World Peace
It’s almost a joke. It seems only Hollywood types or beauty pageant
contestants speak seriously of “world peace” anymore. And I'm not sure they're serious! At the very least, it’s become a cliché.
I
was born a generation after the baby-boomers. I grew up watching the
counter-culture, give-peace-a-chance, flower children of the 60s and thought
they were almost insane! The popular culture of the 1980s was, in many ways, a reaction
against that generation’s excesses and silliness. From bell-bottoms and long
hair to straight-legs and short hair, and from war protests to patriotism. My
generation saw the maturation of postmodern pessimism. Aristotelian realism
regained ground after a splash of Platonic idealism. Communism was a real and
present danger and needed to be stopped. The answer, as Reagan put it, was “peace
through strength.” But we all knew that meant the real possibility of war. We
just wanted to make sure we were the ones who won. The obvious evil of
humankind and corruption of human institutions is one of the few “absolute
truths” accepted by postmoderns today. We all know the world has major
problems, too messy for trite political answers. There will always be some
warlord or radical that wants to have his 15 minutes of fame and be taken
seriously. There will always be megalomaniacs and paranoid pariahs who disregard human life. We’ve all
watched the History Channel. The very idea of world peace is laughable.
Or is it?
We’ve read over half of the Bible chronologically and it
looks like God’s plan to bless the whole earth through Abraham’s seed is
unraveling as Israel and Judah are self-destructing. When suddenly from the
prophets we get glimpses of a glorious future: perfect global peace under a
coming King.
What is this?
World peace is no joke. It is a very real thing. Tomorrow
morning we will explore it together.
(If you haven't yet, read Micah 4, and Isaiah 9 & 11. It's just a taste.)
(If you haven't yet, read Micah 4, and Isaiah 9 & 11. It's just a taste.)
1 comment:
HaHa, Yeah I'm one of those baby boomers and I couldn't agree more. I thought the war protesters were nuts but they were really afraid they were going to die in Nam. I was a little after the threat of being drafted. I do remember a big shift from hippies to the eighties. I went to high school during the disco era--not sure where that fits in. Not sure I want to know!
I hate I can't be in Knoxville tomorrow. I'll catch the recording later!
Doug
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