On April 4, 1967, exactly one year prior to his assassination, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the war on Vietnam at a gathering of concerned clergy and laity at Riverside Church in New York City. His titled speech for the day was "A Time to Break Silence," in which he spoke of the connections between the unjustifiable war in Vietnam and its profound impact on the issues of civil rights in the United States. King suggested that what was at work in America was a great sickness and that if we did not seriously deal with this reality, this sickness, that we would, indeed, pass on these sins to the next generations. In this famous speech he prophetically spoke: "The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper sickness within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God." Friends, King was right, here we are this morning, a generation later, concerned about Iraq and it is now time that the church break her silence.

But break our silence about what? Is not Saddam Hussein an evil man who slaughters his own people and has weapons of mass destruction? Why should we break silence about our going to war with Iraq and yet remain silent on his actions? Indeed, the situation we are under is a peculiar one, but it is not one that we ourselves did not create. The weapons of mass destruction that we believe Sadaam Hussein to possess were given to him by the United States to fight the Iran/Iraq war in the 1980s. We funded Hussein and his Iraq billions of dollars to use chemical and biological weapons on Iran because we feared the Soviet threat gaining and we feared the loss of oil fields. We were fully aware of Hussein's use of our chemical and biological weapons on Iran, but he did not stop there and he began using them on the Kurdish people in 1988.

One of President George W. Bush's major reasons for going to war with Iraq is based upon the premise that Hussein murders his own people. Bush suggests that regime change is necessary and that by establishing western democracy in Iraq, there will be a more just society without the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Our attacking Iraq is in the name of peace, justice, and liberation for the Iraqi people. However, the United States has single handedly kept the Iraqi people in bondage for the past decade with our implementation of economic sanctions and food rationing, which has left more than a million men, women, and children dead on our hands. Indeed, in the words of King in relationship to Vietnam, the Iraqi people must see us as "strange liberators." Strange liberators, indeed, and if we think as a nation that our hands are clean and that we bear the name of righteousness in the earth, then I believe it is time for the church to break silence.

It is our responsibility as Christians to show the possibility of a new vision for the world, one free from war, one free from injustice, one free from oppression, one where love is the rule and not the exception. The prophets of the Old Testament knew what it meant to speak of such a vision for the world and they lived and died by that vision. The prophet Isaiah was no different.

Our text from the prophet Isaiah this morning is, interestingly enough, set in a context of war. In these days a great Empire loomed behind every village and city, waiting to devour and conquer. The Assyrian Empire was working its way across Palestine and seeking to conquer all of the lands in its path. Coalitions of resistance had been organized in the region and all were seeking to fight this war with vigor. There was one who decided that war as a resistance to the Empire was not of interest to God or God's people and that was Ahaz who was the leader of Judah in Jerusalem. This upset the people of Syria in Damascus and the people of Aram in Israel and each of their kings decided to go to war with Ahaz to force him to join in the coalition against the Assyrian Empire. This became known as the Syro-Emphraimite War. In the middle of this war God told the prophet Isaiah to go out and confront Ahaz and tell him not to fear and that a new vision, a new world is coming. Isaiah said to Ahaz in chapter 7, "Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands." Isaiah knew of another vision of the world, a vision of the world where the rich, the powerful, and the strong do not take advantage of the poor, powerless, and weak. Isaiah says, "A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." But this shoot out of the stump of Jesse is not like the smoldering stumps of the Assyrian Empire, or of those in Damascus and Israel who sought to overthrow his people with force and power. This shoot shall bring a vision of peace and justice in the earth. God's vision transforms the world so that righteousness shall be the belt around our waist and faithfulness the belt around our loins. Isaiah could see this vision and in the midst of war, Isaiah, by the power of God, broke his silence and proclaimed a new way of seeing this world.

What does this new way of seeing the world look like? Isaiah uses the imagery of the animal kingdom to demonstrate God's vision for the world. Those animals that would normally be aggressive toward another, slaughter them and use them for food, are now living with one another in peace. "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together. The cow and bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox." These are animals who, in reality, would not consider living together with their enemies or living together with another kind of animal's way of life. The prophet Isaiah knew that his audience would understand these opposites and see that God's vision involves living in peace with one another. Now, this does not mean that each loses their distinctive identity, but it does mean that their identity will take shape by the loving embrace of those who are different. Whatever divides us must unite us in the vision of God. So, when Damascus, Israel, and the Assyrian Empire desired to conquer Judah and Jerusalem, God reminded Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah, that a vision of the world which embraces the God who created each of these nations, must also embrace the radical inclusion and love of those who may seek to harm or destroy you.

