Pursue Peace by Stewart Perry
I’m sure I’m not the only one who is confronted by what is going on in the Middle East at the moment. The speed of the escalation, the loss of life already accumulating & the potential ramifications for our world and future generations is incredibly disturbing.
It also unsettles me to recognise that when a new conflict emerges in our world, other parts of the world that remain conflicted, slip from our awareness. Where there is war, oppression, injustice & violence, there is always evil but trying to attribute evil to one side or the “bad guys” is often fraught. I’ve been around long enough and read widely enough & seen the evidence throughout history to know how complex geopolitics is. Even when it might be clear that one side is at fault or one side is worse than the other, it doesn’t mean evil is not present or that human decisions on both sides can be problematic and lead to the suffering of those who Jesus calls “little ones”.
What are we to do as followers of Jesus, just continue to watch the news & feel helpless? ‘Tut-tut’ at what’s going on but have no demonstrable change to our own behaviour? Or do we join the increasing polarisation in our world & pick a side & vilify the other?
I’m not sure, as I read through scripture, that any of those positions is substantiated by scripture. This week I’ve been reading through the passages of the bible that speak about peace. I would encourage you to do likewise and there’s a fair bit to get through. The bible mentions the word “peace” 340 times in the NRSV translation. I find the psalms particularly helpful in times like this. I find the words of Jesus always challenging but there is one verse that has stuck with me this week which has lead me to write these words. I typically shy away from political issues in sermons & written items because it can be so easily interpreted or misunderstood as expressing my own political positions, which like all of us, I have. However I do not believe peace is a political issue, it is a scriptural imperative. I also have wrestled with this idea and preached on it each Advent when we have the week on “peace” to know that the peace of God is much deeper than waring countries ceasing fighting and signing “peace treaties”. Peace is a posture of our heart & it is a gift from God.
The verse that has stayed in my head & heart this week is from the letter to the Hebrews:
Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)
I’ve found this verse challenging on a number of levels. Firstly it clearly says “everyone”. Not just the people we like or the ones that share opinions with. We are commanded to love our enemies & part of that outworking of love is to pursue peace with them.
The other aspect of the verse I find confronting is that without us pursuing peace, no one will see the Lord.
Much has been written by people smarter than me about the idea of a “holy war”. I can rationalise in my mind how aggression can be justified but it does always leave an unsettledness in my heart. Whenever a war or physical aggression is justified by our faith or the faith of another group of people, I’ll be honest I struggle to justify that by what I know of God, particularly in the person of Jesus Christ.
The human default seems to be to either take up arms against another or rush to join a rally to protest. Because you & I aren’t the decision makers in these sorts of situations, we often see ourselves as the helpless onlookers.
And that’s where I come back to the verse in Hebrews. To pursue peace is not to be a passive onlooker. The most active thing we can do is pray. We should be praying constantly for an end to conflict and for those we don’t agree with or we call enemies. Not so God could make them think the way we do, but that God would continue to break our hearts for the things that break God’s heart.
We can also look for the ways we can pursue peace in our own context. There is always a disagreement, an argument, a situation that we actually can influence by pursuing peace. If the followers of Jesus were all pursuing peace in their own sphere of influence rather than jumping to take sides, I think our world would be a different place.
In the meantime let us fall to our knees in prayer. Pray ceaselessly for peace. This Sunday evening in our Breathe service at 5:30pm at Robina we will make some space to pray for & reflect on peace.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7)