When Righteousness and Peace will Kiss

The headlines scream out for justice, for security, for peace, for sanity.

• Anti Immigration Violence in Johannesburg
• Myanmar Agrees to Allow Aid Efforts by Neighbors
• Lebanon Talks Hit Snage Over Power-Sharing Plan
• Hopes Fading in Search for Quake Survivors in China
• Landslides Kill 158 Relief Workers in China
• Thousands of Darfuris 'Desperate'
• Pirates Seize Jordanian Ship Carrying Aid to Somalia
• U.S. General Apologizes for Desecration of Koran

And we respond, "What is the world coming to! Where is there any good news?" Does the world and do we have a prayer? Is there still hope for the world and us? Indeed, we may even wonder whether the greater pain is caused by our hopes rather than our despair (an observation borrowed from author Elizabeth Gaskill).

Well, I remain optimistic. Even in my most cynical moments, I continue to hope in God (Ps. 42:11). And I look for the time when "Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; [and] righteousness and peace will kiss each other." (Ps. 85:10) And, I rejoice whenever I see signs of this blessed embrace happening.

Indeed, I believe that righteousness and peace can meet when we can sit down and talk with each other with openness and respect. Despite the national political debate over whether and under what circumstances we ought to talk with our enemies about our differences, I believe that God calls us to do this. As God spoke through the prophet Isaiah (1:18), "Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord:though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow;though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."


UCC General Minister and President John Thomas' invitation to the member congregations of the United Church of Christ to enter into a Sacred Conversation on Race began yesterday, Trinity Sunday. I'm sure that many congregations responded. Others have decided to enter into this conversation at a later date. The national setting of the UCC has offered resources for the conversation. I offered the link to these in my last posting of UCCNY Crossroads.

• Here it is again for those who might have missed it. http://www.ucc.org/sacred-conversation/
• Last Friday the national setting of the UCC released a helpful resource organizing the "Sacred Conversation". Here's the links: http://www.ucc.org/sacred-conversation/pdfs/jaramilloltr.pdf and http://www.ucc.org/sacred-conversation/pdfs/steps.pdf

In the Syracuse area I know that our congregations are involved in this essential work of ministry.

Plymouth Church planned a conversation during and after worship yesterday. In addition the church is hosting a Community Ecumenical Sacred Conversation on Race this evening, Monday May 19 beginning at 7:00. Leaders from area churches, the Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism program of InterFaith Works of Central NY, the Syracuse University Law Clinic and the New York Conference will participate in a panel discussion and help facilitate small group discussions.

I also believe that righteousness and peace can meet when we become aware. It's too often that I allow my heart, my compassion to disengage when I read the morning headlines. I know this is a defense. If I stay unconscious to injustice, violence and misery, my life is so much simpler. I can read my emails, write my sermons, take out the trash, go to my meetings, read my favorite historical novels and feel content. Do you know what I mean?

The Oneida Association Committee on the Global Church was wondering what it could do to help strengthen the mission of the local churches in the association. We viewed some videos produced by Common Global Ministries. We discussed various ministries of the NY Conference Commission on the Global Church.

Nothing was grabing us. Then, Jenni O'Neill, one of the Committee members, said that she had been reading on the Common Global Ministries website about this effort to raise awareness and funds in support of the refugees of the genocide in Darfur. Suddenly, we became aware of a way in which we could engage in offering support to people with a very real and great need.

And so, the committee enthusiastically decided to become part of Tents of Hope (http://www.tentsofhope.org/). With the support of the Oneida Association Council the committee is planning an association wide Oneida Mission Rally on Saturday, September 13, at Fairmount Community Church. We look forward to this event, especially to the involvement of the Syracuse area Sudanese community that has offered to help with the planning.

The New York Conference Commission on the Global Church is also asking mission-minded people from our congregations to help with some hands-on mission. In cooperation with Church World Service we put out the plea for Disaster Response Emergency Clean-up Buckets. Here is the link describing the how to fill the bucket.

http://www.flowingstreams.org/Churches/Mission/Emergency%20Cleanup%20Buckets0001.pdf

Bring your buckets to the Conference Annual Meeting at Silver Bay, June 6-8, and we'll make certain they get to Church World Service.

I'm a rather sentimental guy. I tend to remember significant dates (at least significant to me!). Tomorrow (May 20) marks the 35th anniversary of my ordination. There are many who have attained this length of ministry before me. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of those who are now serving as ordained ministers that will reach it in the future. People have tended to become ordained later in life than I.

As I think back over the years I particularly remember my 20th anniversary of ordination. It put me in a grand funk. During an Alban Institute course in assimilating new members I came face to face with my own sense of burnout and with the notion that not much was accomplished in the first half of the expected span of my ministry. It was a good thing that I took a NY/Help trip to Honduras at that time. Working among some of the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere and finding in them a quiet dignity helped me to put my life into perspective.

When I came back, whether because of my own commitment to change or because ministry opportunities opened up or a combination of both, things did change. Mostly what changed in me was a greater openness to seeing that which needed doing and the determination to actually doing something.

I think that I've come to such a place again where some new avenues of service and faith are opening up. I'm grateful for my new involvement in the Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism, a program of InterFaith Works of Central New York. I participated in a Dialogue Circle in the fall of last year and am now serving on the CWD Board. Most recently, I signed up to help facillitate a 3rd grade exchange dialogue program between two elementary schools in greater Syracuse later in June.

This is all to say that I know from my own experience that as we desire to do ministry, and as we open ourselves up to doing it, the opportunities readily present themselves. These may be small things. I don't presume to think that my little efforts among some third graders will change the course of race relations in the world or even in Syracuse. On the other hand one of those third graders, or two or three, may change, may come to see relationships between races differently.

Regardless, whether great or small, our efforts to work for the reconciliation of humans with each other and with creation are signs, I believe, of that great time when righteousness and peace will definitely kiss.

Blessings,

Rick Cowles