Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

February 1, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness” Matthew 5:1-12

It’s February in Saranac Lake and all thoughts turn to Winter Carnival, our annual celebration of the season. Some of us are already hard at work on the shores of Lake Flower, building a palace that is certain to take our breath away. Others among us will soon be donning our bathing suits over our snow pants for the Blue Buns Wheel-a-Palooza, flexing our biceps by tossing the frying pan, sprinting toward the finish line in snowshoe or cross-country ski races, or boldly strutting our stuff in the Winter Carnival Parade.

We have a long tradition dating to 1907 of choosing a King and Queen for Winter Carnival. The very first king and queen, Dr. Edward Robinson Baldwin and his wife Mary, were Presbyterians. Later, from 1953 to 1970, we lured celebrities to Saranac Lake to serve as our royalty. Movie stars, singers, beauty queens, newscasters, and professional athletes all wore the crown and collected a tidy paycheck for doing so.

But in 1971, the Winter Carnival Committee resolved to again choose our royalty closer to home and use an entirely different set of criteria. Our first king of this new era, Chuck Pandolph, was an Olympic bobsledder, Marine Corps veteran of WWII and Korea, worked as a local policeman, captained the fire department, and was a member of the Elks Lodge, American Legion, and the Policemen’s Benevolent Association. He also owned and operated a favorite local restaurant—Chuck’s on Broadway. Ever since 1971, our royal choices reflect who we are as a community, a place that prizes service above status or celebrity.

In our reading from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus began his Sermon on the Mount with a pithy series of statements that we have long called the Beatitudes or blessings of the kingdom of God. Surrounded by his followers, Jesus took a seat on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. There he cast the vision for how his disciples should live. Jesus’ seaside sermon revealed the sort of community that he would have us forge here on earth. It’s a community that follows in his footsteps and anticipates a world where all will truly be on earth as it is in heaven.

At the heart of the Beatitudes are the words, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.” Jesus was using a Hebrew idiom here. When we “hunger and thirst” for something, it means that we desperately long for it. We desire it with our whole being. We are consumed by its pursuit. In a world where many hunger and thirst for wealth, prestige, power, and possessions, Jesus expected his followers to hunger and thirst for something entirely different: righteousness.

In Hebrew, righteousness is zedaka. In the koine Greek of the first century, righteousness is dikaiosunae. In our Judeo-Christian tradition, righteousness is a way of living that honors both God and neighbor. Righteousness demands justice and social justice. It demands reconciliation that overcomes separation and alienation. It requires personal and communal piety. It entails charity—the loving kindness that cares for our most vulnerable neighbors. In his most essential of commands, Jesus summarized the requirements of righteousness by teaching that we must love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength; and we must love our neighbors as ourselves. This is at the very core of what it means to be human. This is what it truly looks like to follow Jesus.

Whether Jesus was healing lepers or restoring sight to blind eyes, feeding multitudes or casting out demons, welcoming outsiders or forgiving sinners, teaching in the synagogue, making pilgrimage, worshiping, fasting, or humbling himself in prayer, the Lord showed us what it looks like to live a life that hungers and thirsts for righteousness. The early church went forth to do likewise. They worshiped in the Temple and in homes. They prayed for one another and for their neighbors. They fasted in repentance and feasted on the bread of life and cup of salvation. They shared their possessions to provide for all. Deacons like Stephen fed hungry widows and orphans. Apostles like Peter and John healed the sick and raised the dead. Disciples like Dorcas clothed those who were threadbare and naked. Paul collected gifts from the abundance of his Gentile churches to allay the suffering of famine victims in Jerusalem. Those righteous actions transformed communities even as they honored the teachings of Jesus.

Modern-day disciples continue to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Inspired by Jesus, we bring cans of soup and dollar bills for the soup pot on Souper Bowl Sunday, we share our time at the Food Pantry, or we get our hands in the dirt of the Community Garden to feed hungry neighbors. We share our caring as deacons with phone calls, cards, good cooking, and home visits. We pray for others and for our world with prayers of the people, the prayer chain, and in our daily disciplines of personal devotion. We seek a more just world, whether helping vulnerable neighbors in crisis with our deacons’ fund, accompanying refugees, housing the homeless at Samaritan and Beacon Houses, or holding vigil, week after week, for those who suffer seemingly endless violence in Ukraine. We build a lifelong relationship with God through Sunday worship and choir, Bible Study and Lenten Learning, confirmation and Sunday School. We trust that those faithful actions follow in the footsteps of Jesus. We dare to hope that in 135 years of ministry here in Saranac Lake we have made a difference, that we may have even nudged our community a little closer to God’s Kingdom.

