Peacemaker vs. Peacekeeper: Why Keeping the Peace Isn't Peace

Before you amen.

Good morning, everybody.

How are you guys doing?

I'm kind of in denial that summer is over, so stop talking about school.

We'll pray.

We'll pray for everyone who's going back to school, but let's enjoy the summer for the little we have left.

Welcome to the last week of the good life.

We've been for a few weeks talking about the good life, and we've audited how we seek a good life.

What do you need for you to say, my life is good?

I have a good life.

And then we've been looking at that against what Jesus invited us to in what we just heard, which is the beginning of one of the most famous sermons Jesus ever preached, called The Sermon on the Mount.

And this list of what it looks like to be blessed, to have a good life, is called the Beatitudes.

So today we wrap up, we've picked a few of them to sit in, and today we wrap up with one of them in verse 9, Matthew 5, 9.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Let's pray together as we dive in.

Jesus, I'm so grateful for your word.

I'm grateful for how it gives us life, the good life.

And I pray that our hearts would be wide open as we sit in your truth, that your spirit would speak to us here in Brighton, in Saginaw and Monroe, and online, like we would hear your heart for us individually, because you can do that.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

This last week, my husband and I celebrated 21 years of marriage.

I have a picture.

Thank you, thank you.

Yes, I was 12.

No.

Um, no, go back, go back, wait.

I will set that up.

This is us in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, smoky mountains.

How many of you have been a beautiful place, absolutely gorgeous?

Worship.

For me in creation, I just see the grandeur of God.

And I did the bravest thing I've ever done.

I don't do roller coasters, don't do none of that.

But I ziplined across the mountains, screaming, and I had the best time.

So 21 years.

It was a perfect way to celebrate, but I want to show you how it started.

This is us on our wedding day 21 years ago.

Don't we look cute and clueless?

Yeah.

We don't know what we're getting into, so fun.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

If you are in a relationship with humans, there will be a point that there's conflict.

And when we first got married, how we navigated conflict, I was listening to the premarital counseling people who said that you shouldn't let the sun go down on your anger.

So I would literally be chasing my new husband around the house.

Like we're gonna talk about this today.

And my husband was conflict avoidant, he didn't want to face conflict when we first got married.

So the picture in my mind is me running around our little house trying to pin him down so we could talk about it.

Somehow, over time, we flipped rolls, and I became the conflict avoidant one.

And my husband now is the one who pursues to have the difficult conversation.

And the picture in my mind for how my husband will pursue this conversation is I'm all poke the bear and see what happens.

This is what it looks like to be in a relationship.

At some point, there will be a breaking of something, and you need to make peace.

When we think about what it means to make peace, there's a very big difference between being a peacemaker and a peacekeeper.

A peacekeeper would rather everything stay quiet, even if it means sweeping stuff under the rug.

You might be tripping over at the rug because you've put so much stuff under there, but your value is to keep peace.

The value is comfort, to not stir things, to not rock the boat.

But a peacemaker, a peacemaker may have to step into more conflict so that peace, true peace, can be restored.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Did you know that there is research around the Midwest that we are called Midwest Nice?

Do you know this?

That we we as a culture in the Midwest avoid conflict.

What it looks like is I might have an issue with one person, and to them, I'm smiling, and we have the best time.

But outside of that relationship, I'm like, can you believe them?

That's Midwest nice.

It's conflict avoidant.

But that's not the peace that God is talking about.

That's not the peace that Jesus is inviting us to.

One thing I read about the Midwest night called it politely dishonest.

That we would be polite, but it's not honest.

It's not true peace when we're just avoiding conflict.

So let's unpack the word peace.

In the New Testament, the word for peace in this passage is erene.

And this idea of peace, which is very connected to the Old Testament Hebrew word shalom, this word has a meaning that encompasses wholeness beyond the absence of conflict or war.

Shalom has the sense that there's a complex structure that may be out of place.

Think of a wall that has a brick that's out, or several bricks.

And shalom isn't just that the bricks stop falling out, but that they are restored.

That the wall is made whole again.

That there's a sense of shalom, wholeness, wellness.

That's the picture of peace in the Bible.

And with this picture of peace, then sometimes it means stepping into conflict.

Sometimes it means stepping into what's broken and calling it out loud so that you can begin to restore shalom.

When we think about what shalom looks like in our lives, it does speak to relationships, but it's about more than that.

In this complex picture that our lives are, our worlds could be outside of shalom when we have health issues, or when we have stuff going on at work, or when we have stuff going on with our finances.

It's a lot more than shalom.

What impacts your wholeness?

What impacts your well-being as a whole human.

This is what shalom speaks to, and what what it means to bring shalom.

