Peacemakers love our neighbors

I wasn’t planning on including two posts on civil disobedience in the midst of looking at peacemakers of the Bible (only one), and it was a topic I’d planned to be toward the end of the month. But then I wanted it to be first once the protests began in the US. Now, in looking at the schedule it seems right to include these after wisdom, addressing the issues, and respecting our enemy. Those are the priority before we move to a nebulous enemy, a systemic and governmental enemy.

Who is my neighbor?

Civil disobedience may seem opposed to peacemaking, but it is the first step in establishing peace. It is addressing the situation. Writing about it and seeing these protests on TV recently have repeatedly reminded me of the question posed to Jesus in Luke 10:29: ‘Who is my neighbor?’. The question follows the answer of how to inherit eternal life- loving God with all heart, soul, strength, and mind as well as loving your neighbor as yourself. The neighbor is then defined by this parable, which is more all-encompassing than I ever noticed before. It is only in considering it today with renewed interest that I find even more depth than I had already seen in the parable.

The Samaritans and the Jews had great animosity between them due to racial differences and religious differences. Yet, we find that the ones who are most likely or most expected to help the man from Jerusalem, the priest and the Levite, left him for dead. It was the one with cultural or societal enmity for the man, a Samaritan, who picked him up. This enemy of the man picked him up, bloodied himself and made himself a servant, leading him on a donkey. He paid for room and board and health care for the man. Races who avoided each other, healthcare for others, food and housing standard taken care of - all issues that are so relevant today.

Disobeying customs and unwritten rules

This Samaritan goes quietly about his day while disobeying the customs and unwritten rules of his time. He did not take the man to Jerusalem and leave him at the door of the nearest poorhouse, he did not seek out the family and leave him for others to take care of. He did not hurry on his way for business. He simply loved his neighbor. He gave his time and his money. He gave no importance to their differences. He gave no importance to the cost. He gave no importance to what others would think.  

Peacemaking starts with One

What does this have to do with peacemaking? I was hoping you were not going to ask that. But maybe you are. This article continues a bit of the discourse on civil disobedience begun here. We need more police officers, health institutions, and employers to go quietly about their work bucking the status quo. We need more neighbors to care, to work for equal access and equal rights and equal healthcare and equal education. The systems, in this case the Israelite establishment, failed the man from Jerusalem. Instead it was an adversary who loves the man, cares for him, and sets him back to rights. The system fails us, princes fail, leaders fail. It comes to back to one person, me. My enemy is my neighbor and I am commanded to love him, I am commanded to love her. Jesus gives the example of one hurting and one responding. It starts with one. Righting the wrongs starts with acknowledging that you are my neighbor and then telling you and showing you that I love you. The government and the system is made of you and me. It starts and ends with one. One person. One act at a time.

I stand in disobedience.

By the time this article posts, about two weeks will have passed from the death of George Floyd. I can’t help but think that each one of us has an obligation to act respectfully in civil disobedience. I stand for education, health care, respect, dignity, justice, housing, living wage for all. I stand in disobedience. I act in disobedience.