Ten ways to cultivate a lifestyle of peace

1. Pray—on a regular, intentional basis—for those regarded as enemies by our nation. I'm glad, Dr. King once said, that Jesus didn't tell us to like our enemies! There will be people we don't much like; but we love them because God loves them. Praying for so-called enemies is a powerful sign and instrument of this human unity that is at the heart of the gospel.
2. Commit yourselves to dialogue with people you can't stand right in your own congregations. It is important to pray for enemies in other places; but, to paraphrase I John, how can we speak of relationship to people we can't see if we can't demonstrate relationship with people we see every week? Peacemaking begins at home.
3. Study the lives of persons for whom peacemaking has been a way of life. The faces of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dorothy Day come quickly to mind, but also look for more immediate models. It will embarrass them, but T. J. Liggett and Rhodes Thompson (who are here today) have been such models for me. Let the witness of such persons help shape who you are.
4. Dare to imagine the world other than it now is. Part of the reason the church fails in its mission of peacemaking is that our imaginations are so impoverished, because we simply accept what is as "the way things are." Study, for example, the vision of Isaiah 65 ("No more shall there be an infant who lives but a few days"). This isn't wishful thinking. It's imagining the world as our gracious God would have it. Let that set your agenda. This past week we had the communications officer at the Israeli embassy speak at Eden Seminary in order to understand better the situation in the Middle East. We have no choice, he said, but to respond to violence with greater violence—and all I could think is "what a failure of the imagination!" What a failure to put a face on Palestinian neighbors and to imagine the world other than it now is.
5. Take every opportunity to travel in other cultures (preferably not in five star hotels!), and
6. Sixth, if you can't travel to various countries, then read works of fiction that come from those places. The study of history and government are great, but serious literature puts a face on people from parts of the world you may never see.
7. Practice hospitality to strangers—which is, after all, one of the most persistent injunctions in all of scripture. Welcoming strangers (migrant workers, people of other faiths ...) is based on a recognition of fundamental relatedness prior to any specific knowledge of who they are.
8. Remember that lifestyle (the amount of the earth's resources we consume) is also an act of peacemaking.
9. Be willing to look critically at the groups you are part of—whether that be your nation or your church or your university. Always be suspicious of proposals that work to your advantage but not to the advantage of your neighbors.
10. Live ecumenically. Churches often act like competing corporations, but you don't have to buy into it. Wherever you are located, work for the common witness of the church in that place. It will be a profound act of peacemaking.

—Rev. Michael Kinnamon
Eden Theological Seminary

Disciples Peace Fellowship
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
PO Box 1986
Indianapolis, IN 46208-1986
(888) 346-2631