Peacemakers [Ephesians 4]

One of my least favorite seasons in life is election season. Before I became a pastor, I never realized how challenging it would be - because what brings us together in this place is our love of Jesus, but we may not be on the same page politically. A lot of churches can be very diverse in their politics, people sometimes have really different priorities in how they make those decisions, and that can make church life really awkward sometimes. Now I’ve told this story a number of times before - but I don’t think I’ve shared it with you all yet. A couple of years ago, on January 10, 2021 - the Sunday after the January 6th insurrection thing, something happened in the church I was pastoring at the time. Now, if you don’t remember the atmosphere around January 6 - let me take you back. It was a mess. When those people stormed the capital and the senators and congresspeople had to go into hiding and several police officers were killed - it was a horrible day. And it was unfolding on the news live, and for me on that Wednesday, we were all glued to our TV sets watching this horrible thing happen. And after that there was this shock, like it was kind of a scary moment because we never thought something like that would happen in our democratic process. And you have to remember this was on the end of a really ugly election season. We had these super old candidates that were both really unpopular with their opponents. Just very generally, people were so mean to one another. Boy, it’s good thing we’re not in that exact situation all over again this year. Now, at the time, in the church I was serving - I had Trump supporters who were telling me, “my whole family treats me like a monster, they get so mad that I support Trump,” AND in that same church - there were Biden supporters who had thanksgiving or Christmas with a half empty table because they wouldn’t sit together, and THAT was on top of all the COVID drama of 2020. 

And so January 6 was a Wednesday, and in the days that followed - this was a moment, just a quick moment, where there was silence, a moment of shock where we all took a deep breath - and then we just started screaming at one another. Accusations were FLYING back and forth, and it was really ugly. Practically felt like we were back in the election season all over again. And THAT was the environment where January 10th happened, the Sunday after January 6th. 

Now, the congregation that I was serving at the time was actually pretty diverse on politics. In that church they had staunch, ardent republicans - both never-Trumpers and big time Trump supporters. But in the same congregation, sitting three seats over were staunch, ardent democrats. And then there’s a BIG chunk in the middle who kind of see merit in both sides. It was a church with a variety of beliefs - in politics and in everything else. And so as a Pastor, I get to do this nice little tight-rope walk, because I love both people. I serve as a pastor to both types of people. And so January 10th came, and I’m just going to be honest with you - I was nervous. I didn’t know what the fallout was going to be, and to be honest I was still processing all the stuff myself. And so I arrive in the morning, doing all my normal stuff. If you know me, you know I’m always rushing around and making sure everything is ready for worship. I don’t sit still very well, and so it’s just a few minutes before worship, and I was leaving my office and I needed to head over to the sound board. I just needed to turn something on before service. And I see, across the way - like, I’m coming out of my office and I see between me and the soundboard - two very elderly gentlemen speaking very intensely to one another. Now I know these guys - they’re both in their mid-80’s. One of them was a BIG Trump supporter, big time republican, and the other was a staunch democrat who was convinced that Trump was like the worse thing that ever happened to our country. And both of them LOVED to share stuff on facebook. And I see them speaking intensely to one another, and I literally had a moment when i thought, “aw man, am I going to have to break up an old man fight before worship?” [laugh]. So I start walking towards them, and I started to overhear what they were talking about, and I hear one of them say, “I’ve got a doctor’s appointment that I’m really worried about on Tuesday morning. To be honest, I’m kind of scared.” And the other fellow put his arm around his friend and said, “well hey - I’ll be praying for you, and give me a call afterwards and let me know how it goes.” And I hear that and I just breeze right past them. I just kept right on waking, never letting them know what I was thinking, and we gathered that morning and we worshipped Jesus that day. I love to tell that story because it can be such a mess out there when it comes to all this election stuff. But in the middle of all that mess, the church has an opportunity to be something different. We, in this place, have a chance to put aside our differences, to focus on the thing that unites us - our love of Jesus Christ.

Today we are finishing up our series from Matthew 5. We’ve been walking all summer through this amazing passage called “the beatitudes” and Jesus has been taking our backwards hearts and flipping us right side up practically every single week. Today we’re going to jump into verse 9, “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.” Another translation says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Now you’ve probably heard those words before - it’s a pretty famous passage, but I need to pause for just a half second before we dive in to really make sure you realize how important this message is. I mean, I just told you a story from 4 years ago - January, 2021. But in politics, the world has not calmed down! Someone SHOT at one of the presidential candidates two weeks ago. People died, innocent people died! And it doesn’t even have to be that dramatic - I mean, that’s the big headline - but in smaller ways in every single one of our lives we are living smaller versions of our own personal chaos and we are desperate for peace. Jesus’ call to be a peacemaker might be the most important call that our world needs to hear today. But to really get at this idea of what it means to be a peacemaker - we’re going to move over to the book of Ephesians. If you want to grab your bible, or pull it up on your phone - we’re going to be walking through the whole of chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. 

