War and the Dream of Peace

“Children of the World Dream of Peace” by Leo Tanguma, 1994. Public Art as displayed in the Denver International Airport.

I have so much trouble with Remembrance Day. It seems to me that the only tribute that makes sense would be to break our weapons and turn them into tools for living. But that would mean a change in our songs, our prayers, even our economic and foreign policies. Every generation survives on the blood of another. You probably have photo albums of your family in a time of war, just as I do. I look at the young faces before they left, and I look at the ghosts in the eyes of the ones who returned.

I want to remember today the ones who died as young men and women with dreams and hopes. I think of them sacrificing all of that because diplomacy failed, and greed and fear won. Nobody wins in war except the makers of weapons. Nations are broken and impoverished. Schools are burned, crops destroyed. The ones who live carry scars both visible and invisible. The non-combatants, too, are wounded: the refugees and orphans, the traumatized, and the grief stricken. There is no glory in war except for those who create war.

And so I resist remembering because it is painful, because I know that we are not done with war, and because I am afraid. Although I know few of those who died, I feel guilt and grief that war became the concluding chapter of their lives. I give thanks for their sacrifices and I pray for forgiveness that we have not found a way to control our greed and rage. I want to shelter all those in uniform today. I want the light of peace to uncover the secrets of violence, to heal old wounds, and to make bridges between people.

It has been said that war is a failure, but it is not true. War is the game of the powerful as they use people’s lives like pawns on a board. There are winners but they remain cloaked in their power and security. All the rest of us are impoverished by their schemes.

We can place a wreath at the cenotaph, but the best remembrance we can bring is repentance for the violence and the remaining prejudices in our own hearts. The solution to complicity with war propaganda is a deep commitment to see each person as precious, to see each person as being like us: each child as our child, each soldier as our loved one.

We can place a star of hope and a pledge that someday we will dispute the war makers and, instead, hear the peace makers and act. We will come to the temple with the trust of the widows in 1 Kings and Mark, who give everything they have — their trust and their belief — in a new day. On that day neither nationalism nor fear will be able to cloud our vision of peace. On that day we will not come to the monuments with tears of grief but with banners of change for all the lives to come. We will say to the fallen, “We have finally heard you and bring you the new world for which you died so long ago. Your deaths were not in vain. We honour you and we give thanks for your sacrifice that taught us not to fight again.”

May the reign of peace come soon.

A Child’s Prayer for Nighttime

God of the stars,
God of the moon,
God on the earth,
God in my room.
Be in my teddy.
Be in my head,
Be in the dreams
Floating over my bed.
God of the morning,
God of the night,
Hold me and keep me
‘til dawn’s early light.
Amen.

A Prayer for Remembrance Day
Source of all, Weaver of time and history, Guardian of goodness and beauty, we give thanks for our lives and the lives of all who have gone before. You call us into the world to serve each other and to be a blessing for our communities. May the memory and witness of those who have gone before inspire us to vision and faithfulness, to courage and compassion in our own lives. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our hope and our promise. Amen.