ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 5, 2026
Could you ever imagine a king who declared his authority as a divinely given blessing, and then used his so-called special status to justify a war as holy? I’m sure such a thing is hard to imagine. For those of you wondering, that is sarcasm. Kings and rulers have throughout human history used divine sanction and consent to squelch any sort of dissension, but to also inspire the masses. If you feel you are on God’s side, then how can you lose? Of course, many who have claimed such a thing have been trounced in embarrassing fashion. Even more so, the claim that we are simply doing God’s will serves as a smokescreen for what are the usual purposes: greed, distraction, or to prop up the underlying insecurity of a ruler’s egos.
As you’ve probably heard, expressions of Christian Nationalism have been finding a platform from which to announce how this war on Iran is a holy war, and God is on our side. There are shameful and damnable claims of how this is the fulfillment of scripture. And though there are clearly some who believe it, like the kings and rulers of the past, it is nothing more than a manipulation of the masses and a distraction from the truth. If you want to be a follower of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) has to be one of the defining stories within the larger Jesus story. If you claim to be following Jesus, yet your claims have to ignore his single longest sermon, it might be time to revisit your central claims.
As one who opposes the attack on Iran for reasons too numerous to mention here, I am even more troubled by any sort of claim that we are doing God’s work. To have an alternative opinion is to be labeled as one who is against nation and God. Legitimate debate is silenced. But even more important, as followers of Jesus, I think of the Beatitudes, specifically the line that says: Blessed are the peacemakers. Remembering how Jesus preached those words at a time when Jewish people were experiencing occupation by an Empire that claimed divine blessing for its occupation. The word we translate as peacemaker, really describes someone who is bearing the way of peace or demonstrating peace. You can’t be a beatitude peacemaker unless you are at peace and embodying peace. Every attempt in the last 100 years to enforce a peace in that part of the world has only emboldened the powerful to oppress the people, moving things even further away from God.
Forgive us for all the times we have insulted you, O God of the Peaceful Way, by claiming your sanctioning of violence. The way of Jesus recognizes how the end never justifies the means, but how the end must be fully incorporated into the means. Help us, Lord God! Help us! Amen.
