"Let us try what love will do."
William Penn
These words of the seventeenth century, British American Colonist, William Penn, sound like something Jesus would have said. We might imagine he placed the emphasis on the word try. Is there some sense of desperation to the invitation? We have tried invasion and war. We have tried consumerism, exploitation and wealth-garnering, yet we remain unhappy and unfulfilled ~ "Let us try what love will do." Notice that love does something. It isn't a lifeless sentiment. Love is active — it makes good happen for the other. Love yields self interest for the benefit of the other.
William Penn was one of the founding Quakers, who are one of what are called peace churches. There are only a few of them. I imagine Jesus, who said to Peter in the violent night time garden, "Put away the sword," would be dismayed.
I remember years ago, when I was a curate, there was a weeping cherry tree outside the rectory front door. I peaked under the branches one morning and discovered a lovely nesting dove hidden in the branches. Then the lawn company guys came through with roaring mowers and blowers, all on a time table, having thirty lawns to mow before the end of the day. So this story is ultimately about money.
And while part of the team drove around furiously, another worker moved from tree to tree with a tank of insect killing poison strapped to himself, blasting the stuff over, under and around every tree. I called to him, "There's a dove's nest in the tree." He waved me off and yelled over the roar, "Oh they're like rats; they're everywhere."
What's wrong with us that we've come to this utter violent disregard for living things? Mind you, the poison goes into the ground which is a food source for other birds, and under the ground is often our water source (hence the term ground water). Ultimately this violence to a nesting bird is violence to ourselves.
"Let us try what love will do."
