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Blessed are the Peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)

 Blessed, saved, and peaceful too are those who make peace for they will be called children of God. We who belong to the Kingdom of Heaven will defuse conflict rather than contribute to it. This is corporate as much as individual. I still remember the day that Canada’s armed forces turned from an army of peacekeepers to an army of war-makers. I had a contract at CFB Esquimalt when Canada invaded Yugoslavia. I spoke with some of our service people headed overseas who until that point had spent their whole military careers standing between warring factions, protecting civilians; now they were ordered to be prepared to kill civilians as collateral damage as necessary in an illegal, internationally condemned war. It tore at the minds and hearts of many of these soldiers.


On the other side of this is The Salvation Army in Swift Current (and elsewhere): We facilitate peace through restorative justice in that community by – among other things – the Alternative Measures program. In this program, we are able to provide an opportunity for a victim to face their aggressor, share their story, and forgive them; the offender has the opportunity to hear their story, learn how their actions have affected real people, and be forgiven. We all have the opportunity to heal harms and grow in strength and peace. It is no wonder that our rates of recidivism are negligible amongst our participants – here we see victim, offender, and the community at large healed as peace is made in their lives and our community. We who are saved will contribute to peace in the world. Blessed, saved, and peaceful are those who make peace for they are the ones who will be called children of God.

Now as we come to our last beatitude, I have a question for us. Those of us who are Christians will experience the blessings we’ve talked here. These blessings come with serving God in His Kingdom. My question is, what is the opposite of a blessing? (A curse.) If we choose not to live in God’s blessing then we are choosing to live a life that is cursed and that is the choice before us today. We know how horrible the world can be around us. We know there is misery. We have been looking today in our scriptures at blessings that come during some very real trials, tribulations, and problems in our world. Christians are surrounded by all of this. We are not spared any more than anyone else but if we belong to the Kingdom of Heaven then we have access to all of these blessings in the middle of everything we are going through and that is Good News. That is the Good News. Jesus was born, lived, died, and raised again so that we can all live out our salvation forever and for now. We can experience God’s Salvation in the midst of all that is surrounding us.

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