Jesus taught that when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are filled. The Greek word for filled is teleos. When we are filled—when we are teleos—we are made complete, whole, perfect. To be teleos is to live fully and completely into the people whom God created us to be. I like to say that when we are teleos, we know that we are doing what God put us on earth to do. God is known, loved, and served. We are in right relationship with our families and neighbors. The needs of our community are seen and met. We are filled with a sense of purpose and our lives find authentic meaning. We know ourselves to be blessed, and in response we go forth to be a blessing to others. Blessed are we who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for we will be filled. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a manifesto for faithful disciples, teaching us how we may build a kingdom here on earth that anticipates God’s Kingdom which is to come.

This week, Saranac Lake will crown a new king and queen. 2025 King Tim and Queen Patti will wrap velvet cloaks around the shoulders and place bejeweled crowns upon the heads of new royalty. We may not know who the new king and queen will be, but we can rest assured that they have lived lives of exemplary service to the community. They won’t be reigning over any earthly kingdom or principality, just a little mountain village where winters are long and we all get a little cabin fever, just a little mountain village where we know that our neighbors need us, and we are called to make a caring difference.

If we listen beyond the jokes and stories of coronation, if we listen beyond the songs and dance of the Rotary variety show, if we listen beyond the wheeze of bagpipes and the syncopated rhythms of lawn chair ladies, if we listen with the ear of our hearts in the coming days, we may even hear the drumbeat of another kingdom—the kingdom that Jesus would have us make. It will be soft and persistent. It can touch hearts and transform lives. It might even feel a lot like Winter Carnival on a cold blue-sky day when we marvel at the glory of God’s good creation and rejoice with one another, knowing in the very deepest sense of the word what it truly means to be the beloved community.

Resources

Raj Nadella. “Commentary on Matthew 5:1-12” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 1, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-sunday/commentary-on-matthew-51-12

Osvaldo Vena. “Commentary on Matthew 5:1-12” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 5, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-sunday/commentary-on-matthew-51-12-10

Warren Carter. “Commentary on Matthew 5:1-12” in Preaching This Week, Feb. 1, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-matthew-51-12-11

Joann White. “Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness” in The Beatitudes, part 5, a Bible Study written for FPC Saranac Lake. March 20, 2013.

Matthew 5:1-12

5 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

³“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁵“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

⁶“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

⁷“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

⁹“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

¹⁰“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Image source: https://saranaclakewintercarnival.com/ice-palace

A Peaceable Kingdom

November 16, 2025 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “A Peaceable Kingdom” Isaiah 65:17-25

Edward Hicks was a Quaker sign painter born in Pennsylvania in 1780. He is acknowledged as one of America’s greatest folk artists. In 1820, when Edward was forty years old, he painted Isaiah’s vision of “The Peaceable Kingdom.” Against a green landscape and blue skies, a primitive looking infant, swaddled in gauzy cloth, sits between a pointy-horned ox and a lounging lion. The ox and the lion munch on hay. Nearby, a wooly lamb cozies up to a placid wolf. Two goats and a leopard look like best friends. It’s a wistful vision of a new creation, a world where violence has come to an end, where all God’s creatures live in peace, abundance, and safety.

This morning, the world is far from that bucolic vision of the peaceable kingdom. It’s day 1,361 of the war in Ukraine. Fierce fighting is ongoing in Zaporizihia, amid adverse weather conditions. In response to ongoing Russian aggression, Ukraine has targeted drone and missile strikes on key Russian oil facilities to disrupt Russian supply lines and military operations. On Friday night, Russia launched a blistering assault on Ukraine, killing at least six people and injuring 35 as 430 drones and 18 missiles rained down through the night sky. It’s estimated that Russian military casualties in the war have topped 1,000,000 personnel while Ukraine’s deaths and injuries are near 450,000. An estimated 45,000 Ukrainian civilians have been caught in the crossfire, about 3,000 of those children. We long for a peaceable kingdom.

Yemen has been locked in civil war for more than a decade. In September 2014, Houthi forces took control of the capital, Sanaa, following widespread discontent with the Saudi-backed government. A coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, stepped in, using air strikes to try to restore the former Yemeni government. Al Qaeda and ISIS fighters soon saw the conflict as a way to advance their regional ambitions, so they have carried out attacks against both factions. In the shadows, the Iranians pull the strings. Israel has been drawn into the conflict, killing the Yemeni Prime Minister in an August airstrike. In just the first three years of the war, more than 85,000 children died of starvation. A decade of war has left Yemen’s infrastructure in ruins and its people exhausted. Close to 20 million people in Yemen depend on aid simply to survive. Nearly five million are homeless, pushed from one place to another by violence and disaster. We long for a peaceable kingdom.

