What is the Sword and the Ploughshare?
What is this site all about? Why is it called “The Sword and the Ploughshare”? Perhaps we ought first to ask, “What do the sword and the ploughshare mean?” Here are a few answers:
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“The only violence we preach...is the violence of love...the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work.”--Oscar Romero
“He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide for strong nations far away;
and 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 anymore.
But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree,
And no one shall make them afraid;
For the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.”
--Mic. 4:3
“ Prepare for war!
Wake up the mighty men,
Let all the men of war draw near,
Let them come up.
Beat your plowshares into swords,
And your pruning hooks into spears;
Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’”
...For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision....
And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine,
The hills shall flow with milk,
And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;
A fountain shall flow from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Acacias.
--Joel 3:9-10, 14, 18
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”--Is. 9:6-7
“I came not to bring peace but a sword.” --Mt. 10:34
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit.”--Heb. 4:12
“And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” --Rev. 19:15-16
“ For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower, And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void
But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
“ For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace.”--Is. 55:10-12
“Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword.”--Mt. 26:52
“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Numenor; and I would have loved her for her memory, her ancientry, and her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.” --Faramir, from The Two Towers
“Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”--Rom. 13:3-4
“For man’s grim Justice goes its way,
And will not swerve aside:
It slays the weak, it slays the strong,
It has a deadly stride:
With iron heel it slays the strong,
The monstrous parricide!”--The Ballad of Reading Gaol
“Let Justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”--Amos 5:24
“Behold! the tears of the oppressed, and for them, no comforter. In the hand of their oppressors, power, and for them, no comforter.”--Ecc. 4:1
“[The Messiah] shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with justice he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Justice shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.” Is. 11:3-5
If you extend your soul to the hungry, And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. --Is. 58:10-11
Then I, John,[a] saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband....
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”--Rev. 21:2; 22:1-2
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What is justice? How does it relate to love? What is peace? How do we get there? Can we wield the sword? If not, where does the justice come from? Why is it that peace and justice seem so connected to agriculture? Are we all supposed to become farmers? Does economic justice mean agrarianism? And yet peace and justice also seem so connected to the idea of a well-ordered city, which brings us back to politics, and does politics necessarily mean sword-wielding? These are the sorts of questions that swirl around in my head when I lie down and when I rise up, that fill the pages of my blogging and the prayers of my searching. These are the sorts of questions that you will see me musing and essaying about here.
But don’t expect me to confine myself to such a neat little box. God made everything, right? That means everything’s fair game. Weather, arts, sports, and current events are all likely to get some airtime on this smorgasbord of a blog. But I expect that the bulk of the content will stick to that neat little set of themes sketched in the quotes above. I hope you enjoy it!