In family time earlier in the service, we heard about young elementary school children who worked peacefully for a change in the lunch menu in their school.
Another story involves country music singer Travis Tritt who spent many years playing in out-of-the-way places before he became a star in the music industry. He said many of the bars were not very nice – actually dangerous at times -- with drunk fans starting fights over the smallest matters. But the singer found a unique way to make peace in such situations. He said:
“[Playing] ‘Silent Night’ proved to be my all-time lifesaver. Just when [bar fights] started getting out of hand, when bikers were reaching for their pool cues and rednecks were heading for the gun rack, I'd start playing ‘Silent Night.’ It could be the middle of July. I didn't care. Sometimes they'd even start crying, standing there watching me sweat and play Christmas carols.” [Twang! The Ultimate Book of Country Music Quotations, compiled by Raymond Obstfeld and Sheila Burgener, Henry Holt and Company.]One of the most difficult places to be a peacemaker today is in the Middle East. While working for peace in that area is extremely hard, there are many individual stories of hope. One such story is about a Palestinian baby found abandoned at birth in a roadside heap of trash. She was rescued by Palestinian doctors, nurtured by a group of Roman Catholic nuns and her heart was repaired by an Israeli surgeon. The story called "'Peace Baby' Touches Mideast Enemies" was reported by the Associated Press on February 25, 2002.
The survival of tiny Salaam, whose name means “peace” in Arabic, is a rare example of the region's usually fractured and clashing peoples working together to save a life. The world is all too painfully aware of the suffering and death of both Palestinians and Israelis -- including children and infants. Salaam was found by Palestinians along a road north of the West Bank town of Ramallah and taken to a shelter run by Palestinian social services. A group of nuns in Bethlehem then gave her a permanent home.So blessings on young school children who work for change peacefully, singers who bring peace to unruly bars by singing Christmas carols, and Palestinian and Israeli doctors and Roman Catholic nuns who work together for peace.
But the baby's health was not good. She was born with a large hole between the chambers of her heart so her lungs did not receive enough blood. Salaam was eventually taken to a Jerusalem hospital.
“She was skin and bone and that's it,” said Israeli doctor Eli Milgalter, who operated on Salaam's heart. The nuns raised nearly $11,000 to pay for the hospital costs. But Milgalter performed the surgery without accepting payment. The doctors said that Salaam made a full recovery.
Are you a peacemaker where you are? Are you someone who works for peace?
Many of us do not like to engage in verbal conflict. And some such people will settle for “peace at all costs” rather than taking part in any dispute. It doesn’t seem to matter whether this is something on a large scale – such as war – or something on a small scale such as a family or neighbourhood conflict. These folk definitely lean toward keeping the peace by giving in or avoiding conflict at any cost.
Those of us old enough to remember and we who have read about the circumstances leading up to the Second World War may recall the intense feelings about Great Britain’s Neville Chamberlain and his concessions to Nazi Germany in the 1930s. He tried to avoid war through a policy of what he regarded as rational negotiation that came to be called “appeasement.” Whatever we may think of Chamberlain’s motives and means, the word “appeasement” has become a synonym for weakness and even cowardice in international relations rather than confronting evil or injustice in the world. Of course, sadly, we realize that confronting evil and injustice, more often than we care to think, can lead to armed action.
In this Be-Attitude for Living, when Jesus said “Blessed be the peacemakers,” he did not mean peace at all costs or merely keeping the peace or appeasement or merely soothing someone’s feelings. For Jesus, making peace involved action, not passive compliance. While peacemakers may live inwardly peaceful lives, they outwardly and actively work for peace wherever there is dissension and strife. They strive to be reconcilers rather than dividers -- as much as is humanly possible. While peacemakers actively pursue the end of hostility and conflict whatever the circumstances, they often must confront and deal with difficult issues.
Peacemakers are people who respect others despite their differences and work at their relationships with others. They also recognize that the work of pursuing peace comes from an inner attitude of the heart and mind. Author Leonard Sweet tells a story about such a peacemaker:
Tom Wiles served a stint as university chaplain at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. A few years ago, he picked me up at the Phoenix airport in his new Ford pickup and whisked me away to keynote a leadership conference at the university. Since I was still mourning the trade-in of my Dodge truck, we immediately bonded, sharing truck stories and laughing at the bumper-sticker truism: “Nothing is more beautiful than a man and his truck.”
As I climbed into his Ford Ranger for the ride back to the airport a day later, I noticed two big scrapes by the passenger door. “What happened here?” I asked.
“My neighbour’s basketball post fell and left those dents and white scars,” Tom replied with a downcast voice.
“You're kidding! How awful,” I commiserated. “This truck is so new I can smell it.”
“What's even worse is my neighbour doesn't feel responsible for the damage.”