Now, Ephesians is this guy Paul writing to a church in Ephesus. If you’re not familiar - a lot of the books in the New Testament are letters written to churches that were struggling with a particular issue. And apparently in that town they had a lot to learn about how to love each other, how to be makers of peace - and so he wrote them this letter to encourage them and challenge them. It’s one of those things where I am SO grateful for their struggles, because we have the same struggles in the modern world - and Paul’s guidance for them maps almost perfectly onto our struggles in the modern world. What you are about to see is incredibly practical advice for us in the modern world. It starts like this, [read v.1-3]. You see, the first major teaching I want you to grab on to this morning is that the church is the perfect place to practice peacemaking. It’s one of the few places where we are thrown together with people who are completely different from us. I saw a post on the social media app “threads” - which is sort of like Twitter, but newer. And there was this fellow who had a Christian account and he posted, “All I’m seeing is Christians on here! Let’s take over!!” And I almost felt bad for him, because it’s like, “Sweetie, that’s not how that works. The algorithm is designed to show you what it thinks you want to see. Social media is one of the best examples of this in the modern world - they are specifically designed to create a timeline that just shows us stuff we will engage with. It creates this little bubble where all the people who think and talk like I do hang out in the same space. And in the bubble - you’re never challenged. You’re never confronted with someone who is different. And if you are, you can dismiss them, unfollow and block. I mean, how many of you have unfollowed someone in the last five years? Like, someone you knew - maybe for years, and you just think “Oh my gosh, I can’t handle their posts anymore - they’ve changed so much and I don’t want to deal with it.” I know I’ve done it - I’ve got friends who maybe during COVID, maybe during the Israel/Gaza thing, maybe during the election - their posts just get really aggressive and they’re sharing perspectives I don’t agree with and I don’t want to deal with it. And so rather than talking to them - I disengage. Rather than have a conversation where I might learn something and maybe we would grow together has people - I walk away. The modern world has this preoccupation, this core belief that you shouldn’t have to deal with something that might make you grow. Let me say it again - the modern world believes you shouldn’t have to deal with something that might make you grow. But Paul, in Ephesians, he’s pushing back against that narrative. Paul says, “No, IN our differences, IN our moments of disagreement - that is where we have an opportunity to be people who make peace. 

He says, verse 2, hear it again, [read v.2]. I love that line, because I think it is just SO hard to do. Make ALLOWANCE for each other’s faults because of your love. Now I want to be careful with this - Paul is not encouraging us to allow sin. To embrace it or affirm it - no, no. I think people get stuck on that. Some people think love means permission, allowing, they think it means being a doormat - well I love them, so I need to let them do what they want. That’s one way - and actually on the other side they have problems too. Some folks think to love means to be harsh Speak strongly against sin, and then ignore it in each other. But what happens is that so many churches take a hard line on sin, and then spend the rest of their community life pretending that none of them struggle! Pastor will preach on pornography and then all the men will study their toes during the fellowship time afterwards. [sheepish look: “I don’t even like looking at pictures, I dunno what he was talking about]  We’ll read a teaching on gossip or lying or adultery or greed or whatever - and then we pretend like we don’t know three friends who are struggling with those very issues! But when Paul says “make allowance for each other’s faults” in the greek it’s ‘anechomenoi” and another translation is “to bear with someone” - and it gives imagery of someone who is trying to lift something heavy like a log or something, and you get in under the log with them, bear that weight alongside them, help them to lift it. Help them to overcome their burden. That is not a mentality that you are going to get very many places in this world. Most of the world encourages you that if you disagree, or have any sort of friction - walk away. But with the church, even when you see problems in someone else’s life we are not called to run away. Making an allowance for someone’s faults doesn’t mean we allow their sin - it means we allow them to be broken people and we’re going to deal with the sin together. We are called to get in there with them, bear their burdens alongside them. With the church, God has given us a gift. A collection of people who are different than us, who we can love, and fail to love and reconcile with and love all over again. The church is the perfect place to practice peacemaking.

