Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (NIV) “You are blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.” (The Message)
Conflict is part of life. We are going through a time of conflict between races, ethnic groups, political parties, genders, different historical narratives, the rich and the poor. We have to deal with the grievances inherited from the sins of our fathers. We all have to deal with the corruption of our hearts, for we are all sinful human beings. Legislation does not solve the problem of our sinful nature. Only the Gospel of the indwelling Spirit of Christ can dissolve our prejudices. Competition and comparison with others turns relationships into rivalries. It happens in families between siblings. It happens in peer groups, businesses and sports. Litigation is based on the adversarial concept. Demagogues stoke the fires of hatred between classes of people. Even churches experience conflict. Conflict resolution is a skill highly sought after in leaders.
Peace, or shalom, or salaam, is the word for wholeness. The Gospel Jesus came to bring is the gospel of peace. God is a God of peace. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” (John 14:27) Only God can bring true peace. He sends Jesus as the supreme peacemaker, the one who alone can bring wholeness and harmony within us and between us.
You see it in two instances recorded in Luke 8. The first one occurs when he calms the storm, bringing peace out of raging weather. In the midst of the circumstances of nature, over which we have no control, Jesus is the Lord of Creation who brings peace. The second occurs when he steps ashore and is met by a demon-possessed man. He tells Jesus that his name is Legion because many demons had gone into him. He represents all of us who have experienced conflicted personalities and motivation, who are torn apart by the spirit of darkness, resentment and depression. Jesus commanded the evil spirits to come out of this man and they did. He made peace. When others came out to Jesus they found this man clothed and in his right mind. He was whole.
Jesus is the peacemaker. He is the Son of God. He is our peace. He made peace by the blood of his Cross, breaking down the barriers between us and God and between one another. He sent out his disciples with the Gospel of his redemption, his power of forgiveness to bring the wholeness and maturity which comes from God alone. They were to bring peace to others, and if it were refused they were to take it with them elsewhere. “If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.” (Matthew 10:13) He calls us to take the peace of his kingdom to the world as the sons and daughters of God. How do we do it?
We make peace through the life of prayer.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NIV) “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down.” (Philippians 4:6,7 The Message)
If we want to be peacemakers we will be people of prayer. Inner or outer conflict requires the calming of storms, and the driving out of evil spirits. That means putting Jesus at the center. Only Jesus can bring healing to the conflicts of the heart. All of us have wounds that need to be healed. These wounds may be very deep, down in the heart beyond where therapy can reach, even though therapy can correctly diagnose the problem or conflict involved.
In prayer we can allow Jesus to reach our heart, and the hearts of others, to bring the peace of his presence. Anglican theologian Dr. Rod Whitacre writes about contemplative prayer:
“Too often we go through the day like bats. Bats dart about in every which direction because they are feeding on insects, using sonar to sense the insect and go after it. At times we also are living by sonar, that is, living merely in reaction to stimuli in our environment. Obviously we do need to be responsive to people and situations we encounter, but often we do so without being conscious of the Presence of the Lord. As we practice the Prayer of the Heart we begin to be aware of His Presence throughout the day and can respond to people and situations as Christ would have us, rather than just reactively. Instead of being on the rim being whipped around, we can live from the center, the ‘still point of the turning world.’” (Contemplative Prayer: A Brief Introduction, p.9)
Our peacemaking ability is in direct proportion to our life of prayer. To make peace we must learn to pray. A prayerful person is a peacemaking person. How is your life of prayer? Pray for our nation. Pray for our leaders. Pray for our enemies.
We make peace through practicing an apostolic lifestyle.
“Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8,9)
So much conflict in the world, in ourselves and in our relationships with one another, occurs because we are neither thinking nor acting according to these things. It is possible to think them without doing them. Our will as well as our mind needs to be affected by the Gospel. The only way we will be at peace and promote peace is to translate our thought process into action. These are the characteristics of the sons and daughters of God. We must crucify our sinful nature with all its desires and instead sow to the Spirit.
To do the true thing, to do the noble thing, to do the right thing, is not easy. Scottish theologian William Barclay wrote,
“The man who is blessed is the man who is prepared to face difficulty, unpleasantness, unpopularity, trouble in order to make peace. The peace of which this Beatitude speaks is not the spurious peace which comes from evading the issue; it is the peace which comes from facing the issue.” (The Beatitudes & the Lord’s Prayer for Everyman, Harper & Row, 1975, p.88)
When Jesus is at the center, and we are living a life of prayer, we will be making peace. We will be sons and daughters of God.
When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work with the poorest of the poor, she distributed to all who were present in the great hall of the University of Oslo, the prayer of St. Francis, and asked them to pray it together with her.
Lord, make me a channel of your peace:
That where there is hatred, I may bring love;
That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
That where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
That where there is error, I may bring truth;
That where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
That where there is despair, I may bring hope;
That where there are shadows, I may bring light;
That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted,
To understand than to be understood,
To love than to be loved;
For it is by forgetting self that one finds;
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven;
It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. Amen.
(Excerpted from Ted Schroder, SOUL FOOD: Daily Devotions for the Hungry, Vol.1, 67-70)
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