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Commentary
COMMENTARY: A New Year’s meditation - ‘Blessed are peacemakers’ William McElvaney, Jan 9, 2012
William McElvaney
By William K. McElvaney Special Contributor
Many years ago a teacher of faith, hope and love offered these words: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Blessed are the peacemakers? How is it that peacemakers are blessed?
Peacemakers are not blessed because the percentages are favorable; the odds seldom favor peacemaking, especially on a global scale. Peacemakers take on entrenched powers and principalities. Big systems. Big money. Big violence. Peacemakers are blessed because the God of many names calls us to stand up and speak out for a world future based on nonviolence and reconciliation. It’s who we are. It’s what we do.
Peacemakers are not blessed because we are born smart, clever or wise in our own right. Peacemakers are blessed because in peacemaking we are likely to experience God at the deepest level. We come to know the God of peace as ones who discover our vocation, our direction for living.
Peacemakers are not blessed because peacemaking is considered to be politically correct or, for that matter, incorrect. Peacemakers are blessed because peacemaking at its best is theologically faithful to the core beliefs of all our religious traditions . The blessings for peacemakers include the friends and mentors with whom we share the efforts of peacemaking. We also learn from each other on the lowly yet exalted path of peacemaking. The struggle together tests our character and resolve and refines our souls. As peacemakers we are not willing to accept perpetual counterinsurgency war as the new normal for the future of the United States. As peacemakers we are not mesmerized by Washingtonian language wrapped in the rhetoric of freedom and democracy while thousands are sacrificed on the altar of unnecessary wars. As peacemakers we don’t define security in terms of Drone air attacks or in bombing operations against those who have not attacked our country.
As peacemakers we define security in terms of jobs, health care and education, and in terms of adequate food, shelter and clothing for millions of Americans lacking these necessities in a culture of huge corporate bonuses and profiteering from enormous weapon contracts.
Accordingly, faith-based peacemakers have an imperative to care for the most vulnerable through a variety of means including encouraging humane public policy. At the same time, we expect government to make a just and compassionate effort to support these necessities for all Americans. Some U.S. citizens call this socialism; the preamble to the U.S. Constitution calls it establishing justice and promoting the general welfare. Peacemakers call it the common good, or as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “the beloved community.”
When Jesus offered his blessing to peacemakers, he didn’t say, “Blessed are the Christian peacemakers.” He just said, according to Scripture, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” It was an inclusive blessing. In our day his saying translates as, “Blessed are the Muslim peacemakers. Blessed are the Buddhist and Hindu peacemakers. Blessed are the Sikh and Baha’i peacemakers. Blessed are the Jewish and Christian peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers of every persuasion and grounding.”
Nobody said peacemaking would be easy, whether in personal relationships or on a global scale. Nobody said it would be a short-term project. Nobody guaranteed success. But somebody did say, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons and daughters of the God of peace.”
2012 beckons us to discover the blessings of JUST peacemaking.
The Rev. McElvaney is a retired UM pastor in Dallas and professor emeritus at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology. He also served as president of Saint Paul School of Theology, and he’s the author of the book Becoming a Justice Seeking Congregation.
William McElvaney
