Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12
1When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Sermon: “Blessed Are the Peacemakers”
I once read a joke about Peace that made me smile--not because it was so funny--it wasn’t, actually, that funny--but it rang true. The joke went like this--oh, and before I tell it, I picture the late comedian, Jerry Stiller, who played George Castanza’s father on the TV show Seinfeld, as the old man:
“A journalist assigned to the Jerusalem bureau takes an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall (the ancient ruins of the Temple where people go to pray.) Every day when she looks out, she sees an old man praying vigorously. So, the journalist goes down and introduces herself to the old man.
She says, “You come here every day to the wall. How long have you done that and what are you praying for?”
The old man replies, “I have come here to the Wailing Wall to pray every day for 25 years. In the morning I pray for world peace and for the brotherhood of man. I go home have a cup of tea and I come back and pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth.”
The journalist is amazed. “How does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray for Peace and Healing?” she asks.
The old man looks at her. “How does it feel, coming to the Wailing Wall, praying for Peace and Healing, every day, for the past 25 years? It feels like I’m talking to a wall.” (https://igbarb19.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/some-rather-few-peace-related-jokes)
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
This statement is found in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew Chapter 5, verse 9. For the past several weeks, I’ve been doing a sermon series on a section of that sermon called “The Beatitudes” (Blessings), and each week we’ve taking one beatitude and looking in depth at the meaning of the words that Jesus used. Jesus originally spoke these words in Aramaic, an ancient Middle Eastern language.
I am going to ask BRADY to put up a slide of the phonetic pronunciation of the Aramaic words. And then I’ll play an audio file of scholar Neil Douglas-Klotz pronouncing the words in Aramaic, to give you an approximate sense of what it might have sounded like to hear Jesus speaking. The file lasts 40 seconds, and verse 9 in Aramaic is spoken 3 and a half times.
[PLAY FILE of Aramaic: Tubwayhun lahwvday shlama dawnaw(hie) d’alaha nitqarun. - translation from Prayers of the Cosmos by Neil Douglas-Klotz, p. 65]
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
Although the work of Peace is “blessed” by God, peacemaking is NOT an easy business. I am pretty sure that everyone who has tried to make peace—on a big or small scale—has felt, much of the time, like the man in the joke I just told—like they are talking to a wall. Or much worse.
History is full of examples where people, in the role of peacemaker, unfairly bear the brunt of other people’s anger. We can see this in the lives of famous peacemakers of the last century, such as:
· Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was threatened and eventually killed for preaching racial equality;
· Rosa Parks, who lost her job and received death threats for years following her act of non-violent resistance to segregation;
· Mahatma Gandhi, who was imprisoned for many years for his leadership in the non-violent movement to end British colonial rule in India; he was killed by someone who opposed his views, including his work of reconciling people of different religions.
I could go on, because, sadly, the list of famous peacemakers unfairly bearing the brunt of other people’s anger is long. And I am sure that the list of non-famous peacemakers, who do their work on a smaller scale, and also unfairly bear the brunt of other people’s anger is long as well. Had I been in any of their shoes, I’m NOT sure I would have had the strength to continue working for Peace when facing such strident and violent opposition. It’s hard enough working for Peace when you feel like you are talking to a wall who isn’t listening; it’s a whole different level when the wall actually starts using violence to silence you.
Yet Jesus says Blessed are the Peacemakers.
What does he mean by this? Author John Dominic Cross-an in his book How to Read the Bible and Still be a Christian talks about how Peace in the Bible is inexorably linked to justice. And justice, Cross-an says, is “primarily about a fair distribution of God’s [resources] for ALL of God’s people.” (p. 17) This was the view of Jesus when he said, “Blessed are the Peacemakers.” In Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, the word used for Peace is shlama. It has the same root as the Hebrew word shalom and the Arabic word sa-lam. The Aramaic word for Peace, shlama, refers to the health, safety, and well-being not just of one individual, but of an entire assembly of people-- including opposing parties. (Prayers of the Cosmos, p. 66) So Peace, as Jesus envisions it, is the state of everyone—all of God’s children-- being treated fairly and having what they need to survive and thrive.
