The Blue Angels, America’s ridiculously talented aerial acrobatics squadron, performed in Charleston last weekend. This is not something that usually appeals to me, especially since their practices in the days before the show was held in what felt like the immediate airspace above my office, drowning out phone conversations and rattling 100-year-old windows. If I hadn’t known better, I’d think the Russians and Chinese we’re jointly invading.

But my folks were visiting that weekend, and with my father being something of history buff, we decided to take the ferry Fort Sumter—where that great American institution called the Civil War kicked off with a four thousand-shell salute. As providence would have it, we somehow managed to get on the ferry that would take across the harbor at the exact time the Blue Angels would be performing, this time literally over our heads.

Now, I’ve heard the complaint in more liberal circles that events like the Blue Angels aerial shows are part of the military-industrial complex and a celebration of American imperialism. By showcasing our advanced war machines in our culture and entertainment, it is subtly reinforced in the American psyche that our military might is inherently good, if not glorious. I’m intrigued by this argument, but regardless of its legitimacy, I don’t feel that the Blue Angels should be included in this context. In fact, as these fighter jets screeched over my head in near-impossible formations, it occurred to me they represent the very radical vision of Isaiah and the Kingdom of God.

The prophet Isaiah tells us that the fulfillment of the God’s reign on earth will signal the end of global conflict. Militaries, pacified in the glorious presence of Christ, will find themselves completely obsolete. But Isaiah has an environmentalist streak to his prophecy, and he predicts that the military hardware that once harvested lives will be recycled into tools for the harvesting of crops. Isaiah 2:4 reads, “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; 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.” This is the ancient rendering. I believe the Blue Angels are the modern-day equivalent to Isaiah.

If the Second Coming of Christ were to occur tomorrow, America’s vast armed forces wouldn’t have much do anymore. Stopping genocides? None to stop. Protecting strategic resources? We’re all sharing them now. Pre-emptive strikes? Heavens, no. So what would we do with all our military hardware? Well, I don’t think we throw it all in the junkyard. We would have to convert our war machines for peacetime. And not for a peacetime that exists at the interstices of conflict, but a divine perpetual peace that renders weapons useless.

So what would we do with that killing stuff? We’d recycle it of course. Tanks could make great new bulldozers. Nuclear submarines would be fantastic research vessels. And jet fighters, well, I would love to see them do cool tricks—just like the Blue Angels.

Stripped of their weapons systems, the Blue Angels are denuded F/A-18 Hornets converted for our entertainment. We won’t see these guys dropping 500-pound bombs in Afghanistan. They are permanent planes of peace, perhaps a glimmer of what the Kingdom of God would mean for modern America.

So floating out in the Charleston harbor as the blue and gold painted aircraft roared over us in ear-deafening unison, I thought to myself, “They shall beat their warplanes into Blue Angels.” Lord, haste the day.

GUEST BLOGGER, The Rev. Cress Darwin

This commentary first appeared in the Post and Courier.

Acts 2:44-45 states that “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” This issue is huge. When asked to comment on health care “from the perspective of a religious leader” I imagined there would be a commonality, a consistency in responses differentiated primarily by skill, style of expression and background. But when I came to see the distance between attitudes and perspectives on this issue, I realized I can speak only for myself.

I believe the challenge is this: to address the public-square issues as only part of what we as a community of Christ followers do, and keep our focus on the mandate to love all of God’s created. Christians have only one person that we need to consider, one from whom we long to hear, “Well done.” And Jesus the Christ is clear in instructing us.

Blogger Kathy Escobar writes: “Jesus calls us to care for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the rejected, the oppressed, the unprotected. … It’s about sacrificial love. It’s about taking care of other’s needs.” How can one argue with that, especially a person of faith who would be obedient?

Scripture requires that we follow through — not just that which we say, but that which we do. “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works” (James 2:26). Yet the things that can and must be done in these times to care for ourselves and for all people are the same as in the early church, only accomplished in very different ways. One cannot deny that sharp pencils must be wielded, but withcaring hearts. Laws must be followed but with clever minds that mix artfully pragmatism and compassion. The journey to compromise and consent must be approached and completed with integrity.

I, therefore, must be an encourager, a catalyst and equipper of those who would do the heavy lifting in addressing the broad issues of health care.

In our community, we recognize that each of us is given different gifts of the spirit — talents, if you will, abilities we didn’t ask for or seek. These gifts differentiate us in our abilities to be of service to each other, to the community and, therefore, to God. My task is to help someone recognize, accept and utilize his particular gifts in service to Christ’s commandment to love.

We also recognize fruits of the Spirit, qualities that are resultant and developed through experience, intention and hard work. These include patience, kindness, goodness and joy, qualities that should be evident in, and in service to, caring for each other.

So here again is my task: How can I encourage those with whom I live, work and serve to hone their skills that they may become conversant and facile in the language of business and politics as well as the language of compassion and grace? Policy and politics are particular fields that few may have the heart, the stomach or skill to engage. Cleverness and perseverance matter little if they are not informed by a caring and obedient spirit.

It is obvious to all but the most coarsened that there are those who need opportunity and those who need help. The Second Presbyterian Church, which I serve, is a growing, diverse, multigenerational congregation. People at both ends of the political spectrum attend, worship and lead here. We encourage each other to be grounded in the discerned will of God revealed in Holy Scripture and through the leading, teasing and nudging of the Spirit we receive as Holy. We strive to think globally, but know that we start right here.