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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in Gods work to save the world.

Truth Causes Oppressors to Tremble

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Today's commentary is an illustration of a dynamic which is evident in the book of Revelation: Truth causes oppressors to tremble.

CPTnet
28 August 2007
COLOMBIA REFLECTION: Truth causes oppressors to tremble

by Heather-Laura Peters (member of July 2007 CPT delegation)

When our delegation met last month with Pastor Stucky from the Teusaquillo
Mennonite Church in Bogotá, he thanked us for coming and offered us a
gift: a message on hope.

Having lived in war-ravaged countries and having witnessed situations of
domestic violence, I have often struggled to maintain hope. How do those
immersed in long-term suffering find the strength to struggle on for peace,
justice and righteousness? On this delegation, an additional burden weighed
on my soul. Previously, I had been exposed to the suffering of individuals
whom I love passionately; in Colombia, I was exposed to a structural evil
whose insidious power seems omnipotent. The hardness of heart in those with
the power seemed overwhelming.

Pastor Stucky spoke of the miracle of individual transformed lives. He
compared the ministry of a few transformed lives to yeast that spreads
through a batch of dough. Then he spoke of miracles he had witnessed where
God physically protected individuals and rescued them from the hands of
their enemies. Although these individual stories were inspiring, I still
felt the pervasive darkness surrounding them.

Stucky then reminded us of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a statue that
symbolized the arrogant power of kingdoms dominating the earth. The
golden-headed statue's splendor weakened toward its foundation--the statue
had feet of clay. When a rock rolled down from the hills, it toppled the
statue the moment it struck its clay feet.

Today's empires--political kingdoms, armed forces, and other national and
international structures that operate on merciless greed--have clay feet
because they are based on lies. They stand on the lie that vengeance
triumphs over mercy, that money and power are stronger than love. And that
God does not see corruption nor hear the cries of the oppressed.

Our Rock is Christ who declared himself the Truth. "Why," Stucky asked,
"does the army become so agitated at the stand of conscientious objectors?
We offer no physical threat. Over and over, we see in Colombia that it is
truth which causes oppressors to tremble." They tremble because they are
not omnipotent. No earthly power will endure once fully exposed to the
light. We struggle on for truth with this hope and joy, and with this
confidence I can join hands with my brothers and sisters in Colombia and
around the world in our struggle to shout out the truth. All the colossal
monuments of gold will fall one by one because they have clay feet. The
weak will endure with God's foundation. Hallelujah.

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