In our reading from the Prophet Isaiah, we hear God’s promise of a peaceable kingdom. The Israelites had returned to Jerusalem after fifty years of exile in Babylon. They were refugees returning to a homeland that was broken and scarred by war. Ancestral property rights were gone. Vineyards and fields had gone wild. Food was scarce. Disease was rampant. Neighbors, who had not gone into exile, were hostile and suspicious. Roads were unsafe. The Temple was in ruins. In a devastated land that once flowed with milk and honey, the people’s safety and security hung upon the mercy of a foreign king. A foreign-appointed government had replaced the once mighty kingship of David. The lives of the remnant of Israel were so filled with death, grief, hunger, and despair that they began to wonder. Is God with us? Has God forsaken us and sent us home to live as a broken people in a broken land?

Into this time of uncertainty and fear, Isaiah spoke words of prophetic promise, a beautiful vision of a fresh start in a new Jerusalem where weeping will cease and children will thrive. It was a bold vision of long life, good homes, and abundant harvests. It was a faithful promise of abiding love and prayers answered from generation to generation. It was a holy vision of peace for all creation, of a new Eden where the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and God’s holy mountain will be free of hurt and destruction. God promised the people an everlasting shalom, the peace and wholeness that we find when we are in right relationship with God, neighbor, and even within ourselves.

I imagine that as the people listened, their eyes filled with tears and their hearts with longing. They remembered that God is with them, always with them. They found the courage to persevere and seek the future that God held ready for them. They rolled up their sleeves and worked the fallow fields. They shared what little they had, so that everyone had enough. They gathered at the Temple, worshipped amid the ruins, and dreamed of a new sanctuary. They reached out to their suspicious neighbors with kindness and patience, setting aside their tribalism to work toward a shared future. It wasn’t exactly the peaceable kingdom, but it held the promise of it.

This morning, we may not be caught up in the ground-shaking artillery fire of Zaporizihia, or the mass homelessness and hunger of Yemen, or the despair of Israelite refugees returning to a broken land, but we, too, long for a peaceable kingdom. We mourn the casualties in Ukraine, the devastation of Gaza, and the threat of war with Venezuela. We are grieved by the fracture of longstanding alliances and friendships between nations. We are frightened by the seemingly intractable polarization of our political landscape. We despair over the lack of respect or even common courtesy in our public discourse. In this land of plenty, we are shocked by widespread food insecurity and the millions of neighbors who teeter on the brink of economic crisis. We long for a peaceable kingdom.

As the holidays draw near, we acknowledge that we long for peace closer to home. We want peace for our families; we dream of a holiday table where every place is occupied, every tummy is full, the conversation is merry, and the love abounds. We need God’s peace to find a spirit of tolerance and acceptance, to heal our hardheartedness and unwillingness to accept one another as we are. We long for God’s forgiveness that will be a balm for old wounds and long-held grudges. We pray for God’s courage and grace to name and heal from incidents of abuse. And when we take the time to be quiet, to go deeper, we admit that we need God’s peace in our hearts, so that we may forgive ourselves as we have forgiven others, love without strings attached, and accept what cannot be changed. We long for a peaceable kingdom.

This morning, may we hear anew God’s promise through the Prophet Isaiah of the new heavens and new earth, of the peaceable kingdom where ancient enmities come to an end, where the lion lies down with the lamb. May we remember that God is with us, always with them. We may make a mess of our world, but future is always in God’s hands, and the vision is one of peace.

If we listen with the ears of our hearts, we may even hear God’s vision that peace begins with us. We are not the architects of the peaceable kingdom, but we can be the artists, painting peace with the brushstrokes of lives lived in faith and love. Let’s roll up our sleeves and join God in the work of shalom. We cannot arbitrate ceasefires for Ukraine and Yemen, yet we can pray for their peace. We can demand better and more peaceful ways for those who govern. We can reach out to neighbors with kindness and patience, setting aside tribalism to work toward a shared future. We can share what we have, so that everyone has enough. We can dare to heal our families, reaching out with love, even if our best efforts fall short. Let’s extend to others and to ourselves the grace that has been so freely shared with us in Jesus. It won’t be the peaceable kingdom, but with God’s help our lives may begin to hold the promise of it. Let’s take a moment to commit ourselves to take one action in the coming week that can prosper peace.

