Peace Sunday 1998

Welcome to the 1998 MBCM Peace Sunday packet!

This year's materials grow out of the Mennonite statement on violence, approved at both denominations' delegate meetings, in Orlando (MC) and Winnipeg (GCMC) in 1997.

The subtitle of the violence statement, "And no one shall make them afraid," points to connections between violence and fear, connections that are evident throughout the Bible.

Fear is a powerful human emotion. It can motivate us. It can also stop us in our tracks. In its most positive sense in Scripture, it is fear of the Lord, awe that motivates God's people to worship and serve Yahweh.

In a negative sense, fear deters God's people from accomplishing God's will. An excerpt from the new Mennonite statement reads, "Violence alienates us from God and from each other, and the fear of violence is a prison in which our very souls shrivel." To live as a people of grace, joy, and peace, we need a biblical understanding of fear.

Planners selected five biblical texts that deal with fear as it relates to violence and peace. Each text can stand on its own as a sermon focus. The texts also work well together and come from various genres of biblical literature: the Pentateuch, Psalms, Prophets, Gospels, and Epistles. In each passage there is movement back and forth between the fear of the Lord and the fears of this world.

Taken individually and together, these Scriptures invite a deep respect and reverence for God, and a relationship of trust with God and God's people that can allow us to reach beyond our fears and respond to violence and the threat of violence with confidence, creativity, and peace.

Scriptures

Leviticus 26 reconfirms the covenant between Yahweh and Yahweh's people, outlining rewards for obedience and consequences of disobedience. The ultimate reward is found in verse 6 (compare Zephaniah 3:12-13). Yahweh's desire for Yahweh's people is the presence of peace and the absence of fear. God promises protection from violence in nature (wild animals) and from human violence (the sword). God's love and compassion for the faithful are evident here.

Presentation idea: While this passage is being read, two or three freeze frames of violent situations could be depicted. For example, one frame could show a gang of people attacking an individual. Another could show starving victims of war. Another might show child abuse. The actors would take their positions and remain frozen throughout the reading of the text.

After the reading, the reader or another person representing the presence of God's peace could reposition the people in each frame in a way that transforms the violent scene into a scene of peace. The gang could tend the wounds of the injured person, and the warriors could lend a hand of support to hungry victims. After each transformation, the person who repositions the actors could say, "And no one shall make you afraid."

Daniel, an exile in a foreign land, receives a vision of hope to share with his fearful and hopeless people, vanquished by their enemies. In Daniel's vision, God touches him and gives strength that overcomes his fears. Through his frightening and awesome encounter with God, Daniel receives superhuman courage and confidence to witness to God's truth and sovereignty.

Presentation idea: This passage begs to be dramatized. Three characters (Daniel, the one clothed in linen, and the one in human form) could bring this scene to life and leave a lasting impression on the congregation.

This psalm emphasizes the steadfast love and commitment of Yahweh to the people of God. Note the contrast between "fear the Lord" (v.4) and "I do not fear" (v.6). The same Hebrew word (yer) incorporates a sense of reverence and honor when it refers to Yahweh, and a more common English understanding of fear when it refers to other objects and people.

The one who lives in fear often curses the morning. The one who lives in the fear of the Lord can sing with confidence, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Fear saps the joy of life from us; trusting in God gives peace and joy to life.

Presentation idea: This psalm would work well as a responsive reading.

This text deals in anxious words. Beware! Fear! Worry! Note again the contrast between the fear of God and the fears of this world.

Jesus warns the disciples to beware of hypocrites. G. B. Caird describes hypocrisy as the sacrifice of truth for outward appearance. Jesus is telling the disciples to beware of pretenders, of those living on the stage, who draw attention to themselves for their own glory: Beware of them, but do not fear them.

Many of our society's heroes are Hollywood stars, and much of our view of the world is shaped by what happens in the movies, in the media, and in commercials. It is vital for us to beware of the actors. It is vital that we not fall into the trap of fearing that we will not measure up to these images. It is vital that we not use Hollywood's methods to solve our conflicts. It is vital that we look to Scripture, to Jesus, to the church where the Holy Spirit is at work to define reality and truth.

