One of my closest friends from high school married a man from Lebanon. They raised three children together while running a business in the Seattle area. They have had a comfortable life that allows them to travel. A couple of years ago they were in town for New Year’s Eve and invited my husband and I to join them for dinner. In the course of our dinner conversation, they shared that they had tried to raise their children to be world citizens by traveling and experiencing other cultures. Their lifestyle is quite different from ours. They have homes in several places including an apartment in Beirut. Although I try not to fly due to climate concerns, I appreciate my friends’ reasons for frequent international travel. The best way to understand, respect, and accept others is to get to know them by way of personal encounter. This has been a regular theme of Pope Francis, who has repeatedly encouraged cross-cultural encounters as a pathway to peace and tolerance.
Over the years we went our separate ways, but I usually contact my friend on her birthday, and she contacts me on mine. In the last year I have contacted her several times, just to see if they are all okay. I know that one of my friend’s sons works for Mercy Corps and he and his family have lived in areas of conflict, often in the Middle East because he is fluent in Arabic as well as several other languages. I know that my friend’s husband had family living in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, and that they let those relatives move into their apartment in Beirut. I know from her most recent text that one relative is a doctor who has been tending to victims of the recent pager explosions. My friend and her family are concerned that a full-scale war is about to break out. I haven’t tried to make contact since Israel bombed Beirut. I hope to do so soon.
The second reading for this weekend is from the Epistle of James, (3:16-4:3). A defining characteristic of James is to equate faith with action in every aspect of life rather than presenting faith as an abstract, or theoretical matter. After teaching that ‘disorder and foul practices’ exist wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, James reminds his readers that wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, compliant, and full of mercy and good fruit. Then James asks, “Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?” That is a good question for the followers of Jesus, and all people of good will to reflect on during this time of expanding conflict overseas and growing political rancor at home. We pray for peace, but perhaps, as James says, we “ask wrongly” thinking of peace only as an absence of conflict or a ceasefire instead of the kind of peace that comes from justice.
The Gospel this week is from Mark 9:30-37. Jesus is continuing to teach the disciples about his path to the cross, but as is usual in Mark’s Gospel, the disciples don’t understand. Rather than ask for an explanation when Jesus tells them that he will be handed over, put to death, and will then rise again, the disciples spent their time arguing among themselves about who was the greatest. When they arrived at their destination in Capernaum, Jesus sat down with his followers and explained that whoever wished to be first had to be last and the servant of all. If that wasn’t clear enough, Jesus then placed a child in their midst and told them that whoever received a child in his name received Jesus, and if they received Jesus, they would receive the One who sent him.
A child in the time of Jesus was representative of “the bottom of the social and economic scale in terms of status and rights in the ancient Mediterranean world” and it “was not until early adulthood that the young person began receiving serious consideration as a member of the family!” (Ched Myer. Binding the Strongman. page 261). Myers goes on to say: “it is remarkable enough that Jesus draws attention at all to children, for they were considered nonentities. It is quite shocking that he would advance them as models for his social program.” (ibid) Jesus addressed the disciples’ quest for power by demonstrating once again that status in the Kin-dom was radically different from status in the empire.
The quest for power, and the maneuvering of those who seek power for themselves, in particular those who seek power over others, is abundantly evident amidst the current crises in the news. Power is one of those passions that James warned about in his Epistle. It can be used for the common good, but when power is combined with selfish ambition, or the jealousy that James speaks of, power can only bring chaos.
This past week saw an escalation of foul rhetoric against migrants who are often at the bottom of the social and economic scale in our country. The escalation was calculated, deliberate, and designed with the intention of boosting a quest for power at the expense of people considered to be inconsequential or even nonentities. It is a pattern that continues to degrade our political discourse. In an unsettling reversal, those who have pushed such false narratives for their own gain are also fond of leaning on Christian rhetoric even though at the heart of Christianity, the message is one of self-sacrificing love, mercy, and peace. “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who seek peace.” (James 3:18)
The past week also saw a significant escalation toward a larger war in the Middle East as Israel remotely detonated pagers fitted with explosives that were in the pockets or bags or hands of suspected supporters of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Thousands of people were injured, many of them losing an eye or fingers or a hand while others suffered critical injuries where pagers were in contact with their body. Two children died. The United Nations human rights experts called the action a war crime. As of this writing, Hezbollah has yet to retaliate. Many people are concerned that blind ambition coupled with the desire to keep or regain power is preventing a ceasefire.
Only with the wisdom that comes from above, constant and sincere in its desire for justice, will there be a pathway to peace at home and abroad.