Church of the Pilgrims 2201 P Street NW Washington, DC 20037 (202) 387-6612 www.ChurchOfThePilgrims.org

Young Peacemakers A Sermon by Ashley Goff September 28, 2008

 

 

 

Almost every Sunday morning in coffee hour around 12:30pm, Sebastian Oosterveld spills his cup of punch. Itπs like clock-work. The cup of punch goes over with a tap of his foot or a slight of his hand—it’s always an accident. He usually takes responsibility by letting someone know and the juice gets cleaned up. Sebastian is a "punch-spiller." This is pretty typical for a 5 year old.

 

But there is more to Sebastian than just spilling punch—we all know that. Sebastian is a kid who is the conductor of his own train—he does his own thing, looks at the world in his own way. He runs, plays, bugs his sister, Emma—all the things kids do.

But there is even more to Sebastian. At his core, Sebastian is a just-peacemaker. Sebastian creates peace for the sake of justice. He is not alone in this identity at Pilgrims. Sebastian has peacemaking peers: Lydia, Siri, Emma, Taga, Martnique, Tati, Sam, Maddie, and Kelsey, now Ryan, Julin, Skanda, Kendall, William, Jaimie and soon Shera and Bill Jenneπs baby.

We know our Pilgrim kids are just-peacemakers because of their baptisms. As they were welcomed into this particular congregation on behalf of the church universal through the sacrament, we essentially set them on the road of being makers of peace and justice. Their baptisms are reminders that we are charged as a congregation to teach our kids how to experience and create peace.

In order to fulfill that charge, this past August, for three days during our Vacation Bible School, our kids focused on Creation—the whole of the earth. Our VBS was more than learning about water, land, sky, and creatures. What we really focused on was the belief that if we live in Godπs Way, we need to pay attention and act in the world around us. I said that over and over to our kids, "When you live in Godπs way, that means you need to pay attention to whatπs around you."

This is what we hear from the Apostle Paul today in the Phillipians text. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Paul was urging this community in Philipi that to live in the movement of God means to live for the sake of the world which God and Jesus so loved.

So we could see the interests of others, ≥others≤ being the whole of Creation for VBS, we spent a lot of time outside, identifying beautiful things in the neighborhood, making the connection between aesthetic beauty and urban living. Our kids identified things that were good for the earth and bad for the earth. They made a choice about the one thing they wanted to do to make the earth beautiful. They identified how to keep their own bodies safe and healthy—talking about personal space, favorite parts of their bodies, what body parts you use to keep your personal space safe.

 

Our kids responded to all of this—seamlessly. We didnπt take 5 steps out of the building on the first day before Sebastian and Taga found a beautiful thing—a spiderπs web. The fountain across the street was beautiful, the benches, a man sleeping on the bench, the statue, the grass, the warmth of the sun, Kelsey—all were named as beautiful things.

What was good and bad? Someone biking was good because the person wasnπt using gas. A Hummer car went by—bad. Litter was bad. Walkers, hybrid cars, dogs, buses running on natural gas, smart trip cards were all good. What keeps your body safe? Your hands, your feet, your mouth, your brain because it tells the rest of your body what to do.

For three days during Vacation Bible School, our kids showed me that they are already just-peacemakers and ready to keep growing into that role. Our kids know what it means to walk on the Earth lightly, gently, what choices need to be made to show that all of Creation should reflect our story of believing in a living and loving God. We have a faith thatπs rooted in the compassionate heart of God and the grief of the Earth and its creatures. When we have faithful action, then we are promised we will bear the fruit of liberation and the flower of courage.[1] The fruit of liberation and flower of courage—these are two symbols of just-peacemaking, creating peace for the sake of justice.

One of my former seminary professors, Larry Rasmussen, calls one aspect of peacemaking soulcrafting—a building up of oneπs internal core. Soulcrafting is the slow formation and transformation of character and conscience in a thousand ways, many barely noticed in the routine of growing people up. Soulcrafting is the ancient practice

of shaping an authentic self one prayer at a time, one offer of hospitality at a time, one planting and watering at a time, with one child at a time.

 

Soulcrafting is the molding of convictions and morality and greatness of heart befitting peacemakers as the blessed children of God. Soulcrafting, she or he must live inside a powerful story, and inside daily habits that are powerful as well.[2]

 

Soulcrafting is vital to making just-peacemakers.

 

When I look back, VBS was like a training session on soulcrafting—giving the kids eyes to see and ears to hear the part of Creation thatπs around us; seeing the world and its struggles one spider web, one hybrid car at a time; molding their choices on Godπs behalf, shaping how they see themselves and their ability to act around the story of Creation; witnessing that Godπs spirit rests within the whole of the Earth. VBS pushed me to trust in the soulcrafting process; that formation and transformation is a slow, long-haul experience that I need to engage in with our Pilgrim kids.

Next year, Iπm thinking of ditching the Vacation Bible School title and naming our three day experience something like ≥Pilgrims Just-Peacemaking Initiative for Ages Four and Up.≤

Our kids are peacemakers for justice. They are just-peacemakers. If we do not make peacemakers, who will make peace?

