Today’s guest, the Rev. Dr. David Ferner picks up where Dona Beavers left off. He explores what it means to be peaceful as individuals. David’s own deep questioning is part of what lead me to rabbinical school.
“…and let it begin with me”
I can’t count the number of times in my life I’ve sung that song and each time my focus has been “Let there be peace on earth.” I’ve longed for peace on the macro level – in the world, in the halls of Congress, in the neighborhood. Though the song’s words point to a most significant locus of peace, I’ve only recently begun to examine my own contribution to my unrest and in a small, but important way, the illusiveness of peace in wider circles.
Perhaps others have had this insight for a long time, but only recently has it occurred to me that there is a mysterious link between my unrest and the world’s travail. Just today, as I saw the campaign sign for a state senator in a neighboring district, I heard myself calling him an idiot. His stands on numerous issues during the last session were opposite mine and, had they been different (more like mine), could have led to abolishing the death penalty in the state, made Medicaid funding available to more people, and greatly increased the resources available to those with mental health issues. But this isn’t about him, it’s about me. It’s about how easily my criticism devolves from a description of action to an attack on character. It’s about how, when faced with opposing views and actions I understand to be less than helpful to others, I make an enemy of the other.
With the starting point in Genesis 1, we are all created in God’s image. I never take that literally, but rather believe it means we are created with the potential of manifesting God’s character, creativity, and compassion. All the adjectives surrounding the Holy One that we learned in our religious education might also surround us because we’ve been created to glorify the Creator. When I make an enemy of an adversary I’m failing to commend the One who created me. When I disrespect the other, I dehumanize that one and myself, as well.
The peace that I desire demands that I respect my adversary and myself enough to treat each of us as children of the Holy One. That means I can differ from the other, but I can’t belittle. I can use descriptive language explaining differences, but never pejorative terms demeaning character. It also helps me to remember that, quite often, what I find most troubling about another has much to do with something within myself – most often something I don’t want to recognize or reconcile.
If I’m to be at peace, I need to treat others and myself more peacefully, more respectfully, and more compassionately. That’s how the Creator would want the created to treat each other. Peace, on both a macro and micro level is so illusive because peoples and nations dehumanize and disrespect in the same fashion as you and me. We may not believe that we can do much about ‘peace on earth’, but we can ‘let peace begin with me, let this be the moment, now’. I’m finding my prayer begs for my own interior transformation. I pray that I will see others as the Holy One sees them and my behavior toward them reflects that vision. I pray that such a practice, such behavior, brings me God’s peace so that same peace might be reflected through me to a world that finds such peace so illusive.
The Rev. Dr. David Ferner, Episcopal priest retired from parish ministry