Homily from
January 3, 2010
by Peter Scales
Trustee, Canadian Unitarian Council
"Peace On Earth"
It
dawned on me that we sing the children out with a wish for peace [“Go
Now In Peace”].
There
are three parts to today’s homily, and I intend to mesh them
together.
First,
I think it is good to reflect on peace in the year just past.
Second,
it is good to look ahead at what might be coming in terms of peace
and human security.
Third,
how can we be instruments of peace, individually and collectively as
a religious community?
Our
friend Alexandra was telling me how much she appreciated Capital and
the Sunday services. Together we realized, though, that the homilies
– the 20-minute talks – often lack something that ministers know
to provide. Because this is a religious community and not a lecture
hall, each talk should include either a call to action or a call to
meditation, or both. Even our non-Unitarian guest speakers could
probably do this if we warned them about it.
Having
said all this, what is my call to action or meditation? I’ll tell
you in a few minutes.
It is
good to reflect on peace in the year just past, if only briefly. I am
pleased that this congregation was essentially peaceful during 2009.
Like all families, we have had rough times in past years but lately
it’s been all good. This is not a small achievement, and I hope it
reflects our ability to recognize and deal with tensions while they
are still low-level. We use respectful dialogue and clear processes.
We care about one another. And perhaps we have been lucky.
When
I told her my sermon topic, my good friend Sara said something that
reminded me of Lao Tzu, the philosopher of ancient China who compiled
the Tao
Te Ching 2400
years ago. Lao Tzu said: “If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the
nations, There must be peace in the cities. If there is to be peace
in the cities, There must be peace between neighbors. If there is to
be peace between neighbors, There must be peace in the home. If there
is to be peace in the home, There must be peace in the heart.” We
neighbours... we members and friends of Capital... we must have
peaceful hearts for us to be living in peace.
Let
me widen our gaze for a few moments. Look at our city. In 2009 we had
a change of mayors and it was bloodless. We had hundreds of homeless
people in our streets and thousands of UVic and Camosun students in
the bars, yet aside from minor mischief there were no serious
breaches of the peace. Protesters briefly unhinged the Olympic torch
relay through our city but nobody got beaten up, in large part
because the police were ordered to exercise restraint. In these and
many other measures, there is peace in our city.
The
same goes for our province. Aside from the terrible traffic snarls
caused by construction for the Olympics, what is the most vicious
thing that happened in 2009? Arts funding was cut. The CEO of BC
Ferries was paid too much. A lengthy strike by paramedics ended
peacefully. Forestry jobs were lost because Americans could not
afford to build houses. About 350 citizens were killed in traffic
accidents. Half a million British Columbians got H1N1 flu and around
30 died.
What
I’m trying to say is that we are living in a time of domestic
peace.
A-ha,
you say, what about internationally? The world is full of war. But
that’s not true. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 there
was a spate of civil wars in the former Soviet republics and the
former Yugoslavia, and Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. But colonial
wars and Cold War proxy battles stopped happening. Three months ago
at UVic, in the inaugural lecture of the Social Justice Studies
program, Dr Mary-Wynne Ashford quoted from the 2007 Human
Security Brief,
published by the School for International Studies, Simon Fraser
University.
Dr
Ashford quoted that not only are there fewer wars between countries
and wars within countries, there are fewer deaths related to war...
fewer civilians being killed by wars, fewer soldiers being killed,
and few people dying from the ever-present downstream effects of war,
like famine and the spread of disease.
I
suspect that this news comes as little comfort to the Victoria family
of Lieutenant Andy Nuttall, killed in Afghanistan just before
Christmas. Nor would it comfort the families of Sgt. George Miok,
Sgt. Kirk Taylor, Cpl. Zachery McCormack, Pte. Garrett William
Chidley, and reporter Michelle Lang, whose bodies will arrive from
Afghanistan today. Nor will it comfort the thousands of dead Afghans,
killed either by the Taliban or by NATO. But the Human
Security Brief points
out that even though there are 56 armed conflicts still being waged
around the world, we are living in an era of dramatic improvements in
worldwide human security.
This
is as much as I want to say about peace in the year just past. Now
let’s consider what might be coming in terms of peace and human
security.
There
will be a large sports event in Vancouver and Whistler in February. I
think we all want to see the Games performed in peace. Many of us
would be embarrassed if the pseudo-anarchists disrupted key elements
of the Olympics in our fair province. We would be horrified if
athletes, spectators or innocent bystanders were taken hostage,
injured or killed by radicals of any stripe. Therefore the same
impulse that will have a billion people watching the grace, strength
and beauty gold medal curling on TV is the same impulse that will
make us proud to have hosted a peaceful international sporting event.
Security has already been ramped up for the Games, and you know that
we will all be paying for that. We may bite our tongues and feel like
hypocrites every now and then, but we will watch the sports we like.
Also
in 2010, more American and British troops will leave Iraq. This
should improve human security there. NATO forces including Canada
will continue to hunt for al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan,
and there will be attacks into Pakistan and Yemen. In 2010 most of
the world will continue to enjoy increased human security but there
will be little peace for radical Islamists who plant bombs that kill
innocent people, and who stone women to death for the slightest of
actions.
Victoria
will likely continue to be one of the safest and most pleasant places
in the world. Once people learn to put their cell phones down while
they are driving, our streets will be even safer. Once all the
pre-Olympic labour peace deals expire – shortly after the end of
the Paralympics – there will be labour strife across the province.
There may even be violence but like all violence it will be
despicable and it must be condemned.
