A Maze of Walls

Yesterday was Rememberance Sunday, which is much like our Veterans Day. It is a day when people commemorate lives lost in the World Wars, the Troubles, and in present struggles around the world, inlcuding Iraq. In Belfast people wear poppies to remember the Battle of the Somme where the field was stained with the blood of fallen soldiers and now red poppies bloom. To some people wearing the poppy is not only an act of remembrance, but a symbol of allegiance to the Queen of England. This was more true during the times of the Troubles, but even today you are less likely to see someone from a Catholic/Nationalist background wearing a poppy than a Loyalist/Protestant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/remembrance/
This BBC site has some interesting information on Remembrance.

With a tense history surrounding Remembrance Liz took a different approach and chose to focus on peacemaking and forward movement into a shared future. Whitehouse launched a discipleship course, “The Gospel in Conflict” on Sunday evenings and Liz wanted to echo that in her sermon on Sunday. She asked me to do the children’s focus and discuss what it means to love your neighbor. I was very nervous, because I feel like children’s sermons are like teaching in front of a lot of evaluators. So Doug gave me some advice on our retreat and with a few practice runs on Doreen, the deaconess, and my roommates I was ready to go.

The service started with the Act of Remembrance which includes laying of wreaths, a bugle call with a poem read, silence, prayer, and the National Anthem (“God Save the Queen”). I did my children’s sermon and felt an amazing enjoyment being there with the children. When I asked who their neighbor was one wee boy replied, “Eugenia and Alex!” I talked to them about how some people don’t know the love of God and their hearts are cold like ice cubes. I have never seen such excitement about touching an ice cube! But Jesus calls us to love our neighbor, which is everyone, and that means surrounding their hearts with our warm love. So each child held an ice cube and felt it melt. I also talked with them about how the water in their hand is like how we always get something in return when we love someone. It was such a blessing to be there with them, to see the genuine excitement of approaching the Kingdom of God like a child. I truly hope they made the connection and will endeavor to surround their neighbor with warm love.

Then Liz stood to give her sermon. She began with a story about an Indonesian man who had gone to England to study and was living with a family. He went to his minister and complained that he needed to be moved because he was not getting on well with his host family. He explained how the woman looked down on him. On one occasion he was eating an orange. As he began to peel she instructed him to get a plate, knife, napkin, be careful, and so on. He remarked that she looked on him as an uncivilized fellow because he did not know how to eat an orange. He looked upon her as an uncivilized woman because she did not know how to enjoy an orange. The point was that it is amazing how small differences can get seriously out of proportion and be difficult to sort out.

If an orange can create a barrier, how much more a wall…
Liz showed slides of the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, and the wall being erected in Iraq by the Saudis. She talked about the lives sacrificed in the building of the Great Wall, the hope of the day when the Berlin wall came down, and how even Mary and Joseph would be stopped in their tracks by the wall now going up on the way to Bethlehem.

And then she showed a picture of a Belfast peace line. There are now 41 peacelines or district barriers in Belfast, not Northern Ireland, but Belfast alone. Peacelines are used to separate Catholic/Nationalist areas from Protestant/Loyalist areas.

Houses along the lines became derelict because of petrol bombs and other objects thrown over them. There are even a few peacelines that you can drive directly through, but they are closed during times of tension. Peacelines can be a blaring, high, barbed wire wall or even a wall that has since been covered with growth to make it less stark. It has always been ironic to me that you need a wall to have peace. There are over 20 kilometers of peace wall in North Belfast.

Walls here are also covered with images, murals of allegiance and declarations of belief.


These physical markers stand, but there are also invisible barriers. People are reluctant to travel in areas where there used to be tension, in neighborhoods less like their own. Liz even mentioned me and where I live. Sometimes people in the congregation have expressed sympathy for me when they hear that I live in the New Lodge area, which is strongly Nationalist. People say that an area “used to be nice” when they are simply referring to the fact that the Loyalists have moved out and the Nationalists have moved in. This movement can also be referred to as “the greening” or Catholics moving into an area that used to be largely Protestant.

Race is also increasingly becoming a barrier in Northern Ireland and sexual orientation. The Community Relations Officer of Newtonabbey reported that she has been out 24 times to victims of racial attack. Barriers are created where difference is noted and in an effort to increase our security, making an “us” and a “them” we put people in a box or behind a wall.

In Ephesians Paul writes that Christ is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. Christ has broken down the dividing wall! When Jesus died, the temple curtain was torn in two, proving that God cannot be contained within walls, even the walls of the temple. God’s love is not within bounds, walls, or divisions and He calls us to join him in breaking them apart. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, men or women, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” Jesus calls us to abandon our prejudice and trade it for a shared vision.

As Liz delivered her sermon, which I’ve sort of paraphrased and added my own embellishments to here, I was struck by the bravery of my minister. How she stood with enthusiasm before the congregation and delivered a sermon that artfully, unwaveringly, faced the issues before all of us. In my first months in Northern Ireland I have observed a dichotomy. People who want to talk about the Troubles, talk about the current issues in government, society, and even our own communities. I have also observed people who dance gracefully around everything and keep peace by layering silence on top of it. I think what I have learned most from this dichotomy and from the bravery of Liz’s sermon yesterday, is that we in the United States could really learn a lot. Here, the lines of division are raw, painted, flagged, and labeled. There are also the divisions that bubble under the surface and are exchanged in a glance. In the States, we have a few labels on our boxes, a few defined divisions, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and political view. Most of the time we don’t have much trouble talking about them, but we do hesitate to make much of them.

“History is going to judge us in this country,” Liz said. “Our grandchildren are going to ask us, ‘What did you do to make a difference?’”

History will judge us in our own country as well. What did you do to make sure that all people were treated equally? What did you do to stand up for what you believe in, in a way that affected change? What did you do to eliminate and break down the walls that built a maze around you? What did you do to ensure that there is no longer them and us and share the message that we are all one in Christ Jesus and God’s love knows no bounds? What did you do to make a difference?

How do you know when the night has passed and the day has come?

When you can look into the eyes of every person you meet and see that they are your brother or sister, because until you are able to do this, the night will never end and the day will never dawn.