“Everyone is a Target” states an article[i] I have just read about Ukrainians in Donbas who are trapped on the front lines of Russia’s invasion. The first-hand account of people living amid destruction and incessant, indiscriminate bombardment is heart wrenching. For many, the only shelter is in basements and cellars without privacy, running water, access to food, with only the limited light of candles. Their cities and homes have been destroyed and still the shelling continues. There is no reprieve.
 
As I read the stories of people, elderly people and those who have lost touch with their families I find myself becoming increasingly angry at the heartless brutality of those who declared this war (or “special military operation”) and those who carry out those orders. What gives any man or woman a right to destroy the lives and livelihood of other human beings?
While Russia is no longer the centre of what US President Ronald Reagan called “the evil empire,” by any other name its disposition to dominate and force its will on others seems undiminished.
 
This morning’s news headlined the surprise advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian occupied territory, retaking towns and cities. Now a flood of Russian sympathizers is surging toward Russia for fear of Ukrainian reprisal. There is no reprieve for anyone as misery and inhumanity change course on the front lines of destruction. And now some voices are raising a call for the drastic use of tactical nuclear strikes to put an end to it all.
None of this on either side is good. The front line of good and evil doesn’t run between humanity on one side and inhumanity on the other. Both sides are trapped in a cycle of hatred and violence that cannot be undone or eradicated by means of greater hatred and violence regardless of the weapons used against each other.
 
Meanwhile, some of us are blessed to live in peace — a peace we cannot and dare not take for granted. We don’t have to look further than our own hearts to catch glimpses of the hatred and anger lurking within ourselves. Whenever any of our political or personal differences and disagreements become fueled by our anger, disdain, disrespect, and hatred toward others we might just as well be trapped on the front lines of the Donbass region or Lysychansk and Bakhmut.
 
Violence toward any side, by any side is an abomination of God’s gift of life to that person or persons. Theologian, Barbara Brown Taylor states that the essence of sin is not the violation of moral laws but the violation of relationships. “We live in a web of creation that binds us to all other living beings. If we want to be saved, then we had better figure out how to do it together …”[ii]

Jesus suffered and died on the frontlines of violence with his arms wide open to all people on all sides of all conflicts. Why is it that we presume his embrace does not and cannot include those we demean, vilify, and condemn?
  I Timothy 1:12-15
 

 

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From São Paulo to Moscow, Kampala to Medellín, Ron Nikkel knows the anguish and hopelessness of people trapped in trouble.
In places of civil conflict, extreme poverty, systemic injustice, and inhumane imprisonment he has come face to face not only with tragedy and failure but great hope and courage. In Nepal, a prisoner sacrifices his meager ration of rice to feed his abandoned daughters. In a Pakistan slum, former prisoners and refugees build a place of worship from rocks and branches. What seems impossible and disastrous is not the end of these stories. People emerge, not only as survivors but as individuals who contribute to the greater good of their communities. A meditation on failure and hope, faith and forgiveness, violence and peace Hope in the Ruins will challenge your perspective and show you the real world of triumph in the face of human agony you can’t—and shouldn’t—look away from.