The more polarized our society becomes, the more the church finds itself pulled by bullies on opposite sides.
Though few would argue the virtue of standing by your convictions, there is an insistence that true faithfulness must be expressed in divisive rhetoric and other forms of provocation. Conservatives insist we must err on being more wise than dovelike. For the liberal, wisdom be damned if it unsettles the doves. Whether the rally you attend is for closed borders or climate change, non-attendance is a failure of Christian duty in the eyes of the polarizers.
And then there are the bashful: those who hate conflict and see participation in extremes as too prone toward error. For them, we should all just bake a big cake full of sunshine and rainbows, that which the unknown orator from Mean Girls aspires toward. Unmoved by the detached naïveté, polarizers rightly point out, “She doesn’t even go here!” In one paradigm, to be Christian is to be nice. Conversely, to follow Jesus is to flip tables, charging headlong into the fray.
Nuance abounds here, as in most things, but the Sermon of the Mount backs us into a bit of a corner. Though Jesus' statements in this passage tend to be reduced to sentiments, it’s clear they are much more. Here are descriptions of the kinds of people the Spirit of God is shaping us into, the Potter’s plan for His clay. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus says in Matthew 5:9, “for they will be called children of God.” Note here that he did not say 'peace talkers' (cue an agreeing nod from the provocateurs). Today, peace-talking often looks like virtue-signaling: harnessing the language and norms of what culture defines as moral good without actually being good. Peace-talking also presents itself as political and religious rhetoric, always blabbering on about what we or they should be doing while not lifting a finger to be the change we wish to see.
This spirit is present when we complain about what we are not getting from the church without investing in the church. It can also look like claiming a strong pro-life stance but not investing in the broken lives around you or caring for the environment. Or, punching down on the morals of the godless, secular world without looking at the idolatrous, self-deifying plank in your own eye.
Scripture says that prophets do people more than disservice when they cry 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace (Jer. 6:14, 8:11). The ESV translation says that these prophets “healed the wound of my people lightly.” The NLT labels this “superficial treatment.” This peace-talking trap is no new diagnosis. We downplay the injustice suffered by our world and our fellow man because it’s inconvenient or clutters up our Twitter feeds (or Threads…or…whatever). Often, we throw money at local needs instead of getting personally involved. Then again, maybe we just assume our tithes will go far enough. We shirk personal responsibility by giving the government our brothers’ burden that God calls us to carry.
Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." But who are the peacemakers? Where can we find them? Are they at the front of picket lines? Are they quietly praying in empty churches?
The answer is both.
Peacemaking implicitly requires action, to practice what we preach. In some circumstances, peacemaking means that we do not stay home with our hands folded, but instead ready ourselves for confrontation. At other times, the praying saint is waging a fiercer, holier battle than the street preacher at the clinic. Those who say prayers are not enough don't realize what a revolutionary act they are belittling. Karl Barth once wrote that “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” If prayer means communion with a holy, sovereign God of both justice and mercy, wrath and grace, you should welcome every offer for someone to chat with Him on your behalf!
Ultimately, there is no biblical flow chart for how to engage with each situation. Of course, we should take our prime character example from the person of Christ, taking great care that we don’t cite as evidence only the things Jesus taught and did that complement our position. But we can also look to the saints that came before us and learn what their peacemaking thermometers looked like.
When temperatures spike, we have examples of men like Dirk Willems, the Dutch Anabaptist who escaped imprisonment only to turn back and rescue the guard chasing him. Because of this, he was returned to prison, tortured, and martyred for his faith. We also have the testimonies of the Huguenots who, systematically persecuted for their Protestant faith, rebelled against their oppressive Catholic government. We can be challenged by and learn from these examples, though our own times may not really fit either mold.
La masacre de San Bartolomé by François Dubois (1572) depicts the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Protestants (Huguenots)
There is a time to overturn tables in the Temple and a time to simply preach Gospel truth from the pulpit. At some point in our lives, we will be called to make peace in a way that makes us uncomfortable. Those who identify more with the cunning of serpents will be asked to become like doves. The doves will need to sharpen their claws. The Spirit of God within us is molding us unto Christ's peacemaking image, generating the holiness in us that, as Richard Foster defines it, gives us "the ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. It means being ‘response-able,’ able to respond appropriately to the demands of life."
In closing, I leave you with a quote from Frederick Buechner’s The Hungering Dark, which this bloggy corned is named in honor of. May God give us wisdom to pursue truth in love, the discernment of when to act and when to be silent, and above all, the grace to will one thing: His Kingdom come.
“The paradox is that part of what binds us closest together as human beings and makes it true that no man is an island is the knowledge that in another way every man is an island. Because to know this is to know that not only deep in you is there a self that longs about all to be known and accepted, but that there is also such a self in me, in everyone else the world over. So when we meet as strangers, when even friends look like strangers, it is good to remember that we need each other greatly you and I, more than much of the time we dare to imagine, more than more of the time we dare to admit.
Island calls to island across the silence, and once, in trust, the real words come, a bridge is built and love is done –not sentimental, emotional love, but love that is pontifex, bridge-builder. Love that speak the holy and healing word which is: God be with you, stranger who are no stranger. I wish you well. The islands become an archipelago, a continent, become a kingdom whose name is the Kingdom of God.”