The Power of Peace

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.
It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

Radio 4 Opening Announcement: 
BBC Radio 4 and now time for Sunday Worship which reflects on the Power of Peace. The service comes live from Oasis Church Waterloo, London, the preacher is the Revd. Steve Chalke and the service is led by Anna Wrigley and Felicity Maries.

ANNA:
Good morning, and welcome to Oasis Church, nestled within the busy streets of central London.

Our purpose, within this community, is to strive to understand more of the character and love of God through reflection and action, in the day-to-day of our lives, as well as the times that we gather together in corporate worship.

We are committed to encouraging the propagation of peace throughout our community, our city and the world. Today we have a chance to focus together on what it means to be peacemakers and how this involves a decision to live radically; to dedicate our lives to acts of extreme love and forgiveness.  The significance of peacemaking cannot be underestimated in a world where the message of violence prevails and the term “radicalisation” infers acts of destruction instead of love.

 
Oasis is a Christian Charity, founded by Baptist minister, the Reverend. Steve Chalke, who is our preacher today.  Our church is part of Oasis which now runs 47 academy schools around the country, a large housing programme and a host of other community building initiatives. Students from our most local Oasis Academy will be taking part this morning.

One of the distinctive features of Oasis is the promotion of a narrative of peace and reconciliation, in a world where young people see so much violence and hatred both on the world stage and in their local communities.  Steve is passionate about this mission and our INSPIRE project which has been born from it.

All this is particularly poignant as we remember again the 2996 people who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks which took place in America, on 9/11, exactly fifteen years ago today – as well as all those who have had their lives snatched from them in other terrorist acts around the world.

Our prayer through our time together is that we will be challenged, inspired, and motivated to follow the peaceful way of Christ, speaking out for justice in a broken world, with the hope of transformation. We believe that the only way to build peace is to walk the pathway of peace – or to put it another way, we create peace by peace.

As we begin our service, let’s briefly pause, stilling ourselves from the busyness of the past weekthen centre ourselves as we listen to the words of a psalm penned thousands of years ago yet still retaining resonance today as we gather for worship.

FELICITY:  READING  PSALM 150
Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4 praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

MUSIC/ FELICITY  PRAISE TO THE LORD THE ALMIGHTY

ANNA:
Lord, we praise you that you are our wonderful life-giving creator. As we gather together to praise you, grant us new insight and clearer commitment to walking the way of peace and building bridges of reconciliation in our community and our personal lives.
Amen.

 
ANNA:
Our reading today comes from the Gospel of Luke, read to us by Kessewa Opuku, one of the leaders of our church.

Following this, we will hear some thoughts on our theme read to us by two of our young people, and students of Oasis Academy South Bank, Jesse and Maya, as well as Emily Boxer, a member of our church community and Deputy Head of Oasis Academy Silvertown in the London’s docklands.

KESSEWA  READING  LUKE 4: 14-21 
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth.
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, 19  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
MUSIC:  HOLY HOLY HOLY + PRAISE HIM YOU HEAVENS

Jesse:
When I hear the word radicalization I think of religious extremists, the horrific violence that we hear about and see on the news, and the violent acts that kill innocent people in the name of God. However, this is not the God I know as a Christian and not the religion that friends of different faiths follow.

Here in London, I don’t have to flee my home and haven’t experienced war, but similarly we see violence on the streets of Waterloo around us. Young people join gangs because they may not have a stable home, may live in poverty and may seek out security in other ways. At Oasis Academy, we believe the story can be different; that every person should be included, aspire to be the best version of themselves. Through showing love, kindness, and forgiveness we can live peacefully and everyone can belong to a different story which helps them fulfil their God given potential as human beings.

I believe that being radical is not being driven to commit violent acts, but being committed to live a better life helping others in the name of God.

 
Maya:
I feel lucky to live in a city that is full of so many different cultures and races, because it helps us to understand each other’s ways of life and brings us together to try to be a happy community. I would like to live in a world that appreciates one another, as we are, in spite of our differences. However, there are negatives that also bring us down or make us feel sad about what society has become, like war torn countries with people fleeing for their lives, and finally arriving in a safe place to then be told that there is no room. It reminds us of Mary, Joseph and Jesus as refugees.

