“He Commands Peace”
Zechariah 9:9-13
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 6 July, 2008
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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 It is always difficult to preach around the Fourth of July during a time of war. When the war is as controversial as the War in Iraq, the task is especially troublesome. Something has to be said, because the war is on everyone’s minds, but our country is divided. I know that there are differing views about the war within this very congregation. That said, the task of the preacher is never to be pro-war. Preachers have certainly sung the praises of one earthly war or another (including the current one), and Christians waged their own war during the Crusades. But it is my strong belief that a preacher cannot, having read the scriptures, give praise for war. This does not mean that the preacher cannot pray for men and women serving in our armed forces. It does not mean that the preacher cannot have a “Support the troops” sticker on his or her car. It does not mean that the preacher cannot kiss her or his loved ones good-bye if they go off to war and lovingly greet them if, and when, they return. It does not mean that good ministers cannot serve as chaplains in the military. But I cannot understand how a preacher, having read our Holy Scriptures, can be pro-war. “You shall not kill.” “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And, in the words from this morning’s Old Testament reading, “He shall command peace.”
Let me refresh your memory about the first reading we heard this morning::::: [scripture is reread]
We are familiar with this text because it is quoted in the Gospels of Matthew and John in describing Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. However, the text originally referred to a regular (though great) earthly king, not the divine Prince of Peace who we now worship.
When taken in that original context, it is an interesting scripture to read during an election year. Hopes are always high during political campaigns that the candidate we support will make not only our country, but the entire world, a better place. There are, perhaps, even stronger hopes for the upcoming election than usual, considering the war, the economy, the environment, and all the other major crises that are on the minds of Americans right now.
It’s tempting to use the Prophet Zechariah’s words to say, “Our next president will do all of the wonderful things that the prophet tells us!” Partisan politics do not belong in the pulpit, but if world leaders are either Christian or Jewish I hope that they will read the words of Zechariah and take them to heart. Muslims, too, revere the words of the prophets that we know, so these words apply to them too. ...What would happen if political leaders throughout the world were to command peace to their people? Is it naive to hope that presidents and prime ministers will someday sit down and actually read the words that they say they consider scripture?! I fervently oppose having a Bible-thumping president in the White House. It is never the president’s role to tell other people what to believe. But that does not mean that I do not expect our elected leaders to draw on their faith when leading their country.
Since that does not seem to be happening, let us ourselves, as humble Christians look at the words of Zechariah. We live in a democracy. We have the right and the responsibility to vote for the people who we believe will make the best decisions.
As I was looking for commentary on this text, I stumbled across an essay on the Internet in which the author, as I am doing, spoke about Zechariah’s words in the context of the American 4th of July. Theologian Daniel Clendenin speaks about how strange the images of Zechariah would have been to the original listeners.1 A king comes, riding on a donkey?! As another scholar pointed out, the expected mode of transportation would have been a war horse. Yet here, the king comes in peace, “humble and riding on a donkey.” He is clearly a powerful ruler and yet he destroys the military armaments along his path. Strange images indeed.
Scholars aren’t sure the exact time period depicted in chapter nine of Zechariah, but it may have been during the time of Alexander the Great, when the Greeks were marching down the Syrian-Palestinian coast around 330 B.C.E.2 As our own Alexander knows from her studies, this was not a particularly peaceful time. The people of this place and time were very familiar with war. So the prophet’s description of this peaceful ruler would have been unusual.
Clendenin speaks of the disconnects contained in such a message, when one is speaking to a war-torn world. The notion of peace is great, sure, but what about us? Isn’t our national survival at stake? Shouldn’t we wait to talk about peace until the war is over? (Um...does that make any sense? No, of course not, but it is a commonly held view now and it may have been then too.)
Not only do we have the issue of a peaceful, humble earthly ruler. There is the issue of an all-embracing God too. As one author puts it, “[Is] the God of a defeated nation a false God?”3 Too often, citizens of a country claim God as their own property. God is here for us. God is here for our protection. God wants us to win. God bless America. The rest of the world doesn’t matter.
In 2005, French intellectual Benard-Henri Lévy traveled extensively throughout the United States and reported his findings to the Atlantic Monthly. Upon visiting the Willow Creek megachurch near Chicago, he reported his impressions: “a God without mystery; a good-guy God; almost a human being, a good American.”4 Both Daniel Clendendin and I worry that Lévy may be right. We have appropriated God as our own. But the Bible does not mention our country or the American people anywhere. As Zechariah proclaims it, and as Psalm 145 tells us, “The Lord is good to all.”
The world portrayed by Zechariah is different from the world in which we live, and Zechariah knows it. It is a world for which the Israelites could, and we can, hope. It is a world in which God does not belong to one nation, and it is a world in which political leaders are humble and command peace. It is a world in which peace itself is considered victorious. This is clearly not the world in which we live, and I would venture that it is not the nation we celebrate on the 4th of July. But it is a world for which we can hope and toward which we can reach.
God bless America, yes. But God bless the whole world. No exceptions.
Now let us pray.
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1. Clendenin, David, “A King on a Colt? Zechariah’s peace poetry,” http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20080630JJ.shtml, accessed on 07/05/08
2. Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hayes, Carl R. Holladay, and Gene M. Tucker, _Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A_ (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1992), 351.
3. “Praise to God’s Chosen,” by Larry Broding http://www.word-sunday.com/Files/A/14-a/FR-14-a.html, accessed on 07/05/08.
4. Clendenin
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