It keeps going in verse 4, [read v.4-6]. That’s a lot of ones. But the point is pretty simple - God is the thing that brings us together in this place. He is over us, and in us, and living through us - even our silly little stumbling and fumbling efforts at community is a holy thing. I know sometimes we get caught up in the cool lights and the awesome sound system and how trendy everything is - but the reality is that this is sacred space, and the way we treat one another and love one another in this place is a holy thing. And then Paul starts talking about leaders in the church, pastors and whatnot and if you jump down with me to verse 12, [read v.12-13]. This thing we do in community, learning from one another, trying and failing and trying again and succeeding, challenging one another, encouraging one another - this is God’s method of helping us grow. Keep reading with me, [read v.14-16]. Sometimes I read stuff in the bible and I can’t help but think - like, what am I even doing up here? Forget preaching, I’m just gonna get up here and read you the bible and then pause every now and then to say, “isn’t that amazing?” So good. As we live and interact as the church, we will grow in our maturity. As the gospel works in our life, we will be rooted in our love of Jesus and that will unite us and lay a strong foundation for the life we live. And if you want to be a peacemaker - you need those roots! That’s what keeps you from being knocked about, thrown around by every trendy teaching. And actually this is a theme that you find all over the book of Ephesians. We’re in chapter four, but let me show you chapter 2, verse 14, and I’m going to put these on the screen so you don’t have to try and find them real quick [read it]. And then over in chapter 3 verse 17, [read it]. First Paul teaches us that the church is the perfect place to practice peacemaking. Then he shows us that to be a peacemaker requires us to be rooted in the gospel and rooted in our love of Jesus that unites us and helps us grow.

Let me put it another way. When I was in high school there was this huge Christian rock festival called Ichthus down in Wilmore, Kentucky. 30,000 people gathered for days of camping and music - it was awesome. And one year we got rained out. We’d been through two days of festival, it was the last day - and they cancelled some of the shows. Storms coming, everybody should start packing up to go home. Now my group we all sort of look at one another and said, “Eh, we’ll be alright. We don’t mind getting wet.” So we battened down the hatches, add a couple extra bungy cords to the tarps and move on. The storm was pretty intense, and it’s Saturday night, we’re up playing Euchre - it’s maybe 10pm. When the festival staff start coming around saying, “It’s not a storm anymore, it’s a tornado watch. You are required to leave.” And we didn’t pack up when it was just starting to rain - we got to pack up while it was POURING rain on us. And it was horrible, there was this ditch that was full of mud and rain, and the cars got stuck in the mud, everything was soaked, included all of us the campers. We ended up driving up the road a safe distance and sleeping in our cars outside a gas station. It was MISERABLE. But the strangest thing happened - after going through this messy, horrible chaos of an event. As time went on - there was this unity that developed. We were like the elite festival goers. Oh, did you go the year it go rained out? Oh yeah, I definitely was down in the mud that year. The struggle, the mess and the mud bound us together - and 20 years later I still reminisce with my friends about that trip. What I’m trying to say is that peace making is hard work, but it brings an incredible unity. In your life - when you walk through a struggle with someone, your relationship has an opportunity to grow. It’s no fun when you’re in the middle of it - but as time goes on you grow closer to people who were there with you in those moments. Maybe you can’t remember the awesome worship songs we sang last week - but you remember who visited when you were in the hospital. Maybe you can’t remember the incredible work stats and increased productivity in your job - but you remember who brought you dinner when you got downsized. You remember who was there when you needed to talk. Who was there when you need a shoulder to cry on, an ear to scream into, a helping hand to pick you up when you fell. Being rooted in the gospel, in the love of Jesus is not about a great sermon or a really cool kids ministry. It’s when we hunch down under that heavy log that is squishing our friend, we bear their burden, walk with them, help them overcome. That love, that service creates an incredible unity. A bond that is stronger than what we get if we just hang out in sunshiny days.

In Matthew 5, verse 9 Jesus says, “God blesses those who work for peace” - and our world desperately needs more peacemakers. But you’re probably starting to pick it up, that’s really HARD work! My heart is not naturally drawn to peace. I don’t want to be a peacemaker - I want to win fights and hold grudges. I want to beat my enemies and run away from people who are different than me. That’s what MY heart wants. But through Paul, Jesus is calling us to something better. Back in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 20 picks it up, [read v.20-24]. You might remember last week - we talked about being pure in heart - and we realized that our hearts are not automatically pure. We can’t scrub our hearts clean - we need a heart transplant from God. It’s the same thing with peacemaking. In our natural state, our heart does not naturally work for peace. But what Paul is showing us is that the Holy Spirit will actually help us be peace makers by giving us a peace making spirit. With God working on our heart, with the Holy Spirit doing a good work in us - we put on a new nature, and then we are ready to work for peace.