Further, the Aramaic word Jesus used for “makers” (as in peacemakers) sheds even more light on what it means to make Peace. The Aramaic word for “makers” is pronounced lav-die, and scholar Neil Douglas-Klotz gives us this definition (and I will read it): “[Lav-die/makers] refers to those who not only make or perform an action but also are committed to it. The old roots call up …images of planting: tilling the ground, laboring regularly bringing forth fruit…the emphasis is on that which is done periodically and regularly—despite the odds, as one might say.” (p. 66)
I know that many of you understand what goes in to “planting.” Many of you have gardens; you know that planting is hard work! You don’t just stick a few tomato seeds in the ground, walk away, and expect you can harvest your tomatoes for lunch when you come back in the afternoon. No. You till the soil; add your compost; plant the seeds; water them daily; weed, mulch, stake the plants; keep the slugs and the birds off them; fence them in against rabbits, deer, skunks or golden retrievers; and then, eventually, if the weather cooperates, and you keep up this work day after day, you can harvest a crop several weeks later. It’s this kind of care, commitment, work and attention that making Peace requires. Peace is not something that can be achieved overnight. Like growing consistent crops, it is the work of a life-time.
So one possible new translation of verse 9 that Douglas-Klotz gives is: “Blessed are those who plant peace each season; they shall be named the children of God.”
Peace--or lack thereof-- has been on all of our minds lately, as theb Russian President pursues his war against Ukraine. Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine being unfairly attacked--and to the people of Russia, who risk severe punishment if they dare to protest what is happening. How many of us are fearful-- and feel helpless-- because the whole world is being drawn into this maelstrom against our will and our leaders, at least so far, haven’t been able to stop it? At least, in a Democracy, we have the privilege and the obligation to discuss and debate our options and make our views known to our senators and representatives in congress. And I trust we are doing that.
But working for Peace is about more than what our government does on an international level. Working for Peace is also about how we choose to conduct ourselves in our interpersonal relationships.
A few years ago, in the newspaper, I read a human interest story about someone whom I would call a Peacemaker—a young man named Andrew Forsthoefel. After graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont, he set off to walk across the United States, and on his back he wore a sign, “Walking to listen.” He started off from his home in Pennsylvania, then walked south and west, “through Louisiana and Texas, through the Southwestern desert to the edge of the continent in California.”
All along the route he stopped to listen to a variety of people. People told him “about their formative experiences: love, loss, addiction, the military, religious conversion.” He said that when he started out, he didn’t even really know what the sign on his back—“Walking to Listen”—meant; he discovered its meaning as he went along and heard people’s stories. Heard their pain and their joys. He confronted his own prejudices—some of which he didn’t even know he had. He said he discovered that “the more authentically interested [he] was, the better [he] listened, the more it seemed people opened up.”
In the newspaper article, Andrew related a story that was shared with him by a woman in Las Vegas, who was an activist for gay rights. The woman told Andrew how one day she was walking down a desolate street in the city, no one else was around, and then, out of no-where, approaching her a big man appeared. He was scowling and he looked inebriated, and she was scared. But, she kept walking toward the man, and as she got closer, she decided, unexpectedly, to smile at him, and, unexpectedly, the man decided to smile back. “[I realized that] We’re all scared of something,” she said, and “We’re all angry at something.” (Boston Globe, The Way Forward, by James Sullivan, March 9th, 2017)
Being a Peacemaker is metaphorically—and sometimes literally—walking with other people. It is seeing the humanity in our neighbors—even those who are very different from us. It is recognizing—and helping others recognize--that we are all in the same boat. It is listening to people long enough to hear their fear and their anger, their pains and their joys. It is sharing our joys and pains with them. Being a peacemaker is following in the footsteps of Jesus, who was called the Prince of Peace. Being a peacemaker is engaging in God’s work to make sure that ALL of our fellow human beings have what they need to survive and thrive—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
As we do this, says Jesus, we will be blessed; we will be aligned with God and God’s values. We will be tuned in to God’s heart and be part of God’s family. May God help us all to engage in this crucial work of Peacemaking. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Let us pray…