Rising to my newfound friend's defence, I said: “Did you contact your insurance company? How are you going to get him to pay for it?”
Tom replied: “This has been a real spiritual journey for me. After a lot of soul-searching and discussions with my wife about hiring an attorney, it came down to this: I can either be in the right or I can be in a relationship with my neighbour. Since my neighbour will probably be with me longer than this truck, I decided that I'd rather be in a relationship than be right. Besides, trucks are meant to be banged up, so I got mine initiated into the real world a bit earlier than I expected.” [Leonard Sweet, Out of the Question ... Into the Mystery, Waterbrook Press, 2004), p. 91-92.]A peacemaker is someone who is willing to be honest about the conflict. In Len Sweet’s story, Tom was honest about what happened to his truck. He didn’t try to pretend it didn’t matter. In fact, after speaking to his neighbour who took no responsibility, Tom agonized over what he felt was the right action to take. In his case, he discovered that being a peacemaker was in conflict with his rightful self-interest. He felt that working for peace was a spiritual issue that began in his spirit. Peacemaking and self-interest, especially when insisted on in the face of the self-interest of other people, cannot exist together. So peacemakers are people who face conflicting realities and even confront them but who ultimately focus on developing good relationships with others and maintaining a good relationship with God – even at a cost to themselves.
The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. Shalom means wholeness and harmony rather than strife and discord. Peace or shalom is meant to cover all aspects of life. And Jesus said those who work for shalom, who reconcile others to each other and to God “will be called children of God.” And that is what Jesus came to do for us -- to bring us peace with God and peace within. So peacemakers will be called children of God because they reflect God’s character – their Heavenly Father’s character. Peacemaking is what God loves to do for those who respond to his offer of love and forgiveness.
We are on the edge of the Christmas season. We will soon hear again from the prophet Isaiah (9:6-7) that Jesus invested his life in the life of humanity as “the Prince of Peace.” Jesus Christ was born on Earth in Bethlehem and gave his life to bring humanity shalom or peace with God – the wholeness, redemption and salvation of God. And God calls those who follow Jesus to be something like their Prince of Peace – peacemakers – in our world today. Jesus blessed all those who work for peace, calling them God’s children, because they are “doing something just like God; [and] God is always making peace” among people one with another, within people’s spirits and ultimately with God himself [Green, M. (2000). The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven (91). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-Varsity Press].
We will also soon hear the song of the angels to the shepherds on the Judean hillside in Luke 2 singing praises to God: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on Earth to those with whom God is pleased!” The Apostle Paul picked up on God’s peace when he wrote in his letter to the Colossians: “Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son’s sacrificial death on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.” In other words, Jesus gave the sacrifice of his own life through his death on the cross to bring peace between God and all humanity and peace to the universe (Ephesians 2:14-18; Colossians 1:20).
Being a peacemaker may call for our ultimate sacrifice too. Today is a day of memories. We remember the sacrifices of people in the past as the Call to Worship called us to do. One of my spiritual mentors, author and speaker Brennan Manning, has a remarkable story of self-sacrifice and about how he took the name “Brennan.”
He was born Richard Francis Xavier Manning. His best friend while growing up was Ray. The two of them did everything together. They bought a car together as teenagers, they double-dated together, they went to school together. They even enlisted in the Army together and went to boot camp together and fought on the frontlines together. One night, while sitting in a foxhole, Richard was reminiscing about the old days while Ray listened and ate a chocolate bar. Suddenly, a live grenade fell into the foxhole. Ray looked at his friend, smiled, dropped his chocolate bar and threw himself on the live grenade. It exploded. Ray was killed. But Richard’s life was spared.Jesus clearly understands the sacrifices his followers then and now would have to make in their desire and calling to be peacemakers. So on this Remembrance Day 2010, blessings on all those who have sacrificed their lives to bring us peace. But blessings, too, on those who live their ordinary lives each day seeking to be peacemakers in their home or workplace or community or nation or world or even in their church – wherever peace needs to win out over conflict. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus said, “for they shall be called children of God.”
When Manning became a Franciscan priest, he was instructed to take on the name of a saint. He thought of his friend Ray Brennan and took the name “Brennan.” Some years later he visited Ray's mother. They sat up late one night having tea. Brennan asked her, “Do you think Ray loved me?” Ray’s mother got up off the couch, shook her finger in front of Brennan's face and shouted, “What more could he have done for you?” At that moment, Brennan said he experienced an epiphany. He imagined himself standing before the cross of Jesus wondering, Does God really love me? And he also saw Jesus’ mother, Mary, pointing to her son, asking, “What more could he have done for you?”
May this be so for you and for me. Amen.
Rev. Chris Miller
November 7, 2010
Remembrance Day
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto
Download a copy of this message at our drop.io account
Visit with us online!
