In the Beginning...

There's this delightful camp song that I grew up singing: The Hippopotamus Song. And probably for about a year I've been thinking of making a quiet book (you know, the cloth books that have little things for toddlers to do in them) based on The Hippopotamus Song. My nephew would be one and a half at Christmas and it would have made a great gift. So I bought the supplies in the fall...and then did nothing with it.

But this summer, with extra time on my hands, I finally completed the quiet book...albeit with hot glue and a lot of cut corners. (Literally. I cut a lot of corners off the felt.)

So, ladies and gentleman, The Hippo Song: 

Mother's Day Confession

I have never been a huge fan of Mother's Day.

I don't know that I have ever really "celebrated" Mother's Day well.

(This is the worst part. Sometimes I don't remember to even call my mom on Mother's Day.) 

Somehow, a day that seemed to be about cards and flowers and encouragement didn't seem to fit with my mother. And it's not because I don't like my mom, or love her, or whatever. It's a little bit like Valentine's Day, I suppose. I didn't see why this one day should be the day that I communicate appreciation for my mom.

So I have always been fairly ambivalent about Mother's Day. Until the last five minutes of this Mother's Day, when at 11:55pm I read The Radical History of Mother's Day. 

The intent behind Mother's Day wasn't a day filled with well-planned brunches, breakfast in bed, and extravagant gifts. It wasn't about making proclamations that my mother is the best, or giving moms a "day off", or any of the commercial things that my mother wasn't really all that into anyway.

Mother's Day was intended to be a rallying cry for peace, a day "grounded in faith, feminism, and protest."

This sounds more like my mother. My mother would speak these words, would rise to this challenge. 

"Arise then...women of this day!  

Arise, all women who have hearts!

Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! 

Say firmly: 

“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, 

Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, 

For caresses and applause. 

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn 

All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. 

We, the women of one country, 

Will be too tender of those of another country 

To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

My mother would feel more alive on a day when she was asked to stand for peace than any day she is asked to relax and eat a delicious brunch. 

And I thank God that He has made her so. I thank God that she has taught me to follow the Prince of Peace, to cry out against injustice with compassion and mercy, to love those who may not often receive it. It may have taken 25 years, dear Becky, but thank you for teaching me charity, mercy, and patience. I hope the lessons you taught me, I may pass on. 

My parents on a mission trip to Haiti. 

Knowing The Things That Make For Peace

My heart is breaking.

For the ethnic violence in South Sudan, a nation that, were it a human child, would just be learning to ride a tricycle. For my friends, my beautiful friends, who are from South Sudan and believed so much in their new nation.

My heart breaks to hear that these women still fight, violently, with each other.

What does it mean to pray for peace?

What does it mean to ask another to believe in the gospel of peace?

I believe so strongly that Jesus’ death at our hands is what allows us this peace. I believe that Jesus being the Lamb of God means that we can be done with offering sacrifices of scapegoats.

In church we have been reading the letter to the Ephesians. And at the end of the letter, Paul tells the Ephesians how to dress themselves spiritually:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.                                                   Ephesians 6:13-20

And I have never been so acutely aware of the disconnect between the culture that I live in, and the culture that this letter was written to. I have no concept of wearing armor, of needing armor.

The part that is especially striking to me is verse 15: “As shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.”

When I think of peace in my own life, I think of comfort, of not being stressed before a test. Right now I think that peace will come after June 6^th, D-Day, The Day I Take The Boards. I think that peace means going on a car ride and not disagreeing vehemently with my husband about something theological. That the best way to achieve peace is to be sure to fulfill all the duties given to me so that no one will have reason to reprimand me.

But is this peace? Can I have peace if my neighbors do not have peace? Does putting on the readiness of the gospel of peace mean more than looking at how I can avoid conflict in my own life, or even how I can conflict well in my own life?

Is the gospel of peace more than being “at peace with God”?

How can I proclaim this gospel of peace when I have no concept of what it means to be at war? 

Can a sermon on peace be taught without acknowledging the conflicts of the world?

Can a sermon on peace be taught faithfully without being "political"?

Because this peace is not just for us, not just for Christians, not just for our personal relationships.

Lord, I pray that I may I know the things that make for peace. May I advocate for the things that make for peace. May our church proclaim the things that make for peace, a peace that doesn’t come from the assurance of being stronger than another, of agreeing with others, or of being better armed. The peace of that sort is only temporary.

Let the peace we seek be the more permanent peace that Jesus brings.

 Let us proclaim that peace boldly.