Sermon Tone Analysis

It is amazing how the Holy Spirit works out week after week what he wants to communicate with us.

I had planned months ago about preaching this series of messages.

At the time I had no idea that Russia would invade the Ukraine.

Sure they had been acting belligerently towards their neighbor.

But who knew that they would actually invade.

The death and destruction that they have caused has been horrific.

Millions have been uprooted from their homes and are seeking a place of safety in other countries.

Billions of dollars in loss to the Ukrainian economy.

Every day people around the world are being impacted with the price of gas which has skyrocketed.

Who knows where it will end.

This is causing an increase cost to everything that we purchase.

We wait to see what happens next.

Will China be embolden by Russia’s action and attack Taiwan?

Will Russia proceed to attack other of their neighbors?

Will the United States and other western nations be drawn in to war which could result in World War 3?

We do not know what will happen next, but I firmly believe that God is in control.

We know that there will be wars and rumors of war before Jesus returns.

Our focus today is on that of a peacemaker.

The call to be a peacemaker may be the most difficult of all the Beatitudes to live out.

Some of the Beatitudes are more passive, "peacemaker" is a strongly active word.

It calls us to make peace in the world around us, an especially difficult task in a world that seems to revel in violence.

It would make sense, then, that the call to be a peacemaker is next to a word of blessing for those who are persecuted.

These two may be more connected than we think because, in a world that loves violence, being a peacemaker may well lead to persecution.

What It Means to Be a Peacemaker?

The Greek word for "peacemaker" here is eirénopoios.

It's the only time in Scripture when this word is used, but the related word eirene ("peace") is used ninety-one times in the New Testament.

The Greek word for peace is used in place of the Hebrew word shalom in the Old Testament.

This implies that peace isn't about passivity or lack of conflict.

It is about wholeness and being mended together.

This is something deeper and fuller than just not having conflict.

Because peace is at the heart of the word peacemaker, we can infer that those who are peacemakers aren't merely devoted to the absence of conflict in the world but seek wholeness and restoration.

"Peacemaker" is sometimes recast as "peace worker"-someone who works for peace.

This is an important distinction because we can mistakenly interpret a peacemaker as one who keeps peace, but working for peace implies more than that.

We could also wrongly assume that a peacemaker lives in peace, but working for peace doesn't inherently mean living at peace; it is a pursuit of peace.

Also, because peace means wholeness and mending together, it could also mean walking through conflict in order to come to a place of peace.

It is also important to distinguish peacemaking from passivity or pacifism.

Peacemaking isn't merely a passive, nonviolent stance.

It is an active move toward restoration.

The second thing we can learn about

Being a Peacemaker in a Culture That Loves Violence

The culture we live in loves violence.

This might seem like a bold statement, but a quick look at some major parts of culture illustrate this reality plainly: the high amount of sales of movies, television shows, and video games that have violent themes; news stories that sensationalize violence, often for the sake of higher viewership ("if it bleeds, it leads"); violent videos spread quickly through social media avenues.

In the list of the top 10 Video games for February, 5 of them contained violence and killing.

Since the end of World War 2, there have been over 2.9 million civilians who have been killed during armed conflicts.

Every day we hear of a shooting or a murder.

We hear of horrific abuse of a child.

A few weeks ago, one of my clients told me about his 16 year old cousin was murdered when another teen pulled a gun and shot him in the back.

While we might be horrified by the consequences of violence, overall our culture relies on violence as a problem solver: capital punishment, war, weapons that we keep in our homes to defend against potential intruders, etc.

These can be very controversial things, but the reality stands that in this type of culture, it is hard to be a peacemaker.

We often make the mistake of viewing peace as something that can be achieved by force, instead of worked on diligently as a means of restoration and healing.

The culture into which the Beatitudes were written is also a culture of violence.

The Roman Empire is famous for its use of military might and intimidation.

It also embraces cruel forms of capital punishment which should be obvious to us since it is how Jesus himself was killed.

Some of the remaining ruins of the Roman Empire are examples of the violence the Romans loved, with the Colosseum representing perhaps the largest and most obvious example, as a place where violence was treated as a game, a sport, and entertainment.

Peacemaking, true, hard restoration and healing that brings about the peace of Christ.

In these types of worlds stands out as a stark contrast.

Someone who does that type of work looks peculiar to the world.

The third thing is that

Peculiarity Can Lead to Ridicule and Persecution

Among those who prefer conflict, someone who seeks a way of peace will provoke anger and frustration.

We all know people who prefer conflict, those who constantly find themselves in the middle of interpersonal drama, and who seek out situations where they can manipulate and create conflict.

There are people that thrive on drama.

They love to keep things going.

We have a culture that isn't just saturated in violence but loves all forms of conflict.

Reality TV has made millions from creating, and then exploding powder-keg situations and we always watch and are captivated.

Reality TV producers do not tend to hire or cast peacemakers because peacemakers do not increase ratings.

The animated movie Ferdinand is a great example of anger and persecution directed toward peacemakers.

Ferdinand the bull is devoted to a way of peace, but the other bulls mock him, saying their choices in life are either the bullfighting ring or the chop house.

Ferdinand asks, "What if those aren't the only two choices?"

The other bulls continue to mock him for his dedication to peacemaking because he refuses to live how they think bulls are supposed to live.

Paul wrote

Barbara Bush when she was the First Lady said in a commencement address that what happens in the White House is not as important as what happens in your house.

He was abused as  a child.

For the least little offense, actual or imagined, his father would beat him.

He did not even call his own son by name.

Instead, he whistled for him like a dog when he wanted him.

Feelings of hatred, though never expressed, deepened into rage.

As a young adult, the boy discovered that his father had Jewish ancestors.

In his twisted mind he came to blame his father's behavior on his Jewish blood.

You know his name.

It was Adolf Hitler.

I wonder, would the healing of a small boy's wound have prevented the Holocaust?

What is even more important for us is would the healing of some child's wound today prevent an act of terrorism or shooting spree on some tomorrow?

(Isaiah 9:2-7 - War and the Prince of Peace, n.d.)

It is not easy; it is just essential.

You see, the crabby little girls of today become the crabby old women of tomorrow.

The controlling little boys of today become the controlling men of tomorrow.

What we are talking about is essential stuff.

In the routines of life, peace is a relationship essential.

Our world often calls peacemakers "sissies" or various other names.

This ire is often directed at men in particular.

Warrior men are glorified, not peacemaking men.

In a culture that glorifies cutthroat and ruthless tactics, those who live toward and create peace are often outsiders.

The fourth thing we learn about is

Peacemaking as Part of Righteousness

As we discussed last week, this scripture does not exist in a vacuum.

Peacemaking in verse 9 and righteousness in verse 10 are next to each other for a reason.

Righteousness is doing the right things for the right reasons.

Peacemaking is one way that righteousness is lived out in the world.

The other Beatitudes in previous verses also show ways that righteousness is lived out.