W A R // K R I E G
W A R ON THIS BEAUTIFUL EARTH
Merciful God of peace,We come to you speechless and powerless.
We observe the brutal business of war, increasing aggression and threats.
All mediations seem to be unsuccessful, the fear of destruction and suffering is rampant.
In this situation we ask you for a new spirit for peace and reconciliation,
for insight and conversion of hearts.
With your help it won't be too late, to enable decisions which prevent destruction and misery.
In the name of all those who directly are affected, threatened and involved, we long for the miracle of peace - for Ukraine, Russia and all of Europe.
You God of life, comfort and love, we trust in your goodness and providence. Amen.
Prayer by Bishop H. Glettler, February 23, 2022
_____________________
War
You most horrible act of man,
you misdeed On both sides, rob the father his son,
believe to defend the fatherland.
You kill mothers' sons, you murder women's husbands,
snatch the fathers from the children.
Separate lovers forever, who had just found each other.
You take away from friends their friends,
trample in minutes, what Created over the centuries
and built, that Generations guarded.
Divide the happiness of the individual
in order to to dismember her body.
Lets veterans survive, and mutilated back in body and soul,
lest they curse you.
Leaves only rubble and heaps,
Cripples vegetating in abject poverty,
and you always emerge new, like you're making a promise.
You are the worst of crimes.
Erhard Blanck
_________
David and Goliath
The Philistines gathered their armies together for battle and came together to Socho in Judah and camped between Socho and Azekah at Ephesdamim. But Saul and the men of Israel came together and camped in the pit and prepared themselves to fight against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the other side, and the Israelites on a mountain on this side, with a valley between them. Then out of the camp of the Philistines came a giant named Goliath of Gath, six cubits and a hand's breadth high; and he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and a coat of armor of scales, and the weight of his breastplate was five thousand shekels of brass, and he had breastplates of brass upon his thighs, and a shield of brass upon his shoulders.
And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the iron of his spear was six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. And he stood and called to the host of Israel, and said to them, Why did you go out to prepare yourselves for battle? Am I not a Philistine and you Saul's servants? Choose one of you to come down to me.
If he is able to fight against me and strike me, then we will be your servants; But if I have power against him and smite him, then you shall be our servants to serve us. And the Philistine said, I have defied the host of Israel this day: Give me one, and let us fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard this saying of the Philistine, they were astonished and afraid...
Then David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep to the keeper, and carried and went, as Jesse had commanded him, and came to the chariot. And the army went out and prepared themselves, and they shouted in battle... Behold, a giant named Goliath, the Philistine of Gath, came up from the Philistine army and spoke, and David heard it. But every man in Israel, when he saw the man, fled from him, and was sore afraid.... Then David said to the men who stood with him, What will they do to him who strikes this Philistine? and turns away the shame of Israel? For who is the Philistine, this uncircumcised man, who defies the army of the living God? ........
But Saul said to David, You cannot go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a boy, but this man has been a man of war from his youth ............
And David said, The LORD who delivered me from the lion and the bear will also deliver me from this Philistine... and he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the stream and did put them in the shepherd's bag that he had and in the sack and took the sling in his hand and went to the Philistine ...........
Now when the Philistine saw and looked upon David, he despised him; for he was a boy, brownish and beautiful. And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And he cursed David by his God, and said to David, Come unto me, and I will give thy flesh to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the field. But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a shield; But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the hosts of Israel, whom you have insulted... Now when the Philistine arose and came near to David, David hastened and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
And David put his hand in his pocket, and took a stone from it, and hurled it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead, and the stone pierced his forehead, and he fell to the ground on his face. So David overcame the Philistine with the sling and with the stone and struck him and killed him. And since David had no sword in his hand, he ran and went to the Philistine, and taking his sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. But when the Philistines saw that their strongest man was dead, they fled. 1 Samuel - Chapter 17
----------
------------------------
Two men will work in the field; one is accepted and the other is left behind. Two women will grind grain; one is accepted, the other is left behind.
Matthew 24:40-41
----------
----------------------------
Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Wed 4.3
They no longer raise the sword, nation against nation, and they no longer learn war.
Isaiah 2:4
------------
------------
But wars are also one of the consequences of a general distance from God.
The World Assembly of Christians prayed this in Seoul in 1990: "I believe in God, who is love and who has given the earth to all people. I do not believe in the right of the strongest, in the strength of arms, in the power of oppression. I believe in Jesus Christ, who came to heal us and who frees us from deadly addictions. I do not believe that wars are inevitable, that peace is unattainable. I believe in the communion of saints, the Church, which is called to be at the service of all people. I do not believe that suffering must be in vain, that God has willed the destruction of the earth. I believe that God wants an order for the earth that is based on justice and love, and that all men and women are equal human beings. I believe in God's promise of a new heaven and a new ear
th where justice and peace kiss. I believe in love with open hands, in peace on earth. Amen."