But, you may ask, how can God expect us to love people who are so hateful? How can we love the murderer, the unjust ruler, the rapist, the thief, and the abusive spouse? How can you make amends with a country that has an extremist ruler who possibly has weapons of mass destruction? We cannot afford another September 11th. Indeed, these are difficult questions and very hard to understand. However, I believe that we find a God in the scriptures who has a larger vision than our own need for revenge on those who have wronged us. We believe in a God who loved us so that when we were unfaithful, he was faithful. When we were unrighteous and went off, like the Israelites, and made other gods, she remained righteous. When we failed to live up to our promises, God kept his. When we did not forgive others or even God, God forgave us. When we left others out to dry and turned our backs on them, God did not turn her back on us. When in the midst of the evils of war and oppression, God entered into our broken humanity in the person of Jesus Christ and restored justice, peace, faithfulness, and love as the centrality of our relationship with each other and with God. Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to pray for them. He taught us that since we are without sin we should not cast stones. He taught us to turn the other cheek and not repay evil for evil. He taught us that those who live by the sword will perish by the sword. The vision of this Jesus embodied the very vision of Isaiah and he called his followers to go forth throughout all the earth proclaiming the "good news" that in God we are redeemed and that we do not have to know war anymore. But if this is the message of God throughout the ages, from the prophets, the psalmist, Jesus, and on down to our current day, then why are we still at war with one another?

Perhaps what is even a further question from being at war with one another, is why we the so-called liberators and leaders of the free world allow the disparity between rich and poor and the powerful and powerless to continue to grow even in our own nation? Since President Bush has been in office he has provided a 1.9 trillion dollar tax cut to the wealthiest 1% of our nation. 32 million people in our country live in deep poverty and 41 million people do not have healthcare. Even though African Americans make up only 13% of our total population, African American males make up over half of the people in our prisons. This means that one third of all African American men between the ages of eighteen and thirty four are under the supervision of the criminal justice system, whether it be on probation, parole, or supervision. What is more, people of color in this country make up over 70% of all the people in our prison system. Continuing this racial bias, according to the Fellowship for Theological Education, the likelihood of an African American participating at the level of a Ph.D in religious studies is .5 %, not 5%, but .5%. Part of this problem is connected to a larger problem of school neglect. It would take $112 billion dollars to repair, update, and adequately staff every high school in the United States. But the current Bush administration is more interested in military might, than fixing these growing disparities within our own country. It may cost $112 billion to deal with every school, but our current military budget is $396 billion dollars and it will take somewhere between $20-$40 billion dollars to begin a war with Iraq. The president made a statement just this week about how he will not allow our tax dollars to be used to fund agencies in other countries that support abortions because abortion means killing innocent lives. Yet, he will use billions of our tax dollars to use the arsenal of our mighty military to kill innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq under the guise of his "War on Terrorism." Why are we so at war with one another and why do we allow these growing disparities to continue? We have bought into the lie that says we must look out for number one. We have bought into racism, sexism, and class superiority. We have valued individual economic gain, rather than what is best for all in our communities. We have valued our needs over those of others and we place these heavy burdens on the weak and powerless and walk away the heroes. Indeed, this is the kind of sickness that King was talking about.

If we cannot deal with our own sicknesses, what makes us think that we can go and try to fix Iraq's social situation? Why do we believe that military force will better the economic and social disparities of people in Iraq? It won't. Forcing regime change in Iraq will only bring about another ruler that is just as problematic as Sadaam Hussein, if not more so. The war on Iraq will not make us safer from weapons of mass destruction, but in fact, it will probably send a stronger wave of terror in our direction. We have argued that Iraq has not complied with international law, and yet if we decide to attack Iraq now, without the approval of the UN security council, we will also be in violation of international law because we do not have the full support of the council to attack. In fact, we have very little support from the international community on this war and my growing fear is that a war on Iraq could create a massive hatred of the United States. As we gather here today on the eve of the UN security council report, as we gather on the eve of war, you might be asking how can I get involved or how can I resist this war?

I think there are several ways that we as Christians can get involved in resistance to the war on Iraq. First, I think we can be proactive in our communities by addressing the war with friends, neighbors, and those in political seats. We can also write and call our congressperson. Second, I think that we can join the peace movement, which does protests in New Jersey on a weekly and monthly basis. We can also join the movement at a national level in the marches on Washington or in letter writing to our officials. Third, I do think before we can deal with many of the international war issues we must also look at our own injustices at home. We must see ourselves for who we truly are before we can tell others that they are wrong. We need to struggle against the injustices and growing disparities in our own country. Finally, we must be engaged with one another in the church. We must learn more about these issues that impact our world and discuss them with the ability to disagree and bring a sharper edge to one another. We need Christians who will pray together and ask God to help us see the vision of Isaiah.

I think the Psalmist best understood this vision of prayer and the vision of a more just world when he wrote Psalm 85. The psalmist suggests that we need to pray to "hear what God the Lord will speak," and the Psalmist suggests that the word we will hear is a word of peace. The word of our God this morning is a word where things come together in a passionate kiss of salvation. The psalmist writes, "Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground and righteousness will look down from the sky." In the vision of God, those things at war with each other will come together through, love, faithfulness, justice, and peace. White people will sit down with black people. Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland will meet together in the town square. Israelis and Palestinians will embrace each other as sisters and brothers. North and South Korea will no longer be at odds with one another. Homosexuals and heterosexuals will be able to talk with one another without fear. The young and the old will laugh and cry together. People who are disabled will not be ostracized by those who are able. Terrorism will cease, exploitation lay itself down, and love will become central. The United States and Iraq will not battle over weapons of mass destruction or over oil, but we will live in peace with one another. Nation will not rise up sword against nation and neither will we learn war anymore. This was the vision of Isaiah. This is the vision of God. This is the KISS OF PEACE. AMEN!