Sabbath Devotional :: The Way of the Peacemaker
I was praying with particular earnestness and focus yesterday morning both because our oldest son was taking his Step 3 medical board exams that day and because our only daughter is off on another madcap solo adventure and planned to rent a car and drive in Ireland. “Please, please protect her, especially as this will be her first time driving on the wrong side of the road,” I prayed. Immediately, the spirit corrected me: “You mean, on the *other* side of the road?” This was said in that characteristically loving and almost indulgent, but gently chiding tone that I’ve come to recognize as the way the spirit speaks to me when I need to be set straight, and I instantly perceived my ethnocentric faux pas. Yes, the other side of the road, not the wrong one. The side that she’s not used to driving on here in America, but the side on which millions of God’s children in England, India, Australia, South Africa, and, yes, Ireland, blissfully (or not) drive every day.
How often do we do this? Make the assumption, whether consciously or not, that just because something isn’t what we’re used to or isn’t done the way we do it, it’s somehow “wrong.” Note: I’m not arguing for moral relativism here. There are, in fact, things that are flat out wrong (murder, lying, cheating, stealing, esteeming others as less than yourself, etc.). But often things are simply, as my grandfather used to put it, “not wrong or right, not better or worse, just different.” And thank goodness for different! A world without different is not a world in which I would ever want to live.
Consider God’s creations, in all their blazing, glorious different-ness. (Compare, for example, the lizard to the giraffe; the banana to the kumquat; the palm tree to the pine.) Even God’s own children are wondrously diverse — short, tall; lean, stout; hairy, bald; eyes hazel, brown, blue, amber; Nigerian, Danish, Brazilian, Iranian; Catholic, Muslim, Mormon, Hindu, Baptist; “fickle, freckled; swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim.” (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Here we are, this vast, spectacularly varied human family, sharing a planet. And God asks but two things of us: 1) to love and choose him, and 2) to love and care for one another. (Moses 7:33)
This is the essence of all God’s teachings.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matt 22:37-40)
“If there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Romans 13:9)
“By love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
“Love one another.” (John 13:34)
“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Galatians 5:14)
What a remarkable thing to say. All the law is fulfilled in this — in loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Paul makes a similar statement in Romans 13:8: “For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”
How is this so? In Romans 8:4, we read that God sent His son to the earth “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.”
Note that it says “in us,” not “for us.”
How is the law (the Hebrew word “torah”) fulfilled in us? The word used in both Romans and Galatians for “fulfill” is, in the Greek, πληρόω, or pleroo (plerosai) which means to complete, to make full, to accomplish. But wasn’t it Christ who fulfilled the law? Yes, it was through Christ’s triumphant and incomprehensible love, obedience, purity, and sacrifice that the law was fulfilled (the demands of justice met, the schism healed, the effects of the Fall overcome, the law of sacrifice by the shedding of blood made obsolete), but we must accept this great atoning offering. We must receive the gift, receive the love, and be transformed by it. And we must receive it, not as a repository, but as a conduit, allowing that love to flow to us and through us, emanating outward to others as well as back to God, completing a powerful divine circuit. And as we do, as we allow ourselves to be transformed by love, God’s purpose is accomplished, finished — in short, fulfilled. That mighty love which compelled our Heavenly Parents to send their Son into the world to atone for our sins and to heal us, that same unfathomable love which moved our Savior to drink from that bitter cup and to take upon Himself our sins and sorrows and to suffer even to the shedding of blood from every pore must, in order for it to have its effect, enter into our hearts and be fulfilled in us as we actively receive it and then use it to bless and lift others. This is the whole purpose of the law, and the purest expression of it. In love is the law fulfilled.
When we say that love is the answer to everything, it’s not just a pretty phrase. It’s a potent statement of truth. When we say that love is the only force in the universe strong enough to heal this broken world, it’s not just rhetorical word play. It’s a fact.
What is the core problem that confronts our reeling nation today? According to David Brooks, it’s division. Arthur C. Brooks (no relation) argues that it’s contempt. Either way, the solution — the only real solution — is love. Loving our neighbors means more than just having warm, fuzzy feelings about them. It means serving them. It means truly esteeming them and treating them with deep respect. It means honoring their dignity. It means listening to and hearing them, acknowledging and valuing their ideas and points of view. It means defending them. Loving our neighbors (including our enemies) changes everything. As David Brooks wrote this week in his New York Times column: “When you listen to your neighbor, you see how many perspectives there are and you’re intellectually humble in the face of that pluralism.” Listening leads to humility and even greater love, and humility and love lead to peace.
This past week, Emma Petty Addams and I had the privilege of attending the National Summit for Democracy in Washington D.C. This was a gathering of nearly 60 different organizations, all intent on helping to heal the divide in America. In our closing session, one of the attendees made the observation that there are two kinds of engaged citizens in the U.S. today: 1) the warriors, and 2) the peacemakers. The warriors, he said, serve an important function. They tell us what’s wrong. But it’s the peacemakers who tell us what’s right and then move us in that direction.
As members of MWEG, we have chosen to be peacemakers. As such, we are committed to being proactive and courageous; to seeking to unify instead of divide; to showing great tolerance for people, but none for injustice; to viewing human suffering as sacred and doing all we can to alleviate that suffering; to choosing love instead of hate; and to holding to the belief that ultimate peace is not only possible, but sure.
And the way of the peacemaker is love.
Sharlee Mullins Glenn is a founder of Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
