This is a phrase I will be taking home from this place. I have heard it a couple of times, and then got into a couple of good conversations around it yesterday, as we considered the concept of peace among the peoples, and how that plays out in our global community of nations.
For so long, the ecumenical movement has been about making manifest the unity we find in Christ. We have been about unity for, well, unity’s sake. But the question was raised here, what exactly are we seeking to live out our given unity for? And the reminder that we have been given is that it is so that the world will know.
We are called to be one in Christ, to seek our given unity as a Christian community, to offer a different example of life to the world, a different model of community and living with one another. We are called to seek unity for peace’s sake. That we can show to the world what it means like to live “God’s Security Strategy”. That is what is truly at the heart of the ecumenical movement. To be a body seeking to live out our unity so that we are a witness to the world of the vision God has.
And this gets made manifest in a number of different ways that we heard here yesterday. It is made manifest in the church serving as an early warning mechanism in places where violence is beginning – being connected to the community in ways the government just isn’t. It is made manifest through delegations of church leaders speaking to our governments, and laying out the alternative vision of security that we find in Christ.
But it is also in being willing to ask tough questions, like the one I am going to leave you with here. What does relying on the ability to kill millions of others for our security do to our souls?
Lets seek to live out our unity for the sake of peace in our world.
It is certainly a challenge for us, and a different way of thinking about all of this. Its a paradigm shift in terms of security – are we willing to trust that the vision of God – even in terms of security – is a vision we are actually called to embody?
What a question!!! This is definitely not the way Americans think. Our security is the most important of all and if we have to hurt others, than so be it. How sad! Think of all the people we’ve injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iraq invasion was ridiculous and the bombing in Afghanistan was to find one man! Absurd. As to our souls, it should make them feel sadness and concern.