Rev. Tessie Mandeville
February 18, 2007
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30033

It all started with a vision of peace on the mountain top. A group of high school students from different religious, racial, cultural and economic backgrounds sang the following song:

Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
A peace that was meant to be.
With God our Creator
Blessed all are we
Let us walk with each other
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth.
And let it begin with me.

On another mountain top, Jesus and his disciples are talking about a different vision, one which includes wars and rumors of war, nations rising against nations, kingdoms fighting against one another. It is a strange gospel lesson indeed. Since the word “gospel” means “good news” I have to wonder what was going on in their minds and hearts at the time of that conversation because it sure doesn’t sound like good news to me!

To journey through this story we have to know some of the history of the book of Mark because every gospel is different. Scholars believe it was written soon after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem about 70 Common Era (CE). Because of the destruction of the Temple, many people believed the end of the world was near.

The book of Mark is believed to be a small, apocalyptic writing. “Apocalyptic” is an adjective used to describe a book that has revelations in it, that gives warning and hope to people under oppression and persecution. There were two different things going in during the writing of this book: 1) the people were in spiritual crisis because the Temple was destroyed and 2) Christians were being persecuted in Rome by Nero. The people were in a state of crisis and that is the sense of urgency underlying the gospel of Mark, especially this story, known as the “little apocalypse.”

Let me take an informal poll…how many of you grew up Baptist? How many of you grew up Catholic? Methodist? Others? The Baptists in the room should know what I mean when I talk about the apocalypse but I’m not sure the Catholics have any idea of what I’m talking about! God bless you! It gives you less baggage to throw off!

When we talk about the apocalypse, we are talking about end times or the end of the world. Catherine Keller wrote an article called “Women Against Wasting the World” and in it she says, “Participants in Christian civilization…have been pre-programmed by ancient visions [such as the one in the gospel of Mark] to expect that when the going gets rough, the world will go. [This] leads some to a fervent hope for the end…and others to a gloomy resignation to global destruction. These have always been the two sides of the apocalyptic consciousness: hope and despair …the apocalyptic myth has been influencing and will continue to influence the course of planetary history…the expectation of an end-time has…defined the limits of Western patriarchal consciousness, Christian, Jewish, and secular.”

Apocalyptic thinking limits our imagination. What it also does, I believe, and this is what concerns me most, is that it becomes a reasoned explanation or excuse for giving up. It tempts us to disengage from what is going on around us. When we go to war, and we hear rumors of other wars; when it seems like injustice and violence are par for the course, it is tempting for us to say, “Well, it’s inevitable; these are just signs of the time. The world is going to end soon.”

If we allow ourselves to believe this, then we might be tempted to think that there’s nothing we can do. That we have no control over what is happening. That we should just let it happen because it’s inevitable. But in the words of my beloved friend and mentor, Penny Nixon, “If this is Armageddon, I’m not ready.” I’m not done living on this earth and living this life. I believe in an afterlife, but I’m not ready to give up on this one yet. As far as any of us truly know, this is only Earth we will ever have. I’m not willing to risk it!

Believing in an afterlife, which I trust is important to so many of us, doesn’t diminish or take the place of this life, on this Earth. When Jesus told us to love our neighbors and our enemies, he was talking about people in this world. The prophet, Micah, asked us the question: What does our God require of us? To do justice, to show kindness and to walk humbly with God in this world.

On another mountain top, the prophet Isaiah had a vision of universal peace. In it, he gives us a classic description of disarmament. He says, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” In this vision, the people convert weapons of destruction into tools for harvesting. Tools used to bring food and life to the people.

In this vision, restoration, salvation and peace are all possible. It doesn’t mean that it’s easy. In the words of the 14 th Dalai Lama, “"Peace is not simply the absence of war. It is not a passive state of being. We must wage peace, as vigilantly as we wage war.”

Where does peace begin? The song says, “Let it begin with me.” Peace begins in our own hearts. We must wage peace inside our very selves by beating our own swords into plowshares. We can start by beating our swords of personal doubt into the plowshares of God’s unconditional love for us. It’s hard for so many of us to trust that God loves us, just as we are, in this moment. For those of us who grew up in conservative religions, with very clear ideas of right and wrong, we are used to believing that God loves us if we behave a certain way, or love a certain way. Those of you who are parents, have you ever stopped loving your children? Of course not! There is nothing we can do or say that will separate us from the love of God. We are totally loved, totally accepted, just the way we are.

We can start by beating our swords of shame into the plowshares of healing. For those of us who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, we are no strangers to shame. But LGBT people don’t have the corner market on it either. Shame is a universal feeling that arises when we are convinced that there is something about ourselves that is wrong, inferior, flawed or dirty. Shame has roots that run deep. Social conditions such as poverty, racism, sexism, mental illness and homelessness contribute to our feelings of shame. What we know to be true about shame is that it can lock us in the closet and control us. Shame has many voices and some of them sound like this: I am not worthy. It was my fault; I should’ve been able to say no. My skin is too dark. I am old and unimportant.” God does not want us, nor need us, to feel shame. We need the plowshares of healing to unearth all the good and beauty that lives inside each one of us. That allows us to hear the voice of Divine Love that says, “You are worthy. It wasn’t your fault. Your skin is lovely. You are wise.”

And finally, we can start by beating the spears of judgment into the pruning hooks of grace. How many of us spear ourselves for not being good enough, or smart enough? We take jabs at ourselves every time we are not perfect or every time we fall short of our goals. But the pruning hook of grace allows for imperfection. It allows for time off from criticalness. It allows for gentleness toward ourselves.

Where does peace begin? The song says, “Let it begin with me.” Peace begins in our own hearts. When we beat ourown swords into plowshares and ourown spears into pruning hooks, we become vessels of peace. Only when we ourselves are vessels of peace can there be peace on Earth.

It all started with a vision of peace on the mountain top. A group of LGBT people and their allies sang the following song:

Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
A peace that was meant to be.
With God our Creator
Blessed all are we
Let us walk with each other
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth.
And let it begin with me.

Sy Miller and Jill Jackson, Authors. http://www.jan-leemusic.com/ for further details.

Catherine Keller, “Women Against Wasting the World” in Reweaving the World: The Emergence of

Ecofeminism , p. 260-1

“If This Is Armageddon, I’m Not Ready!” by Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon, published by CommonDreams.org, March 20, 2003

Andrew P. Morrison, The Culture of Shame, 1998, p. 13.

Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved