“Let There be Peace on Earth, and Let it Begin with Me”

Several weeks ago we sang that great piece, “Let There be Peace on Earth, and Let it Begin with Me,” and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.  We’re coming into the Advent and Christmas season when we will often sing, say, or pray the phrase:  “peace on earth.”  In one of our favorite passages, the prophet Isaiah puts forth a time when the Prince of Peace will reign on earth.    On Christmas Eve we never fail to sing “silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.”  Our liturgy speaks of the peace that passes all understanding, yet the world can reflect something else.   As citizens of the world, and citizens of the already and not yet kingdomof God, we live in tension. 

That dichotomy was recently brought home to me as yet another piece of my family history was revealed. You may know that I have in my possession a fairly complete genealogy for the Blocher side of my ancestry—in particular the Blocher’s who owned the farm near Barlow’s Knoll on the battlefield. Last month I had a call from a Brethren pastor who is researching the historic, and now closed, “Dunkard” church on Black Horse Tavern Road–off route 116 west of Gettysburg.  A group of German Baptist Brethren, nicknamed the Dunkards, worshiped there during the battle and for decades after.  That congregation and its interface with the battle at Gettysburg is his research interest.  The Baptist Brethren have been a “peace” church since their inception in the 1700s inGermany.  They came here due to persecution and found a home in the Quaker- influenced “Penn’s Woods.”

I had seen my great, great grandfather listed in tax records as “Rev. David Blocher.”  I had assumed he was Lutheran.  This year I learned he was a minister in the German Brethren church on Black Horse Tavern Road.  He was a Dunkard!  The pastor who contacted me had encountered Rev. Blocher in the church records and began researching him, especially the goings on at the farm during the battle.  The Blocher Farm is off the Table Rock Roadnear where it joins the Biglerville Road.  The Blocher farm was in the midst of the struggle, and the 17th and 27th Conn. Volunteers fought near Blocher’s Knoll…as it was known before it was “Barlow’s Knoll.”  The story gets complicated by the fact that Rev. Blocher was a conscientious objector and duly certified as such by the state ofPennsylvania.  I have a copy of the state’s ruling granting him that status.  When the Federal government instituted the draft, that action nullified such standing.  At that point the only way to get out of serving was to pay for a “commutation,” or a fee for someone else to serve in your place.

 The Dunkards insisted on pacifism as a term of membership and one would be “disfellowshipped” or excommunicated for serving in the army.  If one could not afford the commutation, the church would raise funds to pay for it.  This was a basic tenet of the community.   A pacifist church in the midst of the greatest struggle ever fought on American soil must have been under tremendous stress, and most likely, encountered public disapproval for their stance. 

 If you’ve managed to stay with this complex story so far, allow me to introduce another level of complexity!   For as many years as I can recall, there was a large, framed-certificate in our home.  Larry and I have it now in our den.  I knew it had something to do with David Blocher and the battle but that was about it.  I now realize what it represents.  In the years following the battle, the Seventeenth Volunteer Infantry would hold reunions at the site of the Blocher farm and the fighting near Barlow’s Knoll.  The certificate commemorates a special presentation in 1889.

 The certificate was presented to David Blocher by the 17th Regiment, on the occasion of their 24th reunion on the 28th of August, 1889.  It says “TRIBUTE OF THE Seventeenth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers TO D.BLOCHER ESQ., GETTYSBURG.  At their twenty-fourth Annual Re-union on the 28th day of August 1889, the following resolutions were adopted unanimously, with cheers.  RECOGNIZES:  D. Blocher who has, since this regiment’s monument was erected at Barlow’s Knoll, on the battle field of Gettysburg, voluntarily raised above it the flag of our county, therefore RESOLVED: 

  That we tender to him our thanks and affectionate regard for his good kindness. RESOLVED:  That we hope for him and his, many years of happiness and joyful memory of that great victory, made for freedom and the flag in part by this regiment in

the desperate struggle so near his doors.  RESOLVED:  That those resolutions be properly engrossed and framed and presented to the said D. Blocher.

 This certificate landed Rev. Blocher in hot water at his church.  The Brethren pastor who has been researching the Blocher farm found in the minutes of the church mention of discipline taken against David Blocher for participating in this civic action.  Such activities as flag-raising were contrary to church teachings.  That little Dunkard church was faithful in its commission of the gospel, holding each other accountable to their teachings.  David Blocher knew those teachings, and yet every day for years, he walked from his farm to Barlow’s Knoll to raise the flag over the monument.  What a fascinating conundrum for my great, great grandfather.  A man of faith, a pacifist, and still he felt compelled to honor the men who valiantly struggled on his land.  Right or wrong, I’m sure this was a time of personal testing for him and his family.

 Churches of all denominations still struggle with similar issues and people of faith still struggle to square their personal witness with the teachings of the Prince of Peace.  I mull all this over as I approach this season of peace.  Living near Gettysburg, we are uniquely situated to comprehend the reality that war is a horror we wish to never have visited upon the earth.  Yet wars continue and it seems that we have learned little from the Prince of Peace.  But we must have faith that God acts in small ways as well as large and the kingdom grows like yeast mixed in with a measure of flour.  We don’t see it but it’s there nonetheless.  Acts of love and devotion to peace will hasten the day when truly we can sing silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright—and the world will reflect those beautiful words.  After all, Christmas is a miracle…and as it takes root in our hearts it also takes root in the world.

 As we worship, pray, and fellowship together in the Advent and Christmas season, I pray we strengthen each other and help each other follow Christ.   May beauty, peace and love be upon you and yours in this season of light and hope.

 See you in church!