| By Esther C. Baird, as written for the Silver Bay Spiritual Life Center, Silver Bay, NY. To subscribe to the mailing please email: pastoralrespite@silverbay.org Close your eyes and imagine you’re at Silver Bay (unless you’re actually there, in which case keep them open!). You’re on the front porch of the Inn looking out at the lake from a rocking chair. Or you’re down at Slim Point watching the waves, or perhaps you’re wandering down the road towards archery looking at the stone wall and the small mountain streams that run under the road. Regardless of your imagined scene, I bet we can all agree that as you think of those scenes what you feel is peace. Sure, there are windy and wild days at the Lake. Yes, there are spirited competitions and boisterous games. And perhaps sitting too close to the clout shoot is not the most peaceful feeling when a hundred or so pre-teens and novice adults are given bows and arrows. But even then, there is a sense that whatever else is going on in life, jobs, marriages, health, finances, or family, at Silver Bay we are afforded a small break to simply be at peace with our surroundings, and one another. It’s why I wrote the rough drafts of my first two books in the Spiritual Life Center’s library. Yes, my girls often were covered in whipped cream or glitter from Silver Camp when I left to pick them up, and sometimes I’d hear sing-alongs (not always with a discernible tune) wafting up from people on the lawn. But even with the various distractions, there was always an underlying peace. I could listen and work on the points I felt God was calling me to make in my writing. Peace. It’s rare, and mostly it seems at odds with our regular daily life, and yet, in our next beatitude, Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. He says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they for they shall be called children of God.” What does this mean? Peace with who? And what is this peace? Surely there are times when we are called to stand up for truth and call out wrongs that we see. Is that part of being peaceful? A helpful way to think about this is to see what Jesus says a few chapters later in Matthew 22, when he was asked what the greatest commandment was. Jesus answered saying, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’“ Remember the beatitudes are instructions for the people who are in the Kingdom of Heaven. They describe a people who follow the King of that kingdom and live differently as a result – – right now, right here, in this world. Not because they are so great, but because the King they follow is. He gives them his heart which means they love the things he loves, and seek the same things he seeks. In this case he’s saying people who live in this kingdom are people who seek peace. And based on what the greatest commandment is, they should seek peace first with God and then with their neighbor. Peacemakers in the Kingdom of Heaven are therefore people who help others be at peace with God. We talked in the fourth beatitude about being people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, or a right standing with God. Peacemakers will help others who need to be right with God. They will tell them about this King who calls us all to a new rescued life in this amazing kingdom. But being a peacemaker doesn’t mean you have to agree with everyone, it doesn’t mean you are a doormat (like we talked about in the third beatitude with meekness), it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fight for justice. But it does mean that at all times the goal must be restoration of broken relationships. First with God, and then with others. This may look like fighting for truth, or condemning violence or oppression. Sometimes peacemakers will be outspoken or refuse to participate in something that does not promote the agenda of the Kingdom of Heaven. But the actions will always be in the service of helping others be at peace with God, which will in turn help them be at peace with others. The prophet Isaiah of the Old Testament said when this King came, King Jesus, he would be the Prince of Peace. But quite clearly if you know the story of Jesus, not everyone wanted the sort of peace he was offering. It didn’t sit well with the religious and political powers of the day. And true peace may not sit well with the religious and political powers of our day either. Being a peacemaker, ironically, may cause tension. And yet, we are called to make peace our goal. We are to be peacemakers, and then we will be called children of God, and the King will call us blessed. |
| Extra Reading: If you want to read more, I’d encourage you to read Matthew 22, to learn more of the context around the ‘greatest commandment’. Any translation will do, though I often find the New Living Translation to be an easy one to follow (you can use biblegateway.com to get quick free access to different translations). |
