"The Spiritual Gentry of Peacemakers," a sermon by the Venerable Canon Masalakulangwa Mabula, Class of 2004, given at Holy Trinity Church, Austin, on January 25, 2004

St. Matthew 5:9

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God"

'Give us less theology and more of the Sermon on the Mount'. We often hear this cry. Some people have no interest in theology. They dismiss St. Paul as the 'arch-corruptor of the faith', and insist that the Sermon on the Mount is the essence of the Gospel. It is, they feel, so un-theological, so practical, so entirely lacking in doctrine, dogma and all such useless garbage.

But any such notion that the Sermon on the Mount is the essence of Christianity is a heresy, a by-product of nineteenth century Liberal scholarship.

Hence, even this beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God", contains much more theology, much more of the Christian Gospel, than may at first be obvious.
But right at the outset we need to be clear negatively what Jesus is NOT saying in this beatitude.
1) First of all, Jesus is not yielding to the plea: 'Give us less theology and more simple ethics'. For in effect Jesus is saying: "Only a new man or woman can live this new life; only a person who has been born again by God's Spirit can be a peacemaker".

A character in a novel says: 'All this Sermon on the Mount business is most saddening because it is about impossibilities. You can receive a sacrament, and you can find salvation, but you cannot live the Sermon on the Mount' --- (Quote by A.M. Hunter: Design for Life, p. 113).

Of course, we can't! We were never meant to --- unless we have already been born again by the Spirit of God. But Jesus does mean this Sermon to be a real 'design for life' for those who have entered God's Kingdom.

So here is the first thing we need to realize on the negative side: When Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God", Jesus is issuing a profoundly theological challenge. Jesus is saying in effect: 'Unless you are born again, born from above by the Spirit of God, you cannot be among the spiritual gentry of my own peacemakers'.

2) But the second negative point is this: Jesus is NOT saying, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, those who keep the peace at any cost or price'.

The Greek word which Jesus uses --- ( eirenopoioi) --- is not passive in sense; it does not mean 'peaceable'. The people who, according to Jesus are blessed, and happy are not the easy-going people, the 'peace at any cost of price' men and women who say: 'Anything to avoid trouble', 'Anything for a quiet life'. NO! Such people who opt for a 'cheap peace', and cry 'Peace, peace', when there is no peace, are not genuinely Christians. They are false, flabby spineless creatures, who actually lack any sense of justice, righteousness and compassion.

Theirs is the way of appeasement, and that way brings greater danger. For those who insist of peace at any cost or price never achieve any real peace. They only store up far greater trouble for the future. Long ago the author of Proverbs realized this: 'he who winks the aye', he wrote wisely, 'causes trouble, but he who boldly reproves makes peace' --- (Proverbs. 10:10).

One commentator puts it this way: 'God forgives us only when we repent'. Jesus told us to do the same: "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents forgive him" --- (Luke. 17:3). And he adds: 'How can we forgive an injury when it is neither admitted nor regretted?' --- (J.R.W. Stott, Christian Counter - Culture, p 51).

Of course, this truth also applies when we ourselves are the culprits. We cannot expect cheap forgiveness when we have wronged others, since true peace and true forgiveness are always costly. The cross is always at the heart genuine forgiveness.

So whatever else Jesus is saying in this Beatitude, He is not saying: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, those who keep the peace at any cost or price'. Definitely not!

Let us now turn to the positive meaning of this beatitude, to what exactly Jesus IS saying. For it is clear that Jesus is stressing TWO IMPORTANT TRUTHS:

1) The First Truth is that: Jesus is saying in effect, the great characteristic of Christians is that they are actively peacemakers; they are constantly making friends with others.

Peacemakers! This is the only occurrence of the noun peacemaker --- --- eirenopoios in the Bible, and, as in Classical Greek, so also in New Testament Greek, it is active in sense. The people Jesus has in mind are those who actively engage in reconciliation, those who, as the Psalmist puts it, 'seek peace, and pursue it' --- (Psalm. 34:14). Actively do so! That is the essential meaning of the second part of this Greek word.

But the first part of this word is also significant, because behind this Greek word for peace --- --- eirene is the Hebrew word shalom, and shalom is never only a negative state. It does not mean merely the absence of trouble. It always means 'everything which makes for a person's highest good', his total well-being and harmony. It encompasses ALL God's benefits. The person who has peace is at peace, at one, with God.

