I love the prophetic vision of Isaiah, who so often sees things not just as they are but as they could be. In chapter 2 we read how nations “will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (verse 4).
This could be dismissed as idealistic dreaming or unrealistic imagining, but it reflects a foundational hope. It is actually God’s plan for creation, though the reality of today seems far distant. The tragedy of today is that in many parts of the world young men are trained for war and not for peace, whether it be children abducted into armies ironically called ‘the Lord’s resistance’, or for the cause of jihad or some other ideology. We train for war and not for peace.
I was struck in my reading of Titus 3 during the week, how we are “to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle towards everyone” (verse 5). In the same chapter he says God’s people must “be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good” (v 10), and repeated again in verse 14. Surely this is training for peace!
Today the world is full of ideology and agenda, people pushing their way, their views, and often trampling on others in the process. How different is the way of Jesus. It is training for peace. It is training to treat others well, even when we disagree with them. In this way we commend the way of Jesus, who is the king of peace.
This month at St Luke’s we have a focus on the mission of the church, why we exist, and how we can make a difference in the world. I know of no other community in the world who has a vision grounded in Isaiah’s vision, made tangible in the life of Jesus, and laid upon the people of God as their manner of life. The church is a unique community (we don’t always live up to it, I know), and uniquely placed to reflect a foretaste of what God wishes for humankind.
In a world that trains for war, may we train for peace, for it will not come by accident.