For Those in the Back, That Was Peacemakers

"Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God."
                                       -Matthew 5:9

Often when I sit down to this keyboard, I'm not really sure if I'm going to have enough to say.  Today, I have the opposite problem; there are so many things I could say, but I have to narrow it down.  Over the past several years, the church I was working at immersed itself in material about this very subject.  The time I spent studying and trying to practice being a peacemaker have been invaluable and has changed so much of how I interract with others.  So, I'll just share a few thoughts on peacemaking today that I hope will be helpful.

So what's up with the title?  I'm sure some of you already know.  It's a reference to Monty Python's The Life of Brian, which (after a brief prologue) begins with a group of people standing at the back of the crowd at the sermon on the mount and not quite hearing thing fully.  Thus the line, "what did He say?  Blessed are the cheesemakers?"  But, I urge you to hear well the words of the Great Rabbi, they are for us all.

As the Great Rabbi, Jesus is quick to practice what He preaches throughout the gospels.  When it comes to being a peacemaker, He not only lives it, but embodies it completely.  In Abba's Child, Brennan Manning writes, "If we search for one word to describe the missionand ministry of Jesus Christ, reconcilliation would not be a bad choice."  And reconcilliation is the ultimate goal of peacemakers.  Reconciliation means to restore the relationship.  Jesus does this by taking on the "very nature of a servant and becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2) 

Jesus purpose on the cross was to reconcile us to God.  This is the ultimate act of peacemaking, for, in our sin, we are estranged from God farther than we could be from any man, but through the cross, we are not only reconciled, but made children of God, and partake in the fullness of the inheritence He has for those who believe.  And He didn't wait for us to be good enough or sinless enough or faithful enough because He knew that would never happen.  God, being fully aware of the magnitude of our estrangement from Him did the unimaginable:

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8)

What news!  No wonder it's called the gospel!  The God spell!  The good news!

So, we are to then go and do likewise.  As God has performed the ultimate act of reconciliation, we are given the ministry (since all who believe in Jesus as Lord are ministers) of reconciliation.  This is not easy. From the very beginning, peacemaking has not come naturally to mankind and still doesn't.  To share with the gift of peace in a warring world is radical, counterculteral if you will.  And this radical movement all starts with one person making amends with another.  It doesn't matter if the fault was mine or not, I am responsible for my part in making peace.  One of my favorite thoughts lately is if the other person is resposible for 98% of the conflict and I'm responsible for 2% of the conflict, I'm still 100% responsible for my 2%.  So, take on the ministry of reconciliation, be a peacemaker, be a child of God.