As I explored Delafield, Wisconsin during my retreat at Cedarly, I came across an interesting park during my daily walks. It is the Delafield Veterans Memorial Park. I made it part of my daily walking route during the last couple of days of our stay here. The path through this park is marked by large rock markers with the names and dates of various wars experienced throughout American history. It begins with a marker commemorating the Revolutionary War and continues with various markers along the path through the Vietnam War. After the Vietnam War marker, the trail continues over a wooden bridge that winds through a marsh filled with cat-tails. Along this wooden bridge path there are certain locations clearly prepared for future markers for wars yet to be fought. I couldn’t help but think about the Kuwait War fought in the latter portion of the 80s, as well as the continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As much as I was touched by the support for those who fought in these wars, particularly those who lost their lives, I was also impacted by the history of conflict that was also represented by this trail of war markers. Our history as a nation has been written in a trail of blood that has been spilled through the countless conflicts that make up our heritage as a nation. This history includes the war that won our independence from England, but also includes the war that was fought between the states and pitted brother against brother in many cases. It also includes many conflicts fought on foreign soil that represent the many divisions and conflicts within our world throughout history.
Though not represented in this park, our faith heritage has also been filled with conflict. From the earliest episode of sibling rivalry between Cain and Abel to the conflict that marks the fight for a promised land (that still continues even today) to the conflict within the followers of God that led to Jesus’ crucifixion, our faith heritage is also typified by human conflict more than we would like to admit.
Another concern for me is in the more personal and localized conflict that exists on a much wider scale than we care to acknowledge. We live in a world that experiences rampant domestic violence, prejudice, abuse, and other forms of violence and human conflict. We have become more identified by our conflict than by our resolution of conflict. This persists in every phase of our existence today despite the many lessons of the past.
I reflect upon that wooden boardwalk winding though that marsh at the end of the park trail. It certainly symbolizes an uncertain future that anticipates conflict ahead, just as it has been recorded in our past. When will we awaken to the futility associated with so much of this conflict? When will we turn to the One who calls us to unite together in hope rather than divide through conflict?
I hope that we will learn from the extreme price that has been paid for the conflicts of our past, as well as the price of our current conflicts in a continually divisive world. I pray that we will turn to God and write our future with more peace than we have experienced in our past. I pray that the marsh of uncertainty that concludes that trail will transform into a sea of hope that brings God’s kingdom to reality on the earth of God’s creation.
I love the hymn Let There Be Peace On Earth. I remember as a member of Atascocita United Methodist Church during the Kuwait War singing that hymn as a choral benediction every Sunday until peace was restored from that conflict. I still get goose bumps when I think of those powerful words, especially those haunting words that conclude this hymnic prayer, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”
I pray that we will take those words to heart on both a personal and communal level as we confront the conflict that plagues our world and our individual lives. I pray that we will seek the peace that God offers each of us through Jesus Christ and allow that personal peace to enable each of us to be part of the solution to the conflict that still typifies our path of life.