Also read the bestseller: "Peace is STILL possible" by environmental journalist Franz Alt.
====================
=============
Dr. Heribert Prantl writes about the Jewish/Christian God in his bestseller DEN FRIEDEN GEWINNEN in 2024. He looks at the myths of the creation of the world, of paradise, of the first humans, of the Flood: ... the biblical canon, as a significant, normative past that does not pass away. They are “real” in the literal sense of the word, they continue to have an effect, they are our prehistory on our very own questions of being human and the origin of our humanity as it is. It is a world full of violence that demands interpretation and orientation. It tells us that Cain, the first child of the first human couple created by God, is a murderer. The myth enters into the most disturbing historical reality: man kills his brother. The brutal bluntness of the narrative poses this question of meaning in Gen 4:1-16 of “holy scripture”; what if it were silent about such realities? ... The Cain and Abel story reveals one of the causes of violence:
Inequality and power imbalance among people. Cain, the fratricide, is the prototype of the man who is consumed by his anger out of perceived lost honor. Just like in life: One has a mother who loves him, the other a father who hates him. One gets a clever head, the other a weak heart. Fate gives one and not the other. Why him and not me? Everyone has to come to terms with it at some point. God speaks to Cain: Why are your features slipping? Cain's offended narcissism has opened the door to sin. “Your brother's blood cries aloud to me.” With a protective mark of Cain, he now wanders restlessly through the world. He imposes the curse of his evil deed on himself. However, as the founder of a city with amenities, culture, progress, technology, etc., these also contain the “being bought” associated with violence.
In the Flood narrative, on the other hand, God shows himself to be a brutal murderer of his entire world. In his fervent zeal, he not only kills the man, but also the mouse. The flood myth also exists in similar versions in other ancient religions. However, the Old Testament connects the force of nature with the unjust actions of man. One can, one must be horrified by this God who behaves like a fundamentalist mass murderer who wants the world to be good and pure. But then God says: “Never again!” The same ability to compromise is now written into our hearts. ... These cruel texts in the OT are therefore not innocent. They are disturbing and therefore not immune to criticism - on the contrary - it must be in the interest of Christians to subject them to critical examination. Gen 9, 1-13
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: “Be fruitful, multiply and populate the earth.
Fear and dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth, upon all the birds of the air, upon everything that moves on the earth and upon all the fish of the sea; they have been given over to you.
Every living thing that moves shall be your food. I give you everything like the green plants.
Only flesh in which there is still blood you may not eat.
But when your blood is shed, I will demand an account for the blood of each one of you. I demand an account from every animal and from man. For the life of man I demand an account from each of his brothers.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, his blood will be shed by man. For he made man in the image of God.
Be fruitful and multiply; populate the earth and multiply in it.
Then God spoke to Noah and his sons who were with him:
I hereby make my covenant with you and with your descendants
and with all living creatures with you, with the birds, the cattle and all the beasts of the field, with all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark with you.
I have made my covenant with you: Never again shall all creatures of flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall a flood come and destroy the earth.
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and the living creatures.
Prantl goes on to draw a number of parallels in the context of our older and more recent history. His examination of violence and non-violence in armed conflict also takes as an example the taking of Jericho: Many wars of God in the Old Testament have a sacred character; here it has all the ingredients of a fantasy thriller: a fortress, spies by night, a harlot with whom they hide, a lot of noise and, above all, it is about good versus evil. With trumpets, led by the priests, Israel marches around the city wall seven times. Then the people let out a mighty shout of joy and the walls collapse.
The fortress of Jericho stands for the almost invincible, aggressive great powers that threaten the land. The narrative of victory over them is an anti-despair narrative that sets the victims of violence and bloodshed against the experienced reality.
The Old Testament scholar Jürgen Ebach has this to say about the “law of war” formulated in Genesis 5.20: “Well, there would be no more effective means of actually preventing real wars than if this instruction were adhered to. Then all potential soldiers who still have a wife to marry, a child to father, a house to build or who are simply afraid would be allowed to stay at home. Then there would be no need for highly armed troops at all. After all, if God himself is fighting, the left-handers are enough, or you could take an enemy city with a music corps - the walls would fall down from the sound of the trumpet. In short: these instructions are just not for a real war ... I found Prantl's book: CHILDHOOD - first home - not only very appealing. Faith and religion were and are both warmongers and a force for peace. The one should be tamed and the other must be encouraged.
