Recently I finished James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom, a very large one volume history of the American Civil War. What a book! It startles me how much there is to know about this country, and how little any one person can know.
The book describes battles, strategy and tactics; dips into the personalities of leaders and generals; reviews the conflicts over liberty, property, and government. That’s what we expect. But what about the nurses? The women who showed up at numerous field hospitals and convalescence centers that resulted from every single major battle? What about the administrators who organized supply chains when railroad tracks were regularly upended, bridges blown-up, and roads reduced to mud during heavy rains and winter storms? What about the people who didn’t want to fight – and there were many who found ways to avoid conscription? All of that and much, much more is part of this story.
The Civil War is a wound in our national soul. It’s been more than 150 years, yet the contours of that war – what is liberty? What is the proper role of government? Who shares in full participation in our society? – are still being played out in our politics.
The church was as divided by this war as the rest of society. The Gospel of Jesus Christ did not create a united church. Some churches fought to retain slaves; others passionately worked to free them; and many – perhaps most – could see both sides of the argument. Slavery couldn’t be right, but slaves were property and they were not the same as white people.
It is a painful history. It is a still living history. It is a cross that we bear – chaotic, conflictual, bloody, and destructive. Many people were heroic. But heroic toward what end?
Brothers and sisters, we are in Lent: on the road to Good Friday. That Friday represents the truth about us. Not just Pilate and the Romans, or Caiaphas and Jewish leaders. It is our truth. We do crucify our Lord. We who pray to the same God too often fight one another to the death in the name of that God. This is not right. We know it is wrong. And yet Friday comes.
The resurrection we await is bigger than personal salvation. It resulted in something beyond the personal – the raised Jesus was the catalyst for the church. We carry this raised Jesus in our own lives and in the body called church. If we don’t live that, why should anyone believe the Gospel?
Peace to you, and to our world – Pastor David