We need not fear what the world tells us to fear. Henri Nouwen writes in Lifesigns (Doubleday, 1986), "The agenda of our world—the issues and items that fill newspapers and newscasts—is an agenda of fear and power. It is amazing, yet frightening, to see how easily that agenda becomes ours. The things and people we think about, worry about, reflect upon, prepare ourselves for, and spend time and energy on are in large part determined by a world which seduces us into accepting its fearful questions" (16).

I Peter 3:8-18a
Do not fear what they fear.

The fears of the unbeliever are not compatible with the fears of the believer. Again the challenge for the believer is to live a life of truth and faithfulness, and not be intimidated, motivated, or distracted by the fears of the world.

Peter expects trouble and persecution, and calls us to respond by being faithful, by speaking honestly and gently about our hope, and by keeping a clear conscience.

Fear of people and things gives birth to violence. Reverence for God gives birth to "grace, joy and peace so that God's healing and hope flow through us to the world" ("Vision: Healing and hope").

Behind the symbol at left are phrases from two hymns: "Give us peace beyond our fear, and hope beyond our sorrow" ("Healer of our every ill," 377), and "From the fears that long have bound us, free our hearts to faith and praise" ("God of grace and God of glory," 366). It could be used as a banner, sculpted with heavy wire, or printed as pocket cards to be handed out. Color options may include: light blue background; metallic gold cross/dagger; ivory doves/hands; red heart; metallic red or glittered red drop of blood; purple lettering:

For Children

The names could come from local news reports, from national or international news, from personal experiences in work, school, home, or community. Some blocks could be for groups of children: victims of war, starvation, economic sanctions, family violence, etc., in various parts of the world. People should feel free to make up a pseudonym for someone they wish to remember without naming.

Invite people to listen and pray for the victims and their families and friends as names are read and the blocks are placed on each other. Invite reflection on Jesus' command to love each other, to reject violence, and to reconcile with those with whom we are in conflict.

Option: Instead of using blocks of wood, try construction paper cut into brick shapes and taped onto a wall in front of your worship area.

Option: The wall could be partially built (with blocks with people's names on them) at the beginning of the service. During the service, as blocks are added, a few comments could be made about the person whose name is on the brick. At the end of the service, people could be invited to dismantle the wall of fear by taking home a brick and praying for the person, his/her family, and others in similar situations. The brick could be a reminder of our call to do justice and to pray.

Note: This activity could be adapted to involve not only the children, but the whole congregation.

Books and stories to consider for children's time:

• "I cannot do evil," and "The Cheyenne way of peace," in Peace be with you, by Cornelia Lehn (Newton: Faith and Life Press, 1980)
• "They that take the sword" by Milton Meltzer, The big book for peace, ed. by Ann Durrell and Marilyn Sachs (New York: Dutton Children's Books, 1990)
• The secret garden, by Barbara Cohen (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1985)

"If you in fires are tested, tried, begin to walk life's narrow way, then let God's praise be magnified, stand firm in all He has to say; if you stand strong and constant then, confess His Word in the sight of men, with joy He extends the diadem!"

Menno Simons
(from The Complete Works of Menno Simons [Scottdale: Herald Press, 1956], p. 1066)

Planners

• Elizabeth Hostetler, director of graduate studies and The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center at Bluffton (Ohio) College, developed ideas for children and the responsive reading.
• Doug Luginbill, associate pastor of First Mennonite Church (Bluffton), selected and reflected on the Scriptures, and offered ideas for presenting them.
• Mike Short, Archbold, Ohio, is a computer sales manager, directs community theater, and serves on his congregation's music committee. He and Wanda Stopher are members at Central Mennonite Church. They contributed music ideas and created the graphics. Wanda also wrote the prayer for three voices. She works in a family business.
• Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee member Barbara Nelson Gingerich (Goshen, Indiana) convened the group and compiled their work

Music