Last year I gave a sermon about the range of faithful and ethical Christian approaches to war, from pacifism to just war, knowing it is difficult to live according to Jesus’ law of love in a world with so much violence. The U.S. war on Iran unleashed a few days ago does not meet the ethical requirements of a Christian just war.

That’s putting it dispassionately.

Speaking from the heart, as an ordained Christian minister, the actions of our commander in chief are a gross violation of what we as Christians should stand for. We should know by now that the forces of sin feed off the violence and chaos that a war unleashes, and it is the innocent children of God who suffer the worst of it. A war of choice is dangerous and deeply wrong. To celebrate the killing of a brutal tyrant may sound righteous, but as decades of U.S. military misadventures should show, it is too often just a cynical excuse for a reckless exercise of power that opens the way for vicious cycles of bloodshed. The consequences are catastrophic and tragic and unrighteous.

As followers of Jesus we know a better way is possible. Jesus unmasked the vicious trap of sinful attachment to violence. He showed humanity a better way, which we are called to embody and to advocate for. Yes, it is hard in this world to follow the Law of Love and Way of peace, but that is what Jesus followers need to strive for. To evoke God while celebrating bloodshed is to bow before a tribal war god.

I pray for all in harm’s way and grieve the lives that have and will be violently cut short, which I am sad to say includes U.S. Service Members. Jesus weeps. None of us have a full perspective of historical outcomes. Good people of all nations can cooperate with God in bringing goodness out of tragedy. I take faith in the vision of the coming of Heaven on Earth when God will wipe away all tears. Woe unto those who have no tears to dry.

Pope Leo XIV said last week, “War does not solve problems, but rather it amplifies them and produces deep wounds in the history of people that take generations to heal. … No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. … There is no faraway conflict when human dignity is at stake. … Let diplomacy silence the weapons. … Let nations chart their future with works of peace, not with violence and bloody conflicts!”

I share in this, from a prayer by Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson

Giver of life, how you must grieve at the callous infliction of death and destruction, the easiness with which people choose the path of violence when you have shown us a better way through your love for all humankind

We pray for your intervention and a settling of your Spirit on the hearts of those which are now set on the path of violence: turn them back to the path of life. We pray for your intervention in the midst of our fear, that we persist in your truth with courage as we seek peace and justice for all. Protect those who are now in harm’s way and send your healing spirit to each one afflicted by acts of violence. Show us a way where there appears to be no way, a peace where there is now no peace, a path to restoration of community and a just and lasting peace. 

Amen.