PRESIDENT Mugabe’s call this week for churches to help promote peace in the country must be taken seriously, especially by preachers. Churches can do a far easier job in hammering the message of peace home, compared to other sectors of society. This is because the majority of Zimbabweans are committed Christians who believe that their preachers were sent from God.
The preachers are held in high esteem in society and usually what they say goes.
It is in this sense that the churches can play an important role in ensuring that peace prevails in the country by emphasising on co-existence among their members.
Such co-existence must not only be seen to be practised in church, but the congregants must carry the message to their homes. And the preachers would not have overstepped their mandate if they preach about peace.
Jesus is on record having talked about peace on several occasions. Many times, the Good Lord was teaching people about co-existence, love and concern for each other.
Romans 10 verse 15 perhaps sums up the importance of preaching peace: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
Preachers can start from this verse as it is an open instruction to them to consider prioritising peace, especially as the country moves towards harmonised elections. We are not assuming that all preachers are peace lovers, far from it.
There are some rabble-rousers among them and events elsewhere have shown that churches and preachers can actually be at the forefront of inciting violence.
Reports during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 indicated that some churches played a big role in the mass killings that took place. Church leaders in that country would invite desperate people to hide in their buildings and then secretly inform those pursuing them of their presence.
As a result of such anti-peace acts by preachers, many people died within church buildings in Rwanda.
But it is obvious that God will never accept the abomination of violence from His body — the church.
Preachers in local churches must make it clear to their followers that once people live in the peace of God, they eventually become committed to peace on earth.
There is no doubt that at the root of all the diversity and variety manifested by Christians and churches working to promote peace in Zimbabwe are always God’s promises.
And it is the duty of preachers to remind their followers of this cardinal rule.
Zimbabwe will be a better society if churches emphasise preaching peace because their message will reach far.
Threats to peace are rooted not only in political structures and socio-economic development, but also in the very fabric of human nature itself.
We are very much aware that to be human means to have both a longing for peace and a tendency to competition, that can make one willing to commit violence.
In short, humans are capable of both good and evil.
They are not predisposed solely to co-operation, but are also inclined to look to their own interests without considering those of others. But this is where preachers can make their contribution by working with their church members for them to desist from what is wrong.
The church is about good triumphing over evil.
If preachers teach their congregants specifically about the bad side of violence and that God does not condone it, then Zimbabwe will be headed for a better society.
The fact that Christians are well aware that violence is detested by God and that it is a sin can be used by preachers to encourage them never to indulge in it. While the preachers spread the word of God, it is our fervent hope that they can also spread the word about peace and tolerance.
The church must be useful to society and preaching peace will be one of the “community service” that it can offer.
Perhaps this is why the word “peace” is found in many texts in the Bible. In the prophetic texts of the Old Testament, we can already see a Messianic expectancy that a Prince of Peace will come (Isaiah 9:5).
At the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, “peace on earth” is declared and Jesus himself once said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matt 5:9).
Before his death Jesus left his disciples with the gift of peace that would overcome fear (Jn 14:27).
After his resurrection, he greeted those he met with a blessing of this peace (Jn 20:19, 21, 26).
This clearly shows that it is part of the essence of Christ that peace should be passed along from one person to the next.
And the duty squarely lies on the churches to spread this gospel of peace that will result in incidents of violence becoming minimal.
This is why we totally agree with the President’s call for the church to play its part.
THE HERALD
