Peacemaking

Faith for Households
Peacemaking - A Christian practice for Lent
John Emmett, Kippax Uniting Church

Have you ever looked at ‘before and after’ photographs? Family photograph albums provide opportunities to see family members as children, young adults, then as aged adults.

Comparing photographs, we contrast each family member’s appearance. Often we see similarities between family members, which develop an image. A concept of family likeness forms. We can identify family members by applying visual concept we carry of the family image.

Even more telling are the stories family images evoke. Some family members are loved because they were peacemakers. Their activities sustained reconciliation, and extended the family’s good will. Stories about another, however, might focus on their capacities to bring hurt, discredit or cruelty into the family’s story. Sometimes, it seems as if every family has such a contrast somewhere in its history.

During Lent we are called to make peace.
Peacemaking is foundational practice of Christian faith. Luke’s presentation of the liberating prophet is grounded in Jesus’ peacemaking as the way through which reconciliation comes between God and people, and between people in communities.

Read Luke 19:28-40
Luke enjoyed contrasts. He often used contrasts to make his point. For example, Jesus is contrasted to the prophet Isaiah’s promised servant in Luke 4:18-20.

Luke chose a contrast as his metaphor to help those who heard Luke’s gospel understand Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, place where Israelite prophets inevitably met their end Luke’s image is stark and compelling. Jesus is contrasted to King Archelaus.

Who was Archelaus? He was one of Herod’s sons, sent to Rome to learn the art of government. He returned to Herod’s territory after Herod’s death to continue the dynasty’s rule. He became ‘king’ in Herod’s place. Rome supported Archelaus’ rule, as it made for political stability in the region. However, far from establishing the peace of Rome in his region, Archelaus’ ten year of rule was marked by excessive cruelty and repression. The Romans removed him in 6 AD.

From Archelaus’ story emerges an image that sounds familiar to us, Recall Jesus’ parable about the son of a nobleman who went to a foreign country. He returned to rule with great cruelty against servants who failed to increase the royal wealth and power while he had been absent. (The parable of the money: Luke 19:11-17.)

Jesus and Luke knew how to use well-known stories and images to capture their audiences’ attention. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is contrasted with that of Archelaus. Jesus comes as a prophet, promising the rule of God. But, what sort of ruler will Jesus’ be? Will Jesus be a tool of the Roman invaders? Will Jesus be a cruel and repressive tyrant? If Jesus shows the people what reign of God is really like, what snapshot is Jesus giving us of God’s life among us?

Luke constantly draws us back to his primary image of Jesus, announced by Jesus in Luke 4:18-20. Jesus is the liberating prophet. We see this image consistently underpinning Luke’s selection of stories about Jesus, and reflected in the perspective from which Luke chooses to tell Jesus’ story. This time liberation means peacemaking. Peace is a measure of wholeness.

Luke begins his account of Jesus’ entry with the provision of a donkey for Jesus to ride. The way the donkey was made available, an amazing story calculated to astonish the hearers, was designed to convince them that the story to follow was more than a coincidence. The following story would be about a person and event God had ordained. The donkey finding story is a signal. To Luke’s hearers and readers, the ‘donkey-finding’ story served the same literary purpose as the stories of Jesus’ divinely orchestrated conception. They are not stories of fact, but are to be understood as stories of meaning. It is as if Luke switches on a flashing amber signal light: beware – the next story that you will hear is about a divinely ordained event to the benefit of all humankind. The donkey is associated with the transport of the peasant farmer, a beast of burden. The person who rides the donkey is no King. He represents an authority other than political power. Jesus is not about triumph or conquest. He is about identifying with and working to achieve the liberation into wholeness for all people.

Jerusalem is the scene of the story about Jesus’ entry into the grand vision for God’s liberation. It is a particular setting for a universal story. Jerusalem, the centre of Judaism and the city most associated with the Mosaic Covenant through the presence of the Temple. Jerusalem, focal to Israel’s failure to fulfil the hopes and vision of the Covenant. Jerusalem, stage for the most strident confrontations between priests, (mediators of the people to God), and prophets, (mediators of God to the people). Jerusalem - site of sacred peacemaking, yet the location of sustained, unholy confrontation.

Jesus’ manifesto and ministry could only lead to the scale of confrontation between Jesus and the religious and political authorities Luke will soon tell us about (Luke 20 onwards). Everything has been leading up to this death inviting confrontation. Luke preserves Jesus’ commitment to liberation, and his vision for the liberated lifestyle. Christians in Luke’s community must know about the life style they are called to emulate. It is a lifestyle of radical inclusion, dedicated to wholeness and compassion. It is a lifestyle where legal principle is secondary to Godly compassion. Where relationships override performance to fulfil regulations. Where holiness is not an abstract idea, but a robust, extravagant and real three-sided relationship between God and people, and between people living in community. Holiness is wholeness. Jesus’ liberation restores peace. Peace making, peace living, peace loving. That’s Jesus’ lifestyle call.

On peacemaking Sunday, we are invited to ride with Jesus. Riding with Jesus means owning his hopes for liberation and peace. We are invited to become aware of how we might be involved in exploitation, injustice and oppression. Riding with Jesus challenges us to let go of those exploitative practices and attitudes, to right those injustices, and to free others from that oppression. That is, to make peace. We are to be the peace of Christ in every situation and relationship we engage. In a word, ‘riding with Jesus’ is the way we take on the vocation of discipleship.

As we face Easter, are we Archelaus or Jesus? Are we seeking a triumphal reign or a life of peacemaking service to bring wholeness to all people?

How do disciples make peace?
The following steps provide a peacemaking pathway.
Step Two
Identify barriers to peace.
What are the things that inhibit full, free, respectful and responsible relationship? What are matters of fact? What are difference in meaning, associated with the facts, that give rise to disputes and confrontations?

Step Two
Identify who is involved
Who are the persons or people that are overtly, or obviously involved? Who are the persons or people who are active and agitating behind the scenes? Or who have a vested interest in perpetuating the disputes and conflict? Each person or groups is a ‘stakeholder’ in the dispute or conflict. What does each person or group hope to gain?

Step Three
Bring the stakeholders to mediation
A mediator is an independent third party. A mediator might consider what incentives might be required to bring each of the stakeholders – overt or covert – to mediation? One way to identify the incentives is to consider what benefit each seeks. Consider what aspects of that benefit might hold legitimate drawing power for each party in the context of reconciliation. Offer the opportunity to enter discussions with each party, advising clearly of the intention to mediate a resolution to the dispute or conflict. Secure agreement to meet.

Step Four
Mediate a ground for resolution.
Mediation will involve making an agreed and safe space for each party to state clearly their perspectives and perceptions, allowing the other parties to hear those and to work towards a common or agreed understanding as a basis for resolving the conflict.

Step Five
Shedding, or letting go
This is the most difficult step. Shedding means letting go of a previous understanding, perspective or bias. This can be painful. However, the gains of the benefits realised might be able to assist in relieving the pain of letting go. Sometimes, a simple ritual

Step Six
Covenanting
Once a resolution has been negotiated and agreed, it is time to set out that agreement in terms that state clearly the commitments and responsibilities of each party to the resolution. This agreement then becomes a covenant between persons or groups, and is the ground or foundation for a new relationship between them. Covenants might also provide for a time of review and celebration of the agreement reached as a reminder of the need to mutually support and sustain each of the parties to the agreement. Such a provision maintains transparency and keeps ‘the parties honest’. A mediator might be invited to conduct the review and recommitments of all parties to the Covenant.

And on earth, peace among those whom God favours... Luke 2:14b
Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God ... Matthew 5:9