Skip to main content

Peace in our Time?


Counters

Over the past 4 weeks, each Tuesday morning a significant proportion of Northern Ireland has had the unfortunate experience of waking up to my dulcet tones (with the notable exception of our own house where, mysteriously one Tuesday the clock radio reset itself to Radio 4 and I awoke to the much more appealling and perceptive words of Joel Edwards). Over those weeks I've been pondering on various anniversaries (I think it's a function of my time of life)... my own 20th wedding anniversary, the 40th anniversary of our local church, the 30th anniversary of Pope JP2's visit to Ireland, and finally, last Tuesday, the 30th anniversary of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama...

But that was before the bombshell of this year's Peace Prize announcement. Now many already know that I lean towards Obama politically, but I'm not convinced... Many suggest that he is effectively recieving it as a reward for not being George W. Bush... others suggest that is simplistic and patronising and that if nothing else he deserves it as the first African-American incumbent of the White House... which frankly strikes me as a whole lot more patronising. Others consider it as an encouragement to Obama, his team and the US in general to keep heading in the right direction, but given that the right wing in the US regard Europeans in general and peace organisations in particular as deeply suspicious, this will not win Obama much support back home.

Ruth Gledhill suggests that we may as well award the Strictly Come Dancing award to Obama as the Nobel Peace Prize, and there is a certain extent to which she could be right. I want to see the US use its global authority as a peacemaker; but that needs to be peace in its fullest sense, that is peace with justice, not simply an imposed peace... Pax Americana taking the place of the Pax Britannica or Pax Romana of previous imperial powers... And for that to be the case it cannot simply flow from the barrel of a gun. The fact that Samuel Colt's famous 45 revolver was known as the "Peacemaker" deeply inhabits the American psyche, and, through the magic of cinema, has been woven into the mythology of the western world... But the peace that such weapons brought about then and now, was the peace of "Boot Hill" and should never be lauded by Mr Nobel's successors.

But as well as public peace there is also the issue of personal peace, which is often hard to track down. And that is what I was reflecting on in this week's Thought for the Day, below in its amended text form. Strangely it isn't available on BBC's iPlayer... I hope that isn't due to anything I said! The lawyers haven't been in touch... yet...


30 years ago on Tuesday, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is one of my few claims to fame that I actually met him. That was when he visited Belfast in October 2000, and I hosted a meeting for church and community workers at Forthspring Inter-Community Group where he spoke… The sad thing is that I remember so little about the whole event or what he said. It all went by in a haze… My wife was expecting our second child in less than a week, and because her first birth had been particularly traumatic I was more than a little anxious on that point… Then I had been negotiating with local community leaders, paramilitaries and police on either side of the peaceline for weeks beforehand to make arrangements for the visit of the Dalai Lama and everything had looked like unravelling on the eve of the event… But after a Iot of phone calls through the night and some straight talking on the streets, the whole thing went ahead.
All the people present were delighted… while I was simply delighted that it was over and hadn’t been a complete disaster. Indeed I was feeling so grotty that I had to go to the doctor to get checked out… only to be told that I had become diabetic… The Doctor explained that while stress doesn’t cause diabetes it can sometimes be the final straw…
So, occasionally I make the outrageous claim that the Dalai Lama made me a diabetic…
But I do find it ironic that there he was, a Nobel peace prize winner, and peace was a million miles from my heart and mind… I had allowed it to become the most frenetic and fraught few weeks of my life.
Jesus told his disciples, in preparation for the most traumatic days of their lives, with his upcoming arrest and execution, that he had come to bring peace… a peace that this world can never offer…
A peace that it not the absence of trouble but a peace that sustains us in the face of trouble… even when a peace prize winner comes to town.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more