Jesus tells disciples, “The Son of Man will suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.” Jesus knows how rulers, sickened with the religion of Militarism, operate. How they dominate, abuse, and kill and coerce the soldiers they employ to do the same. Jesus knows they will soon dominate, abuse, and kill him. He also likely knows the rulers and their soldiers will lie and tell us that their killing of Jesus saves us. All hail the soldiers who keep saving us.
2,000 years on, and rulers and their soldiers keep dominating, abusing, and killing Christs; thousands and millions and billions of Christs, the world over. 2,000 years on, and they keep telling us their killing of Christs saves us. 20 years ago 17 Saudi soldiers killed 3,000 Christs living in the U.S. and they keep telling the world their killing saves us. 20 years on, and thousands of U.S. soldiers have killed 1,000,000 Christs living in Afghanistan and Iraq and they keep telling the world their killing saves us. Always Militarists and their soldiers kill. Always they keep telling the lie their killing saves us. Young men are especially coerced into being such saviors; saviors who dominate, abuse, and kill – and we hail them. We hail Nathan Hale who at only 21 years of age learned to kill and was killed this very week in September of 1776. He had joined the religion of Militarism and was coerced by its rulers and soldiers to dominate, abuse, and kill, “Our holy Religion, the honor of God, a glorious country, and a happy constitution is what we have to defend.” The young man volunteered as a spy. He was caught by soldiers of the ruler King George and they hanged him. Nathan Hale is hailed for the words he is purported to have spoken, “I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Nathan Hale’s words and actions survive him and he is hailed as a heroic warmaker. And what of Jesus? Do his words and actions about rulers and their soldiers survive him? Is he hailed as a heroic peacemaker? Are all the people who follow Jesus’ Way that replaces domination with communion, abuse with love, and violence with creative healing power hailed? Rarely is the peacemaker hailed as the warmaker is hailed. We might consider hailing one young peacemaker who has stopped being coerced by age-old warmakers. He is Daniel Hale who at 26 years of age dominated, abused, and killed but decided to do so no more. He had joined the religion of Militarism and its U.S. rulers deployed him to Afghanistan. As a soldier he helped identify kill targets, human beings, for assassination and watched as so many more human beings were killed too. In conscience, he knew he could soldier no more. He shared the documents of the U.S. military’s war crimes he was coerced to keep secret. He was caught by the soldiers of the ruler Biden who punished him for not telling their age-old lie about salvation and telling Jesus’ truth about them instead. Daniel Hale too had words to be spoken, “I am here because I stole something that was never mine to take—precious human life. For that I was compensated and given a medal.” “Please forgive me for taking papers instead of human lives.” The young Daniel Hale noted at his military trial that he is a descendent of the young Nathan Hale. Will Daniel Hale’s words survive him? Will anyone hail the young peacemakers who will no longer be coerced by the age-old warmakers?
“And that is why they let us down so badly. For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been our mediators and guides to the world of maturity… of culture, of progress–to the future… The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief… They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.” “We will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way any more… and the generation that has grown up after us will be strange to us and push us aside. We will be superfluous even to ourselves.” “But perhaps all this that I think is mere melancholy and dismay, which will fly away as the dust, when I stand once again beneath the poplars and listen to the rustling of their leaves.” “He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front.” (All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque)
Prayer: Spirit, we live as courageous peacemakers
Question: Why do we hail young men who suffer and kill and die for rulers who lie to them about saving us?
September 12, 2021 Gospel Mark 8:27-35 Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time