Disturbers of the Peace

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:7

I invite you now to participate in an imaginary scenario with me. Imagine that it is Sunday morning. You are worshiping in the peaceful confines of the church sanctuary and are in the midst of joyfully passing the Peace of the Lord and spreading good will all around. Suddenly the entrance doors open and a mob of zealous protesters enter to crash your peaceful party and start shouting. How do you respond? What is your gut reaction to this unwanted disruption of your peaceful assembly in this sacred space? How will the congregation process this unprecedented disturbance of their peace?

If you are up on current events in the national news, you may remember that the scenario I just described is not imaginary. Such a scene actually took place last Sunday at Cities Church in St. Paul Minnesota when around three dozen protesters entered the sanctuary, disturbing the peace and chanting “ICE out” and “Renee Good.” The unwelcome intrusion was sparked by the fact that a Pastor of this Southern Baptist congregation also leads the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office.

In a metropolitan area that has been invaded by thousands of ICE and Boarder Patrol agents whose unconstitutional, unlawful tactics have created chaos, injury and loss of life, the knowledge that the Pastor of a church would also lead the ICE field office was a bridge too far for neighbors whose understanding of Christ-like peace making and peace keeping was incompatible with that Pastor’s behavior. They chose to respond with their own brand of peaceful protest, non-violent direct action (NVDA).

So, what was the reaction to this protest? How did people process it? An Associated Press report on the event gives us at least a partial picture:

• “No cause, political or otherwise, justifies the desecration of a sacred space or the intimidation and trauma inflicted on families gathered peacefully in the house of God,” Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board, said in a statement. “What occurred was not protest; it was lawless harassment.”
• Miles Mullin, the vice-president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said faith leaders can and often have led protests on social issues, but those should never prevent others from worshiping. “This is something that just shouldn’t happen in America,” Mullin said. “For Baptists, our worship services are sacred.”
• As for the federal Department of Justice… it has opened a civil rights investigation against the protesters and arrested three. And according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, “President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship.”

I refer readers to Amos 5:21-24.

It should be noted at this juncture in our post that upon an Executive Order by President Trump one year ago, a directive from 2011, reaffirmed by the Biden administration, that previously barred immigration enforcement in sensitive areas (schools, places of worship, hospitals, etc.) was terminated. This means that (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents now have increased power to conduct enforcement actions, including arrests, in these formerly protected locations.

Now imagine this:

• Instead of non-violent (but disruptive) protesters entering your church sanctuary, imagine a hoard of masked paramilitary goons in combat gear armed with pepper spray, tear gas, knives, hand guns and rifles bursting into your house of worship with impunity, intent on intimidating and terrorizing your community under the guise of making your world safer by removing “the worst of the worst” from your midst.
• Imagine that they have been given their marching orders from leaders of the Federal government who declare that they have carte blanche (absolute immunity) to fulfill their mission.
• Imagine that they are issued a free pass to kill as they choose without fear of being investigated and prosecuted by the current regime in Washington, a regime whose propaganda machine will immediately declare the victim to be involved in “domestic terrorism” and the shooter to be merely defending himself, no matter that video evidence may prove the propaganda false.

The God awful truth on this Lord’s Day in these United States of America is that it is all too easy to imagine this exact scenario occurring in any house of worship across this alleged “land of the free, and home of the brave.”

But it did not happen today in my congregation. And the only reason it didn’t (couldn’t) happen is because in-person worship was canceled due to a massive ice storm affecting much of the east coast. There was no person-to-person passing of the peace today, only an online version. Our Pastor, who has no affiliation with ICE or CBP, asked various members to send in a video of themselves passing the Peace of the Lord.

Viewers will see and hear me saying “May the Peace of the Lord be with you.” But today beyond the friendly surface wish for Shalom (wholeness, well-being, thriving in a right relationship with God), I am also calling for a deeper dive into what the Lord’s Peace calls for. For one day after the murder of yet another US citizen, Alex Pretti, by a Customs and Border Patrol agent, we must assert that the Peace of the Lord is far deeper than simply abiding in verdant green pastures next to tranquil, still waters. It is far deeper than simply the absence of conflict and war.

Throughout scripture we find prophets as moral critics decrying claims of peace that ignore injustice. “They say, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). Wherever people are marginalized, oppressed and denied dignity and respect, there is no peace. The peace of the Lord Jesus depends on justice (mishpat) and righteousness (tsedeqah) as the foundation for true peace. True peace is built upon actions that promote what is right (justice) and disrupt what is wrong (injustice). Prophets equate peace with caring for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. Jesus blesses peace makers, not peace lovers or peace wishers.

Peace making is not passive, it is active. It often involves telling truth in the midst of lies. Jesus’ ministry required him to non-violently confront (disturb) injustice rather than avoiding conflict. Jesus did not refrain from branding the Scribes and Pharisees as a “brood of vipers” and “whitewashed sepulchers” (outwardly righteous and beautiful to others, but inwardly full of spiritual death, corruption, and uncleanness). He did not refrain from disturbing the peace of the Temple by overturning the tables of corruption. It was his acts of what we might call “disturbing the peace,” his challenges to oppressive religious, political and social structures that got him killed.

True peace, the Peace of the Lord, is not passive harmony, but rather it is restored relationship grounded in justice and love. Peace is not something we simply enjoy when conflict disappears; it is something we are called to build through lives shaped by justice, righteousness, and faithful love.

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P.S. I grew up in a Wisconsin town bordering Minnesota, and a half hour from the twin cities of St. Paul/Minneapolis. For all the friendly Badgers vs. Gophers and Packers vs. Vikings border rivalries that marked our allegiances, we always knew we were neighbors that shared the same basic values. My eldest daughter attended a Lutheran college in Minnesota where she met and married a son of Minnesota who shares her Christ inspired moral values. I lived in St. Paul during my seminary years in a church right next to the state Capitol building. I traveled the streets in Minneapolis where the lives of George Floyd, Renee Good and Alex Pretti were needlessly and callously snuffed out by rogue agents operating under the privileged title of “law enforcement officers.”

As I imagine my home state of Wisconsin becoming the next “ground zero” for the MAGA Gestapo, I weep today for my neighbors, the good people of Minnesota whose communities have been unlawfully and unconstitutionally invaded, occupied, brutalized and terrorized by paramilitary thugs empowered and emboldened by a regime employing Fascist ideologies and tactics to dismantle the Federal government and obliterate the last vestiges of a democratic republic. If Benjamin Franklin could see what those of us who have eyes to see the truth are seeing occur in the halls of power and the streets of our cities and towns, he would admit that this is exactly what he feared when he said that America is now a republic… “if you can keep it.”

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

May the “Peace of the Lord” empower you to be faithful, active, non-violent interrupters and disturbers of the peace in Jesus’ name.

[click HERE for a brief video of Alex Pretti at work in a VA hospital]

[click HERE for Robert Arnold’s brilliant memorial to Alex Pretti, A Bridge Too Far, and what his death says about the current condition of America]

[Call on Senators Tillis and Budd to vote no on the funding package for the Department of Homeland Security. Indivisible has a script for you.

• Budd: 202-224-3154 and 984-349-5061

• Tillis: 202-224-6342 and 919-856-4630]