Have you ever noticed how much we humans crave conflict? While conflict on the world stage creates fear, conflict closer to home -- say, on the internet, in our homes, and in our churches -- draws a crowd of onlookers. Some people create it on purpose. Some people will talk publicly about how much they "hate all the drama," but will then be the first to create it in some way, starting a fight over some insignificant thing, or publicly airing dirty laundry. And as human beings, we love it. Love. It. Why do you think daytime talk shows are so popular?
Maybe that's why Jesus called His people to aim for the opposite. "Blessed are the peacemakers," He declared in Matthew 5:9, "for they shall be called the children of God."
Make no mistake: the Beatitudes -- perhaps the most famous part of Christ's Sermon on the Mount -- are a direct call from God to be other than what our humanity wants us to do naturally. They are counter-intuitive to our sinful natures. And that's exactly what Jesus wanted. It's not natural to consider yourself blessed in your want or mourning. It's not natural to embrace meekness, in this hard world, as a strength that will inherit the Earth. And it's not natural, when our humanity craves conflict -- yet fears confrontation -- to become a peacemaker.
Because peacemaking isn't about avoiding conflict. It's not a passive thing to be a peacemaker. No, peacemaking is, in fact, all about confronting the agents of conflict, in seeing them as people loved by Christ, and in guiding them to understanding and (true) tolerance. Now, as an aside, I'm not talking about tolerance the way generally expressed by the World: what do they know, anyway? I'm talking about the ability to love in spite of differences, to find common ground to rise above conflict. Not to embrace sin, but to love anyway.
Peacemaking isn't easy, but we don't do it alone. Philippians 4:13 reminds us, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
It is in Christ we can find the will -- where it doesn't exist in ourselves -- to shake off our human love of conflict, and our human desire for complacency, and become a force for peace in a constantly darkening world.
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