We Are At War?

The headline of the Indianapolis Star Sunday morning was – We Are At War. It seems an unfortunate choice of words. If we have learned anything about war these last few years it is that it is not solved by overwhelming force and tightly cordoned off communities. This week our own military leaders spoke of the growing civil war that they fear in Iraq. They agreed that things are worse than they were a year ago in this regard. What has come out of the Iraq war that we can learn from in our own community? It is what Paul talks about in the text from Ephesians we read on Sunday – it is being robust in love that works. The clearest and most helpful information I hear from Iraq is from those who have chosen to work alongside those that threaten them, not those who seek to destroy those that threaten them. They seek to make friends, rather than to punish. There are military leaders who are working with civilian leaders there on the ground – just way too few.

In the headline I see a city that is more concerned about a new stadium for its football team than it is for children who will live in the shadow of that building. It makes me think of a city where there is much brick and mortar work done in rebuilding the crumbling buildings and houses in the area just south of us – but the people who used to live there are just simply shuffled around to new areas of the city. What if the same investment that has been made south of the creek in the land and the buildings was made in the lives of the people of this city? What if the same amount of money that has been committed to the new Colts stadium (at least in tax breaks) was committed to the lives of young people who will grow up not only to be football players but scientists and doctors and teachers and business people in this community? Why? Because it’s easier, they say, to “sell” investors on buildings than it is to “sell” investors on the lives of people who will live in those buildings or who will attend those games. What a shame. What a shame. We have lost our capacity to believe…in the living bread. And it is a shame.