God's Eternal Mourning
May 28, 2000
John 16:1-15

     Tomorrow we are asked to remember. As a part of our national life together we as a country and a community are asked to remember the war dead. It is an essential activity I believe.     Because the truth is that they too soon can be forgotten by all but those who were brothers or sisters or parents. And all too soon the price they paid is no longer appreciated by the rest of us. To take one day to remember is not nearly enough for what these people gave and what these people suffered. I hope all of you will take some time tomorrow and remember. All those who died in war deserve that and a whole lot more.
   To honor the memory of lives cut short is to understand the tragedy of war. And so it is an essential activity. You all know that I am opposed to war.  I am nearly a complete pacifist. I have not agreed with our participation in any of the wars in my lifetime. I came of age during Vietnam and that has certainly colored my view on war.   But I have always been particularly sensitive to the tragedy of war.  As many little boys I had an interest in the Civil War.  I used to be fascinated by the pictures of hand to hand combat at any number of the battles. But even as a small boy I would see the pictures of those dead and wonder what their families would do without them. And I would marvel at the fact that every one of those dead had a life and people they loved, and a place and a home that they would never see again. The sadness of war has always been apparent to me and that is why I am so opposed.
   When I was in high school I read All Quiet on the Western Front and the irony of the book was heart wrenching. I was abnormally effected by the fact that this man died and I realized that even one death was too many for any war. And that is why remembering is so important. If we remember we will give pause the next time we are going to make the awful commitment. Casualties are never light for the family who loses a son or daughter.
   But I am not naïve. My pacifism does have a limit. War is never good. There is no just war. But I do allow that there is such a thing as a necessary war. That does not make it right or just it just makes it necessary. I can imagine that scenario. I believe that World War Two probably falls in that category. But even if war is necessary it is always always a tragedy.
    So I pay my taxes. I allow that we need to spend money on a standing military but I have grave reservations when too many of our decisions are made as military decisions. Because military decisions are almost all those "necessary" decisions that usually have some tragedy involved in them. I believe that too many times we make military decisions when we do not have too.
   Because military decisions are so grave and the consequences so tragic often times those who support the decision want to present a case that nothing else could have been done. But the truth is that it is hardly ever true that nothing else could have been done. Military expediency mandates grave action. But I do not believe that we need to go to war as often as we do. War must be the very last choice.
   But it isn't. It isn't at all. The United States uses the military option far too often. And I think we do because it is militarily expedient but certainly not humanitarian, and certainly not the will of God. God never wills war, God never wants war, and it is the most perverse faith that would believe that God would encourage such an evil.
   But that faith lives in so many of the wars through history. How many times do we read about people believing that God is on their side in this war or that war? That idea certainly lives in our holy book.
    But there are other points of view in our Holy Book. There is a wonderful verse in today's Bible reading that I think points out how Jesus thought about God, and if God could be on the side of violence. He says, "Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God." (John 16:2) Jesus knows how perverse it is to believe that God could ever be on the side of killing. This is a wonderful step forward in the maturity of faith. Jesus was never concerned with whose side God was on. He never used the power that God gave him for political gain.
     Because that is not what living with your God means. It is something far different than having political and military power in your back pocket although civilizations through history have believed this about their God or gods. Jesus didn't think so. The spiritual agenda has little to do with coercion and conquering. And that is why Jesus did not lead a revolution. God's will could never be accomplished that way. He led a transformation of the human heart that would make such violence obsolete.
   We need to act with the compassion of Christ far more than we need to act with military expediency. This is what should infuse our leadership and their decisions. We are leaders in this world and ours must be the most mature of decisions. Otherwise we encourage violence everywhere. And the world is violent enough without our encouragement.
   I am sad to tell you that I believe that our country too many times makes military decisions when we should be making humanitarian decisions. One of the most glaring examples of this opting for military thinking is an institution called the School of the Americas at Fort Benning Georgia. I don't know how many of you are aware of this so called school but it was one of the darkest examples of United States militarism. A very heinous and dark violence has been committed by way of this school and we have paid for it.
   This is what The Rev. Charles McCollough from the Office for Church and Society of the United Church of Christ says about the School of the Americas. "Many people still do not know that School of the Americas graduates continue committing some of the worst human rights violations in the world with a horrendous record of torture, massacre and savagery throughout South and Central America.  Like the German Christians after World War II when shown the concentration camps, we are tempted to plead "we did not know" what our taxes pay for at this school."
But we have a responsibility to know. I know that all of you remember the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero on March 24th 1980 as he stood in his vestments at a chapel altar in El Salvador. He had just finished reading the 23rd Psalm in the midst of celebrating communion when he was gunned down. You also probably remember the slaying of six Jesuit priests and their housekeeper in San Salvador in 1989. Or awful rape and murder of the four North American church women, or perhaps you are aware of the murder of thousands of innocent women and men, even children and infants in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Chiapas, Nicaragua, and elsewhere in the last twenty years or so. The thing that all these tragedies have in common is the involvement in all of them of soldiers trained at the School of the Americas with our tax dollars.
     Soldiers from 22 Latin American countries are currently receiving military training at the School of the Americas. The school has been running since 1946. The stated reason for the school was to equip soldiers with the means necessary to enable democratic governments to protect themselves against enemies of democracy. But it has too often not worked out that way. The examples are far too numerous to site them all but in Columbia 100 of the 246 officers cited for war crimes by a 1993 international human rites tribunal were graduates of the School of he Americas. In Honduras at least 19 of the ranking officers linked to the infamous death squad called 3-16 are graduates of the School of the Americas. Ten of 12 responsible for the El Mozote massacre of 900 villagers in 1981 in El Salvador were graduates of the School of the Americas.
    This is not who we are. On this Memorial Day I would like us to not only remember our war dead but also these war dead. There is tragedy enough in fighting a necessary war against soldiers. There is evil in equipping soldiers who commit such grievous violence against woman, children, peace activists, priests. It is so wrong that we have anything to do with such people and groups.
    This Memorial Day let us remember and make a change. Let us follow the example of Christ and look for peaceful transformation of souls. Let us take a step away from violence and military expediency. Let us remember the tragedy war causes and so practice war no more. It is time to close the School of the Americas.
In Christ Jesus.   Amen.