Matthew 5__1=12 Happy Peacemakers
"Blessed are the Peacemakers"
When I was a boy, I was fascinated with guns, weaponry. My father taught me to respect guns and wildlife from the time I was very young. I believe I may have been six years old when he taught me to fire a rifle. I was younger than that when he began to teach me not to fear animals or people and to cherish all that God had made, even the dusty earth, the rocky creeks and rivers and especially the trees.
Like every young boy, I was fascinated with guns. Dad taught me well on my first BB gun, a Diasy, and then at age 12 a single shot rifle. He didn’t want me to have an automatic and shoot recklessly. He wanted me to learn to concentrate and be careful - to know what I was aiming at and not take chances.
But like every boy, I read about repeating rifles, and the variety of hand guns and explosives. I liked to watch things blow up with the 4th of July fire crackers and to break bottles and drive nails with my 22.
I read about a remarkable hand gun that was advertised as the gun that won the west - the Colt Peacemaker.
Of course that was not true - since the Colt 45 Single Action Rim Fire Gun and Cartridges were not put into service until 1873. The West had been won a long time before and most likely by men carrying single shot rifles, mostly muzzle loading muskets.
Colt, like other manufacturers of weaponry was and remains good at advertising and short on truth. Of course the gun-toting heros of Western movies always have a Colt six-shooter - so the legends live on.
A company named Sharps manufactured a heavy, 50 caliber single shot rifle that was used to harvest buffalo and clear the plains for raising cattle. This was before Winchester and Colt manufactured repeating rifles.
That is more than you probably wanted to know about guns. When I became a man, as St. Paul said, I put aside childish things. When I was in my 20’s I stopped hunting for sport, heeding my father’s injunction - only kill what you will eat and also in reaction to my enlarged consciousness that the earth is God’s creation and we were put here to tend it, not to blow things up for our amusement or personal profit.
Since I came to adulthood in the middle of the bloodiest century in human history, I had difficulty reconciling the Prince of Peace and Righteousness with the warmaking that was evidently honored, cherished and revered by the great powers on this earth.
How do we reconcile the Gentle Jesus with the world we saw in mid-20th century?
Blessed are the Meek - they shall inherit the earth said Jesus. A cynic in mid-20 th century, it may have been me who said, "Yeah, a 3X 6 plot of ground."
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." Each of the beatitudes applies to all of God’s people.
So Jesus is telling us this morning that He doesn’t just call parents, grandparents, adults, or adult singles to be peacemakers; His will is for all His children to be peacemakers. But you may wonder, what can a little child do?
I well remember the challenge of living as a Christian in a public school, and trying to maintain some sense of my calling when tormented, mistreated, beaten scoffed at. I wasn’t a recluse - I played sports and participated in band and was elected class president. But the distinctions only made some dispise me all the more.
How bring peace? One by one, I reached out and made friends with the enemy. It took a long time, but it did work. By the time I left highschool, I had no enemies, none that wanted to mistreat me any longer.
In Shelbyville, I know very small, preschool children who have been taught how to respect other children and how to share and not fight. Some have learned to say the words love and understand that loving is a way of behaving kindly toward others.
Our race needs to be instructed in this matter. Above the calls for more and more wars, the voice of the Gentle JEsus should be raised through the his body the Church.
In the over 3100 years of recorded world history, the world has only been at peace 8% of the time, a total of 286 years. During that time we know of 8000 treaties that were made and broken?
Peace is elusive and illusory in this life and on this earth.
How come there is so much bloodshed and war on this planet? Why has the history of the church so often been filled with fighting, quarrels, and schisms? Why are families torn apart by frictions and strife? Can we never have peace and security?
Some 900 years before the birth of Christ someone identified only as the Preacher wrote these words:
(Eccl 3:1-2,8) There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: (2) a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot ... (8) a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
What do these words mean? The Preacher reminds us that in this life and on this earth we will never really have peace.
And we, with the Preacher, all know the reason too, don’t we? We know that man’s capacity for evil is almost endless. In fact, after seeing the numerous mass shootings of the past months, we know better than to ever underestimate man’s capacity to commit the most evil sort of acts upon his fellow man. We know all about man’s greed, his quest for power and glory, his desire for territory. We know that the reason for war, struggle, strife, and conflict is sin.
The tragic folly of the 19th,20th and now the 21st century is our failure to see that sin is the source, the root, the cause of all conflict – whether it be in the world, the church, or the home.
