R eflections from the Editor Got Peace? As Madonna and her underclad cohorts sent out the last vibration of sensory overload at the SuperBowl halftime show last month, the words “World Peace” were projected onto the football field in white lights. I barely stifled a sarcastic snort. World peace? You gotta be kidding me. What do vapid lyrics, crotchthrusting, and Pharoahesque self-worship (“YO-U wanna L-U-V Madonna”) have to do with world peace? Well, maybe I’m too cynical. Maybe it’s not, in fact, an attempt on Madonna’s part to disguise idolatry in the garb of social justice. Maybe the pop star has a genuine yearning for world peace. Who doesn’t? And why shouldn’t we? It’s big and vague and impossible enough to safely join that cheerleading team. It’s a slogan that requires nothing of us because it numbs rather than inspires the imagination. I like to think that I believe in—and even on occasion work toward—peace on a more humble scale. When I moved into my urban neighborhood 13 years ago, I was full of hope and had some pretty nifty plans for reconciliation. But that was before bricks crashed through my window twice in less than two years, both of them narrowly missing my youngest child while surrounding him with shards of glass the size of pizza slices. That was before seeing a woman being beaten by a man in front of our house and discovering not only that none of my neighbors came out to help stop it but that even the cops took a full 10 minutes to make their way over. I’m no Bruce Lee, but I went out myself and ended up taking a few blows and adding my own screams to the night air. (Forgive me, family and friends: I solemnly swear never to try to stop a fight again...) That was before I figured out that while every parent on my block was happy for me to have their kid over (free babysitting is always welcome), none of those parents were interested in getting to know me themselves. After that, I began to wonder if I really did want to make peace with my neighbors. Peace is tedious and trying work, and I’m not as tough as I like to think I am. Building peace is hard enough under my own roof. We’ve got lots of love in my house— it’s like water, unquestioned and available 24 hours a day—but peace is a premium
2 PRISMMagazine.org
Kristyn Komarnicki
that we seem able to afford only occasionally. With two teenagers, a crosscultural marriage (we still don’t always understand each other’s accents), and the usual familial, financial, and educational challenges of middle class life, “Bless those who persecute you... peace is more like If it is possible, as far as it depends Dom Perignon— on you, live at peace with everyrarely on the one. ...Do not be overcome by evil, table. but overcome evil with good.” To be honest, Romans 12:14, 18-21 most days I’d settle for peace in my own heart, a labyrinthine leave with you...Do not let your hearts be place full of dark, hidden corners and more troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). devilish dust bunnies than my bedroom floor. The next minute he’s warning, “I have come But I digress. What I really want to talk to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish about here is peace in Palestine. It’s a small it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). On area, less than 2,500 square miles, just over Monday he’s blessing the peacemakers and two-and-a-half million people. Compared to calling them children of God (Matt. 5:9); on world peace, this should be doable, right? Thursday he’s telling his friends that if folks Whether or not it is “doable,” there aren’t deserving, “let your peace return to are folks in Palestine, Israel, and around you” (Matt. 10:13). the world who, at this very moment, are Nothing real chill or popular about that. in fact doing it—working steadily, selflessly, The peace work of Jesus is daunting, situand faith-fully to make peace a possibility in ationally sensitive, requiring creativity and that place. Those are the stories we’re telling stamina and, yes, sometimes even bloody in this issue of PRISM. These people know drops of sweat. That kind of peace is too firsthand things about peace and about our big to fit on a football field or squeeze into Savior that I can only sense on a concep- a halftime show. But it’s the only kind that tual level, having not yet been forced to means anything. live them. They understand what’s at stake You can keep your world peace, in Christ’s command to love our enemies Madonna. I’m putting my money on Jesus. and pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44). They know why Jesus sweats drops of Kristyn Komarnicki blood as he prepares for the ultimate act is a sporadic and of reconciliation (Rom. 5:10). They get how easily discouraged Christ’s death and resurrection are not only peacemaker who, the commissioning orders but also the job since hearing the description for the ministry of reconciliation inspirational adage that he has bequeathed us (2 Cor. 5:18). “Only those who Jesus has a lot to say about peace, and see the invisible can none of it is the kind of thing you’d hear attempt the impossible,” has been trying from a celebrity peacenik wearing a patent to keep her eyes on the invisible. This is leather daisy chain. He is hardcore, sharp- just as hard as it sounds, but since Jesus edged, and controversial, and his “both/and” has been so incredibly faithful to her, she messages have that aggravating ring of au- knows he’s there even when she can’t see thenticity. One minute he’s saying, “Peace I him.