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Click here for PDF of sermon: November 8, 2020 – “Blessed are the Peacemakers…”
“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS”
By Rev. Victor Kim
Matthew 5:9, Isaiah 9:2-7
(11-08-20) Remembrance
Well I suppose I should make some sort of comment on the events of the past week, after all a lot of people have been waiting 4 long years for this news. But the U.S. election has turned out to be very different than many of us might have expected. Yes, for those who wanted to see the end of the Trump presidency, it looks as though that will happen, but for those who might have thought that this election would be a massive repudiation of all things Trump, well, things did not evolve as planned. It’s true that Joe Biden received the most votes that any presidential candidate has ever received, but it’s also true that Donald Trump received the second most of any presidential candidate ever. And it’s true that the election was much closer than most pundits and pollsters had been predicting. It took four days before the news organizations were confident enough to declare that Biden had won the presidency, and we know that there will be recounts and lawsuits yet to take place.
What’s clear from this election is that our friends to our south live in a nation that has rarely, if ever, been so divided, so polarized. Usually once the election is over the defeated candidate gives a concession speech and there’s always a line that goes something like, even though we fought a good fight and even though we have our clear differences, the people have spoken and now we must unite and support the person who our nation has elected and we must come together and work together for the common good of our nation. I’m not sure we should be expecting a concession speech from Donald Trump, but more than that, I’m not sure that at this point people believe that they can unite or come together and work together for the common good. People are divided, I’m convinced that many genuinely don’t believe that they can work together or unite with those across the aisle from them. And this isn’t a situation that’s unique to America, it’s a growing reality in many countries, including ours. We might not feel it here in B.C. given how good things are for most in our province, but all you have to do is move one province east, to Alberta, to where I spent most of my life, to experience a sense of anger, resentment and bitterness that many Albertans currently have towards other parts of Canada, especially those parts which they feel have abandoned them in their time of need and who Albertans feel look down upon them as one trick ponies, always tied to the waning fortunes of an industry in decline.
On a more granular level, we find these divisions between people of different cultural or ethnic backgrounds, different social convictions, and now in this time of pandemic, between people who believe that our leaders are doing the best they can in guiding us through a difficult and unprecedented crisis and those who think that all the restrictions and regulations are overblown and are part of some grand conspiracy to control us. Anti-maskers protest that masks are unnecessary and are a violation of our rights while those who support the wearing of masks argue that not only does it protect the wearer, but masks also protect others from ourselves. At times these differences have ended up in conflict and even violence. We may not be at war as a nation as we have been in the past but the idea of peace is just as elusive and crucial as ever. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. It’s our Beatitude for today and maybe today we need to hear this Beatitude more than ever before. On this Remembrance Sunday we recall the horror of war and we give thanks for those who serve and have served our nation for the sake of peace, and particularly those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. We are blessed to be living in Canada and are the envy of so many, we know that. We seek peace, but peace is not merely the absence of war, conflict or violence. It is these things, but it is so much more. Jesus’ words in the Beatitude are clear. It’s not blessed are those who love peace, or blessed are the peace-wanters, peace-hopers, peace-wishers, it is blessed are the peace-makers.
Peace, the peace Jesus speaks of, is not merely the absence of something, it is the presence of something, it is the making of something. It is the presence of a direction, the presence of a possibility, and finally, it is the presence of a person. Those who would make peace are called children of God. So all who would make peace, not only wish for it or love it, are called children of God, joint heirs with Jesus as the beloved sons and daughters of God. Those who would share Christ’s identity must also, then, share Christ’s mission, to be peacemakers, not only peace lovers.
So how do we go about making peace? If we affirm that Christ is in us as children of God, then clearly in our peacemaking we need to seek out those things that are associated with Jesus. The prophet Isaiah, writing centuries before the birth of Christ, prophesized about the one to come, about the light which would shine on those who lived in a land of deep darkness. Isaiah spoke about what this messiah would engender in people, an increase in joy, in exultation. The messiah would lift the yoke of the people’s burden and would break the rod of their oppressor, the bar across their shoulders. The one who is to be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace, the one to whom authority has been given, the child born to us, the son given to us, will use the garments of war as fuel for a fire and justice and righteousness will be the foundations of his kingdom. Peacemaking is about embracing these values, these characteristics of the messiah.
Peacemaking is about justice and righteousness. It’s not to be confused with pacifism, which is a refusal to take up arms at any cost, but rather it’s about confronting injustice and it’s about standing up to unrighteousness, even, and maybe especially, if it’s going to cost us. Peacemaking is about an active participation in the joy of others, affirming the value of each person, sharing in their exultation, elation and triumph. And it’s about being present in the midst of deep sorrow and grief, often with silence, which seems at times to be the only appropriate answer.
To be a peacemaker is to understand our identity as children of God. It is to understand and accept that we are loved, that we matter to God, that in Christ, God makes peace with us. It is to know that to make peace with others we have to first be at peace in ourselves.
Peacemaking is about healing our own anger before we even begin to think about healing another. It’s about the honesty that says if we won’t give up our violent intentions and violence relationships, we have no credibility in seeking to put an end to war. Nelson Mandela once said that resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping that it will kill your enemies.
