Peacemakers
“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:14-16 (NRSV)
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matthew 5:9 (NRSV)
STORY
The Arabella was a ship of 350 tons with 28 cannons and a crew of 52, that set sail from Cowes in the Isle of Wight on March 29, 1630. The passengers on board for the voyage across the Atlantic were the future leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The families could do little to amuse themselves during the long hours at sea, so the most popular form of entertainment became listening to a sermon.
As the Arabella neared the coast of the New World, John Winthrop, the leader of the Puritans, delivered a stirring oration. Winthrop prophesied to the colonists:
We shall be as a city upon a hill, eyes of all people are upon us; so, if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and show cause to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by – word through the world.
With this homily future Americans had their mandate: to be a perfect Christian community that will be imitated throughout the world.
DEVOTION
Being a “city upon a hill” may have become the mantra for our nation. On Wednesday, January 11, 1989, President Ronald Reagan delivered his “Farewell Address to the Nation” The televised speech, spoken from the Oval Office, opened with these words, “This is the 34th time I’ll speak to you from the Oval Office and the last. We’ve been together eight years now, and soon it’ll be time for me to go. But before I do, I wanted to share some thoughts, some of which I’ve been saving for a long time.” Then, in the closing of his address to Americans Reagan said:
And that’s about all I have to say tonight, except for one thing. The past few days when I’ve been at that window upstairs, I’ve thought a bit of the shining city upon a hill. The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.
I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.
And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.
As a church and subsequently as a nation since church teachings should be guiding our nation, we ought to think of ourselves as a community set upon the heights of society as an institution that can be observed by everyone. As people and nations look to us as the body of Christ, they should see a fellowship that abounds in love and is caring for friend and stranger alike. The community should be supportive and complementary of all persons, and it must be inclusive of individuals from every stratum of life.
Our lesson this morning comes from Jesus’ teaching that is known as the Sermon on the Mount. This is really Jesus’ systematic theological discourse. Everything that Jesus taught and did can find a correlation statement in this address. Also, most of what Jesus taught can be contrasted to the oppressive and terrorist rule of Rome. Therefore, those who do the will of God as Jesus taught and not adhering to the legalistic dictates of Rome will be known as “children of God,” and some Bibles have it more appropriately translated as “sons of God.”
The entire Sermon on the Mount may be best summarized in the word “peacemakers,” that is, doers of peace. A peacemaker is to be actively involved in restoring a society where harmonious living resides. In the Beatitudes the instruction to be peacemakers comes last. That is to say an individual must practice the proceeding seven attributes before one can be a peacemaker.
Jesus was involved in ministry during the period in history known as Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. Though, it was not a peace established by inclusion; instead, it was a peace that endured by fear and despotism. Through its great military might Rome had brought an end to the small wars that had caused conflict between the numerous competing states and territories that had been merged together to form the Roman Empire. It was a peace enforced by a military presence and not one that was accomplished by the teachings of the scriptures.
Douglas R. A. Hare in his commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew, explains the difference in peace according to Jesus and the peace established by Rome. Dr. Hare was a professor at Pittsburgh Theologica Seminary. The Greek word for peace “eirene” and the Hebrew word for peace “shalom” have similar meanings. Dr. Hare wrote, “peace in the Hebrew sense, shalom, harmonious cooperation aimed at the welfare of all, could not be established by the Roman legions.”
Jesus’ beatitude offers a critique of Roman power and dominion. He snubs the emperor and his so-called peace, which had been established through military might and oppressive force. In Jesus’ pronouncement it is not the Roman emperors who are “peacemakers.” Biblical peacemakers are not the emperors who called themselves “sons of God.” It is not the powerful or the high and mighty who are the “doers of peace.” The “peacemakers” and “sons of God” are the followers of Jesus.
Dr. James Durlesser, also a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, wrote in a commentary that the most basic meaning of the word shalom is “completeness, soundness, welfare, peace.”
If we can put religious nationalism to the side for the moment, if our nation and if our church are to be the “light of the world. A city built on a hill” then we must daily live the Sermon on the Mount as “peacemakers.”