And the idea of stepping into what's broken for us is countercultural.

It is countercultural.

It's easier to duck and just wait it out.

Let's see if this blows over.

But Jesus invited us to and modeled what it looks like to step into what's difficult so that the goal on the other side is so much more whole.

In this day and age, it's so much easier to just cancel people, to call them toxic and be done, write them off of our lives.

And I know that there are people who may be unhealthy, and I'm pro-boundaries in relationships.

But sometimes what shalom calls for is stepping into that difficult conversation, stepping into that difficult relationship, dealing with your health, not being in denial about what's broken, looking at it and stepping into it and doing something about it.

So as we think about being peacemakers, as we embrace all that it means to be children of God, to become children of God.

In the ancient picture, what it means to be a child of God, it takes us back to Genesis when it says we were made in God's image, we're image bearers.

So when we act in shalom, when we're bringing peace, we're acting like our Father.

If you have chosen to follow Jesus, if you have said yes to him, then the rest of our lives is about becoming more and more like Jesus, modeling after how he lived and what he did.

When he came on this earth, he declared the kingdom of God is near.

It's at hand, it's within reach, it's tangible.

And as he was talking in the Sermon on the Mountain, as he lived his life, he then modeled what that looked like.

He showed us by healing people, bringing shalom to people's bodies.

He brought people who are dead back to life.

He taught and spoke truth that brought healing and wholeness to people.

So when we are peacemakers, we will be called children of God.

This is the gospel.

God is the ultimate peacemaker.

See, the world was broken because of our sin.

This picture of wholeness was dismantled when we chose to break God's heart and live outside of his design.

And God chose to step into this brokenness.

He chose to send Jesus, who came into the dirt and the mire and the craziness.

It says in Philippians 2, he didn't consider it something to hold on to, but he let it go and he came.

And then he paid a really high cost to bring shalom with his life.

Jesus saying, I cannot be outside of relationship with you.

I will do whatever it takes to restore our relationship, to make whole what's been broken.

He came and died for us.

This is the gospel.

This is who we are aiming to be children of.

The gospel of peace.

So as we think about what it costs to step into the conflict, to step outside our comfort of our Midwest nice, why it would be worth it.

We are echoing our Father.

We are echoing Jesus.

We are becoming children of God.

Is it costly?

Yeah.

It can be really costly.

My husband has had a ministry where he restores people, people who maybe were in the Christian community and fell away or made a poor choice, and he will walk with them.

And it is countercultural.

It's easier to just cut your losses, go to another church.

But he does the work and he steps in.

And sometimes in the middle of the mess, you know, you end up getting being the one who is aimed at, you know.

Is it costly to step into peacemaking?

Yes.

But as we model Jesus, he's not inviting us to something he hasn't paid the cost for.

He knows how costly this is.

And he did it anyway because he wanted to be in relationship with us.

The peace that Jesus brings goes beyond a feeling.

Goes beyond I'm not anxious or I don't feel stressed or conflict.

The peace that Jesus brings is a person.

It's a wholeness who, when I lean into him, I can still be in a chaotic, broken situation and have and know peace.

This is what the gospel offers us.

So we can step into chaos because we know peace.

And we can bring peace there because of that relationship.

I don't want to take for granted that you know the gospel of peace.

It's really difficult to bring a peace that you may not have encountered yourself.

It's really difficult to make peace when you haven't experienced a wholeness that Jesus brings.

As we talk about the gospel and the power of the cross and knowing who we are in Him and how that changes what the cost is when I go into a place of conflict.

When we become agents of peace, we're taking what we have received through Jesus into wherever he has called us, where we live, work, and play.

Because we've known him and encountered him.

And in Ephesians, Paul, the writer, claims He Himself, He Himself is our peace.

Peace is a person.

And his name is Jesus.

And as we think about knowing him who is our peace, then peacemaking looks like taking him into places where the shalom is broken.

Not just in our own relationships, but sometimes peacemaking goes even beyond us.

Maybe you're in a small group or in a Christian community and you can see the brokenness in two other people.

And God is inviting you, instead of ducking, that's not my business.

Those people can sort out their stuff, to come and say, you know what, guys, I love you both so much.

And I see a brokenness in how you're relating.

How can I walk with you?

What does it look like for us to be biblical community and be peacemakers, even relationships outside of our own?

This is what it the invitation is to be a peacemaker.

Sometimes peacemaking looks like I know you're not well, so I will cook for you.

I will love you.

I'll bring shalom, healing, peace, wholeness in whatever way I can.

I may not resolve the whole situation, but I'm a peacemaker.

Sometimes being a peacemaker is the ministry of presence.

Just being present.

There are people who are going through a hard time, and bringing peace just looks like I'm here.

