I was praying for Ukraine today.
I was standing in the Ukrainian cemetery here in Phoenixville and thinking about the tensions in Europe and the burden felt by my neighbors here. Generations of Ukrainians have helped build this town. They came here in the 1800s to work in the steel mill. They have built houses, families, shops, clubs, churches, and a cemetery. There are over a million of them here in the U.S., many right here in Pennsylvania. They are a proud and colorful people. They are also very religious, mostly Orthodox and Catholic. Ukraine was sort of the bible belt in the former Soviet Union; much to the chagrin of the communist party. Ukraine has been a stomping ground for Moscow since the time of the Tzars. With its rich soil and fertile fields Ukraine was the breadbasket of the Soviet empire. It seems they want it back.
For most of us the blurbs we see on Fox and CNN; the daily State Department warnings; the troop movements to Poland and elsewhere, are mostly boring international posturing in a land far away. But for our Ukrainian neighbors, with family and friends in Kiev and elsewhere, this is fear and trembling. This is late-night long-distance phone calls and prayers for peace and mercy for their family and brethren.
It seems to me that the White House is getting this mostly right at the moment, although military events have a way of overriding presidents and their plans. There are voices in our government and media that are almost salivating at the idea of Americans finally shooting at Russians. Are they mad? Would they really just strut into the globe-shattering cataclysm that we miraculously managed to dance around for more than seven decades of the Cold War? Do they really think the American people are willing to send their children off to bleed in the snows and mud of the endless Eurasian steppe? Has going to war with Russia in winter ever ended well? You do not have to scratch the skin of history very deep to reveal the failures of a Napoleon or a Hitler. Hegel said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” I am hoping he was wrong. No one ever wins a war.
I know that Putin is a bully, a thug and a murderer. But I also know that simple miscalculations in diplomacy, along with clumsy military blunders and intelligence failures, can lead to tens of millions dead. This is a serious moment in history, and we need to pay attention. Russia is the largest country in the world by far, no one else is even close, (Canada, the next largest, is about half the size). The last thing they need is more real estate. But Putin wants the empire back, and he does not trust NATO; pride and fear make a dangerous cocktail. I am hopeful that he will see the cost that will be inflicted on him, both financial; international trade and finance, and military; body bags being shipped back to Russia, and it will give him pause. But I may be wrong.
If I am wrong, and the furies of war are unleashed; if Russian armor begins streaming across the frontier next week, then Ukraine is looking at a dark and violent winter/spring. This picture of Christ on the cross is from the Polish cemetery, which is next to the Ukrainian one, just as Poland is next to Ukraine. The Poles are another people who have suffered much under the jackboots of history. It is the image of a suffering Savior for a suffering people.
But Jesus was not just suffering there, he was redeeming people. Jesus was not a martyr. He did not die for a “cause”. He died for people, including Russians and Ukrainians. He laid down his life on his own terms; he let the furies take him. He was God at his weakest overpowering and outmaneuvering all his enemies at their strongest.
When he returns, and he will, it will not be as a baby in a manger, or a man on a cross. But as a rider on a white horse. All bullies and thugs will run and hide, and he will bring a final end to all human warfare. Until that day we watch and wait, and work for peace. Until that day we love our neighbor no matter where they were born. Until that day we do all we can to keep the furies in their bottle.
Until that day we stand in cemeteries, and we pray.
“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”