Mar 11, 2018

Follower of Jesus (51)

Blessed are the Peacemakers

For they will be called Children of God. (3)

                     Mathew 5:9

 

I would like to continue the discussion on how you and I, who do not consider ourselves among the extraordinary people of the planet, can be the peacemakers called by this beatitude. After all, we are not in places like President Jimmy Carter, or the Dali Lama, where we have mobs of people admiring us and willing to follow all that we do. We are folks that get up in the morning, eat breakfast (hopefully), go to work, come home, greet the family, eat dinner, maybe watch a little TV, and go to bed. Nothing unusual from billions of others in our world.

But this beatitude did not say we had to be someone unusual. No, all the beatitudes are based for everyone: anyone can become that extraordinary person that brings peace as part of their basic functions, just by being who they are. If we are a follower of Jesus, we will be a peacemaker. All the beatitudes describe what a follower of Jesus is, not something that they do. Each beatitude describes a function of the follower of Jesus, and the true follower of Jesus is, by their nature, described by the beatitudes. Each person has certain strengths and weaknesses, and the strongest center creates an aura of that beatitude as a mark of life. Our task is to work to being a total follower of Jesus, as described by the beatitudes.

The peacemaker has the center of calming the muddied waters in life. Not everyone has that talent or strength, but all can be supportive of the peaceful atmosphere where Love is central to the task. Violence of any type is never followed, and any true follower of Jesus is non-violent by their nature. This is not something you are born with, and Nelson Mandela is a good example of that process. He was a leader in a rebel force active in violently rebelling against the South African white leadership before being captured. He endured 28 years of solitary confinement. He realized as he sat in his cell that he had a choice: he could continue to hate and seethe inside, or he could change the way he felt and become different. I am sure he had no idea that he would change as much as he did. Eventually he grew to understand that the white minority was acting under great fear: they were afraid that they would all die if they let the black majority rule the country. By the time he left the jail, his guards reportedly wept when he left. He was one of the leaders in putting the country before revenge, by instituting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that permitted the accused to confess to their crimes, seek forgiveness from those they had injured, and be free from further prosecution. That is an example in a very public life of what can be done, and each of us has the ability to forgive all who have injured us, and truly forgive them from our hearts.

God is calling us to be God in our physical world. That is, we are the image of God by our birth, and we have to learn to be the likeness of God by our life. being a peacemaker, and learning to forgive all, truly forgive and recognize that all mistakes (or what we call “sin”) is a result of fear in everyone’s life. It is said there is only one emotion, and that is Love, but love can twist into its opposite of fear. So all action lies within that line of Love: from the beatitudes all the way to absolute fear, and we all operate somewhere along that line, in everything we do.

That is the line that everyone on earth (and if there is intelligent life outside of earth that life is also somewhere along that line) is following, and if we understand that deep in our hearts we will begin to understand and perhaps start a love that is a reflection of God’s Love: no one consciously commits what we term ‘sin’ without the absence of Love, or Fear, being the driving factor in that action. It is the reason why many theologians, including Pope John-Paul II could state “There may be no one in hell”, since the Love of God understood that all actions are played out of love/fear, the only emotion there is, and therefore no one is fully responsible for any evil they do. All our responsible actions lie on that Love/Fear relationship, and actions stemming on Fear result in negative or “sinful” actions simply out of fear.

So bring the Love of God to everything you do, and the result will far exceed your expectations. The beatitudes express God’s Love in various ways, and Jesus put forth these descriptions of what God’s Love looks like in our life.

You will be called a Child of God.

Meditation

I am grateful, my God, for being given the mission of Love. All my life I have wandered along that line between love and fear, sometimes landing more on Love than Fear, but too often landing in Fear rather than Love. Always You have prodded and forgiven me. I am grateful for the countless times You have forgiven me and cradled me in the arms of Love. I ask only that this process continue throughout my life, and I know that it will, for You have promised me life eternally in Your Being when this physical life ends. I rest firmly in that belief, and look around me in Joy as I see Love in all of creation. Indeed, the kingdom of God is always here, and I rest in that kingdom at all times.

 

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We are bound in the music of life where we dance and weave within that glorious melody, or what some call God. Now, God has said that we are the very image of God (Genesis 1:27), and as images of God, we have the inborn ability to have Joy and Happiness forever present in our life. The author, David L. Peters, is an octogenarian whose life has always been filled with joy, regardless of outward appearances. The wonders of the Kingdom of Heaven is everyone’s birthright, if you know how to let your Creator and the Universe enter your spirit. Jesus put it succinctly: “The Kingdom of God lies within” (Luke 17:21). The Kingdom of God, Paradise, Heaven: these lie within you, right now, waiting for you to only turn and see, and join in the dance. Paradise is right within us, but how do we unlock the door to this wonder of joy? This book lays a path open that the author has followed for almost 80 years, starting as a young boy in rural Ohio, and it operates as advertised. No matter how things look in life, how bad it seems, all one need do is look deeper within and find the joy that can fill life: life is good! The life of abundant joy and happiness is yours for the asking. Dip your toe in the living waters, and taste the Beauty of God that is awaiting.