So this is our Christian vocation --- to belong to the spiritual gentry of peacemakers. It is a noble gentry, because peacemaking means reconciliation, and God Himself is the author of peace and reconciliation. Therefore, this is significant that the very same Greek verb which is used in this Beatitude as a noun is applied by Paul to what God has done for us through Christ. Listen to Colossians. 1:19-20 'In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and though him to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross'. Making peace --- the same Greek verb eirenepoieo.

Obviously, then, we are in the very best company as peacemakers; are in God's own company. Hence, by God's grace, we are meant to be peaceable people, anything but not quarrelsome. We have to constantly say NO to self and everything that is self-centered, and a positive YES to Christ. Instead of always asking: 'How does this affect me?', 'Is this fair to me?', 'Am I getting my rights and dues?', instead of being like the people of whom Paul writes sadly in his letter to the Philippians. 'They all look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ --- (Phil.2: 21)', we are to be like Timothy of whom Paul writes in the same letter: 'I hope in the Lord to send Timothy to you soon … I have no one like him, who will be genuinely anxious for your welfare … As a son with a father he has served with me in the Gospel --- (Phil. 2:19-22).

It also means that as peacemakers we will learn when not to speak; to be, as James urges us, 'quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger' --- (James. 1:19). Yes, and we will speak the truth, and only the truth in love --- (Eph. 4:15). We will try to see every situation in the context of the Gospel, of God's redemptive will for ourselves and all humanity. We will go out of our way to look for means and methods of making peace, of enlarging friendship.

The late Prof. William Barclay admits in his autobiographical book, Testament of Faith, that his father had an explosive temper, and that he and his father often fell out, though they remained the very best of friends. As for his mother, Prof. Barclay has a fine tribute to pay: my mother was a saint, … and, when all the guns were blazing at home, she was the buffer and the peacemaker between my father and me --- (W. Barclay, p. 3 and 5).

That is our vocation, ours who are called to belong to the spiritual gentry of peacemakers.
Here now is the SECOND TRUTH in this Beatitude. Jesus is saying in effect, "As peacemakers Christians are genuinely happy because they have the God's peace as their Father and they themselves are like their Heavenly Father. Blessed are peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

Sons of God! On Judgement Day, of course, but also here now. For God Himself is the supreme peacemaker. He is, as Paul tells us, 'the God of peace' --- (Romans. 15:13), who in Christ Jesus 'is making everybody everywhere his friends'. Not only so, He wants us to take this mission of friendship to others. 'It is', says Paul, 'as if God were speaking through to us to everybody' --- "In the name of Jesus, be fiends with God --- and with everybody everywhere" --- (2 Cor. 5:19-20).

That is our noble vocation as Christians. Here and now we are to be like God our Father. And on Judgement Day our spiritual gentry as peacemakers will be confirmed as God Himself says joyfully to us: "Son, daughter, enter into the joy of your Master" --- (Matt. 25:23).

There is one final point today, especially for those of us who pray for Christian Unity. As peacemakers, we Christians are challenged to become involved in the costly quest for the unity of the Church which Jesus Christ died for.

Costly quest! Yes, indeed, costly, for the unity of the Church is not to be achieved cheaply by administrative compromise or at the expense of deeply held conviction and doctrine. Recall how Jesus Himself made prayers for His own disciples just before the Cross: "Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one" --- (John. 17:11). No cheap unity there! A unity akin to Christ's unity with His Father! But Jesus went on to pray: "Holy Father, keep them from the evil on. Sanctify them in the truth! Thy word is truth --- (John. 17:15,17)." Unity in the Truth! --- So we have no mandate from Christ to seek unity without purity of doctrine and of life. There can be no cheap reunion, but we are disobedient to Christ if we are content with our present divisions.

At the Faith and Order Conference in Lausanne in 1927, Prof. Timothy Ting Fang of China put the matter geographically. To achieve this unity we must follow the Savior all the way to Golgotha, and there nail on the Cross all our personal preferences, individual habits, group prejudices, petty jealousies and deeply entrenched interests. To achieve unity we must die with Him and rise again --- Faith and Order, Lausanne, 1927. p. 499).

There is no other way for us. By God's grace we must die with Christ to all our "them-us" attitudes, not least between denominations, tribes, nationalities and races.

For only if we do die with Christ and rise again with Him shall we ever belong, men and women, to the spiritual gentry of Christ's own peacemakers.

Now to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever Amen+