Casting Out Fear

An Invitation to Prayer
The Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Baghdad, Iraq invites you to join with us every Tuesday for a day of prayer, fasting and action that will continue until Easter week. Participate as you are led either by fasting (the team will do a bread and water fast) and/or participating with us in a time of joint prayer. At 9AM Eastern Standard Time (1400GMT) the team will gather for an hour of focused prayer. You are invited to join for the entire hour or for as much time as you can. Please also note the Action Steps connected with each week's sacred passage. If you are so led, the CPT Iraq team asks that you take the suggested action between Tuesday and Thursday so that we can be working together.

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Tuesday, March 1, 2005: Casting Out Fear

1 John 4:18
“There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear.”

Micah 4: 2-5
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that God may teach us God’s ways, and that we may walk in God’s paths”… God shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.”

According to John, fear is the opposite of love. It is fear that isolates us, searches for enemies, and then demonizes and hates them. Micah calls us to a mountaintop where we can see the many peoples of the world through the eyes of God who heals disputes and enmities rather than exploiting them. So we learn the nonviolent message of Jesus: to reject not only war but also any preparation for it, finding our security in the power of love and compassion. In this vision the fruits of the earth will be shared by all; refugees will find a home, “and no one will make them afraid.” The challenge is to reject idolatry: the worship and obedience demanded by the national security state, and to walk in reverence in the presence of all creation: a creation that reflects and names the God of justice and mercy.

ACTION STEPS

1. Organize with parents and others to remove ROTC from U.S. schools.

2. Risk offering a kind word or action to someone who seems insecure and antagonistic.

3. Challenge a church leader to speak out against war & occupation as a means to “security”.

4. Risk “crossing the line” with others in an act of civil resistance to your government’s policy in Iraq.