"Disarm my life? Hmmm...."

For Sunday, November 28th



( “Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares” statue at the United Nations garden in New York City; the statue was a gift to the UN in 1959 from the then Soviet Union. Made by Evgeniy Vuchetich, the bronze statue represents the figure of a man holding a hammer in one hand and, in the other, a sword which he is making into a plowshare. It symbolizes humanity’s desire to put an end to war and convert the means of destruction into creative tools for the benefit of all humankind.)

Lectionary Scripture - Isaiah 2:1-5 (NRSV)

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

“Disarm my life? Hmmm…”

A worship resource for the above scripture asks, “What steps can you take to disarm your whole life?” It’s a question offered after an earlier statement in the resource which says, “Disarm your minds, your hearts, your hands, your taxes, your nation, and the world.”

Initially when I read the material, I wondered if the author meant ridding myself of any distress, anger, indignation, or need to take action over the horde of unjust malevolent ways people are treated in this world. If that’s the intent, I am unable to do so.

Frankly, I don’t know how any of us can disarm our hearts while so much of the world suffers. I realize that some individuals manage to achieve this in ways that are appropriate, honorable, and enlightened. But I suspect that for most of us not routinely abused or suffering or ignored, we disarm mainly by turning our attentions to things more pleasurable or distracting. Perhaps we do so -- or justify doing so -- out of a sense that there’s little we have power to change. As a result however, substantial portions of humanity watch from the sidelines while thousands or hundreds of thousands or even millions suffer daily. For me, I’m not able to watch from the sidelines, so I do what I can to effect change, particularly systemic change. Sometimes there’s an abundance of opportunity and I simply cannot keep up. Other times I have long dry spells before I’m in a position to do something. And then there are those occasions where the only thing I can do is sit down and share here what’s on my mind and heart.

Regarding the above, one thing I have consistently advocated for years is that churches critically examine their use of assets and resources. Typically I urge less focus on themselves and more on what they can do to address needs and alleviated suffering in the communities where they reside. For me, it’s must be done if God’s Peaceable Kingdom is ever to be a reality here on earth. At times, people hear my plea and petition and make needed sacrifices. Other times, I’m ignored or shown the door. Mostly this happens where people have established a comfortable community for themselves and they don’t want their boat rocked. Speaking figuratively, these faith communities unsheathe their swords at the slightest threat of change to their way of being. Generally in my experience, these situations are the most difficult to transform into Isaiah’s plowshares and pruning hooks unless confronted with the crisis of their own death and demise.

No matter if the swords and spears are real or figurative – an empowering yet disarming symbol for me is the UN “Swords into Plowshares” statue in New York City. Much is captured in that symbol which represents for me a multi-step process of beating something harmful into something life giving. As I see it, the first step is simply that of identifying, acknowledging, and labeling what is a sword and what is a spear in today’s world. For me, I imagine the continuum running anywhere from a nuclear warhead to a landmine to a despicable CEO’s behavior to law-breaking board members of a non-profit to an abusive faith community to a person or group of persons making someone’s life hell. All of these kill life or take well-being from it.

After arriving to a clear and defined sense of today’s swords and spears, I see the next step in Isaiah’s “swords to plowshares” being that of obtaining control and/or possession of the above harmful things so they no longer undermine, injure, or destroy. In the case of the unscrupulous CEO and his/her minions, there’s jail time, lawsuits and new regulations to prevent such immorality or criminality. For the person or persons whose self-serving interests create hell for others, there are a remarkable number of powerful and diverse behavioral and psychological interventions capable of modifying such behavior and setting healthy boundaries. When appropriately employed and maintained, these tools accomplish great good in calming an emotionally or psychologically chaotic environment. In a symbolic yet very real sense, they are like the hammer on the UN statue for they re-form and redirect negativity from its life sapping ways into energy and focus that betters the Common Good.

Transforming another part of today’s swords and spears involves the implements of war. As most of us know, this endeavor is an endlessly challenging battle. Who knows how and when the world will ever arrive at peace sufficient to disarm ourselves militarily? Who knows when and how we will finally accept that the astronomical costs to massively and shockingly kill each other are no longer worthwhile. As many of us know, hundreds of billions, even trillions of dollars get spent ensuring our lethality – all of it at the expense of those who are suffering. I think U.S President Dwight Eisenhower (a Republican) said it best in the following:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children…. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. —From the “Chance for Peace” address delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953.

Inspired of God, the Prophet Isaiah envisioned an end to this theft. The imagery God placed in Isaiah’s mind was simple and powerful – swords to plowshares and spears to pruning hooks. Our minds, hopes, and spirits have been stirred by these images ever since. Yet in 27 centuries since Isaiah’s vision and prophecy, plowshares and pruning hooks have eluded us. And all this time later, the danger we are to one another grows greater every day.