As a Christian and a young person, it’s our responsibility to be a voice for the refugees who are ignored, for other 13 year olds just like us, who are now living in refugee camps as orphans. As a human being you should have the right to a home, a supportive community and an education. A refugee needs a place they can call home, and a community to be family and friends, particularly for the ones they lost or do not have. As a young person we learn that we shouldn’t react with anger or blame, and that any violence can be forgiven. Retaliating with weapons only destroys homes and people’s lives. We learn that forgiveness and living peacefully is the answer.

 
Emily:
As a teacher in Oasis Academy Silvertown in Docklands….

MUSIC/ FELICITY  TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE   

ANNA:
Steve is now going to come and speak to us on our theme, The Power of peace

 
STEVE:
It was the first Christmas after the outrage of the September 11th attack on New York and Washington DC. America and her allies had recently invaded Afghanistan and the tension was building with Saddam Hussain's Iraq. I was doing some work as a presenter of a breakfast television show and was asked to interview a well-known American church leader. As part of the interview I asked him to talk about his understanding of what the Christmas story was all about.

“Peace and goodwill to all,” he replied, “Jesus is the Prince of Peace. That's the core of this life changing story.”

“So if Jesus is the Prince of Peace and one of his key messages was love your enemies, what does that mean on a world scale?” I asked. “I think it’s much easier to understand Jesus’ message on a person-to-person level – it doesn’t necessarily apply to nation/state relationships,” was his short reply.

After the show I asked one of the studio crew what he thought of what our guest had said. His reply was simple, “Love your enemy, but kill them first!”

 
I have often thought that, at any level, Jesus’ famous sound bite ‘Love your enemies’ probably amounts to, at one and the same time, the most admired and least practised piece of teaching in history. the myth that violence is the only solution to many of the world’s problems still thrives, seemingly everywhere. And, though Jesus’ advice about non-violence is dismissed as impractical idealism, extraordinarily, no such charge is ever made against violence, in spite of the fact that history has proved, time and again, that war hostility and terrorism solves nothing in the long run.

Put differently, you can't kill your way to peace.

The ‘might is right’ principle seems to pervade cultures everywhere.. You only have to look at our films to see what dominates our own worldview. From Popeye to Tom and Jerry and Rambo to Batman, we are repeatedly sold the lie that violence is the only way to win and eradicate the enemy. And to add irony to injury, James Bond, the British Spy, in the service of Queen and country kills, murders, threatens, bullies, seduces, commits adultery, lies, steals, cheats, breaks the law and beats his enemies to a pulp.

 
But, have we actually been deluded into believing a myth that is destroying us? It was Gandhi who wrote: ‘I object to violence because even when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.’ As Carl Jung poignantly observed, “You always become the thing you fight.”  Perhaps the ultimate weakness of any kind of violence is that it is a descending spiral; begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. May be violence can never stop violence, simply because every ‘successful’ violent act deepens our faith in it and this very success leads others to imitate it.

Although, at this moment, Islamic extremism presents our contemporary world with a unique threat – to which very understandably it has been necessary to respond - , radicalisation is much more than an Islamic problem. It is a human problem. For instance, here in South London, more young people are enticed by the lure of gangs and guns than seduced by the sinister world of extremism and terror.

At the age of 14, a South London kid, became a Christian - a follower of Christ. In that moment, he felt as if his small pointless story had been caught up in a much bigger, radical vision to bring positive change to the world; that he’d joined a huge gang – a gang that was worth belonging to – with a narrative that was strong enough, compelling enough, infectious enough, deep enough, rooted enough, and radical enough to dedicate his life to.

That kid was me.

Everyone needs a narrative worth living by; one that explains to us who we are, supplies us with a sense of worth and purpose – and which offers us hope for the future. Anything short of this fails to get to the heart of things.

