Feb 25, 2018

 

Follower of Jesus (49)

Blessed are the Peacemakers

For they will be called Children of God. (2)

                     Mathew 5:9

This beatitude, like all the others, contain no commands, no directive. All beatitudes give a picture of what a God-person looks like. The only command that Jesus ever evoked was the command to love one another. But that loose command, to love, what does it look like in the world? The answer is the beatitudes, which paint a picture of a person whose life is centered in God. God is Love, nothing but love. But no one has any answers as to what love is, especially the kind of love that expresses the nature of God. Jesus painted a picture of the nature of Love, and what it means to be portraying the likeness of God. Genesis 1:26-27 portrays God’s desire to create humanity in It’s own image and likeness, and we are each a portrayal of the Image of God. but the striving to be the likeness of God is the task that each of us undertakes in this physical realm of what we see.

The likeness of God as described by the beatitudes, including this beatitude of being a Peacemaker, stems from the nature of God: three persons, distinct in themselves, but still unified in a single being of Life that we have called God. Each facet of God, Father, Son and Spirit, understands itself as a oneness/separateness that Jesus spoke of often, and who spoke as their separate natures in Genesis 1. We have called this the Trinity, and indeed we are made in the image of God, and united as one in spirit. We are called to see our oneness, not only as human beings, but as members of a single force or field of the universe.

Like God, we each have a function to perform as part of the likeness of God that is who we are. (just in case you need a reminder: “Let us make humanity in our image, in our likeness, so that —” Genesis 1:26.) like ourselves, God has multiple functions while humanity, each made in the image of God, has a calling to be a likeness of God that is each person’s unique function. Like God, all are called to reflect the wholeness of the image and likeness of God while having a unique role to play, with each having unique talents to share with others- just as God would, and in our case, we are the talent that is God in our life. No one can take another’s place, and our uniqueness cannot, and will not, be exactly duplicated at any time in our universe.

A person of peace, who acts as a peacemaker in some capacity, must have that sense of inner peace that reflects that nature of God. Peace is never forced; if an outside force creates a non-formal declaration of ‘peace’ and enforces that peace, it is through violence that more violence is stopped. That type of peace is not peace, but reduced violence of the nature that we see in the forced ‘peace’ between North and South Korea. We saw a similar nature at the end of WW1, when nobody won and ‘peace’ was declared, only to flare up more devastating than ever 30 years later.

The peacemaker as being a reflection of this beatitude brings peace to the center of occasion and is indeed noted as a ‘child of God’, as Jesus is quoted as saying. This type of peace as exuded by President Jimmy Carter over the past 40 years has helped to calm roiling waters all over the world many times. Certainly the combination of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu calmed South Africa when Apartheid was removed in the 90’s and prevented most violence and thoughts of revenge from being implemented in that difficult and wonderful time. They proved that it is possible to move from heavy violence and suppression to freedom and coexistence without excessive violence.

Peacemakers indeed, and Children of God at work.

Meditation

Oh blessed Lover, who expresses compassion and love in the universe, ease our hearts so that we may become witnesses of Peace in our own personal environment. We each live among real live people who have pain, feel as victims, and express anger and fear in many ways. You have placed us here to be that leaven of Peace in our own way in our own spot in life; open our hearts to be able to love others at all times, as You commanded us to Love one another as ourselves.

 

 

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