BE A PEACE INITIATOR

BE A PEACE INITIATOR 

The title of Dr. Paas’ book, VREDE OP AARDE, I have tentatively translated as PEACE ON THE PLANET, rather than PEACE ON EARTH, which misses the rolling ‘r’s’ in the Dutch; I did this to maintain the poetic stance of the original title. Also, the ‘planet’ includes air, seas, and is thus more comprehensive.

Before I translate his conclusions, found on the last two pages of this 400-page book, a few words about God’s Kingdom. Jesus, on earth, embodied the Kingdom. When a storm threatened to imperil the lives of his disciples, he ‘rebuked’ the wind. The word ‘rebuke’ indicates sharp disapproval. He used the same word when curing Peter’s mother-in-law. Both destructive weather and diseases do not fit into the New Creation which Jesus represented.

Just as Jesus, we, his followers, represent the Kingdom. “Seek first ‘the kingdom’”, is Jesus’ direct suggestion to us. Without that aim, we miss the entire message. The Kingdom? Yes, the Kingdom, God’s Holy Creation.

With that in mind, I turn to Stefan Paas’ book, PEACE ON THE PLANET.

Here is what Dr. Paas writes, and I translate his last two pages:

“For what purpose is Christendom on earth? Why should people actually be a Christian? Why would I invite others to become Christian? These were questions I posed at the beginning of this book. Well, at the end of this enquiry my answer is: Christendom is here to establish peace. It does this to generate intimate connections, to search for righteousness in the service of reconciliation, in the hopeful expectation of God’s Shalom. In that mission the aim is not to make people Christians; the real purpose is for them to become priests in partnership with God’s creation, mediators of the covenant. To become priests involves a change: we must be saved from ourselves, and from the powers that oppose God’s Peace. This salvation is to be found ‘in Christ’, and this makes it materially possible for us to shape communities of love, justice and reconciliation – the very fields in which the good news finds fruition. It is the calling of these communities to devote themselves to reconciliation, and to teach people how they can learn to become priests for this mission of reconciliation. The Christian proclamation, the liturgies, its practises and disciplines, inherent in the Christian faith, their communities, the pioneer-projects, the experiments and innovations, the prayers, exorcisms, prophesies, healings, songs and expressions of praise – all these many-faceted expressions of devotions, attain integrity and unity when we observe that all this has as their aim to witness to God’s shalom, to shape people for this task of reconciliation, to bind them to each other and to their co-creatures, in order to combat the powers that hinder the attaining of peace, to make us sensitive for righteousness, and actively contribute to reconciliation and peace/shalom.”

“Just as Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom in the context of Roman occupation, violence, and apocalyptic tensions, in the same way every salvation-theology is a discussion with the world of the day. My proposal in this last chapter – and on last page I should add – is not meant to assert that this is the only possible narrative concerning the Christian ‘way of salvation’, the so-called ‘soteriology’. Yet, I do think that it is a viable option in a polarized society in the shadow of a universal ecological crisis. 

“What does it actually mean to talk about God in the current situation, to experience him redemptively, and to live in hope in the expectation of the arrival of his peaceable Kingdom? 

“Just as I mentioned in my introduction, I don’t expect that my interpretation will lead to a mass-conversion. My goal was to write something which would cause Christians to be inspired anew, and again feel embraced in God’s mission. I hope that this book be a tool for leaders in the church and other Christians to be able to explain why all of us need to change and provide them with the tools to do so, and what it means to be a community of peace, and how this book can provide direction for Christian societal activities and politics. Theology must be lived and the story of God’s “Shalom is a story by which we can arrange our lives. It is a story that relates how friendships, the search for righteousness, and feeling at home in creation are equally the fields of God’s grace, are avenues along we yearn for God and his future, dead places in which we are raised to life, spaces in which we experience ourselves immensely loved.

“Yes: happy are the peace-initiators.”

So far, my translation.

When we pray, Your Kingdom Come, we really pray for God’s New Creation, the ultimate time when there will be comprehensive Peace on Earth.