Blessed are the peacemakers
One of my Great Great Grandfathers was a man by the name of Harry Louis Moffatt, Now Harry Louis was a good keen man, his father John had been Lord Aylmer the Governor of Canada’s batman (or military servant) and his mother was a French orphan by the name of Eliza Bosquet who was Lady Aylmer’s servant.
Harry was an avid reader and gained a thirst for adventure, he was keen on a life of adventure and went to sea at the age of twelve, was abandoned by his ships captain in Peru soon after, somehow got back to sea, travelled around the world, worked his way up to first mate in the merchant navy, before he ventured to New Zealand. Once here he was a gold miner who struck it rich in the Wakamarina Valley in Marlborough before he was claim jumped, he panned gold all over the South Island, meeting up with George Fairweather Moonlight and a few other interesting characters.
He tried a few different ventures all of which had some degree of risk, opening stores to supply miners in Collingwood and on the west coast, encountering the treacherous Grey Mouth Bar on the wrong tide, he sailed as a passenger back to the United Kingdom as a passenger, but got bored and voluntarily worked as crew. On his way back to New Zealand he met his wife and they settled in Motueka where he found employment as the Wharfinger, he also wrote articles for the Nelson Evening Mail under the pseudonym ‘Kiwi’.
The reason I mention my Great Great Grandad is that somehow my Grandad Moffatt had had passed down to him a couple of interesting Items of his Grandads, one was Lord Aylmer’s telescope and the other was a pistol, a single action, rotating barrelled, 45 calibre Colt that went by the name of “a peacemaker.”
I can only guess that Harry kept this close at hand in some of his travels for personal protection and as a storekeeper to protect his livelihood. The peacemaker was a military weapon and I suppose it got it’s name for one of two reasons, it was used to fight for peace, which seems a bit of an oxymoron or that if you presented one anywhere at any time it suddenly got very peaceful due to the fear it instilled, well at least until it was fired.
Now this might just seem like an interesting story but imagine in my mind as a child growing up who had an understanding that a peacemaker was a six shooter, too hear “blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God”; (Matthew 5:9) where might that take the thinking of a child with a bit of an imagination.
I figured that anyone holding a loaded peacemaker could be called anything they wanted. “Son of God, King of Spain, Queen of Sheba you’re the one with the pistol, what would you like to be called?”
You might have also noticed that I have jumped a week ahead of where I was in the beatitudes, that’s because today is the Salvation Army’s fifth annual call to ‘Pray for Peace’. What was it Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God.”
So Jesus told us about the peacemakers being called ‘sons of God’, now that we have wandered back to reality and away from my imagination; what or who is a peacemaker?
1) Well for this sermon I have looked at where peace sits in our society and often we think of peace of an absence of war or strife, a state or dimension where no evil exists, a harmonious place where white doves circle in the sky, colourful flowers grow in abundance, bunny rabbits frolic on well kept lawns, the air is filled with the sweet scent of lilac and people rest in the knowledge that they are safe for the mean time.
In the Hebrew language when someone used the word for peace, ‘shalom’ they don’t just hope for an absence of evil or bad stuff for the hearer, the Hebrew peace “always means everything which makes for a man’s highest good.” (William Barclay Matthew Vol. 1) Peace is then not some sort of neutral place it’s something higher and good.
Another thing that comes from Jesus words is that being a peacemaker is actually an active role.
2) This isn’t about blessings for the peace – lovers; but those who work for peace. We can actually be peace loving people and ignore the wrong in society until it destroys our peaceful existence. Edmund Burke the Irish Political philosopher possibly penned these words, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing.”
So one thing is that as ‘peacemakers’ we are not to find our own person state of “peace”, our own little paradise, while around us the world is corrupted by forces of evil. Peacemaking is an active role (SBI).
It interests me that in our society, the trend towards that thinking of if the majority think that it’s alright it must be right prevails.
It’s often not until individuals step up and make themselves heard, that many who are blissfully unaware of disasters lurking in their communities backyards hop out of their armchairs and join them.
Examples of this would be William Wilberforce fighting slavery, the work that William Stead and Bramwell Booth did in having the age of consent raised to sixteen to try and abolish child prostitution in England.