Next week is Peacemaking Sunday, a Sunday we recognize the Peacemaking Program within the Presbyterian Church and take up an offering to support local and national peacemaking endeavors.

The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program was created in 1980 by action of the General Assembly of the former United Presbyterian Church by adopting Peacemaking: The Believers’ Calling.

The work of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program is guided by three affirmations:

• The church is faithful to Jesus Christ when it is engaged in peacemaking.
• The church is obedient to Jesus Christ when it nurtures and equips God's people as peacemakers.
• The church bears witness to Christ when it nurtures the moral life of the nation for the sake of peace in the world.

The Peacemaking Program lives out these affirmations in several ways: trains international peacemakers to be a voice for the poor and oppressed and to learn more about the causes of, and remedies for, poverty in our world. The Peacemaking Program trains individuals to be volunteer accompaniers in Colombia— international accompaniers provide a measure of safety—and a set of international eyes—for the great risks being taken by Colombians for the sake of human rights.

The Peacemaking Program is part of organizing a witness every year at the U.S. Army’s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, often known by its former name, the School of the Americas (SOA), located in Ft. Benning, Georgia. The Western Hemisphere Institute is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Many graduates have been responsible for severe human rights violations in their home countries.

Thankfully, our Peacemaking Program has a broad scope, a scope that reflects attention to violence on various fronts: domestic violence and child abuse, human rights violations,

on anti-racism work, on promoting processes of truth and reconciliation in transition societies, the global food crisis and issues of security. When the vital factor of soulcrafting and making peacemakers is added, the scope of just peacemaking encompasses the whole of earthly life.

 

Peacemaking, then, is far more than a firewall for containing conflict; it is practices that constitute a way of life. It is discipleship.[3] It is living in Godπs way.

 

We participate in the Peacemaking program and offering as a strong reminder that as adults and children living in Godπs way, peacemaking is one of our primary practices of faith. Because peacemaking is a way of life, we should avoid reducing it to a type of ≥social action program.≤ When we hear the words of the Apostle Paul to the Phillipians about engaging in the interests of others, Paul isnπt calling us to create just a program. When we look at Paulπs letter, the question isnπt about what does Jesus want us to do.

Paulπs teaching is more to the point of how can we be with Jesus. Jesus said, ≥I will be with you.≤ Just like the Phillipians, we recognize the presence of Jesus among us as we go about the practice of peacemaking—the work that carries us to the poor, the sick, the scorned, and the suffering of the whole Earth. We are also with Jesus when we let a little child lead us. When we let a little child lead us, we can take responsibility in growing our Pilgrim children to make a life of just- peacemaking--being a voice for the poor, being a set of international eyes and presence around human rights, having a voice around our mutual relationships with other countries, walking on this Earth with gentleness, kindness, and with love.

My hope as a pastor and a parent is that as a church, we make sure our kids evolve as peacemakers. Church needs to equip our kids to move from the simple to the complex world view. As adults we need to see the small picture our kids see—the spiderwebs, small flowers in the grass, the warmth of the sun. We need to care for the simple things, affirm the good in the simple things. We need to see the simple picture of our kids just as our kids need to see us, the adults, grappling with a more complex picture and reality of the world.

As adults and children, we have mutual roles in the movement and practices of living in Godπs Way and being just-peacemakers. By mutual I mean we are directed, one towards the other, we share feelings for each other, itπs a relationship characterized by intimacy. So there is a mutuality here in our intergenerational relationships, honoring where we are in our human development and spiritual maturity but always seeing each other, adult or child, as having the capacity to be at peace with Creation and experience peace within Creation.

At the end of my sermon, we will have two mutual soulcrafting acts of intergenerational sharing, taking us beyond ourselves, directing us towards the interest of the whole of the Earth. Each week in worship and in our email Updates and Invitations, weπve invited one of us to be a storyteller around a practice of faith that connects with Living in Godπs Way. Our storytelling is part of soulcrafting, we are giving witness to the fact we are living inside a powerful story, and inside daily practicesthat are powerful as well.

Today our storyteller will be Jonah Blank. After Jonahπs story, the hymn God of the Sparrow will have a power point playing as we sing. During VBS, we worked a lot with God of the Sparrow, and I asked the kids to pick and draw their favorite image of God from the hymn. The pictures in the power point are their drawings and magazine clippings, including pictures taken by Sam Goff-Glennon on one of our walks as we looked at what creates a good and healthy Earth. Notice the Smart Trip Card picture on the Metro Bus—it reads, "Join the Revolution." If you want to be with Jesus, our kids just gave a name to the invitation.

 

The world cries out for just-peacemakers like Sebastian, Emma, Lydia, Siri, Taga, Martinique, Tati, Kelsey, Sam, and Maddie. The world waits for Ryan, Julin, Skanda, William, Jaimie and baby girl, Jenne. The world cries for Christians who will live in Godπs way, being with Jesus to make peace within creation in the same moment we make peace with creation. And a little child will lead us.[4]

 

Jonah will now share his story of the Practice of Advocating for Godπs Global Village.