Westwood Presbyterian Church

June 15th, 2008

197 Browning  Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3K 0L1

REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS

Matthew 5: 9

 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God

     

     “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”

     We need to get a clear understanding in our minds of what Jesus meant by peace if we are going to understand this text. We often think of peace as being one of two things. One possibility is the absence of war – diplomats travel the world bringing peace to war-torn parts of the world. If the shooting ends, then peace has arrived. If the bombing ends – peace has arrived. A second way to think of peace is internal peace – having peace in our inner core when all around us there is chaos. We think of verses like – a peace which passes understanding – when we think about this kind of peace.

     Both of those are important definitions of peace – but the definition of peace that Jesus has in mind grows out of his Hebrew culture. Shalom – the Hebrew word for peace – is a much fuller word than our word peace. Shalom is about right relationship – it is about the circle of the community being in right relationship. This is a corporate word not an individual word. Shalom is about the community being whole – about people living in wholeness with each other.

     When Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers” this is the idea of peace that he has in mind – and it then starts to make sense why he can talk about those who make peace. With our limited definition of peace – the absence of war – peacemaking has become something that soldiers do when they stand in the gap between two warring parties. Jesus knows that building peace is only possible if people are in right relationship with one another.

 

     As Canadians we were witness to a powerful example of this truth as Prime Minister Stephen Harper rose in the House of Commons to apologize to those who attended school in the Native Residential Schools. Earlier this year $156 million in compensation checks were sent out to those who had attended the schools. Many thought the money would bring healing, that money would buy peace from the brokenness so many feel. But the money has not made a difference – in fact for many people it made things worse. They were left feeling empty – that the suffering they have endured as a result of the schooling was worth mere money.

     I had the privilege of being at the Radisson Hotel on Wednesday and being one of a handful of whites who were among the 500 who watched the Prime Minister’s speech on a big screen. The room was absolutely quiet when he said, “On behalf of the Government of Canada and the people of Canada, I apologize, we are sorry.” Words like this are about something more powerful than money – more powerful than guns – more powerful than violence – words like this are about building right relationships.

 

     At this point in the sermon peacemaking may feel like something that is way beyond our ability to do anything about – beyond our limited ability. But we can do this – for building right relationships within community is about some very simple things as Wednesday’s events showed – things like saying “I am sorry” “We are sorry” when we have done wrong. It is also about offering forgiveness. On a personal level it goes deeper still – I am called to not retaliate when I have been hurt. I am not to be the center of the action. Paul puts it this way, “We ought to think of others as better than ourselves.” Jesus said, “If someone hits you on the cheek – that is insults you, libels you, attacks you – don’t retaliate.” Now I want to be clear – this is about my personal connection to what is happening – this is not about someone hurt someone else, we will come to that question in a minute. I am not to act in such a way that I am in any way saying – “This is about me.” If there is going to be right relationship within the community there must be almost no “I” – as every coach says at some point – “There is no I in team.” As peacemakers we do not make peace for our benefit – but for the good of the community.   

     And that then brings us to the question of the community. How do we function when the injury does not involve me – either as the injured party or as the one doing the injury? If we are going to build right relationship within community we must also be our brother’s and sister’s keeper. We have an obligation to act in ways that build right relationships beyond ourselves – to build them in situations where we are third parties.

     We are in a conversation where someone begins insulting another ethnic group – we have a decision to make – will we remain silent, or will we speak? Will we challenge the comments, or will we slink away in embarrassment?

     We watch a bully at work – in the school yard, in the work place, at the soccer field, in the seniors’ center, in the check out line – bullies exist in all these places. We watch a bully at work – we have a choice to make – will we intervene and work of peace or will we stand there and pretend not to see?

     Yes, I know the objections – I can hear them now.

“It is none of my business” – in fact it is our business because anything that breaks right relationship hurts all of us. Anything that breaks the circle of right relationship affects each of us.  

