Why Peacemaking?
Scripture: Revelation 22:1–5 (NRSV)
22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of
life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through
the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree
of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the
leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing
accursed will be found there anymore. But the throne of God and of the Lamb
will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will
see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And
there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord
God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Devotion:
When we
consider the idea of peacemaking we are often left to wonder why we should keep
on trying to be a peacemaker. The world appears to be content with the status
quo. Violence on the streets, in our homes continues and often it seems that no
one cares. Nations still war against nations and as in the case of Syria the
some nations seem to be at war with themselves. Little concrete progress seems
to ever be made toward the goal of peace or its even more appealing Hebraic
counterpart shalom.
Today’s
scripture from Revelation should help us see the end of our efforts. Shalom
will finally be the fate of the world. No more sickness only healing. No more
fighting only worshipping. As utopian as it sounds so it will be. A place where
God reigns and we are able to live in harmony with one another.
In our
world today peace is largely impossible because of the human need for power and
control over other people. We all seem to want to be our own gods running our
own lives and the lives of as many other people as we can. It is truly a
wonderful thing to find a person who can live in without the need to be in
control of others.
True
humility has become as rare as diamonds and just as precious. We pray for the
time when we will need to love more than we will need to be right. People
disrespect each other’s efforts and destroy their desire to serve with alarming
regularity. Being a peacemaker is not for the faint of heart. Anyone who does
not keep all the rules we keep in our three ring binders are looked at with
suspicion and contempt. When will people learn what Paul teaches in Romans 8 “There
is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus?
Peacemaking, I am afraid, will always be a
lonely enterprise. We must do a better job of teaching it to our children so
that they can grow up to be peacemakers. The church must understand its role in
the final redemption of the world and how peacemaking plays a very large part
in that redemption. We who know how the story ends must do all we can to make
the world a more peaceful place today. In spite of all evidence to the contrary
God really does care about peacemaking and those who give their lives to that
pursuit.
Prayer:
Lord, help us to be peacemakers. Please still in us the
desire to control and run other people’s lives. Help us to stand up to those
who wish to see conflicts continue in a way that causes true peace to arise
within us. Thank you God for showing us what the end of all things looks like.
Help us to live into that shalom. Amen.
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