, cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest. Jesus put the ear back on, and spoke: Put your sword away. Anyone who lives by fighting will die by fighting. (Matthew 26.52, CEV)
We enjoy contemplation, or blessed rest in Christ, only when we cease striving, even against, as Guyon teaches, distractions and temptations. Indeed, how can we be presences and sharers of peace if we are at war within ourselves?
By trustful turning to delight in God, that very act of loving God heals and brings resolution to matters that we will only make worse through our well-intentioned striving.
So, let us consider a path for the more mature Christian, a Way beyond striving. Let us consider that the person enjoying union with Christ is so inebriated with Love and occupied with loving God, Whom she turns to love often and, therefore, finds peace in the blessed rest of the inward Sabbath. She does not feel the need to fight or provoke striving among others. Her words and actions call for peace; they do not rouse a striving spirit. Why? She so loves Love that what she once fought is no longer the preoccupation, nor need be for her. She is peaceful, for Love has so entwined her heart with her Beloved, and, now, she transforms her surroundings into the Love that she loves. And, surely, she will be opposed, and possibly by even those who claim to follow the Prince of Peace, but have not found the Way of Peace. Yet, she knows that she does not follow these persons, and, therefore, she does not allow their disapproval of her peaceful graciousness to deter her from the Way of Peace, which is the Way of Gentleness, like her Beloved, who was gentle of heart, too (St. Matthew 11.29).
Spiritual Exercise
1. Are you a person of peace? Explain.
2. How does contemplation teach the Way of Peace?
3. Meditate on Matthew 11.27-29. What does the passage say to you about the spirit of Christ?
Prayer
Jesus, be my peace, give me the love to be a person of peace. Teach me the joy of a life beyond striving, one in which I rest in faith, surrendered to you in Love. Amen.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry,
An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
The People of the
United Methodist Church
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