“Passing the Peace” has become a Sunday practice at First Chinese Baptist, San Francisco. It has not always been a regular tradition but the simple blessing of offering peace to another by cupping a person’s hands and then receiving a reciprocal blessing from the other is something we need today more than ever.
Yesterday’s violence at a Jewish synagogue at the end of Passover in San Diego, the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, the shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, the killings in the Pittsburgh synagogue merely 6 months ago and many other incidents of violence in the name of God have caused us disheartening grief and we wonder where is peace.
Only a month ago, our tour group to Spain and Portugal utilizing the historical context of the Spanish Inquisition that took place 500 years ago focused on the “darker side of Christianity.” How has Christians justified some of the most grievous human atrocities by using Scripture. In our conversations, we also talked about the Holocaust and slavery in America.
If there is one of the 10 Commandments that is very clear, it is “Thou shall not kill.” When Jesus summarized these 10 to just two, he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31)
I may not know all of the intricacies of other religions. And I strongly suspect that western hegemony has dominated the world’s priorities leading to repression and the suppression of other perspectives and realities of life. As one who lives in the US, the strongest and most influential nation on earth at this time of earth history, I need to be more conscious of other people living on this planet. Inasmuch as I can thrive, everyone in the world created in the same holy image of God, must thrive too.
It may be simple. It only takes a few seconds. But when we embrace another’s hands and they with our hands and we wish them peace, it’s a good beginning.