In
May this congregation and its sister Unitarian congregation will host
several hundred Canadian Unitarians at a conference at UVic. Many
visitors will be pleased to see how lush, temperate and peaceful our
city is compared to Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Saskatoon and even
Kamloops. Those who attend the information sessions and the business
meetings will learn a great deal and they will likely disagree with
other Unitarians on some points. Yet if we all consider the first
principle, that we affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity
of all persons including persons who don’t share our priorities or
opinions, then we are likely to enjoy spirited and peaceful
debate
and fellowship.
I do
not have a crystal ball, so this look ahead is not very ambitious or
far-seeing. Perhaps during the forum, in Room 5 after coffee time,
you can tell me what you see for peace and human security in 2010.
Now I
come to my third major point. How can we be instruments of peace,
individually and collectively as a religious community?
In
our congregation I hope we have a peaceful 2010. The Zen Buddhist
monk and peace activist Thich Naht Hanh says, “If in our daily life
we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but
everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace
work.” Our most basic peace work starts in our hearts. If your
heart is boiling with something that hurts you, ask for help or a
listening ear. If you feel that you have wronged someone, say you’re
sorry and make amends. Many of you likely read a 1986 book called
“All I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”... It was
written by a Unitarian minister, the Reverend Robert Fulghum. Fulghum
reminds us to hold hands and to look both ways when crossing the
street. That’s what we do at Capital, at the end of each service:
we hold hands and look both ways. At this most basic level, we are
each an instrument of peace to the others. As we
are
at peace, we can follow the advice of Lao Tzu and Thich Naht Hanh and
go out into the community and the world, to spread peace.
How
can we, as a religious community, be an instrument of peace? Unlike
the Quakers, we don’t take a denominational stand when it comes to
pacifism. Our feelings about war and peace are a matter of personal
conscience. I remember hearing about the peace demonstration outside
the gates of CFB Cold Lake, during the 1986 tests of the air-launched
cruise missile. The base commander, a colonel, joined the protesters
and carried a sign for a moment before the protesters stopped him.
The colonel explained to the protesters that he loved peace as much
as they did. That’s why he worked every day to keep Canada safe
from the Soviet threat. Some might say that he loved peace more than
the protesters did because he was willing to die for peace.
Many
of us at Capital have served in the military in peace and war. I
spent some of the most exciting months of my life supporting the
airlift of food into Sarajevo, during the war between the Muslims and
the Serbs.
I
hope I never forget Rustom Patel’s answer when I asked what he was
doing as an officer on a Royal Indian Navy vessel in the 1940s: “We
were hunting the Japanese who had invaded India!” Or Joan telling
us about being at an anti-aircraft battery in England. Or Nicola
telling us on Christmas Eve about her warship’s anti-piracy
patrols, last year in the waters off Somalia.
Or
Michelle being involved with Voice of Women for Peace, here in
Victoria.
Or
Janet walking around James Bay with a huge poster covering most of
her body, saying “All War Is Wrong.” Each of us is working for
peace in our own way.
But
we can do more. We can meditate and we can act for peace if we want
to, all of us.
Last
month in Kingston, Ontario, the Reverend Kathy Sage took up a Quaker
concept, that just as each of us has a carbon footprint, each of us
also has a peace footprint.
Just
as we can expand or reduce our carbon footprint by making lifestyle
changes, can we change our peace footprints? Can I start with small
things to increase my peace footprint? Yes, I can. Rev Kathy Sage
(Kingston Unitarian Fellowship) suggests three steps that anyone can
take:
1. To
live peace as a way of life.
2. To
think peace and its role in all the ways we act.
3. To
expand the interconnections of all our actions as a part of imagining
a more peaceful world.
In
civic politics, think of peace whether you are participating or
reading or debating. In provincial politics, think of peace. When you
consider federal politics, think of peace. And when something or
someone disturbs you and violates what you sense to be peaceful, here
are some things you can do:
1.
Become informed. Read. Listen to CBC Radio, and to the noon-hour
program on UVic CFUV FM 101.9, “Democracy Now: The War and Peace
Report.” Call on elected officials.
2.
Seek allies for discussion and action.
3.
Seek someone who can be a devil’s advocate, so your ideas can be
safely and critically tested.
4.
Write letters to the editor.
5.
Write letters to politicians and heads of corporations.
6.
Get involved with a political party or a candidate or an activist
organization.
Read
about Tommy Douglas and his lifelong devotion and persistence to the
principles of civil rights, peace and equality.
Listen
to Senator Romeo Dallaire when he speaks about the value of human
lives in distant lands. Read about Henry David Thoreau, whose book
“Civil Disobedience” inspired Mahatma Gandhi, who further
inspired the Reverend Martin Luther King.
Search
the Internet for peace groups... not necessarily to join them but
rather to get a sense of what is possible. And ask around this
congregation: many here have lived and worked for peace.
While
reading a Quaker website, I learned about the “Peace Prayer of St.
Francis.” The peace prayer was found in Normandy in 1915, written
on the back of a holy card of St. Francis, from which the name comes.
Some say it was written before the life of St. Francis; some believe
that he wrote it; others believe that it was written more recently.
While not a Quaker prayer per se, the expression of peace here
describes the inner peace sought by the Society of Friends in its
social and peace work:
Lord,
make me an instrument of your peace;
where
there is hatred, let me sow love; when there is injury, pardon;
where
there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where
there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant
that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be
understood, as to understand, to be loved as to love;
for
it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned,
and
it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.
During
the past 20 minutes we have reflected on peace in the year just past,
I’ve talked about what might be coming in terms of peace and human
security, and I’ve suggested some ways that we can be instruments
of peace, individually and collectively as a religious community.
During the last hymn, I’m
Gonna Lay Down My Sword and Shield,
we can meditate further on actions we could take. Please join me in
singing!
– end
of homily –
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