By Rev. Joseph R. Reid
Children of Peace
A man was beaten up by robbers on a road to Atlanta. He lay there, half dead and in bad shape. A Priest came along, saw him and passed by on the other side. Next, a Protestant minister came by but also walked quickly on the other side. Finally, a social worker came along, looked at the man and said, “Whoever did this needs help!”
And so it goes with peace whether it’s a personal conflict or world peace, it is everyone’s problem but ours. Everyone knows it is wiser to seek peace instead of stirring up trouble. Many of us go through life claiming to be peace advocates, especially as Christians, yet when it comes down to it, we love a good fight. We live for it. From watching football, basketball, baseball or any sport, down to a plain old fashion brawl, we love a battle. When we were younger a fight after school drew more kids than the teacher, Sunday school or any church service. What is our attraction to conflict and disagreement? In order to be blessed by God and live harmoniously with ourselves and others we must become children of peace. We become children of peace by seeking the right kind of wisdom that comes from heaven and not the wrong kind that comes from personal ambition. Wrong wisdom versus right wisdom is what creates peace. I saw a sign on the back of a car that said, “I hate Obama-care!” If you don’t have insurance, and over 40 million Americans don’t, why would you not want Obamacare? Well there is a small group in congress who have been against it from the start. They have tried to change the health care law forty times in the last three years. They have succeeded in shutting down the federal government to make their point. They claim no one is hurt by the shutdown. This is not true. This conflict cost over 800,000 federal employees their pay check. 3.6 million Veterans did not receive benefits and it shut down the Centers for Disease Control flu prevention at the time when we needed it most. Food safety inspections were scaled back, exposing millions. Head Start, a program many poor parents depended upon closed, ending educational and health benefits for low-income children. Some in congress treated the disruption in domestic peace like a game – but it impacted all of us. In some ways our government is broken. It seems impossible for our elected officials to reconcile simple conflicts on our behalf, not to mention world peace. What does all this mean for us as Christians? Why are we not ready to receive the blessing of peacemaking? Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.” In order to receive this blessing, we must become children of peace and not children of our own ambition. To do this we must become leaders and true children of God who are really always children of peace.
