Sermons
HOMILY FOR PEACE SERVICE ON THURSDAY, MARCH 20
The Rev. Kenneth Phifer
First Unitarian Universalist Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan
March 20, 2003
It is now nearly 24 hours since the American attack on Iraq began.
Eager journalists are writing huge headlines and talking breathlessly into their microphones about what is happening.
Politicians who have long wanted this war are rejoicing that it is now here and politicians who did not want this war are speaking of the need for everyone to rally round the troops. As in every war, the cry now is that dissent is treason.
Confident ex-military men assure us that the American war plan is an excellent one, that the American military forces are well-trained and courageous, and that America's war technology is vastly beyond the capacity of Iraq to resist for long.
The outraged citizenry of tens of countries are pouring into the street to protest the start of hostilities and peace marches in this country began early this morning and continue to this hour.
Emergency meetings are asked for at the United Nations, diplomats ask the U.S. not to punish those who have not supported them, and our own land has
dramatically increased security against possible attacks by terrorists.
Some of us cheer on the president and his course of action because they see a brutal dictator in Saddam Hussein who can only be dealt with by the force of violence.
Some of us have sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, good friends who are now or who soon will be serving in the Iraq theatre.
Some of us feel that this is the wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons and that continued inspections, however slowly they proceeded, would have been a more moral and an equally effective solution to the disarming of Hussein.
Some of us believe that war and violence are always wrong, always the worst path to follow, always the source of misery and pain and death and destruction, much of it suffered by civilians, women and children and those disabled and the old, who do not know how to get out of the way of smart bombs or dumb bullets.
Whatever our beliefs, whatever our partisan affiliation, whatever we feel about the actions of our president or those whose voices are heard in the streets, we all seek peace, an elusive, hard-to-define, difficult-to-achieve way of living that honors all life and provides for ample resources and opportunities and liberties for all people.
The president has told us repeatedly that his goal is peace—peace with a liberated Iraq, peace with a newly structured Middle East geopolitical system, peace in a world freed of terrorist threats. Many of us oppose the president's policies, but the stated goals of peace and justice we all share.
Some of us want peace but see no way to avoid clashing violently with a man and his country who persistently refuse to honor United Nations resolutions and whose track record of war and violence is among the worst of the 20th century—Iran, the Kurds, Kuwait, Iraqis themselves.
Some of us believe that violence always has unintended consequences, that violence always has collateral damage, that violence always begets yet more violence, until someone simply refuses to be violent, at whatever personal cost, so that harmony among people can be realized.
These differences among the world's peoples are reflected in our own congregation. Because tolerance is a fundamental principle of our faith, these differences have been and will be respected.
What we can do within our community is to create a sacred space for peace in which we can all live. We can do this by remembering and living the words on the boulder at the front entrance to our church: "Committed to love not hate, respect not contempt, openness not exclusion, this congregation is a safe haven for all the peoples of the earth."
We can live peacefully together, for that is always the beginning of a peaceful society, men and women, boys and girls, living peacefully with one another whatever their differences might be. This is a major principle of our religious faith.
To symbolize this ideal and what we will strive together to make real, we shall light a candle tonight, at every Sunday morning service, and at the Sunday evening Peace Service that will continue for the duration of the war.
We light this candle in hope, the hope that the world will not any further go mad with violence.
We light this candle with commitment, commitment to a world that is truly just.
We light this candle for every military person serving in the war that peace may be in their hearts and that they will not come to harm.
We light this candle for the people of Iraq, who are now and who in the days ahead will go on being bombarded with weapons of great destructive capacity.
We light this candle for the well-being of the people in the more than 30 countries where violent conflicts are now raging.
We light this candle for peace in our hearts that we might learn to control the anger that so often leads to violence, that we might learn to see the good in every person, that we might learn how even to love our enemies.
We light this candle for peace in the world, that nations might learn how to resolve their disagreements without slaughtering one another, that cooperation might become the global standard more than competition, that we might all learn new lessons in how to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.
We light this candle for peace in our hearts and for peace in the world.
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