By Brian D. McLaren
Just after Christmas, the violence of war was once again used in Gaza and Israel to try to bring about peace. Weaponry was used to stand up for good goals. Hamas wanted the economic restrictions of Gaza to be stopped so they launched rockets into civilian areas of Israel. The Israeli government had the goal of making sure their people could live in safety. So, they launched an offensive with their army in order to stop Hamas from being able to launch their rockets. As a result, before there was a ceasefire in mid-January, over one thousand Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. This war is just one example of why I believe that we need to find another way to handle the crises that happen in our world.
Brian McLaren in his book, Everything Must Change looks at how our world society functions based upon three interrelated systems. The Prosperity System is the way we build our wealth in order to live. Our Equity System helps us to distribute our wealth. The Security System seeks to protect us. McLaren believes that the dominant framework story which humans use to run these three systems is unsustainable, and ultimately suicidal.
According to McLaren, the framing story that dominates our human lives is that we are god-like beings, with god-like privileges. Our goal of maximizing our possessions and pleasures means that we do not need to manage our consumptions. The belief that we are in a life and death competition with each other means that we need to put our trust and our resources into weaponry rather than peacemaking and reconciliation.
The reality that this framing story controls so much is confirmed in the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the world and within nations. It is obscenely manifest in the fact that “according to the United Nations, $80 billion could provide all the poor in the world with clean water, basic health care, basic education, and basic nutrition. With global income at $8 trillion per year, this represents only one per cent of the world's income, and less than 10 per cent of the world's military budget (without including US costs for the war in Iraq).”
McLaren declares that Jesus' teaching addresses these problems by calling us to a new framework story where God, our Creator, “wants us to pursue virtue, collaboration, peace, and mutual care for one another and for all living creatures.” This means that the Kingdom of God that Jesus teaches and lives out is a direct challenge to the way that Kingdoms of this world work. In the first century, Jesus' ministry challenged the Roman Empire. In the 21st century, Jesus' ministry challenges the governments of this world. In his book, McLaren focuses especially on his own country of the United States. But I believe the challenge is just as true for Canada.
The good news of God's love, which Jesus came to share with the world, is meant to begin in this life. Here and now is the time for “the new heaven and the new earth” to be realized. Our calling as Jesus' disciples is to receive the blessing of God, so that we can be a blessing to everyone in the world, and all of creation.
McLaren's imagination helps us to see our calling as followers of Jesus: “When groups of seemingly disparate people defect and band together in the way of Jesus, they form what we might call unterror cells. They secretly plot detonations of hope. They quietly conspire to set off explosions of spontaneous kindness. They plan gentle coup d'etats to replace regimes of domination and oppression with movements of empowerment and service. In a complete overthrow of violent terrorism, they fly airplanes of generosity into towers of need and plant improvised encouragement devices by roadsides and in neighborhoods everywhere, seeking God's kingdom and God's equity.”
When I think about the wars in the world, I find myself wondering 'what if?' What if a group of people decided to repent from the usual way of handling conflict through violence, and chose spontaneous kindness instead? What would 'the enemy' be able to argue in the arena of worldwide media? What possible justification could either side have to continue to drop bombs that lead to destruction and fear?
Brian McLaren's book provokes us to ask questions like these. It also encourages us to see that we all face the same challenges. All of us face the temptation to solve our problems through violence that we think will eventually lead us to peace. All of us have the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus, and follow in his way by seeking peace through actions of compassion.
