Back in 2008, I experienced a revelation. I was watching Doctor Who, played at that time by David Tennant. One short conversation leapt out at me. In the middle of a war which had been going on for generations, Jenny, the Doctor’s Daughter, played by Georgia Moffet, said to the Doctor: “You keep insisting you’re not a soldier but look at you, drawing up strategies like a proper general.”
“No,” said the Doctor, “I’m trying to STOP the fighting.”
To which Jenny replied, “Isn’t every soldier?”
“I’m trying to stop the fighting.” “Isn’t every soldier?” That brought home to me an obvious fact which I think I had always known, but never really appreciated. The purpose of war is to bring peace. The reason soldiers fight is to end the fighting.
In history, many wars have been fought, wrongly, for economic reasons, to gain riches or territory or power. This is still happening in the world today. Such wars are indefensible. But the story of the Doctor’s Daughter helped me appreciate that there can be circumstances where war is justifiable, and even necessary. Where war is the only way to bring peace. When the only way to stop the fighting is to fight.
A friend of mine once described Remembrance as, “A day to mark the highest examples of human bravery and sacrifice, and the worst outworkings of human failure and sin.” That is what we are thinking about on Armistice Day on Tuesday, and on this Remembrance Sunday. We remember with gratitude the endings of the First World War, and the Second World War. We pay tribute to all the people in living memory who have given their lives and others who suffered all kinds of terrible injuries to bring peace to our world and to preserve the freedom we all enjoy today. Jesus said in John 15:13, Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
So we honour those who fought and suffered and gave their lives to stop the fighting by making sure we remember the lessons their deaths can teach us about all the human costs and the tragedies of war.
As I was growing up in the 1960s “Peace” became a catchword and a slogan for many and “pacifism” seemed to claim the idea of peace as its own exclusive possession. But it’s not enough to be against war. We have to be for peace. Very sadly, no war will end all wars. Our hopes for a peaceful future rest on our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Yet we also have a part to play. Jesus spoke about making peace in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Seventh Beatitude. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Sons of God.” Christians are called to be peace-makers, those who actively work to bring peace.
When we think about Peace, we should keep in mind that peace has meaning on at least three levels.
1st Level of Peace – Peace between nations
Historians have looked over monuments and memorials and documents from as early as 3600 BC. Since then there are records of more than 14,000 wars, in which they estimate more than 3.7 billion people have been killed. More than 8000 peace treaties have been made – and broken. In Europe alone over last three centuries there have been more than 300 wars.
Romans 14:19 Let us make every effort to do what leads to peace.
This is as relevant and important in the affairs of nations as it is between individuals. As we work towards peace, the slogan “Peace at any price” is misguided. People who would compromise anything for a quiet life dare not do so. It was Oliver Cromwell who said, “If we would have peace without a worm in it we must lay foundations of justice and righteousness.” Peacemakers do not look for peace at any price. Sometimes passive resistance to evil will not suffice. In some countries at some times, and over some issues within our own nation, God’s peace, God’s righteousness and God’s justice demand action against injustice, corruption, prejudice, immorality, indifference, and against violations of human rights. Love of neighbour calls us to speak out and take a stand against all kinds of wickedness, to overcome evil with good, by prophetic witness, by social and political action, and as a last resort by physical force.
The world today needs peacemakers as much as ever. It makes me sad to reflect that tensions between the global superpowers seem to be greater today than I can remember. There are armed conflicts in Palestine and in Ukraine, and other places too. When the fighting stops there will still be many sacrifices by those who put their lives on the line to help keep the peace. As long as some people are exploiting and oppressing others we will always need to work for peace and justice for those who are being exploited and oppressed.
So we will always be praying for cease-fires and peace processes. But we recognise the tragic reality that there will always be wars and rumours of wars. The world cannot save itself. Diplomacy and politics won’t stop wars. Military might won’t stop wars. The nuclear deterrent won’t stop wars. We don’t need an end to war. Rather, as Roosevelt said, we need an end to all the beginnings of wars. As long as human beings are greedy and proud and arrogant there will always be people who will try to invade others to seize by force what is not theirs. And then there will need to be people who take up arms to protect the innocent and preserve the peace and maintain justice and defend freedom. Soldiers who are required to fight to stop the fighting.
Are you willing to be a peacemaker? God calls Christians to play our part in being peacemakers between nations. By praying for peace, by prophetic witness and political action. We won’t be popular when we stand up to be counted on the side of justice and for peace. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
And as Christians we can share with the world the one true hope for peace. Human sin is great, but God’s love is greater. So the Bible gives us wonderful promises of peace.
Isaiah 11 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
9They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
This wonderful hope of peace will come through Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
There is hope for peace at the end of days. Until then, blessed are the peacemakers.
2nd Level of Peace – Peace between Neighbours
Romans 12:18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone
Each of us is called to live at peace with our neighbours. But being peacemakers is more than just living at peace ourselves. The challenge to Christian people is to bring the peace of God to our own community. Peace in Blackheath and Monkwick and Berechurch and Abberton and Colchester. Our neighbours face all kinds of problems: broken hurting families with partners fighting, children at war with their parents, and neighbours not speaking to each other. Our neighbours need to discover the peace of God which passes all understanding, which sets people free from pain and anger and fear. Our community needs peacemakers. Christian people everywhere must follow Christ the Mediator and work to spread His peace. Where there is hatred let us sow love. We need to be instruments of God’s peace. We need to bring reconciliation.
