Peacemakers and Sword-bearers

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Sunset on Las Lajas

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God. 
(Matthew 5:9 NIV)

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 
(Matthew 10:34 NIV)

We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror. 
(Jeremiah 8:15 NIV)

We were reclining on lounges on the beach called Las Lajas in Panama. Gentle breakers followed each other in to meet the sand; the sky was the bluest blue with only a few cotton clouds drifting west to east. One of us was far out where we could barely see him, letting the surf break over him; one of us was knitting a blanket for an unknown Ngobi baby; one of us was reading and another of us daydreaming about oceans and pirates, surfs and foam and the possibility that these breakers had been rolling in just here long before anything resembling human beings had been seen on this earth.

“Did you know that Pacific Ocean means Peaceful Sea?” I said.

“Really?”

“Really. pacific, pacify, peace. All refer to calmness, peacefulness. Like today. Peaceful.”

More peaceful quiet. Knitting, reading, wading. “Requiescat in pace,” I said. We only say ‘rest in peace’ to dead people. Why is that?”

“I don’t know, Dad. Why is that?”

It’s interesting. Blessedness, happiness is the predicted lot of the one who makes peace, the one who brings calm, the one who is not wielding the gun, but urging the belligerents to put theirs down. And yet, there’s “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” Followed by, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Are there two Aramaic, Greek words that translate as peace? Is the peace in 5:9 the same peace as the peace in 10:34?

Well when we were children, we were told that the most important peace is peace with God: sins forgiven, washed in the blood, ready for heaven if we should happen to “die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen. G’night Mom.” But when we began to “put aside childish things,” when we first experienced the world in all it’s raw rage and danger, the conundrum of the peacemaker as sword bearer compelled us to take the words, pin them up in the public square and hope to understand them as Christ meant 
them . . . for today . . . tomorrow.

This we know. Peace is better for people than war. Seeing Sudanese, Yemeni mothers cradling emaciated children (and with no means to alleviate their hunger and illness) surely tells us that the pacific state is most certainly the blessed condition. The absurd intransigence of men who will not put their guns down places on us the obligation to “take up a sword,” to step out with courage to shake humankind into wakefulness, to be in-your-face witnesses to the folly of warfare.

The sword with no apologies,  that draws no blood but, nevertheless, nurtures peace. An irony of ironies.

But still, no guarantees. Like Jeremiah—the prophet, not the bullfrog—we may cry, “We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.”

We are not peacemakers because it’s a battle strategy that works. We are peacemakers because that’s what Jesus was, and is, and will always be. It emanates seamlessly from the great commandments: Love God; Love your neighbour.

A few steps from the Pacific shore at Las Lajas there’s a cafe. Cool drinks, good food, friendly smiles and words await “at your elbow,” as it were. And at night, a comfortable bed in a cool room.

If only we could share peace with the refugees in Lebanon and Jordan and Syria . . . Oh, wait!What am I saying?? WE CAN! But only if we’re willing.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9 NIV)






Comments

  1. Hugh SavageMay 20, 2017 at 7:42 AM

    You have set these peace comments in a beautifully peaceful setting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hugh SavageMay 20, 2017 at 7:42 AM

    You have set these peace comments in a beautifully peaceful setting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Grizzled GrampsJune 4, 2017 at 4:36 PM

    Gluecklich is the German word for "lucky" as well as for "jolly", "happy"!

    One might say, in answer to your query, above, "Perhaps both?"

    ReplyDelete

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