The church is a perfect place to practice peacemaking. To be a peacemaker requires us to be rooted in the love of Jesus that unites us and brings us together, and if we’re going to do this peace making thing - we need help from the Holy Spirit. We need to throw off our old nature, and let God renew our thoughts and our minds. What I hope you’re catching from all of this is that peacemaking isn’t passive work. It takes purpose and power. I think people sometimes mix up peaceMAKING with peace KEEPING. They think peace is the same thing as quiet. If I can just keep things quiet, don’t rock the boat - I’m a peacekeeper. But peace is not the absence of disruption. Peace is not avoiding the problem. Because here’s the thing - if all you have is quiet, if all you have on the outside is calm but not real peace - if you don’t have peace out here, you can’t have peace in here. You might have temporary quiet out here, but that’s not going to do anything for you in here - because peace is not the same thing as quiet.

The good news I have for you this morning is that our God makes peace makers. Into a world of turmoil and hatred and constant chaos and fighting our God brings true and everlasting peace. So let me ask you, what is it in your life that is stealing your peace? Where can you take the false quiet around you and turn it into actual peace? Is it politics? Is your thanksgiving table as divided as mine? I talk to so many people and they say, “well, my family is so crazy” - and they all seem to be convinced that they are the only ones with a weirdo family. And I don’t know about you - but I’m pretty sure it’s a prerequisite of all families everywhere to have a bit of mess. Where could you be a peace maker? Have you built yourself an echo chamber? Racially, socio-economically - or is it your past? The labels you use on your life? What is stealing your peace? Byron Center is a changing town - it’s growing like crazy, new people all around us all the time. Are we walling ourselves off to give us a false sense of quiet? Or are we engaging with people who are different from us to create real peace in our lives? Our world desperately needs peace makers - are we going to step into that role? Or are we going to hide inside our bubbles?

Now Paul finishes the chapter with some super practical methods on HOW to be a peacemaker. I’m going to touch on two of them, and leave them with you as a challenge for this week. Number 1, comes from verse 26 [read v.26-27]. Okay, can I just be honest with you? When I was a little kid, I used to read this passage and I used to take it literally. I am not allowed to go to sleep if I am still angry. And when I first got married, sometimes my wife Sara would be looking to start a fight at like 8:30pm, and I’d think to myself, “Babe, I’m not sure we got time for this - cuz I gotta calm down before 10 if I’m gonna get a full 8 hours.” But it has nothing to do with sleeping! The idea is “don’t let anger go unresolved.” Have you ever had that - where you fight or disagree or whatever and you never really deal with it? You just sort of.. leave it alone and move on? You never reconcile and say sorry and repent and heal and so it’s just out there. Paul says peacemakers don’t let anger linger. You are allowed to go to bed, but then when you wake up - do the work to make peace. Jesus actually says back in Matthew 5, verse 23, [read v.23-24]. That’s my first challenge for you - don’t let anger linger in your life. Find reconciliation.

My second challenge, if we go back to Ephesians is in verse 29 where it says, [read v.29]. Now this verse is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Because christians are well know as people who avoid the forbidden alphabet. You know - the A word, the B word, the C word, the D word, etc. Somewhere back in the 60’s we made it a top moral priority to make sure that none of us would ever be a potty mouth. But that’s not actually in the bible! There’s no list in this book that says, “don’t say these words” - boom, boom, boom. No. What it does say is Ephesians chapter four verse 29, “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” Do you see how that’s actually WAY better? You might never use a curse word in your LIFE, gosh darn it - but you can still use clean words to hurt people. But a peacemaker standard is to avoid foul or abusive language. Let your words be an encouragement. So those are my two challenges for you - Number 1 - Don’t let anger linger in your life and Number 2 - let your words be encouraging. The last two verses really sum it up. Verse 30,  [read v.30-31]. 

Four years ago I thought I was going to have to break up an old man fight between a republican and a democrat in my church. But they proved me wrong, because the church is the perfect place to practice peace-making. Ever since Trump got shot there have been so many calls to lower the temperature of the conversation, to disagree with compassion and understanding - but I’ll be honest, I don’t think they know how to do it. The church has to lead the way in how to be a peacemaker. We need to be rooted and grounded in the love of Jesus, with the help of the Holy Spirit - that’s the only way we get it done. Paul gives us all this practical advice, all this wisdom on how to get it done - but it all starts with your will. With your commitment. I am going to be a person who works for peace in this world. It’s a hard road to walk, but it is how we can be children of God and bless our city. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be children of God. Let’s pray.