Makers of Joy and Peace: Healing Human Conflict and Suffering

By H. A. Dale

The church has not focused on the search for joy and peace but on the forgiveness of human sin as the way to joy and peace. The church and its leaders proclaim it.

Unfortunately, for many Christians, the gospel now means “the truth of God’s forgiveness” instead of an “expression of perfect joy.” As a result, the search for joy and peace has been left in the hands of advertising agencies and entrepreneurs who sell happiness in all its varieties.

People hunger for happiness and long for laughter and joy. At parties, we laugh our heads off, but when we go home, the joy fades.

We cry out for the ability to lay ourselves down and get a good night’s rest. We long to live our daily lives without threats of any kind. We have the largest military in the world protecting us. But we do not feel safe and joyful.

Join the author as he shares the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and find the joy and peace you so desperately need in your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664281646

H. A. Dale

H. A. Dale has served as a Lutheran pastor for decades. He has also founded and directed nonprofit organizations. He is the author of The Legends of Kee Tov and has composed the music for three musical plays. He writes to add to the work being done by people of all faiths to heal human suffering.

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Copyright © 2023 H. A. Dale.

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Scripture quoted by permission. All scripture quotations are taken from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8165-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8166-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8164-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022919717

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/23/2023

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Part 1 Seeing the Invisible

1Heal a Fighting Humanity

2Grounded in Joy and Peace — A Universal Right

3Grounded in National Beliefs

4Impasses Obstructing Joy and Peace

Part 2 Grounding Believers in Joy and Peace

5Grounded in Our History of Joy

6Grounded in Relationships of Peace

7Training a Communion of Joy-Makers and Peacemakers

8Makers of Joy and Peace at Work Today

9Toward Today’s Cluster Infrastructure

Resources for Peacemakers Beloved by the Author

Bibliography

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of

my enemies.

—Psalm 23

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My personal insights are the insights of many others integrated into my own and I giving credit to someone else is nearly impossible, though it ought to be done.

I have seminary professors, bishops, leaders of nonprofit organizations, and individual thinkers, the great ones I’ve listed in the last section of this book. Personal relationship of profound thinkers include Dr. Mark Peterson, Dr. David Tiede, Rev. Kathryn Tiede, all connected with Lutheran Social Service who have given important feedback to my writing. And Pastor Charles Barnes, a close friend, who has been a significant contributor in terms of the direction of the dialogue and its presentation.

A thank you to so many whose insights are included in this book. Art Dale

INTRODUCTION

A Hidden Saving Grace

The world cries out for joy and peace but those who could give joy and peace cannot see the reasons they receive no answer; they’ve been doing the same thing for centuries. Religious folk pray for joy, peace, health, and the end of suffering, but they are oblivious to the reality that blindness is the key reason for the decline of religion today. That seems ridiculous. Equally silly is to blame blind people for what they cannot see.

I speak as a Christian, and I hope that other believers will join with me in escaping the blame game and in searching for what we cannot see. If we blame, we can’t see. It is useless to blame our secular culture that gives authority to power and weapons. Nor can we fault the younger generations for their rejection of organized religion that has little influence. What do we do, as Christians and as religious people of the world, to bring joy and peace to the conflicts and battles in every part of our lives? It seems that the church is in a box from which it cannot see any proper escape, so we do what we have done before.

If we compare early Christianity with the church today, we can see their rapid growth on the different conditions that existed then. When we attribute the rapid growth of the apostolic Christians to socioeconomic and political realities, we slyly trick ourselves into believing that they were different from today’s. Not even the hideous historical failures of the Christian religion, such as burning heretics and non-Christians at the stake, can explain the decline of the present-day church as an institution in our culture.

Generalizations are lies we use to tell the truth, so I need not apologize when I generalize and use the word church. I just must label the church as declining, even though some are growing in numbers and credibility. Generally, all churches in decline believe that one people are brought together into oneness by the oneness of divine love, which saves them from their sins and suffering eternally. Successful churches generally are an exception. I say, the church is in trouble and in decline.

While we watch the church that we love struggle to survive massive, horrible human suffering of all kinds, caring people feel depressed. It isn’t that the church does not care about this suffering. Every human being is suffering. It is the one common factor that unites all humankind. All religions of the world call for peace today and to end the suffering caused by war and conflict. For democratic governments, war is the last resort. War only destroys, never healing the conflict among peoples. The search for what brings joy and peace to people always has been but is tragically hidden from the church today. As much conflict exists between church members as in any institution.

In my years of professional service in several denominations—as a parish pastor, as a leader of two nonprofit organizations serving the church, as a thinker, musician, writer, and adventurer—I have continued searching for a hidden cause of decline. Martin Luther rediscovered the Priesthood of All Believers, called to give voice to the gospel of a healing, peacemaking God in a world of suffering. When I left the ranks of the laity and became a clergyperson, a strange reality struck me. I had believed that every believer has the same status and fundamental task as a child of the loving, healing God, both laity and clergy. But I was blinded to this reality. I began to think of myself as different from the members of my congregation because I was its pastoral mediator. For me, the doctrine of the priesthood—the papacy of every believing Christian—was never implemented. The ordained have suffered the same blindness and have struggled with the separation of laity and clergy for centuries. Yet every generation has witnessed the rise of many spiritual movements that served the church, challenging the clergy/laity separation.

It would not serve my purpose in this book to put the reader through the agonies of living with this duality. The study of two biblical words brings a breakthrough: church and gospel. The church has not focused on the search for joy and peace in all our relationships but on the forgiveness of human sin as the way to joy and peace. The church and its leadership proclaim it. Tragically in the minds of so many Christians, the gospel now means, the truth of God’s forgiveness, not an expression of perfect joy. The search for joy and peace is now in the hands of the economic sector—advertising agencies and entrepreneurs who sell happiness in all its varieties. People hunger for happiness and long for laugher and joy. They pay for entertainment. At the same time they long to have rest and to be at rest. At parties, we laugh our heads off, but when we go home, the joy fades. We cry out for the ability to lay ourselves down and get a good night’s rest. We long to live our daily lives without threats of any kind. We have the largest military in the world protecting us. But we do not feel safe, secure and joyful.

The message of Jesus, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, is Joy to the world, and The peace of God that passes all understanding is proclaimed in church, but most Christians find little joy and peace in their daily lives. Knowing this seems to have little effect on the way