To be a peacemaker means to know that in Christ, because Christ is in us, we are a redeemed, renewed, restored, reconciled people, beloved and cherished by God. Peacemaking begins with acceptance of who we are in Christ. And to be a peacemaker means to have a vision for peace beyond the present reality. It means, like Isaiah, we have to be prophetic in our proclamation, we have to proclaim what God is up to in our world and we have to be steadfast in the belief that though the night seems dark and full of weeping and sorrow, light will break forth with the morning and with the light will come joy.
And again, on a more granular level, to be a peacemaker means that we understand our relationships with each other through the example of God’s peacemaking with us. God has made peace with us through the gift of Jesus, through his incarnation, his becoming human, one of us. God makes peace with us by forgiving us, by redeeming us, renewing us, saving us. God didn’t have to do any of that, God could have stood back and said, why should I? God could have looked at the people of Israel and said, why should I help? I gave them every opportunity, but they wouldn’t listen. Why should I take the steps to make peace with them? But God didn’t stand back, God made a sacrificial decision to love us, to do something about the situation of our brokenness and sin. And because God took the initiative, our relationship with God changed, and God through Jesus found a way to reconciled himself to us, to bring us to peace with him.
Jesus invites us to be peacemakers with each other and to do so we need to follow his example. Peacemaking is an active endeavour. It’s not merely wishing or hoping, it is rooted in taking action. And it begins with an act of grace. I know someone with whom my relationship has been strained. I’ve been disappointed in how they have acted and things they have said. That disappointment has been building for some time. And because I have been disappointed, I have found that my response to this person’s actions or words has become more and more one of detachment and apathy. Recently there was another incident which disappointed me once again. I thought, I should really reach out to see what the problem is, but my initial response was, why should I? Why should I bother reaching out when I’ve been so disappointed, so frustrated? They’ve been given every opportunity to do better, but they haven’t. Why should I reach out to them, why should I trouble myself, why should I care?
But eventually I couldn’t run from what I believed about what Jesus wanted from me, so I did reach out and I asked to meet with the person. They were more than happy to meet with me, which was somewhat surprising. We spoke for a long time and I listened. I listened to the story of someone who had suffered greatly, someone of which I was unaware. I listened as this person told me of their frustrations with other people and how he was treated. I listened as they told me of serious issues with their health, again that I was not aware of. As I listened, I grew to understand where this person’s actions and words might have been rooted. I listened and gained some perspective on why this person acted in the way they did, even to the point of disappointing me. I felt that our meeting allowed this person to share with me so much of what had been pent up in them, so much which had caused them hurt, frustration and anger. I understand them better now, but it took the act of me pushing myself out of apathy, why should I care, to an act of engagement and it has changed how I look at the person and the situation. Peacemaking begins with an action, a willingness to put aside our own sense of self-righteousness and risk engaging with someone who we may feel doesn’t deserve our attention, our investment, our compassion.
Whenever we face issues of divisiveness and bitterness, whether in our country, in our cities and neighbourhoods, in our relationships, in our homes, we can’t step back, fold our arms and say, why should I? If we truly want to be peacemakers, we can’t wait until the other side has come to realize how wrong they are and have repented of their errors, otherwise we will be waiting a very long time. God did not wait for us to get it right, for us to realize our brokenness, our sinfulness, before God acted in coming to us as Jesus Christ. God didn’t wait until we were deserving before making peace with us through the act of defeating the power and finality of darkness and death in the death and resurrection of Jesus. God didn’t wait, God took the initiative because God in Jesus is the one who makes peace with us, not hopes for peace or wishes for peace, but makes peace. If we would truly hear the words of Jesus in our Beatitude this morning, we also have to be peacemakers, not only hopers or wishers.
I like what I’ve heard from Joe Biden so far. He is trying to reach out, to bridge the divide and the divisiveness that exists in his country right now. He’s not folding his arms and saying, I won, so why should I? He’s extending an invitation to those who don’t agree with him or voted for him to come to the table so that he can listen. And maybe in that listening, whether by him or by those who support him, or by us, we can learn about the genuine hurt, pain and grief that those who differ from us have and how it shapes their thinking and actions. I’m not saying that it always works or that those who differ from us will respond to our invitation, but it starts with an act of grace, a willingness for us to engage and listen. Once we do, it might be that we begin to see the other no longer as an opponent, an enemy, someone who is so very different from me, but as a child of God, just like me, made in God’s image like me, needing my patience, mercy, grace and love.
Those who will make peace are children of God. That’s everyone and anyone who will make peace, including those who are not like us. We are all in this together. We are not separate. If we don’t get that, we won’t get far. Each of us, in some small way, or some larger way,has a chance to be a peacemaker. It will need to start with us, in here, and for some, that might be enough. And for others, it will only be the beginning, the beginning of reaching out, the beginning of forgiveness, the beginning of a new life, the beginning of service to the world. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t need a college degree to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
In “What God is Like,” author and poet James Dillet Freeman wrote a small piece of poetry that sums it all up well. To paraphrase, “Peace must be something more than to just end the war. It is a discipline you must put on from within. There is no reign of love that merely comes down from above. God’s love must always be reborn and start anew in someone’s human heart.”
May that love be reborn in your heart and in mine today.
Thanks be to God, Amen.
Preached by Rev. Victor Kim on November 8, 2020
(Remembrance Sunday) at Richmond Presbyterian Church
without members in attendance due to Covid-19 crisis then posted online.