In the 1960s Pope Paul VI said, “A love of reconciliation is not weakness or cowardice. It demands courage, nobility, generosity, sometimes heroism – an overcoming of oneself rather than of one’s adversary. At times it may even seem like dishonour. In reality it is the patient wise art of peace, of loving, of living with one’s fellows after the example of Christ, with a strength of heart and mind modelled on His.”
Being a peacemaker won’t always be easy or comfortable in our community, on our own doorstep. Trying to bring reconciliation within families. Trying to encourage warring neighbours to talk to each other. Working to break down prejudices and divisions between groups of people and sectors of society. But that is our calling – blessed are the peacemakers.
When I think of 20th century peacemakers I think particularly of Terry Waite. In 1987 he was sent to Lebanon as the envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury to negotiate for the release of four hostages including the journalist John McCarthy. Terry Waite was himself kidnapped and held hostage for four years. It took a year living in the safety of my old college in Cambridge for Terry Waite to recover from his ordeals. Being a peacemaker isn’t easy. Standing in the middle of conflict, attempting to bring warring factions together. Yet God calls each one of us to be a peacemaker between neighbours. We are to be mediators, reconcilers, sources of peace here in Blackheath and Colchester. Are you willing to be a peacemaker? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
3rd Level of Peace – Peace with God
If we want to be peacemakers we must first receive for ourselves that peace which passes all understanding, that peace of God which Christ alone gives us – which is peace WITH God.
God’s peace is not just the end of war, absence of conflict. God’s peace is not just negative, an absence of something, but very positive: calm, tranquillity, serenity, harmony, reconciliation. The Hebrew word for Peace is shalom and it embraces wholeness, completeness, soundness, well-being. All these very positive conditions come together to make up the peace of God which passes all understanding.
Peace with God is the peace we all need most of all. More than peace between nations. More than peace between neighbours. Every human being needs to be at peace with God.
Isaiah 48:22 AND Isaiah 57:21 both say “There is no peace … for the wicked.” That is absolutely true. Selfishness, rebellion, greed, pride, disobedience, all the things which the Bible calls sin are enemies of God’s true peace. Only God can set us free from these things to experience His peace, His love, His joy. And God does this through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus brings us reconciliation with God. He changes us from God’s enemies into God’s friends.
GOOD NEWS BIBLE: 2 Corinthians 5: 17Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. 18All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also.
Paul goes on to explain that it was Christ’s death on the cross which dealt with the barrier of sin between human beings and the Holy and righteous God and brings us peace with God.
21Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.
As Isaiah 53:5 foretold … he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We receive God’s peace as we put our trust in Jesus Christ and all he has accomplished on the cross dying in our place for our sins. Jesus Christ is the true Peacemaker – the only source of peace between man and God, that peace which passes all understanding.
But 2 Corinthians 5 continues:
2 Cor 5:18 … (God) gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.
It isn’t always easy to be Christ’s ambassadors. It can be hard enough for us here in Colchester to challenge neighbours and friends and strangers with the gospel of Jesus Christ. In parts of the world today Christians are facing brutal persecution. Nigeria is in the news, with Sudan and Yemen, as 1 in 5 Christians are persecuted in Africa. But 2 in 5 Christians in Asia are being persecuted, especially in North Korea and Myanmar but even in India and Bangladesh. The churches have been driven underground in China, Afghanistan and Algeria. Today 380 million Christians worldwide are risking being murdered or imprisoned for their faith. Just for telling people about Jesus. Are you willing to be a peacemaker?
I say again, being a peacemaker will not be easy. It will sometimes cost more than most of us would want to pay. Let me finish by telling you the inspiring story of Saint Telemachus. Telemachus was a monk who lived in a cloistered monastery. In the year 391 he felt God saying to him, “Go to Rome.” When Telemachus arrived in the city, people were crowding the streets. This was the day of the circus when the gladiators would be fighting and killing each other in the coliseum,. Telemachus thought to himself, “Four centuries after Christ and they are still killing each other, for enjoyment?” He came to the coliseum and heard the gladiators saying, “Hail to Caesar, we die for Caesar” and Telemachus thought, “this isn’t right.” He jumped over the railing and went out into the middle of the field, got between two gladiators, held up his hands and said, “In the name of Christ, stop!”
The crowd protested and began to shout, “Run him through, Run him through.” A gladiator hit Telemachus and sent him sprawling in the sand. He got up and ran back and said again, “In the name of Christ, stop!” The crowd continued shouting, “Run him through.” Another gladiator came over and plunged his sword through the little monk’s stomach. He fell into the sand, which turned crimson with his blood. One last time Telemachus gasped, “In the name of Christ stop.” A hush came over the 80,000 people in the coliseum. Soon one man stood and left, then another and more, and within minutes every spectator had left the arena. That was the last-known gladiatorial contest in the history of Rome – thanks to the sacrifice of Saint Telemachus.
Are you willing to be a peacemaker. Peace between nations. Peace in our community. Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God”.