September, 2005

The Hope to Overcome Fear

Rose Wu

(The following reflection, an abridged version of a sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on July 31, 2005, is offered as the World Council of Churches [WCC] invites congregations worldwide to pray for peace on the U.N. International Day of Peace on Sept. 21.)

In the past two months, we have witnessed two contrasting pictures that provide us with two very different directions for the future of humanity.

The first picture was the Live 8 concerts which gathered millions of people and hundreds of the world's top musicians for a music marathon to pressure the world's most powerful leaders to seriously address poverty in Africa. According to the organisers, Live 8 was part of the Long Walk to Justice, a global network that called on the leaders of the Group of 8--the world's most powerful countries--to act when they met in Gleneagles, Scotland, from July 6 to 9. The goal of the campaign was complete debt cancellation, more aid and a better use of it for such needs as health care and education and trade justice for the world's poorest people. Under the banner of "Make Poverty History," people expressed their goals and hopes: "We are not looking for charity; we are looking for justice. This is our moment. This is our time. This is our chance to stand up for what's right."

As the world was encouraged by this hopeful and inspiring event, an unexpected and appalling terrorist attack struck the heart of London that caused almost 60 deaths and injured hundreds of people. It was no coincidence that the bombings in the British capital came just as the G8 summit was getting under way in Scotland.

It has been almost four years since U.S. President George W. Bush declared a global "war on terror" but as the recent London bombings demonstrate, terrorist attacks are far from over. As many critiques have pointed out, U.S. military excesses in Iraq have become a rallying cause of radical Muslims everywhere and the best recruitment propaganda for potential Islamic terrorists.

Thus, the counterterrorist approach has not stopped further violence. Instead, it has provoked more fear, anger and hatred among Islamic communities. Since the bombings in Britain, we have been told that many Londoners eye each other nervously and try to determine whether their neighbour might be a suicide bomber or if an unattended bag might contain a bomb. Consequently, trust of others has become a casualty of terrorism as well. Meanwhile, caught between the terrorists and the counterterrorist reactions are thousands of others who have been killed or maimed. I am sure you share my sorrow when we recently learned about the fatal police shooting of a young innocent Brazilian man at Stockwell station in south London.

When then will the terror end? Where will it lead? To me, the above two contrasting movements represent the pronouncement of life and death that is exemplified through the hope of resurrection and the terror of the cross. They are two reactions to our feelings of powerlessness. The first movement, the Live 8 concerts, represents the determination of God's people who act corporately and humbly to bring hope and love to the present world which is full of violence and suffering. The second movement based on terrorist attacks as well as the "war on terrorism" represents a culture of violence and revenge. In the eyes of people who subscribe to this movement, the problem in the world is evil people, and the answer is to eliminate them. To this movement's adherents, the solution to stop violence is to use more powerful weapons and a more mighty force to kill the attackers. There is little distinction in the processes by which terror is sown and reaped.

Thus, the anguish of Sept. 11 and the recent bombings are only compounded by this realisation of how very little has changed. Despair attends the awareness that we are confronted, not by a new story, but by a story which is very old--as old as the senseless murder of Abel. It is God who produces the only surprise in this story. It is a surprise, however, which is new and hopeful.

From the reading in Chapter 4 of Genesis, the guilt of Cain is obvious, but God spares him with a mark of protection and a place of refuge. We can imagine what the alternative would be. It could only be an endless cycle of revenge and brutality which would only lead to more death and killing. In the old kingdom of human power, Cain could be marked for death; but in the new Kingdom of God, Cain is marked for life. This is the only surprise in the story of Cain and Abel, and it is the only hope for life and new community. Faithful action must witness to such hope and must be grounded in it. How easy it would be to instead allow our actions to be governed by fear or anger and to take revenge by killing rather than to seek healing and the transformation of broken relationships. We must move beyond denouncing the hope of justice and peace. Rather, we must move into a new beginning of life!

I was very touched when I read the story of a Nigerian woman, Marie Fatayi-Williams, who lost her son in a bus bomb on July 7 in London and yet decided to preach a message of forgiveness in setting up a foundation for peace and conflict resolution in her son's name. She made this impassioned plea at the funeral mass: "Hatred begets only hatred. It is time to stop this vicious circle of killing." She asked the Lord to take her son Anthony's death as a sacrificial lamb for peace to reign in the world because we need a turning point.

As we all know, Jesus was surrounded by terror throughout his life. At his birth, Herod pursued him in order to kill him; and during his crucifixion, he shared the fate of condemned criminals. But Jesus was not contained by terror. For Jesus, the hope of this world does not rely on using military power to stop killing. Rather, it is more important to examine how we, although we are one humanity, participate in the betrayal of others and violate our right relation. How do we split ourselves off from God and from one another? How do we generate oppositional, dualistic images to maintain our fear of the other? How do we accumulate wealth to make us feel secure while at the same time neglect the basic needs of our neighbours?

In closing, I believe our suffering today is greatly increased by our collective failure to accept the suffering that is rooted in the incompleteness of God's Creation. Terror today is really the division of "us" vs. "them" we are not part of each other. This "us"and "them" is the seed of violence. As long as we see others as a potential threat, we feel justified in destroying them. The hope to find our way beyond violence and terror is to commit ourselves to each other as one human family, that is, wherever we find ourselves, we are at home in a womb of compassion. The solidarity required by the preferential option for the poor and the marginalised forces us back to a fundamental Christian attitude: a grasp of the need for continual conversion. We are then able to break with the old story of the murder of Abel and move to a new story of sharing of loaves and fish which brings true peace for all of us.