The two readings assigned for today provide quite a contrast. The Old Testament lesson from 1 Maccabees is about the start of a war. The Jewish people were being harassed and persecuted and executed for living out their faith so Mattathias gathers people around him to revolt against their Greek overlords. The Maccabean war did eventually win a short-lived Jewish independence. Jesus on the other hand sighs: “If this day you only knew what makes for peace.” The Bible includes both war and peace. The constant challenge for believers is to live peace in the midst of a violent world. The example of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., has shown a possible way forward. Resist injustice but do it without violence. Turn the violence thrown at you back at the perpetrator — kind of a spiritual version of aikido. Non-violent resistance has been shown to be effective but often we get impatient that the change we are seeking is slow in coming. As Dr. King reminded us, “The arc of history is love but it bends toward justice.”
