No Justice, No Peace

It rings out in protests across the country, a refrain calling those in power to grant what has been withheld, a promise to keep speaking up and showing up until at last the demand is met. “No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!”

No justice….no peace.  The two are interwoven ideals.  The presence of one is not possible without the deep, authentic presence of the other.  But these days, both of these seem distant realities.  Whether it’s the relentless raids by ICE and other masked federal agents in cities across the country, ripping families and communities apart, or the military strikes that continue to pummel Gaza despite the so-called ceasefire,  our world often reveals a shocking lack of either peace or justice.

We are in the thick of a Kairos moment, a moment demanding profound vigilance and repentance. It’s a John the Baptist moment, when the prophetic clarion call pierces the wilderness and summons a bold reversal of what is for the sake of what can and ought to be.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he stood within another of those Kairos moments and said, “But before we reach the majestic shores of the Promised Land, there is a frustrating and bewildering wilderness ahead.  We must still face prodigious hilltops of opposition and gigantic mountains of resistance.  But with patient and firm determination we will press on until every valley of despair is exalted to new peaks of hope, until every mountain of pride and irrationality is made low by the leveling process of humility and compassion; until the rough places of injustice are transformed into a smooth plane of equality of opportunity; and until the crooked places of prejudice are transformed by the straightening process of bright-eyed wisdom.”

We are in our own “bewildering wilderness”, without a doubt. Our path through it is fraught with frustrations, fears, and a whole lot of staggering uncertainty.  Yet in this season of Advent we nonetheless await the Prince of Peace and yearn yet again for all the prophets foretold, for a time when peace will be joined by justice, when all flesh shall see together the abundance of God’s wondrous love.

And so we too press on, our faithful hope fueling our witness and strengthening our conviction: no justice, no peace!

The Reverend Shari Prestemon began her service with the national ministries of the United Church of Christ in January 2024. As the Associate General Minister & Co-Executive for Global Ministries she has the privilege of overseeing several teams: Global Ministries, Global H.O.P.E., Public Policy & Advocacy Team (Washington, D.C.), and our staff representative to the United Nations. She previously served as pastor to local UCC congregations in Illinois and Wisconsin; the Executive Director at the UCC’s Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi; and as Conference Minister in Minnesota.