It is Christmas time, a time for which some of us wait the year round – an occasion to hum those hauntingly memorable carols, buy new clothes and presents and get ready in many other ways to rejoice in the birth of our Savior Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace. In his first coming, he came to leave his peace with all those who acknowledged Him as their Lord and Savior through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The seeds of a Kingdom to come were sown – A kingdom that will come to completion at His second coming.
The means that he left behind to spread His gospel on earth and to offer a sample of the kingdom to come in the end days is the church. The church on earth is an ambassador of the prince of peace in thought, word and deed and in the words of St. Francis of Assisi, we are asked individually and corporately to be channels and instruments of his peace- not just peace in our hearts and souls in the sense of having received personal salvation but also peace in our nation, society and world. The picture of the kingdom as a time when God will one day wipe away every tear from every eye and swords will be melted into ploughshares means just that – a time when weapons will be out of date in an environment of amity and harmony.
Examining the church’s past history in acting as an instrument of peace is informative because it might provide us with a road map for peace initiatives in the future. The need for the church to be involved in such initiatives is no lesser today than it was in the past. In taking part of the peace initiatives, the involvement of the church in the North East deserves some recognition and study.
The north east of India has a chequered political history. For instance, the Nags had declared their independence from British rule on the 14th of August 1947, a day before the birth of independent India. In fact in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi had told a delegation of Naga leaders, that Nagas have every right to be independent.” But after Gandhiji was assassinated, his promises die ended with him as the new Indian government decline to accept Naga hope for independence. Naga protests and resistance to the incorporation of their land into the Indian union began to steadily grow.
Then in 1955 the Indian army occupied the Naga areas and martial law was declared. Violence quickly escalated. In the 1960s and 1970s, Baptist Church leaders initiated efforts to halt the violence. Eventually the Shillong Accord was signed in 1975 as a result of these efforts, Although the peace agreement was flawed as Key Naga resistance leaders were left out of the process, the accord agreed to incorporation into the Indian union and although not every one was satisfied and happy with the happy with the arrangement and the Naga underground split after the agreement, it did bring down the level of violence and allow some manner of governance and development to occur in the state.
In many instances, the church though powerful was still a distant second in commanding loyalties compared to tribal and ethnic allegiance. Christianity after all is only 125 years old in Nagaland but tribal and linguistic identities go back centuries. It is commendable that in spite of its many limitations, the church tried to be a moderating influence in a spiral of terrorism which might have otherwise completely spun out of control.
The story has been more successful in Mizoram. In 1958, a proliferation of rats attacked the rice crop, bringing famine to the Mizo hills. That became the catalyst for an uprising against the insensitive bureaucracy in Assam. An organization, known as the Mizo Cultural Front, metamorphosed into the Mizo National Famine Front. In 1961, under the leadership of Laldenga, the Front morphed into a military outfit called the Mizo National Front (MNF). The different denominational churches in Mizoram, under the initiative of the major Churches such as the Presbyterian and the Baptist, came together by forming committees, in order to work together toward conflict resolution and peace building. Eventually, the church was actually successful in bringing Mizo National Front to the negotiating table and getting them to sign a Mizo accord which has largely lasted to this day Mizoram has now become one of the most peaceful and fast developing states in Northeast India.
Today the challenge before the church is to attempt to bring peace in settings where the threat is terrorism in its various forms and the church is not necessarily as powerful or as influential as in the examples cited above. But the church can still be a peace making voice. It can tell the world that terrorism is not spread only by the poverty of money as is often thought but that it becomes viral when there is a poverty of dignity. Humiliation is the most underestimated force in international relations and in human relations. It is when people or nations are humiliated that they really lash out and engage in extreme violence. In such settings, the church is called to bring the message of peace and the greatest peace maker of all.
Happy are the peacemakers, says Jesus. Those who know that peacemaking is hard but that the ball is always in our court and it are more important even than worship. Happy, says Jesus, are the peacemakers. Those who know that conflict is inevitable, who know we can never escape it, not that we want to create it but who are willing to take a step into it where ever necessary to bring about God’s peace. Not to run away. Not to perpetuate conflict. But to be a peacemaker.
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