Or becoming involved in activates which while not effecting your own community are effecting others around the world who are suffering because of a prevailing evil, those involved in relief work, missions are included in this number, a personal hero of mine is the hostage negotiator Terry Waite who was himself held hostage as a result of his efforts to free people for their higher good for 1763 days the first four years of which were in solitary confinement.
Now these things may not look like peace, remember that from the Hebrew for peace and also the Greek for peace, we are not just talking about an absence of bad and evil; peace is everything good. Peace is something we are to actively seek.
As a movement we seem to be very keen on this, wanting to see people free from sin and addiction and released into a life that while not necessarily focused on physical abundance is certainly focused on spiritual abundance and a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Part of this focus towards peace is to release people who are trapped in slavery, prostitution, and those held hostage by this world’s traps both physically and spiritually.
One of my own personal concerns is that often while the church focuses on physical healing; people’s spirits often remain in torment, plagued by pasts or presents that hold them captive to an enemy that only wants no good to come to them; or through them. These people have no peace for it can only be brought to them through the Healing Spirit of God. Peacemaking is an active role (SBI) are we seeking out these people, inviting them to come to Christ, or do we look on them with pity and go about our business.
For when we invite life change through a relationship with Jesus the Prince of Peace, something occurs.
3) We are doing God like work!
No one else is doing this work, this is the sole domain of the Christian Church when we are Jesus hands and feet, when we are seen in the community bringing the message of life change in action and words we are actively peacemaking. You don’t have to be a big name ‘peacemaker’ to do this, though if that floats your boat give it heaps.
This is about cutting through the dross of life, that refuse that clogs the pathway to God; you know that stuff that is encountered by the bucket load, that stuff that only brings harm. It’s been said that peacemakers find a way of clearing this aside and making the world a better place to live in and I’d like to go one step on from this and say that peacemakers make our minds, our individual and collective reality better places to be.
So there are a couple of things that come out of this, inner peace and inter-action peace, lets have a wee gander at both:
a) Jesus actually said a few things about peace one that might appear to conflict with the rest and our whole idea of God; he said this and if you haven’t heard this before you may be in for a shock, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)
What Jesus said seems to be so much in contradiction with what we know of him, earlier in Matthew he was saying “blessed be the peace makers” and here he is in one verse saying three times this is not what he came to do himself.
Why?
Because the peace that Jesus followers were to bring was to be tied to life change, and this would involve conflict, it was going to rattle social norms, it was going to breakdown relationships. What was it Jesus said and I’m paraphrasing, “Anyone who loves his Dad, Mum or kids more than me is not worthy of me, whoever finds their life will lose it, whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39)
This inner peace that we are talking about can cause a fair old amount of external turmoil. Jesus says it this way prior to leaving his disciples, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
It’s important to remember that while we may have strife here (in the world), Jesus has overcome the world so that we can have peace here (in our hearts) what is it he says, “I have overcome the world”, do you hold fast to that knowledge, Jesus has overcome the world, we can live in peace. Internal – eternal peace!
So what about this inter-action peace?
b) Jesus also talks about this; interestingly he says what he says about it is at the end of a bit of a spiel on, causing others to sin and if you do you’d be better off with a millstone tied around your neck and dropped in the sea than cause anyone else to sin. My apologies to the visual thinkers but Jesus said it first. So what is it he says about being at peace with one another? “Everyone will be salted with fire. ‘Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.’” (Mark 9:49-50)
As people of the word there will be strife, as we step aside from the way of the world and into the way of the word life change occurs, this use of the word salt is directed at the people of God who are to bring flavour to the world by bringing the kingdom of God, heaven itself to people who are lost and without hope, “we are to help make life in this sin filled world more palatable by our deeds of kindness and love.” (Mounce’s Expository Dictionary: p 609) We are to live in peace with one another following Jesus command to “be at peace with each other, and as an example to those looking on. Being a peacemakers is something we are to be. Peacemaking is an active thing!
Today there is going to be a lot of prayers for peace, this is great lets ensure we pray for peace, we all know the world can be an extremely un-peaceful place.
Two things though;
-Internal peace is it well with your soul?
-Inter- action peace is it well with the people you interact with?
If you are able to answer both those questions with a yes that’s great, often though we have conflicts both internal and external, we have a place of prayer here etc
