Why can’t we just get along?
Luke 17:5-10 & 2 Tim 1:1-14
Sue in Cuba, KS

“Why can’t we just get along?” asked a plaintive Rodney King. Lord, increase our faith. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. We have the means to build a better world starting the only place we can, ourselves. Lord, increase our faith. A man stood before God, his heart breaking from the pain and injustice in the world, “Dear God,” he cried out, “look at all the suffering, the anguish and distress in the world. “Why didn’t you send help?” God answered, “I did send help. I sent you!” Lord, increase our faith.

John Wallach’s article in the Guideposts was written well before the events on September 11, yet his story is all the more important for it’s content. “There was on only one story on the news that February morning in 1993. In our home outside Washington, D.C., my wife, Janet, and I sat staring at the TV screen. A car bomb had exploded beneath the World Trade Center in New York. Commentators speculated that the terrorist act was the work of Muslim extremists. As a journalist I was used to covering stories like this. A terrorist's aim is to spread fear; reporting his action means he succeeds. Fear, in turn, leads, to hate—which invites terror in response. It was a vicious cycle.

I asked myself again as I had so often, Can people ever-stop hating? I remember the first time the question came to me. I was just six years old, lying awake in my bedroom in Scarsdale, New York, wondering at the fates that had let my parents survive and me be born. German Jews, they were taken from their home in Cologne to a death camp. They’d escaped, made their way to Nazi- occupied France, been caught, re-imprisoned, and escaped once again. A daring French priest guided them across the Pyrenees to Spain, from which my parents finally made their way to America. Can people stop hating? As I got older the question grew more insistent.

One of the reasons I became a foreign correspondent was a desire to learn about other people—and help them learn about one another. In 1987 Wallach and his wife lived in the Middle East for months with ordinary Palestinian and Israeli families. We shopped with them in the street bazaars, ate with them, played with their kids, went with them to synagogue or mosque, observed their decent, hardworking daily lives. And were struck by how alike they were. How much they had in common. Or more than the differences that fatally divided them. John Wallach’s experience at summer camp in Maine also came into play as events unfolded. At a dinner party honoring Shimon Peres, then Israel’s foreign minister, also attending were the Egyptian ambassador and a representative of PLO. Wallach stood to salute the peace efforts being made by both sides was surprised to hear himself say, “I’m planning to hold a camp this summer for teenagers from the Middle East. I’d like to invite each of the governments represented here to send us 15 of your brightest youngsters. Perhaps in a casual setting we can sow some small seeds of peace.”

Fearing the governments would back out, he called a press conference the next morning. By afternoon the news was out: Israel, Egypt and the PLO were cooperating on a peace camp. Six month after the first bombing of the World Trade Center, 45 Middle Eastern youth gathered at a camp in Maine. Each summer other youth gather and the adults at Seed of Peace work to over come the hatred and fear that these youth have lived with. The story is in Guideposts October 2001 issue. The key for me was when Wallach said, “I used to be a reporter at these events but now I was a participant.” Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” Lord, increase our faith.

World War II, At 0840 on June 15, 1944, initial waves of the 2nd and 4th U.S. Marine Divisions stormed onto a narrow beachhead on Saipan.The first principal objective of the invasion of Saipan was Aslito airfield in the southern part of Saipan. Taking this airfield provided an immediate land base for American fighter aircraft and bombers. Work on the "Marianas Airdrome" began immediately upon capture of Aslito airfield. The airfield was later renamed Isely Field, in honor of the first U.S. pilot who lost his life in Operation Forager air combat. My Dad's squadron was moved to Saipan. They were there during the last bonzai attack. The pilot Morris told me about this, not Dad. Dad said that there he saw those crazy Japanese soldiers coming down the hill with rifles and fixed bayonets while he only had a revolver. Dad was glad the Marines were between him and the Japanese.

One of the Marines defending the air field was Jerry Graham. Yes, our own Jerry Graham. (a Nebrasksa farmer and elder at Mahaska Presbyterian Church in Mahaska, Kansas.) Jerry told me about watching a show about Saipan and the Japanese civilians who lived there. The people had been told that Americans were savages so in fear people were leaping off the cliffs to their death rather than become our prisoners. Our response was to print and drop leaflets promising that people would not be harmed. One young woman talked her parents into waiting and yes, we were true to our word. Jerry spoke movingly about this experience of seeing his own enemy as ordinary people and being able to let go of some of the pain and hate that he had carried for decades after his military service. Jerry Graham was able to forgive his enemies. Lord, increase our faith.

The greatest American citizen of the 20th century was George Catlett Marshall. He brilliantly waged war as the General of the Army under Roosevelt but more important he brilliantly waged peace as Harry Truman’s Secretary of State. The Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe including our enemies, Italy and German. Marshall directed the rebuild of Japan. Following WW I President Wilson watched helplessly as his British and French Allies stripped German and Austro-Hungarian Empire of dignity demanding huge war reparations. WWII we were much stronger and more important in the fighting so our ideas were heeded. Punishing whole peoples was counter-productive and sowed the seeds of the next war. Rebuilding economies has given Europe a long stretch of peace and prosperity. We waged peace well and sowed seeds of peace. Lord, increase our faith.

The Salina Journal, Wednesday, September 26, 2001, the picture on the front page shows our ally the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and President Bush at the White House. I listened in amazement as the Russian government offered to share intelligence about Afghanistan with the United States. It hasn’t been that long ago that they were our bitter enemies. Perhaps Osama Ben Labin has done something he never dreamed, he has provided a platform for most of the world’s leaders and nations to gather on in pursuit of a common enemy.

E c u m e n i c a l - H e a d l i n e s: Famine and threat of war force Afghans from their homes. London (ENI). The development agency Christian Aid has warned that at least 3.5 million people face starvation in Afghanistan, with only two weeks of food relief left in the country. Estimates are being revised daily as thousands of refugees rush to the borders amid fears of bombing raids by the United States and allies following the 11 September terrorist attacks in the US. Chris Buckley, Christian Aid's program officer for Afghanistan, told ENI that the famine had originated in a three-year drought in the north and west of the country. The news columnist who said we need Radio Free Afghanistan is correct. We do need to pump in information to counter the lies that have been told about us. Food aid may well become a weapon against our enemy. While we wage war, peace needs to be sought.

Abraham Lincoln wanted victory, he wanted the United States to be magnanimous in victory, not vindictive. Booth killed the one man who would have been able to protect the South from the carpet baggers. Lord, increase our faith. Browsing in a fancy gourmet magazine I found an article about the “Feast of Harmony, in Kerala, in south India, during the fall harvest celebration called Onam, goodwill and good food bring Hindus, Christians and Muslims together. Kerala is a rich source of spices especially black pepper and cardamom which attracted traders to its ports for more than 2000 years. Kerala has welcomed Christians, Muslims and Jews to settle its shores for almost as long. There is a refreshing open-mindedness here, says the author Maya Kaimal, which is reflected in the comfortable coexistence of these religions so different from the strife of northern India.

During the feast of Onam, Maya’s relative used to take food not only to her Muslin neighbors but also to the Christian family next door. One year, close to Onam the Hindu family’s great uncle died, and the family in mourning did not plan a celebratory feast. The Christian neighbors knew that the mother wouldn’t be cooking, so in the spirit of Pakarcha (Sharing) they made all the Onam dishes themselves and brought them to the Hindu neighbor. It is generosity like this, between religions and cultures that keeps the social fabric of the Indian state of Kerala woven tight and strong. Lord, increase our faith. Show us the way to peace and harmony between neighbors and relatives. Show us the way to peace between nations and peoples. Amen.