We can have international peace conferences. We can call in the United Nations. We can call in the Bishops of the Church for advice and assistance. We can send couples and families for counseling. The person who pins his hopes on such efforts is bound to be very disappointed.
According to the Bible, the trouble is in the heart of man and nothing but a new heart, nothing but a new man, can possibly deal with the problem. Remember what Jesus said? (Mt 15:19) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. What is in the heart – whether it be good or evil – always finds its way out.
Knowing what the Bible says about sin and the natural state of the heart, the Christian is never surprised by the lack of peace in the world, the church, the home.
III Victorious Peace
A "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." It needs to be noted that peacemaking is a divine work. God is the author of peace. He is called the "God of peace" (Rom 15:33; 16:20; Phil 4:9; 1 Thess 5:23; Heb 13:20) and apart from Him there can be no peace. So you and I are being called to imitate and to be in God and His Christ.
God brings peace through Jesus Christ. That’s why the angels can sing of "peace on earth" at the birth of Christ (Lk 2:14). That’s why Jesus can say, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you" (Jn 14:27). More specifically, God brings peace through the blood of Christ. Paul can say,
(Col 1:20) ... reconcile to himself all things ... by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
(Eph 2:13-14) But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. (14) For he himself is our peace ...
Peace, then, has to start with Jesus. Peace is not possible unless we are washed and cleansed by His blood and given a new heart, a rebirth.
B Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." But Jesus also says,
(Mt 10:34-36) "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. (35) For I have come to turn "’a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-- (36) a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
This sounds like a contradiction.
We need to understand that in the beatitudes Jesus is speaking of a victorious peace in which light triumphs over darkness, in which right triumphs over wrong, in which good triumphs over evil, in which justice triumphs over injustice. Jesus is speaking of a victorious peace in which sin is conquered and evil is abandoned. Jesus is speaking of a victorious peace in which we must put Him before even our nearest and dearest loved ones. Jesus is speaking of a victorious peace in which we love Him best and put Him first. In this kind of peace, there is harmony and unity because Christ is all in all and sin has been banished.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." It is obvious that Jesus is not speaking of the peace that comes from compromise and appeasement. Nor is He speaking of the peace that comes from trying to be everyone’s friend. Nor is He speaking of a peace that keeps silent or gives in before wrong.
When the rest of Europe and the world stood aside as Poland was overrun first by the Nazis and then by the Communists, that acquiessance to evil did not add to either peace or security for Poland or the rest of the world.
It is apparently in line with both Scripture and our tradition that we pray that rulers and people in authority administer justice and restrain evil for the sake of giving peace a chance.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." This kind of peace is costly. Just like we don’t believe in "cheap grace" so we also don’t believe in "cheap peace." For God the price was the life-blood of His only Son.
The best the civil authority can do is try to administer justice and restrain evil, even if it requires force of arms to put down murderous tyrants.
The civil authority will not bring the Prince of Peace. We have seen that attempted time and again in Europe from the days of Constantine through to the end of the 19th century when for all practical purposes, the Western Nations abandonded the concept of an established church that was concommitant or congruent with the state.
One cannot use the state to build up the church forcing baptisms. The state cannot force families to live together in godly love, cannot force couples to have life long marriages, cannot prevent abortions, or live morally.
The state can do a bit to restrain evil, but it has not the tools to bring peace. That is the work of the Church in bring the Gospel, the Good news to people one at a time.
To be a peacemaker can be costly for us. When we ourselves are involved in a quarrel, there will be either the pain of apologizing to the person we have injured or the pain of rebuking the person who has injured us. Sometimes there is the nagging pain of being unable to be reconciled with the guilty party because they refuse to repent or talk to us.
Or again, we may not be personally involved in a dispute, but may find ourselves struggling to reconcile two people or groups who are estranged from each other. In this case there is the pain of listening to the hurt of both sides. And, there is the risk of being misunderstood, of being caught in the middle. There is the risk of ingratitude. There is the risk of failure. A priest stands no taller than anyone else in this room in that regard. People who will not hear others in the Church are not likely to hear me either. I have no special powers to force conversions.
IV Being a Peacemaker
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." You and I are called to be peacemakers. But what can we do to bring peace? Practically speaking, what is it that you and I are to do? We aren’t carrying Colt 45 Peacemakers. Even if we did, people cannot be coersed into faith, argued into faith, shamed into faith, or even taught into faith.
There are some things we can avoid in our behavior to make us more credible as peacemakers.
