Column by Mary Lee Talbot
There was a group of heads of communions, bishops and such, who met for lunch one day. One of the bishops said, “I have been getting a lot of messages from priests saying they are getting trouble for preaching about politics and even for the scripture in the bulletin. Parishioners were saying the scriptures undermined the political leader.” Another leader asked, “What was the text?” The bishop replied, “the Beatitudes.”
The congregation laughed and then the Rev. Jim Wallis said, “You can’t fight politics with more politics; you have to do it with scripture and prayer.” Wallis concluded his week as chaplain for Week One at the 9:15 a.m. Friday morning worship service. His sermon title was “Peace Be with You: Blessed are the Peace Lovers, Peacekeepers or Peacemakers?” The scripture reading was Matthew 5:1–9.
“Which one is it?” he asked the congregation. “Peace lovers just want to get along. Peacekeepers are there to keep the lid on, maintain the status quo. Peacemakers will be called ‘the children of God.’ Jesus gave them that most amazing distinction.”
Peacemaking is not facile. To resolve conflict, people need to resolve to go into a situation and go to the roots of the conflict.
“Peace is an overused, misused and abused word. The Biblical roots for peace, eiríne in Greek and shalom in Hebrew, mean to restore to a right relationship. Peace is both personal and structural. Pope Paul VI said, ‘If you want peace, work for justice,’ ” Wallis said.
Wallis mentioned that in Jonathan Eig’s presentation on his book, King: A Life, at Thursday’s Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle author’s lecture, peace was not the absence of tension but the presence of justice.
“We have talked about justice all week,” Wallis said in a recap of his sermon themes. He began with the clergy procession that testified on the Senate steps that when there are cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, it is done to the least of these.
“Cutting Medicaid and SNAP, healthcare and food is not bad policy, it is structural violence,” he said. The congregation applauded.
He recalled on Tuesday how the need for truth-telling had become personal when his adopted daughter was on an assassin’s hit list, and she had lost a dear friend to the assassin’s bullet. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Peacemaking requires truth telling,” he said.
On Wednesday, the story of the Good Samaritan was about “not othering other people. An us-versus-them attitude and atmosphere is violence,” he continued.
On Thursday, he described his own faith journey. “Detroit saved me from white Christianity. I found that white and Black parents live in different countries when dealing with the police.” He also said that the vocation of the church found in Galatians 3:28 is to overcome the three pillars of oppression — race, class and sex.
“So where is the hope?” he asked the congregation. Wallis said he got his greatest wisdom about hope from a peacemaker — Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The chair Wallis holds at Georgetown is the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair of Faith and Justice.
Wallis learned the difference between optimism and hope from him. Tutu described optimism as a mood, a personality trope, while hope is a deeper choice, a decision made because of faith. Wallis quoted the Letter to the Hebrews that faith is “the substance of hope. We believe in spite of the evidence, and then we watch the evidence change.”
When Wallis visited South Africa during apartheid, he went to St. George’s Cathedral where Tutu had planned a rally. The rally had been canceled and the group decided to have church. Wallis got into the church secretly just as Tutu was about to preach. At that moment, the front doors opened and the security police marched in and lined the walls of the church.
“They had notepads and looked like they would take down what Tutu said,” Wallis said. “To me, they looked like they were saying, ‘Go ahead and be prophetic; you are just out of prison, we can put you back in. Go ahead and preach — we own this church, country, you and your God.’ ”
Tutu stopped preaching and prayed. He lifted his head and smiled. He danced a little on his toes and said, “You are powerful, but you are not gods. God will not be mocked. You have already lost; come join the winning side.” The people in attendance that day rose up and danced the toyi-toyi out into the streets. “The guards did not know what to do with them; they were not afraid,” Wallis said.
When Wallis attended the presidential inauguration of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, he saw Archbishop Tutu again and asked him if he remembered that day at St. George’s cathedral, and Tutu smiled. “There is a trajectory for change,” Wallis said. “It begins with faith, which prompts hope, which leads to action that causes change. Faith, hope, action, change.”
He continued, “In the days, weeks, months, years ahead, when you feel surrounded — and you will feel surrounded — then listen to Tutu.” Wallis shouted: “Remember you are on the winning side.” And the congregation applauded.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua, presided. Alison Marthinsen read the scripture. Laura Smith played “The Peace may be exchanged,” by Dan Locklair, for the prelude on the Massey Memorial Organ. The Motet Choir sang, under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, accompanied by Owen Reyda on the organ, “The Beatitudes,” music by James Biery and words by Marilyn Biery. Stafford performed “Toccata,” from Symphony No. 5, by Charles-Marie Widor. Support for this week’s services was provided by the Gladys R. Brasted and Adair Brasted Gould Memorial Chaplaincy. The June 27 edition of Wallis’ podcast, “God’s Politics,” is a reflection of his week of sermons at Chautauqua. You can find it at jimwalls@substack.com. It is titled “Become the Change Our World So Urgently Needs.”
