Bridge building

I was in a local shop this week, when I witnessed one of those parent child encounters, all too familiar to those of you who have small children. A rather hassled dad was trying to entice his small son away from a large confectionary stand close to the till point. He tried encouragement followed by bribery, before moving to threat mode…. But the child continued with his mantra “I want jelly tots, I want jelly tots”. The dad had obviously come to the end of his tether and, staring at the small child he yelled “will you give my head peace!”. For whatever reason, it seemed to work and silence ensued.
All too often we see peace negatively - as a space created by the removal of something – or someone - that causes us a problem. For the hassled dad the peace he had asked for was the absence of noise. For the victim of violence, it is the removal of the oppressor. For the casualty of war, it is the elimination of weapons.
On this day in 1916, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 20,000 British soldiers were killed and 57,000 injured. That is more casualties on one single day than the total British casualties in the Crimean, Boer and Korean wars combined. It was 2 more long years before Peace was declared and the guns stopped. But Peace is more than the removal of something – in the case of World War 1 - the cessation of violence and the defeat of the aggressor. That’s the necessary peace-making bit wherein the cause of the problem is addressed or removed.
Lasting peace, true Shalom, however, requires another element to be effective and resilient. And this is perhaps the harder part – involving a long term investment in peace building.
Peacebuilding can - and I would argue should - involve small steps made by everyday people in real time. Many initiatives begin locally, often created by those who have suffered most and who want to ensure that no one else suffers in the same way in the future. Such acts, may come at great cost to the peace builders as, when they begin to build peace with those seen as “the other” or “the enemy”, they can be often misunderstood – seen as being naïve at best or traitors at worst.
I can think of Gordon Wilson attempts to build bridges as one such example. Such acts of generosity are not the natural response to suffering. It is for this reason that many peacebuilders see their actions as being spiritually empowered, grounded in strong biblical values of mercy, grace and love.
Can you imagine what might happen if each one of us took one small step towards creating a shared future by carrying out a small, random act of grace and generosity? In that small, vulnerable space we can plant the seeds of sustainable peace. Shalom