"True evangelical
faith cannot lie dormant. It
clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters
the destitute, it serves those that harm it, it binds up that which is wounded,
it has become all things to all people."
"The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in
strife. They are children of peace who
have beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning forks, and
know no war.
"We who were formerly no people at all, and who knew of
no peace, are now called to be...a church...of peace. True Christians do not know vengeance. They are the children of peace. Their hearts overflow with peace. Their mouths speak peace, and they walk in
the way of peace."
Menno
Simons
I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes
Love is all around me and so the feeling grows
It's written on the wind, it's everywhere I go
So if you really love me, come on and let it show
The
Troggs
________________________________________________________
100 years ago my father was born
the son of a preacher man
100 years ago my father born
into a heritage of peace
Peter Albert Kliewer
My grandfather, was a Mennonite ministery
A humble man who rode a circuit
Sharing God’s love, as he saw it
To the Cheyenne tribe in Montana
Peter Albert Kliewer
Was a man of peace
And he passed that love on to my father
Who instead of bearing arms in World War II, was a doctor
and was on the fringe of combat, serving in the
Philippines at the end of the war.
A healer, helping repair the damage of war’s violence
My Uncle, David, against the wishes of his father
Had joined the Marine Air Corp
And a member of Marine Corps Fighter Squadron VMF-211
was on Wake Island, which was attacked on the same day as
Pearl Harbor
A little over two weeks later, he was on a Japanese
destroyer
Headed to prisoner of war camp in Japan, where he
struggle to survive
until the end of the war.
Uncle Dave was an amazing man, who, recovering from near
death
Graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Medical school,
And joined my father as a healer
He also became an advocate for peace
His first position was as a doctor on Maui, and then,
For many years, he practiced in Corvallis, Oregon.
But he had been changed by war
And hated war
When America got involved in Nicaragua,
He was offended, and so in protest at our interference
Learned Spanish and spent time teaching at the medical
school in Managua
He and my Aunt got bikes, and believing that the only way
to end hate
Is to connect with others in love
Bike through eastern Europe before the Iron Curtain fell
Seeking to forge bonds of love and friendship
On the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the
atomic bombs on Japan
He returned to that country
Found the commandant who abused him
And actively offered reconciliation
He and his former enemy became friends
He returned whole hearted to at least one aspect of the
faith of his youth
the love of peace
I think I inherited the peace gene
I have never been in combat
If I had served I would have gone in as a medic, or a chaplain
But I, like my father, have been on the edge of combat
I was involved in disaster relief work in northern Iraq
after the first Gulf war
I was involved in efforts in Bosnia
In Kenya, working with Somalian refugees
I cannot, ever cheer war
While I cannot claim to be a pacifist
I do believe war is an extreme result
That only happens when we have failed
As John Steinbeck
suggests,
“All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking
animal.”
It should not be sought
It should not be entered into impulsively
It should not be entered into gleefully, or boastfully
And it should always be entered into with restraint
Not with the promise of disproportionate destruction
If we cheer the path to war, there is something wrong
If we gloat over the prospect of harming others, there is
something wrong
For war squanders love
It squanders resources that could be used for good
And war kills
It not only kills love
It kills children
It kills innocents
Even so called “good wars” kills
As Gandhi reminds us
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans
and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of
totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”
I have been thinking about war these last few days
As assassinations happen
And retaliatory rockets fly
And promises of profligate violence are made
And I have thought about the fact that we are all
children of God
All of us
And that we all carry the Sacred in us
I have thought about the fact that we are permeated by Sacred
Love
And about the fact, which is made fresh to me each
morning
That his world is permeated by Sacred love
I love the words of the Troggs, in that song from my
youth
I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes
Love is all around me and so the feeling grows
It's written on the wind, it's everywhere I go
So if you really love me, come on and let it show
Love is not just around us
It is in us
And it is in these moments
That we need to dig deep in our souls, and find it
And let it show
And as God’s people we need to ask hard questions
We need to champion restraint
We need to insist on absolute honesty (which we did not
get the last time we went to war)
We need to think about the fact that war kills
That it destroys, beloved children of God
Those of us who claim Christ?
I believe we need to be people of peace.
I find that the words of Menno Simon, spoken so long ago,
now resonate in my soul.
“True Christians do not know vengeance. They are the children of peace. Their hearts overflow with peace. Their mouths speak peace, and they walk in
the way of peace."
