- THANKSGIVING FOR THE PEACEMAKERS

Location: Restoration Ministries

Date: Wednesday June 22, 2011

Reading: Matthew 5: 1-12

Who would have thought forty three years ago in the summer of 1968 that we would be gathered here tonight, June 22nd, 2011, to give thanks for a vast company, some openly and publicly acclaimed, others quietly and faithfully working in the background – those whom we can collectively call the peacemakers? Back then, in the heady days of the sixties, most of us had absolutely no idea of what we were heading into, although the warning notes had been sounding over decades. There was an excitement in the air, even a touch of euphoria. In those early days of civil rights marches and that sense of being together, the descending spiral of violence that was so soon to engulf us lurked, largely unnoticed in the shadows, waiting for the moment to strike. And strike it did with the force of a tsunami, changing this island and our lives forever. For people of my generation, which includes most of you here this evening, our adult lives were shaped, stretched and challenged by what we lived through. Throughout the long years those who were socially/economically mobile were presented with a choice – to stay or to go, to commit themselves to sticking with the chaos until a new order emerged, or to shake the dust off their feet and seek new pastures. This evening we want to honour and celebrate those who elected to stay, to acknowledge their courage, their endurance, their generosity, their faith, their hope, their love. They are today’s saints – not plaster saints – but real people, of the earth, earthy, who, recognising the collegiality of the feet of clay, still chose to invest their best, all their energy, faith and commitment in the journey through nightmare to a new dawn. Many are still investing their all into the process and we also want to salute them. And then there are the new generation who were born after the conflict upon whom the mantle has fallen. For them, too, we give thanks and pray that their pace grows not heavy, that they know themselves as the hope bearers for tomorrow.

Etty Hillesum, a young Dutch woman, kept diaries during the chaotic time of the early years of the Second World War. Her own inner journey was a remarkable one, a journey that eventually took her, through her own choice and out of deep compassion for her own people, to the holding camp at Westerbork and to her eventual death in Auschwitz at the age of 29. At one point she writes: “In this tempestuous, havoc-ridden world of ours, all real communication comes from the heart. Outwardly we are being torn apart, and the paths to each other lie buried under so much debris that we often fail to find the person we seek. We can only continue to live together in our hearts, and hope that one day we may walk hand in hand again.” We still live in a tempestuous, havoc ridden world. Over centuries, not just the last four decades, we have been torn apart. The debris of unexploded myth, of ignorance, fear and prejudice so effectively buried any sense of a common humanity. We often failed to find the person we sought. But thank God there were enough people who refused to do anything other than live together in their hearts, those who caught the vision of the beloved community and seized the opportunities to make the dream reality. That reality has emerged, though not yet in all its fullness, as evidenced by the violent unrest this week. But we have seen the first fruits, namely many who formerly were strangers to each other, even enemies, walking hand in hand again as was intended from the very beginning. That is one of my favourite images of reconciliation – walking together again.

And who made and is making it possible? Well, first and foremost God, in the beloved community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to him be the glory. But God doesn’t work in isolation. He chooses to use people like you, like us to accomplish his purposes. When we look back over the years we may feel that he could have chosen better but all of us, I am sure, would agree that our lives have been shaped and moulded by these years and the fact that we are here this evening indicates that that moulding was for good and not for evil, for blessing rather than for cursing. Where would we be without all the faithful people, past and present, who allowed themselves to be challenged and stretched, who were willing to place their lives where their words had been and who, often in the face of rejection, vilification, misunderstanding and much worse kept on keeping on as prisoners of hope and image bearers of Jesus. We honour them - we honour you this evening. We thank God for you – each of you – and we thank you.

It has always struck me very forcibly that Jesus deliberately taught the beatitudes in the order in which we have received then in Matthew’s Gospel. It is not by accident, I believe, that the peacemakers fall between the pure in heart and those who are persecuted because they have dedicated their lives to right relationships – with God and with each other. It seems that a prerequisite to being a maker of peace is that we have been willing to go and continue on our own inner peace journey towards that purity of heart. Then, once we move from being lovers of peace to being makers of peace, we know that there will be a cost involved. There comes a point where we cross the Rubicon. There is no going back but often the only thing that will hold us when all else fails is the reality of our friendship with God as we know him in Jesus. Sheila Cassidy, out of deep personal experience, says of such diverse pilgrims of peace in her book good Friday People: “So there they go together along the road, priests and people, nuns and revolutionaries, archbishops and folk singers, schoolboys and fallen women. And as they walk they will, each in their own good time, arrive at their Kairos moment, the point of choice, of decision, of a stiffening of the sinews because danger is in the air and there is no turning back.” You will all remember when former President Bill Clinton visited Belfast during the first ceasefire and was speaking outside the City hall. He infamously said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth!” Well, we haven’t inherited the earth and we couldn’t because earning the title ‘children of God’ means that we will be hated by many, but how wonderful to be known as such in all the glorious unity in diversity that that implies. For there have also been joy in the journey, times of celebration, affirmations and encouragements along the way, precious glimpses of what is up ahead if we keep traveling, and songs to be sung.

We have now reached a certain point in the life of this island for which we give praise and thanks to God. In spite of, or maybe partly because of our brokenness from the past and our current economic vulnerabilities, something different is happening. That something was incarnated so movingly a few weeks ago when Mary greeted Elizabeth and the ‘babe’ of a new Ireland leapt for joy in the womb of our long waiting. In the passing of Garret the good (Garret Fitzgerald) we have been assured that even in today’s world people can still rise up and unequivocally attribute the word blessed to a politician. In the words of Brendan Gleeson at that wonderful College Green concert, we have been encouraged to “stand up, breathe the air, look around and see what friends we have.’ And we have been assured by one of the Moneygall Obamas that our best days are still ahead!

What is emerging, although perhaps still largely in the unseen world but only a threshold step away, is the sense of our inter-dependence, the riches we have to share with one another as part of the wonderfully diverse family of God, the sense of belonging and identity that is safe but not confining, that embraces but does not stifle, that draws people into an ambience that is nurturing and empowering in order to propel them outwards with confidence.

For us here in restoration Ministries, as probably for many of you, this is a time of huge change, but the relationships forged through times of joy and sorrow, of celebration and pain will not end. We are being called to enter into a new season by the God of surprises. In this present moment, which is all we can be sure of, all we have been given, we are being invited to a deeper awareness of the God who is everywhere and who cannot be confined or boxed in by the limits that we, in our very understandable vulnerability, would seek to impose upon him. We are and will be exiles, yes, but not so much from Restoration House as from the heavenly country to which we all are journeying. Meantime, wherever we find ourselves, the challenge is to nurture the hallmarks of that upside down kingdom, to work for the establishment of the beloved community right here and now, to pray for the peace and prosperity of this land and for every land and to be on tiptoe for what the God of surprises is going to do next!

We are surrounded by a vast crowd of witnesses who are blessed because they worked for peace, children of God – not just here but all around the world. And, as the writer to the Hebrews said, “How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount their stories. All of these received God’s approval because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had far better things in mind for us, that would also benefit them, for they can’t receive the prize at the end of the race until we finish the race.”

So, dear friends, beloved, the onus the challenge is still with us and with the generation yet to come. But the race will be won. I have this outrageous hope that will not be disappointed and I make that affirmation of faith for everyone here this evening and for this island that we love. Why am I so certain? The words we have been using all week and, indeed for the last few months, say it better than I ever could. “Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. 
Amen.

june2011a

Photos of those attending the June gathering

june2011b

 june2011c