Like last Sunday, several instances of Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom of God are again squeezed into today’s Gospel selection. Again, the teaching itself is squeezed out – that the Kingdom of God, better translated as the Community of God, is happening in the here and now in our peaceful social transformation of the world. This time, Jesus’ teaching is squeezed out in favor of words about “the end of the age (when) angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous.”
Jesus’ “end of the age” is not the culmination of history when a War Lord God saves a few people and destroys the rest of a sinful humanity. Jesus’ “end of the age” is the end of warmakers’ age and the beginning of peacemakers’ age that frees us for the full social transformation of the world. Jesus’ “angels who go out and separate the wicked from the righteous” aren’t agents of divine military justice. They’re his reminder that disciples aren’t missioned for violent separation but for peaceful transformation. The question for peacemakers is, ‘How do we live as transforming agents when our world is influenced by end times doomers and righteous separators who self-title as Christian?’ For example, members of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) like Pastor Mac Hammond who rejects the peacemaker Jesus for “the larger family tree” of the War Lord Yahweh. Also, Paster John Haggee, whose War Lord “God bless our forces in the Middle East for their brilliant execution of Operation Epic Fury!” against Iran. Perhaps the most consequential doomer and righteous separator, and a War Lord in his own right given his government position, is Mike Huckabee. He’s an ordained Southern Baptist minister, a self-proclaimed Zionist, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Mike Huckabee is Israel’s most fervent supporter. He thinks “there’s no such thing as a Palestinian,” opposes a Palestinian state telling people in the West Bank and Gaza to go to other Muslim nations who can carve out a space for them, and, rejecting all the evidence, believes there’s no such thing as a genocide happening. He believes Palestinians are causing their own suffering because they won’t accept the Lord’s plan to restore his most favored nation of Israel to its Old Testament glory. Huckabee believes Israel’s restoration signals his War Lord Yahweh’s destructive plan of salvation that results in “the end of the age” when they who are righteous will separate from the wicked who get destroyed. Thus, Mike Huckabee is Israel’s most fervent destroyer. He’s using Israel to fulfill his hellish salvation beliefs. Israeli War Lords, like Benjamin Netanyahu, are not ignorant of the beliefs held by the U.S. ambassador. That’s because they’re using the Mike Huckabees of the world to fulfill their own hellish salvation beliefs. Mike and Bibi are War Lord agents of their War Lord Yahweh, ushering in the “end of the age” acting as righteous angels who are separating all the rest of us from peace on earth.
Though Mike and Bibi don’t believe in social transformation through peacemaking, others do. Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA) and Roots are two groups of people, among others, who live as transforming agents in a region of the world influenced by War Lord Gods. IEA and Roots have established dozens of dialogue groups that bring together Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze. Participants are building peaceful relationships and are expanding those relationships across the Levantine region. Peace groups like these and others are influencing people to end their beliefs in War Lords and begin belief in themselves; end their belief in the inevitability of war and begin their actions for the necessity of peace, and end their separation from each other and begin joint operations for anti-war policies so we can all live together in peace.
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, I commit to peacemaking.
Question: What am I doing that’s helping me end my belief in War Lords and begin my acting as a peacemaker?
July 26, 2026 Gospel Matthew 13:44-52 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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