First, don’t be a spreader of tales. I think here of what is written in the book of Wisdom:
(Prov 26:20) Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.
There is nothing like gossip and talebearing to fan the fires of strife and contention.
Speaking evil of another will surely light the wrong kind of fire.
Second, don’t be quarrelsome. The quarrelsome person, quite obviously, cannot be a peacemaker. He or she always destroys the peace by arguing about picky little things and tries to create controversy over things that do not really matter.
Don’t be proud or, as the people of another generation said, "Wise in your own conceits."
The positive things we can do to make peace are these.
Be humble. Don’t always insist on having your own way and standing on your rights. If God and Christ were that way salvation would be impossible. You see, if God stood upon His rights and dignity, upon His Person, God would never have sent the Christ. He never would have humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant, going the way of the cross. Those who always insist on their own way, who insist on their own rights, are strife-makers rather than peacemakers.
Be holy. Where there is holiness there is peace and no strife. Listen to these words from Scripture:
(Prov 16:7) When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.
(Heb 12:14) Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord ...
Be witnesses to Christ. There can be no peace apart from God. So you are a peacemaker if you allow yourself to be used of the Lord to bring sinners to Christ in repentance and faith. Don’t forget, God is a God of peace. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Rather, He is pleased when they turn from their ways and live (Ezekiel 18:23). And, of course, there can be no greater peace than peace with God. How do we do this? = by exercising the 7 gifts of the spirit that was given to you at your baptism.
Wisdom - The gift of wisdom perfects a person’s speculative reason in matters of judgment about the truth.
Understanding - The gift of understanding perfects a person’s speculative reason in the apprehension of truth. It is the gift "whereby self-evident principles are known."[3]
Knowledge - The gift of knowledge perfects a person’s practical reason in matters of judgment about the truth.
Counsel - Also called "Right Judgment." The gift of counsel perfects a person’s practical reason in the apprehension of truth and allows the person to respond prudently, "moved through the research of reason."
Fortitude - Also called "Courage." The gift of fortitude allows people the "firmness of mind [that] is required both in doing good and in enduring evil, especially with regard to goods or evils that are difficult."
Piety - Also called "Reverence." Piety is the gift "whereby, at the Holy Spirit’s instigation, we pay worship and duty to God as our Father."
Wonder and Awe in God - Also called "Fear of the Lord." This gift is described by Aquinas as a fear of separating oneself from God. He describes the gift as a "filial fear," like a child’s fear of offending his father, rather than a "servile fear," that is, a fear of punishment.
Paul makes it a little simpler than the great Acquinas in I Cor 12:8-10 he lists gifts of the Spirit that we may sumarize as 1 gift of teaching or prophecy (including tongues and interpretation), 3 gifts of power (healing, faith, nurackes) and 3 Revelation Gifts: wisdom, knowledge, discernment ; gifts of ministry to the church: apostles, teachers, helpers, administrators; gifts of human relationship, including marriage, unity in the Body of Christ: gifts of relationship with God: adoption as sons of the Father, the indwelling Spirit, Christ as our Elder Brother.
The greatest gift, the one that will win souls is the gift of love.
Ministers apostles, teachers, helpers, administrators
We have powerful tools to work with. Tools that over the course of human history has proved more powerful and more enduring than any army, any empire.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." Right now there is so little peace on the earth. Too many times it is absent even in the church and in our own families. But we know that someday the victorious peace of Christ will be established all over the earth. We know that someday all sin will be conquered and all evil will be abandoned. On that day swords and guns will no longer be necessary. On that day churches and families will no longer be torn apart. Listen to what the prophet says:
(Is 2:4) He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore ... (9) They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain ...
That’s what we can look forward to but not in the new heavens and new earth even now being created as new souls are born into the Kingdom. Christ will return and He make a new heaven and a new earth. That return should not be thought of only in terms of a cataclysmic end of the earth: Christ comes every day when Christians act as the Body of Christ.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." In other words, blessed are those who – in the name of Jesus – work for, fight for, and try to bring about a victorious peace in the here and now. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." In other words, blessed are those who – in the name of Jesus – don’t pass on tales, aren’t quarrelsome, don’t insist on their own way, are humble, and pass on the Good News. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." In other words, when we – in the name of Jesus – work for peace, God Himself calls us blessed, and acknowledges us as His children.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."
Blessed are you when you love another and make for them a little of heaven on this earth.
Charles Scott
Church of the Good Shepherd, Indianapolis
http://www.goodshepherdindy.org
crscott@email.com
