First Presbyterian Church
The Path to Peace
Sermon for October 29, 2006
by Roxanna Swann

Children's Time: We read Mamma Do You Love Me? by Barbara Joosse and discussed how we are still ourselves under costumes at Halloween and that God still loves us and knows who we are despite different appearances and actions.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”, are the words of Mark in our Gospel for today. On the front cover of our bulletin, we see faces of these children of God—all colors, sizes, shapes, nationalities and religious persuasions—all longing for peace, for security, for happiness. This week, we listened to a peacemaker, Paul Beran, whose wife is Palestinian. He talked about the unrest between Israel and Palestine and what different groups were trying to do about it. His message was inspiring and I found myself thinking, “Perhaps there still is a chance!” So I have named my talk for today, “A Path to Peace” in hopes that we can think together about creating peace in our lifetimes.

Psalms also has a scripture about the eagle that reminds of one of the symbols of our democracy. It stands for the freedom and the institutions our country has fought and died for. One of these institutions is the right to vote—to participate in the decision-making process of choosing the leaders who will represent and work for us at all levels of government, from city to nation.

Now, this is not a sneaky Get out the Vote call! Surely you have all had enough of those by now! And perhaps you have already voted, thanks to our efficient mail-in ballots here in Oregon. This is not an attempt to change your party affiliation or get you on my side. But I do plan to “talk politics” because it fits in with what I have to say this morning. You see, there are two things I am passionate about—one is music and the other is politics! Today, I will show a little of my political side. My talk is intended to be “non-partisan”, so please forgive any unintended slips!

As many of you know, I ran for the office of State Representative for Oregon's District 60 in 2002. You may ask, whatever possessed me to do such a crazy thing at this stage of my life! I could answer, “Well, it's never too late!”. But the real answer is that I felt “called”, as a citizen who cares about my country, and I would like to share a little of that journey with you.

To begin with, I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the cradle of our democracy! My father, who was finishing his schooling to be a doctor, was from a staunch Scottish background. His father and uncle had immigrated to Utah from Ontario, Canada, married sisters, and started the western branch of the Robertson clan. And, of course, they were Presbyterians! I know little of his childhood, but assume he was raised in a fairly conservative, but free-thinking environment. My mother was a different story altogether! Her early days were spent in Portland and Seattle here in the Northwest. Her father was involved in the growing labor movement, and her mother, my grandmother, marched for women's suffrage. Later, they moved to Boston, where the family entertained Eugene V. Debs, head of the Socialist Party, and other well-known liberals of that day. My mother was raised as a Catholic, but left the church because she could not be true to the teachings. To put it bluntly, she was a bit of a rebel, or Bohemian, as they were known then. So, when she met my father, one can imagine that the sparks flew!! Amazingly enough, they respected one another's political and religious views and we were treated to many lively discussions around (and under) the dinner table at our house. I say “under the table” because I used to sneak out of bed and crawl under the table so I could keep listening to the conversations! One night, Mother took me to a political rally in Dallas, Texas where I grew up. I think I was nine. And I loved it—the noise, the color, and the excitement. I didn't really understand the speeches, but I could hear the belief and commitment in people's voices. I think I decided then to be one of those people when I grew up.

However, I did what every red-blooded American girl did in the 50's—I got married! On a trip home from college for Christmas, I met a tall, red-haired guy from Texas A & M—well, you know the rest! One month after the wedding, we were in the Air Force at Lackland AFB in Texas, where he began his training as a pilot of B-47's, B-52's and C-130's. He had actually talked about going into politics himself, but the excitement of being a pilot won out. And it was an exciting life—all the travel anyone could want! We went from Texas to Florida to Texas again, then to Kansas, New York, Puerto Rico, Montana, Japan, Okinawa, and California. I loved the social life, the exposure to different cultures and languages, friends, etc, but the one thing I had a problem with was keeping my mouth shut! As a member of the military community, you were advised against any discussion of politics, religion and other controversial subjects. Well, as you can imagine, after my upbringing, that was very confining for me! It was hard for me to understand why men and women who were fighting for the freedoms that are guaranteed in our constitution were being limited in their expression of those same freedoms.

In those days, I actually pulled away from my early family influences and became a bit conservative, although still fiercely patriotic. But suddenly, we were in the 60's, and changes were a coming---. First was the Cuban missile crisis. I had just finished the 18 th hole at the base golf course in Puerto Rico when we learned our pilot husbands were all on alert and ready to go to war if necessary. After figuring there was nothing we could do about it, we settled down in the lounge for a cool drink and waited. It was a strange feeling—waiting to have a missile thrown at us by an enemy nation. Fortunately, President Kennedy was able to convince Cuba that we would not take kindly to their ideas and the crisis was peaceably averted. Less than a year later, the president was assassinated in my hometown of Dallas, Texas. It was an unbelievable shock! We were still living in Puerto Rico and I felt very detached from what was happening. Other assassinations followed, the war in Vietnam was not going well, and the country was in an uproar. I think we all began to question our values then. It was confusing—we still believed in freedom, justice, democracy, patriotism, but a new word has come into our consciousness, and that was Peace. Instead of winning the war, we talked about achieving the peace! After all, Gandhi had already shown in India that social change could happen through non-violent methods. The idea was catching on here—peace signs were everywhere, people were singing, marching, and protesting, to stand up for what they believed. Many were jailed, some were persecuted, and several died for their cause.

Even though I was caught up in the excitement of the 60's, as a military wife, I could not express my views. It was tempting--could I run away from home and became a “flower child”? No, I had my own children to think about! Besides, I figured that this Peace movement was short-lived. Sure enough, things did calm down, but civil rights made tremendous gains, apartheid in South Africa came to an end, and all over the world, the ideals of peace and justice took hold. Although demonstrations still occurred, the real tools for the achievement of peace became more political. Laws were changed, governments recognized human rights, and slowly, changes occurred.

And where are we today? Where are the long-haired, passionate demonstrators of the 60s? The wonderful singers like Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, singing out their message of peace? Where have all the flowers gone? Well, I think most of the singers are on OPB now, and the demonstrators—well, you can still find them, on quiet streets in small towns like Baker City and Halfway, holding a lit candle in their hands and a dream in their hearts that peace is still a possibility. It is this belief that inspired me to throw my own hat into the political ring in the hopes of being part of the solution.

Yes, the path to peace is a political one. By participating in the democratic process and exercising our right to vote, we can put thoughtful, intelligent people into positions of leadership who will make wise, moral decisions. We can live our lives in a peaceful manner, teach our children how to resolve conflict, and run our government institutions with respect and dignity. And most importantly, we can “seek peace and pursue it” as we read in Psalms 34, we can ask for guidance from our Lord above, and pray that the lion will lie down with the lamb and peace will come to all men. Amen