Oct 5th: Peacemakers, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
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Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Peacemakers with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Spacious Christianity, Spacious Hearts A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon.
Feeling divided? Curious about a different way to see those who challenge us? Join us this Sunday as we explore how love can bridge our deepest differences. Whether online or in-person, discover a path to understanding and peace.
Transcript:
Madeline liengo wrote, everything we are learning from astrophysics makes clear what people of faith have always known, that us versus them is a violation of creation. Creation exists only in interdependence and unity. We are already one. We imagine we’re not and we have to recover our original unity. She said, tribalism must be transformed into community. Tribalism transformed into community, that holy task feels urgent, almost as if our very survival depends on it. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God in a world divided by difference, discourse, disdain for the other.
What kind of Peacemaker will you be? Here’s how Jesus describes everyday peacemaking in his famous sermon called the Sermon on the Mount. He said, You’re familiar with the old written law, love your friends and its unwritten companion. Hate your enemy. I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies, let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God created selves. This is what God does. God gives God’s best, the sun to warm, the rain to nourish to everyone, regardless the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run of the mill sinner does that in a word, what I’m saying is, grow up. You’re children of God now, live like it. Live out your God created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others the way God lives toward you.
Love. Your enemies, let them bring out the best in you, not the worst, the very worst of our humanity and an ugliness of spirit is on full display right now.
Our challenge in the way that we engage the conflicts and divisions is not to be a reflection of the same spirit of ugliness we are protesting.
Our spiritual challenge is to shine light into the darkness and not add to the darkness. And how we engage our spiritual challenge as everyday peacemakers is to not allow our enemy to become our inner me. Let me repeat that we must prevent our enemy from becoming our inner me. In other words, we don’t need to allow what other people do to determine what we do and who we choose to be. I mean, the real test of our faith is not how much we love Jesus, but whether we are willing to love Judas. The real test of our faith is learning to love those we find most difficult to love when it’s much easier to hate and judge and condemn. Learning to love those we find hardest to love just might be the closest, closest we can get to a Jesus shaped love. I mean, picture Jesus. Picture Jesus tenderly washing the feet of Judas, knowing he would betray him. And then Jesus said A new commandment I give you Love one another as I have loved you now, the love Jesus is talking about isn’t isn’t a soft and fuzzy and sentimental love. The word Jesus used translated as love is agape. I mean agape love is fierce.
Agape love is best defined as a dogged determination to care for the other, regardless of whether you like them or agree with them. Agape love is a dogged determination to see the see the image of God in the other, to see the humanity and dignity in the other.
Or even when it’s hidden or difficult to see. I mean, I was asked to give give a talk as part of a leadership program on the topic of civility, and I suggested civility is too low of a bar. I mean, there’s been a shift that’s taken place in our society, where we no longer have have contempt for someone’s ideas that we disagree with.
We now have contempt for the person holding those ideas when we disagree. There is now a tendency, even an accepted practice, to dehumanize and demonize those with whom we disagree. So just learning to be, to be civil, to tolerate, to be nice to one another isn’t enough.
Our goal should be to re humanize one another, to recognize our shared humanity, to see the image of God in the other.
I mean, Jesus didn’t say, you know, tolerate, be nice to your enemies.
Jesus said, Love, agape love your enemies. And agape love is a determination to bless someone when what you really want to do is punch them in the nose.
It is not our differences that divide us. It is how we choose to engage those differences that divide us.
I don’t think the goal is necessarily to disagree less. I think the goal is to learn how to disagree without demonizing the other or losing sight of our own humanity and goodness. Conflict is inevitable.
Combat is always optional. We can learn a different way. We can learn a different way of engaging with one another in our differences that brings out the best in us and not the worst. I mean, the only way that tribalism has any chance to be transformed into community is to engage those who are different, those with whom we disagree, dislike, maybe even disdain, and try to build bridges where there’s hostility. I mean, it’s easy to hate, judge and condemn from a distance. Hate, fear, judgment can’t survive proximity. I mean, do we dare get close enough, close enough to those we find hardest to love with a with a dogged determination to listen and care. I love the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector in Luke 19. Now, Zacchaeus is the enemy of enemies. He’s a wealthy guy who has become wealthy by selling out the Jews, who are mostly peasants, collecting taxes from them to pay for the Roman army that is occupying their land.
And Jesus is passing through town. Zaccheus Zacchaeus was curious, but apparently he was short, so he had to climb a sycamore tree to see Jesus.
And the Bible says, When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and he said, Zacchaeus, come on down.
I want to stay at your house today.
So Zacchaeus came down and welcomed Jesus gladly. Did you notice? Jesus seeks an invitation to his house. He doesn’t say to Zacchaeus, Hey, come on over here, where my friends are and where we’re hanging out. Jesus says to Zacchaeus, I actually want to come to where you hang out. I want to go to your house. I want to break bread with you so that I can learn about your life and your story. What would it look like to seek an invitation to be in relationship with those with whom we disagree, maybe dislike, perhaps even disdain, when we believe that we can’t even be in relationship with those with whom we disagree.
Where do we go from there? Are probably the most important people to try and love are those who don’t love us and agape love, a Jesus shaped love, is intentional. Intentional about engaging the other. Intentional about trying to break down the walls that divide us. Intentional about being willing to step out of our comfort zones and seeking proximity to listen to the stories of those not like us, intentional about seeking courageous conversations. I mean, Jesus said, If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that.
And Jesus also said, when someone gives you a hard time, pray for them. I mean praying for our enemy doesn’t necessarily change our enemy.
It can soften our hard edges. It can invite humility, reminding us that you know we are all someone else’s enemy. I mean, pray for difficult people, because I hate to tell you that you, yourself are a difficult person to someone else. I confess there’s a person I find really, really difficult to love, and I really dislike who I am in response to this this person’s behavior, I confess this person brings out the worst in me. My enemy becomes my inner me.
So I started to pray for this person. Every morning I light a candle, I spend time holding this person in the light of Christ’s love, I pray for this person’s highest good.
Now I have no idea if my prayers are having any impact at all on the person I’m praying for.
What I do know is this spiritual practice has changed me.
I’ve noticed that the hardness of my heart has softened, that my my judgment has turned to empathy.
I see this person that is deeply, deeply wounded. I can see that what I perceive as very hateful behavior and rhetoric is driven by so much fear and a deep woundedness.
So this practice of prayer for my enemy has transformed me from a posture of judgment and even hate to one of love.
Now I still hold many of the ideas of this person with contempt.
I no longer hold the person with contempt. Jesus said, lit your enemies bring out the best and not the worst in you.
The real test of our faith is not not whether we love Jesus, but whether we’re willing to love like Jesus, you know the world that lives like a clenched fist, an everyday Peacemaker moves toward those we find the hardest to love with an open hand, eyes willing to see the image of God in them, and an agape shaped heart ready to show the world.
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