In many quarters there was a jubilant reaction at the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. Some city-dwellers took to the streets, waving flags, whooping, and exchanging high-fives. Many New Yorkers assembled at Ground Zero and in Times Square, seeking, perhaps, to write a cathartic coda to the sorrowful story that began on September 11. In Philadelphia, when the announcement was made at the Mets-Phillies game, cheering rocked the park, and a chant rang out: “USA! USA!”
I am reminded of a line from the prophet Isaiah: “they rejoice before you . . . as people exult when dividing plunder” (9:3). If this line sounds familiar, it’s because we read it nearly every Christmas Eve. The beautiful irony of Isaiah’s description, however, is that he uses this shocking image of a victorious people plundering their enemies’ riches to point to an even greater joy discovered in the peaceful reign of God’s anointed one. Isaiah sees a world re-made by the presence of God, a world forever changed by the inbreaking of God’s realm of peace. In this new world, bathed in light, even the tokens of war are transformed so as to bring warmth and light into the cold, dark places: “all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.”
In a time of darkness, violence gives birth to joy, and vengeance leads to exultation. So it goes. Witness the frenzied flag-waving, and the unseemly transformation of Citizens Bank Park into the Roman Coliseum. But God’s light reveals a deeper truth, and a greater joy, in human life. God’s light teaches us that we need to dream new dreams, not of our enemies being vanquished but of the whole creation being reconciled to God, of a perfect love that breaks the cycle of retribution and violence. These are not pipe-dreams; they are Christ-dreams.
This is where the Gospel is most scandalous. This is where it most offends our sensibilities. We see great injustice in the world, and we want to see justice done. We see great hatred in the world, and we want to see hatred overcome. We see that we possess a certain power to affect change, and so we have capitulated to the idea that war is a necessary evil, an imperfect solution but our only recourse in an imperfect world. The Gospel challenges all of these assumptions by teaching us that love is the only Way. Other ways have been tried, for thousands of years, and they have been found wanting. Only love can unbind the soul. Only love can restore human relationships. Only love can cast out the powers of chaos and death.
Here we are faced with a tremendous challenge, to walk in love against our better judgment, to embrace nonviolence and live as peacemakers even when the blood-soaked soil cries out for vengeance. But we may draw strength from the Gospel promise that our peacemaking is not merely a prelude to some glorious time that has yet to be revealed. The Christian faith rests on the conviction that the new world of Isaiah’s imagining has already been ushered in by the death and resurrection of Christ. This is why Paul describes God’s reconciling work in the past tense: “For in him [Christ] the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).
In other words, we are not merely “dreamers” when we choose the Way of Christ over the way of the world. Instead, we are participating in a reality that has already been revealed to us by the Gospel that we have been given. Christ has already made peace between us, and now it is left to us to live as witnesses to this good news. May God grant us the courage to share what we have received, and to live the life to which we have been called.
-Jonathan
