Anyone that knows me well may know that the last couple of years I have come to understand the gospel to be a gospel of peace. I have moved away from the understanding of my childhood (and much of my adult life as well) that the gospel is primarily about people getting saved so that they will be ready for heaven when they die. Instead, I now see that the gospel (good news) is also about flesh and blood issues - it is about wealth, and power, and the poor, and the hungry. The biblical vision that animates the gospel is that of "shalom". The gospel of peace is more than the absence of violence - it is the shalom of God - the wholeness and well-being of every person.
Hence pacifism (a biblically oriented understanding of peace) "is a positive concept, reflecting a vision for how life can and should be." (This quote is from Ted Grimsrud in "A Pacifist Critique of the Modern Worldview".) Pacifism seeks for wholeness in every realm - economic, social, political. With this understanding of "shalom" being at the heart of what Jesus was all about - it frees the church to enact the gospel in all its forms - economic, social, political. This requires imagination... it requires discernment...it requires courage.
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Don't know if this will show up (did you set up your blog to notify you of comments?), but how do we reconcile our pacifism with some of His hard sayings (i.e. do not think I come to bring peace, but a sword, etc.)? This might be an interesting idea to explore...
jefe
Good idea Jefe - maybe in a future blog I will think through some of Jesus sayings relating to pacifism.
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