I'm just gonna hold you.

I'll be praying.

You don't have to call me back, just know that I'm praying.

Being present when people are in situations of brokenness, when one of the pieces of their lives has gone flying out of place, sometimes multiple pieces of their lives.

This is what the body of Christ does.

We bring shalom because we know shalom.

We bring peace into the situations.

Sometimes being a peacemaker may be just listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit as we go into our communities.

What are the pieces of our communities that are broken?

What is God showing you, and how can you step into that and bring shalom?

Because you've experienced it, you know what it's like.

That God would make us agents of shalom wherever we are.

As we think about this whole idea of peacemaking, I have to say that I've been on a journey personally.

I think when I was younger, I my default was Midwest Nice, even if I didn't grow up here.

My default was to avoid conflict.

In my family, I'm the baby, I'm the lastborn.

So I never knew what was happening.

They didn't tell me, you know, I'm the lastborn by a bit.

So it was okay that I didn't know about the conflict, and I would just shove my head deep in the sand and be okay not to know what was happening.

But as the Lord has been doing a work in me, maybe it's getting older, maybe it's where I'm at in this stage of my life, but I just feel convicted to say the truth, to say where stuff is broken and be part of fixing it.

Pick a shovel and take my role in putting the pieces of the wall that are out of place.

At the beginning of the year, my friends were a little nervous.

I don't know how this will land with you guys, but I just felt like the death of the nice church girl.

You know, anybody feel me?

You know, you grow up nice, polite, dishonest, you're smiling with everybody, you don't deal with stuff.

But I just felt convicted.

No, it matters too much.

Shalom matters too much to avoid what's broken.

We need to step into what's broken and call it what it is, be honest, and then prayerfully and in a godly way be part of bringing wholeness.

So, for some of you, perhaps the Lord is convicting you about a place in your life that has been out of shalom, that has been broken, that you've been avoiding.

It may be a relationship, it may be your finances, it may be your health, whatever it is, as we think about being peacemakers, I want to invite you to process where have you been peacekeeping and not peacemaking.

In the world we live in, people talk about peace deals, and it's about power and leveraging and win-win situations.

But in this journey that Jesus invites us to, it actually might be loss-loss.

He died for our sin so that we could die to ourselves, and somehow that's the good life.

That's where healing and freedom is.

It isn't in winning the argument, it is in dying to ourselves and being part of making something whole that is broken.

So, where have you been peacekeeping instead of peace making?

The other question I have for us is have you stepped into the gospel of peace?

The gospel of peace.

Have you allowed this Jesus to come into every part of your story and bring wholeness and healing?

As we think about the cross and what it means that Jesus died for us.

He didn't die so that we stay hobbled and broken.

He already paid a really high price so that we can experience shalom.

And it's been such a fun summer going to camp and watching students encounter Jesus for the first time.

Seeing their faces as they realize there's more to life than this.

I can experience wholeness.

I can be more than just being defined by my debilitating anxiety and my mental health struggles.

I can find wholeness in this person of Jesus.

So if you don't know Jesus, I just want to really encourage you to step into the gospel of peace.

He is a person and he can be known.

And he wants to know you.

He knows everything, but he wants to know you and know you.

Like in relationship, in an intimate relationship.

We can have an intimate relationship with God and find deep peace there.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

We will be identified by our activity, and that we modeled and lived out what it looks like to be God's child.

I want to give you a moment to be in prayerful reflection, and then I will pray for us.

But I just want you to bring before the Lord what The places of your life that are out of shalom, and how can God begin to restore them?

And what are places that are out of shalom that may not even be in your story?

Maybe you see it in the community, in your family, in your kids, and God is calling you to be a peace maker there.

So I'm gonna give you a few minutes and then I'll pray for us.

Thank you for your conviction.

Thank you for bringing to mind names, faces, places where we see brokenness, where you're calling us to make peace.

Thank you that you are peace.

And as we step into these situations that feel outside of our comfort, outside of our control, we go with a boldness that can only come from knowing you.

So would you reveal yourself to us in a new way, maybe for the first time, I ask Jesus that you would reveal yourself.

And I pray that in that revelation, as we know you, we would walk as children of God.

We will be called children of God where we live, work, and play.

That how we show up will be about the gospel of peace.

And Lord, I pray that there would be children, teenagers, adults who are impacted by the peacemakers that are released from our church today at all seven locations.

And online, Lord, I just pray that you would release something, that there would be a freedom that allows us to step out of our comfort and make peace.

The agents of what you came to bring, this reconciliation.

So, Jesus, empower us, give us your boldness, give us courage, give us words, help us to be a sweet aroma in our communities.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Saginaw Monroe your