“I might get hurt” – building right relationships is not a painless activity. Confronting those who seek to bring destruction to the reality of peace is not going to be easy – the cost may be very high – but we follow a risen Christ who died to bring right relationships to our world. We bring peace – right relationship – to our world, to our communities, not through using force, not by using violence but rather by using the far stronger, although seemingly fragile tools of non-violence and speaking truth to power. The Christian church – and individual Christians – should not allow themselves to believe that the use of force, that violent action – will all by itself bring right relationship. The human heart can not be converted by the weapons of war or the threat of force.

 

     And now we have come to the heart of the issue. The kind of peace we are talking about is beyond human beings to bring into being by their own ingenuity or will or creativity. The only possible source for such peace is in the action of God. At the heart of finding peace in our world, at the heart of building peace in our communities, at the heart of finding peace within ourselves – is finding peace with God.

The only way we are able to offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us – is when we have experienced the radical forgiveness that God offers to us. We can only truly forgive after having been forgiven by God – God’s forgiveness is the source for our forgiveness. The only way we are able to admit our wrong – is when we have experienced the life changing joy of being free from guilt and shame – a joy that comes only as we tell a God who loves us of what we have done wrong.

These two parts – our confession to God – and God’s offer of radical forgiveness are so hard for us to remember that we repeat them Sunday after Sunday in our worship – in the Prayer telling God what we have done wrong and saying we are sorry and in the Words Assuring us of God’s forgiveness. Out of this weekly reminder that we have broken right relationship with God, others, and ourselves and that we are forgiven by the God of grace and love – comes the ability to forgive others – comes the ability to confess our sins to one another.

The building of right relationships is rooted in God’s action. We do not do this in our own strength. And from God comes the courage to speak words of truth, to act with integrity and passion when right relationship is threatened by others.

 

     It is not without reason that those who make peace are called the children of God. God is in the business of bringing the entire creation back into right relationship with itself, with everyone in creation, and with God. This is God’s ultimate goal that Shalom – peace – right relationship – will be present between creation and humans, among human beings, and between human beings and God. If that is what God is about in the world – then those who make peace in their communities, in the world – are living out God’s hopes and dreams for the world – and therefore they will be known as the children of God.

 

     I want to offer my father as an example of a peacemaker – I guess that is appropriate on Father’s Day. My grandfather (my father’s father) fought in World War 1 and was gassed at Ypres. He came home, but his lungs were so badly scarred that he was able only to sing one verse of a hymn – his lungs could not do any more than that. So my father grew up in a home that knew something of the horrors of war and the long term impact of war.

     One thing that has always impressed me about my father is his ability to bring people together from very different places to work on a common goal. In Beirut, my father had a vision for an evangelistic crusade that would bring together all the Christian groups on the campus that were seeking to reach students with the good news of Jesus. It was relatively easy to get the evangelical community together, but would they stay around if the Presbyterians started to attend the meeting, and what about when the Catholics, and then the Orthodox joined the dance. Somehow my father was able to help them to decide that the things that divided them were not important right now – that those were conversations that could be held at a later date. And to get them to focus on reaching students. And the event happened and hundreds of university and college students made commitments to Jesus Christ, or renewed their commitments.

     In Iran, dad played a role in helping start a congregation made up of British Anglicans, Dutch Pentecostals, American Southern Baptists, and Scottish Presbyterians – and if you think that is easy, it is not. But dad helped build the connections. When he told the story of how it happened, he never came across as the center of the story – he was simply part of the larger group that made the thing happen – and anyways all the glory is to go to God.

     I am not saying that my father never got angry, never lost his cool. Those things happened. I am highlighting his ability to bring together people of very different backgrounds to work together. People who often criticized each other – came together and shared a common goal. And in the process new healthy relationships were built.

 

     We have been invited to be peacemakers – to be those who work at building right relationships in the world – peacemaking built on the love and grace we have received from Jesus Christ. Peacemaking that moves us beyond ourselves to act for the good of those who have no one to speak for them. Peacemaking that causes us to work to bring together people who have been at odds and find ways to healing relationships that are torn. We do all of these things not in our strength – but in the strength of the Triune God of grace who has invited us to be his children. And the world will know we are God’s children as we live out his life in us as peacemakers.