Walking the Path of Action and Contemplation

Aloka is in Charlotte, North Carolina today. Aloka, in case you didn’t know, was a stray dog in India who adopted a group of Buddhist monks from Texas while they were on pilgrimage there. Aloka is now accompanying the monks on a 2,300 mile Walk for Peace from their monastery in Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C.

“Our walking itself cannot create peace,” the monks acknowledged in a blog post on their website. “But when someone encounters us—whether by the roadside, online, or through a friend—when our message touches something deep within them, when it awakens the peace that has always lived quietly in their own heart—something sacred begins to unfold.” 

It seems to be working. The Peace Walk is a social and traditional media sensation. Crowds, some numbering in the thousands, have gathered to greet the monks at stopping points on the journey. Many of our friends in the Carolinas, of all political, social, and religious backgrounds, are following the peace walk with rapt attention. 

While the monks walk for peace, an immigration crackdown is unfolding in Minneapolis, and protests have erupted in response. Immigration laws, like all laws, need to be enforced. But shooting mothers in the face, throwing flash bang grenades at vehicles occupied by children, and sending armed and masked men door to door demanding that residents tell them who their non-white neighbors are is not law enforcement. It is lawlessness. 

Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed while attempting to move her van in response to an ICE agent’s orders, was born and raised Presbyterian. She went on mission trips to Northern Ireland and was married by her uncle, a PC(USA) minister. According to state officials, she was at the scene of an ICE raid as a legal observer—a volunteer who monitors law enforcement behavior—when she was shot and killed. Good’s life was a peace walk of its own. Her death is, in the words of the Presbyterian Office of Global Witness, a “testament to Jesus’ teaching that God does not change the world through violence but through faithful presence amid struggle.”

Renee Good and the monks represent what Christians have called the active life and the contemplative life. The active life manifests itself in deeds of compassion and justice, while the contemplative life focuses on prayer, worship, and meditation. Most people lean one way or the other, depending on which spiritual gifts they’ve been blessed with. The best lives combine elements of both. Service and activism without prayer leads to burnout. Prayer and worship without deeds of justice and compassion is a recipe for self-centeredness. 

Let your walk with the Lord be an active and prayerful walk for peace. Worship with us this Sunday at 10:00 AM. Listen and reflect to the choir as they sing “Let Us Pray for Peace.” Attend the community Martin Luther King, Jr. Service of Remembrance Sunday at 4:00 PM at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Join us on Monday at 9:00 AM in the fellowship hall for our Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. 

Yours in Christ, 

Marvin