For some persons, they have had all they can take. One of those taking hammer in hand is poet, activist, and Catholic priest, Dan Berrigan. Writing for this week’s lectionary resource at Sojourners, Father Berrigan puts it like this:

IT WAS IN THE SUMMER OF 1980 that a group of us "discovered" Isaiah. It seemed as though we had all accidentally broken the crust of an ancient cave and come upon a treasure in a stone jar, a veritable Dead Sea scroll.

He had of course been there all the time, all our lifetime. But now he was "our" Isaiah.

That summer we were seeking in scripture a metaphor, an image that would lend strength to an as-yet-nascent purpose. Finally it came to us, through Molly Rush, mother and grandmother, of the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh. The text that would turn life on its head: "God will wield authority over the nations and render judgment over many peoples. They will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles."

All great moments are finally simple. We took our small household hammers (and our smaller courage) in hand, and on September 9, 1980, entered the General Electric Reentry Division plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Armed, so to speak; disarmed by Isaiah. Preparing for these nefarious goings-on was, I reflected often since, a perfect way of doing scripture study. There we were, willy-nilly, under the nudge of conscience, rueful, dead center. In some place known as the geography of faith, a terrain, icy and torrid by turns, in which Isaiah himself had stood.

He stood there, in his own time, a time uncannily like our own. And then occurred to him this oracle, swords into plowshares! A word highly unlikely, absurd even, given "the facts" (his, ours), "realism," "big-power diplomacy," "just war theory," the curious game known as "interim ethic."

A vision of peacemaking, in a bloody, unpeaceable time. The century of Isaiah, the seventh before Christ; turbulent in the extreme. War and rumors of war. In the grand tradition of prophets in action, Isaiah intervened directly in political, military, and diplomatic events. He predicted the invasion of Palestine; it happened twice. He lived to see the threat of siege laid to his beloved Jerusalem.

A time like our own. A time of whetted swords and rusted plowshares, of immense violence and social conflict and neglect of the poor.

Need one go on with analogies that fit, hand to glove, sword to hand? Social and military crimes; and then the worship that smoked and muttered away, all honor to Gog and Magog, all mockery to the God of compassion.

Enough said. We need Isaiah, this last-ditch voice of sanity, this unlikely and practical visionary--somewhat as his own times needed him. Our times, it goes without saying, are plain mad; and not the times only, but those who presume to speak up, to speak for us; and who in fact concoct the imagery, betrayal, and moral decrepitude that lead us headlong into the ditch. Blindfolded we go, and who shall give us sight? (From Sojourner’s sermon preparation resource for November 28, 2010; http://www.sojo.net/, subscription required)

To be more specific regarding Father Berrigan’s protest and activism of September 1980, he and his brother Philip and six others known at the “Plowshares Eight” began the Plowshares Movement in August of that year. Subsequently, they illegally trespassed onto the General Electric Nuclear Missile facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. There they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones with small household hammers. According to Wikipedia information, they were arrested and charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts.

On April 10, 1990, after ten years of appeals, Father Berrigan's group was re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison. Their legal battle was re-created in the film “The King of Prussia” which starred Martin Sheen and included appearances by the “Plowshares Eight”.

To this day, at the age of 89, Father Berrigan remains involved with the Plowshares Movement. I imagine that Father Berrigan constituted more than one migraine headache for his congregation and his ministerial supervisors and overseers. For me, I want to be clear that I do not condone Father Berrigan’s form of activism. It goes beyond the civil disobedience which I would engage in. What I want to encourage as a result of his life witness is that each of us carefully consider what we can do to come off the sidelines and what we can do to ensure that swords and spears transform into plowshares and pruning hooks. If we fail to do this, who knows what the next 27 centuries will bring since our lethality grows so insidiously each passing year – far surpassing anything from Isaiah’s time.

It seems then to me that the last and final step of humanity’s swords and spears into plowshares and pruning hooks begs a certain question, e.g. what shall we beat and transform these hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars into? Shall we (meaning the world) take a portion of them to ensure formidable disaster response when earthquakes or tsunamis or hurricanes devastate a community or a country or a people? Shall we take a portion to ensure eradication of hunger, poverty, disease, and provide universal healthcare, and safe and secure housing, education, and employment opportunity for all in need? Shall we take a portion to repair the environmental damage we have caused to God’s precious creation? Shall we take a portion to ensure that corrupt unethical unqualified people cannot occupy positions of power and influence in our governments, communities, and marketplaces? What all shall we do when war is no more? What all can we do?

Modern day swords into modern day plowshares – share you dream of it, share your hope – then pick up a hammer and let's get to work.