Filled with Pentecostal Spirit, peacemakers start enlivening people stifled by the oppressive Roman Empire. They enliven people with Jesus’ “Community of God” – a way of communion, love, and creative healing power. They enliven it far and wide among diverse people but are persecuted for doing so. Gospel and non-Gospel accounts record the persecution. It turns out not everyone wants a life or a world filled with diverse people enlivened for communion, love, and creative healing power that make for peace. It turns out not everyone wants the same things.
Conservers of empire and reformers of empire alike promote the notion that ‘We all want the same things.’ Imperialists offer seemingly innocuous qualities for examples; prosperity, safety, a land of the free. Corporate media, conservative and reformist, are among the promoters. For example, The New York Times is promoting ‘We all want the same things’ through articles that feature neo-Nazis and other supporters of the president and what they want (Fausset, Douthat, Quinn Norton, Bret Stephens). The articles did not feature the people neo-Nazis and their president persecute, nor what those they persecute want. Some of the neo-Nazi supporters of the president are self-titled Christians who feel beleaguered and want us to understand them – as if we do not understand them. We understand that they want white nationalism, to deport Dreamers, and to wage war. Diverse people who spread communion (transcending nationalism), love (freedom from colonialism’s racist immigration), and creative healing power (ending warmaking) do not want the same things as they want. To be convinced we do is this current empire’s stifling. The people’s power cannot be stifled. Our diverse power in all its diverse expressions is a challenge to imperialists who cannot handle diversity.
Peacemakers are not afraid to recognize real differences in the world, nor deal with the conflicts that can ensue. Peacemakers are not afraid of enlivening people stifled by empire. Fifty years ago this month, nine peacemakers did not want the same things as supporters of the U.S. Empire wanted and began enlivening peacemaking. On May 17, 1968 the Catonsville 9 walked into an Ohio Selective Service office and walked out with 378 1-A draft files which they then set on fire with napalm. Those nine peacemakers faced the same persecuting conditions as the first Pentecostal peacemakers faced. The same persecuting conditions are what we face now. It is the supremacist, abusive, and violent conditions of an empire to which peacemakers want to bring communion, love, and creative healing power. We can too.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, fill us with Pentecostal power
Question: How can I help change people who want to do harm?
May 20, 2018 Gospel John 15:26-27; 16:12-15 Pentecost