Do governments, guns and traditional armies have a role to play in our war against terrorism? Theologians and philosophers from Thomas Aquinas to Dietrich Bonhoeffer have spent centuries wrangling with Just War Theory; attempting to find a moral response to the evil perpetrated by those who wreak violence and war on the innocent. Of course a response may be necessary. But, can guns alone finally win the peace? Never! In this they are impotent. Instead, in the end we must find and promote a new narrative to live by together because real change, lasting change, arises from local communities, one relationship at a time. Every act of love is a victory over hatred. Every act of kindness, a victory over violence. There is finally no other way.

Christians see the supreme example of Jesus Christ as our example – He was oppressed and afflicted, but he did not fight back; ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ he taught – ‘for they will be called children of God.’ For those who have lived out this ‘upside down’ non-violent approach to life in past days, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Desmond Tutu, or the older Nelson Mandela, there is almost universal admiration and respect. 

Now the challenge before us is to articulate for a new generation a narrative that is powerful enough to bring real and lasting peace to our vulnerable multi-cultural, multi-faith communities as well as to the diversity of our wider world.

It is never enough to talk about peace. It is never enough to believe in peace. The real task, the only task, is to work at peace – As Jesus said; ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

And now I invite you to reflect in a moment of prayer as we hear the Oasis Waterloo Community Choir sing an arrangement of the hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,

MUSIC/CHOIR   DEAR LORD AND FATHER OF MAN-KIND

FELICITY:
And now it’s time for our prayers:.

MUSIC/FELICITY:  O Lord hear my prayer…
 
MAYA:
Father, we pray for our world, in its shattered pieces. Lord, have mercy on us as we live out our lives on a globe that struggles to recognise every life as equal, that every life is valuable, that every life is a unique gift from you.

MUSIC/FELICITY:  O Lord hear my prayer…

DAN:
We pray for our cities, those who govern and bear the responsibility of decision making, and those who are working that out on the ground. Grant wisdom to those shaping our communities, tasked with many challenges, from caring for those in need, the crisis of high rents and poor housing, the fear of crime, and the dishonesty and greed in our society - to ensuring access to education, stabilising a struggling economy, and dealing with sometimes turbulent political landscapes. Lord, have mercy on us, where we’ve forgotten that your Gospel is not one of fear or greed, but a story of hope and transformation.

MUSIC/FELICITY:  O Lord hear my prayer…

 
MAYA:
Lord, as we daily hear the stories of those who have lost homes and have been displaced across our globe, as well as those known to us who live in fear or struggle, have mercy on us when we forget, or even take for granted, the security we do have. We live knowing that we belong to a story that is bigger than our own, and that here we are invited to be part of a community that speaks of love and acceptance. Forgive us when we deny your story, and don’t extend your love to those around us. Inspire us to live out our belonging, to include those around us who have been marginalised, and to seek your justice and peace.

MUSIC/FELICITY:  KYRIE…

DAN:
And now we join together in the words of Jesus as we ask for forgiveness for our own sins and pray that God will enable us to forgive those who cause us harm.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours, now and forever. Amen.

ANNA:
A world where war is so frequently seen as the answer is not the world that God intended for us. God’s Kingdom is a land where peace reigns. It is our duty and obligation to work to bring about God’s Kingdom on earth. In our final song, we ask God to Bless this world and to bring peace where there is fear. We sing, Andy Flannagan’s “We are Blessed”

MUSIC/FELICITY WE ARE BLESSED  (BRING HEAVEN TO     EARTH LORD) BY ANDY FLANNAGAN

ANNA:
As we close our service, our blessing is based on a Franciscan Benediction.

May God bless us with discomfort - at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that we may live from deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger - At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of God's creations
So that we may work fervently for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless us with tears - To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

May God bless us with just enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all in our path.

And may God bless us with courage – to live lives so radical that it tells of a different story, one that follows the revolution that Christ calls us to. A story that inspires us to build God’s Kingdom here on earth, peace by peace.
Amen.

MUSIC TO FADE