The Quaker painter Edward Hicks painted “The Peaceable Kingdom” more than a hundred times in the last twenty years of his life, as if by repeatedly painting the promise of the kingdom he could hasten its coming. Over the years, Hicks’ Bucks County surroundings began to be represented in his paintings. The Delaware River wound through the background. Little girls entered the picture, breaking the gender barrier and joining the Christ child in his peaceful romp with the wild beasts. In the distance, William Penn and his Quaker friends, clad in somber shades of gray and black, passed a peace pipe with Lenni Lenape tribesmen in bright blankets, feathers, and wampum. Hicks painted to cast a prophetic vision of harmony and plenty, an end to violence and bloodshed, a setting aside of oppression for women and people of color. It’s as if Hicks trusted that if he could share Isaiah’s vision in ways that spoke to his world, folks would understand and change would come. It wouldn’t be the peaceable kingdom, but with God’s help there would be the promise of it.

We may not be America’s greatest folk artists, but Isaiah’s vision of the peaceable kingdom still sparks the imagination of God’s people. May we go forth to seek that kingdom with the broad brushstrokes of lives lived in pursuit of peace.

Resources

Carolyn J. Sharp. “Commentary on Isaiah 65:17-25” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 14, 2010. Accessed online at Commentary on Isaiah 65:17-25 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

Garrett Galvin. “Commentary on Isaiah 65:17-25” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 14, 2010. Accessed online at Commentary on Isaiah 65:17-25 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

John Braostoski. “Hicks’s Peaceable Kingdom,” Friends Journal, February 2000. Hicks’s Peaceable Kingdom – Friends Journal

James C. Reynolds and Steffie Banatvala. “Inside Putin’s campaign of terror in Kyiv: Why Russia keeps bombarding the capital” In The Independent, Nov. 14, 2025. Accessed online at Inside Putin’s campaign of terror in Kyiv: Why Russia keeps bombarding the capital | The Independent

Lyndal Rowlands and News Agencies. “Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,357” in Aljazeera, Nove. 12, 2025. Accessed online at Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,357 | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

Statista Research Department. “Number of civilian casualties in Ukraine during Russia’s invasion verified by OHCHR from February 24, 2022 to July 31, 2025,” Statista, Sept. 25, 2025. Accessed online at Ukraine civilian war casualties 2025| Statista

Othman Belbeisi. “Yemen: Ten Years of War, a Lifetime of Loss” in UN News, March 26, 2025. Accessed online at Yemen: Ten Years of War, a Lifetime of Loss | UN News

Isaiah 65:17-25

For I am about to create new heavens
    and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
    or come to mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever
    in what I am creating,
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy
    and its people as a delight.
¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem
    and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it
    or the cry of distress.
²⁰No more shall there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days
    or an old person who does not live out a lifetime,
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
    and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
²¹They shall build houses and inhabit them;
    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²²They shall not build and another inhabit;
    they shall not plant and another eat,
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
    and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
²³They shall not labor in vain
    or bear children for calamity,^[a]
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
    and their descendants as well.
²⁴Before they call I will answer,
    while they are yet speaking I will hear.
²⁵The wolf and the lamb shall feed together;
    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
    but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
            says the Lord.

“The Peaceable Kingdom” Edward Hicks, 1832. From the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (United States)

I Am with You

January 14, 2024 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “I Am with You” Matthew 28:16-20

The world longs for peace.

It’s been 100 days since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War. On October seventh, Hamas militants swept out of Gaza and into southern Israel, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. 1,200 people were killed and 250 hostages abducted. In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared war. With heavy bombardment and a ground invasion of Gaza, the Israeli Defense Force seeks to root out the Hamas threat and keep Israel safe.

Caught in the crossfire are civilians. Experts say the Israeli bombing of Gaza is among the most intense in modern history. More than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed. Two-thirds of those casualties have been women and children. Thousands more remain missing or badly wounded. Half of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed. 80% of the population is displaced. Schools are closed. The healthcare system is near collapse, with only 15 of 36 hospitals still functioning. One quarter of the people are starving. Halima Abu Daqa, a displaced Palestinian woman, sheltering with her family in a tent camp near the border with Egypt laments, “We have been deprived of everything. Everything has changed and nothing remains.”

On the Israeli side, civilians have contended with 14,000 Hamas missiles lunched against southern cities. Confidence in the Israeli government, which failed to act on a warning about the coming attack, has plummeted. Men and women have been called up to active military duty. 314 soldiers have been killed. Skepticism is growing in Israel about the kind of military victory that can really be achieved. Vigils and public outcry call for action to free the 130 Israelis who remain prisoners of Hamas. Families of hostages are among the voices calling to put combat on hold and strike an immediate deal with Hamas to free the hostages. Udi Goren, whose cousin was killed on October seventh, says, “We’re talking about a war that’s now going on in an urban area that has about 2 million refugees and hostages. The [Israeli military] is fighting with [its] hand tied behind its back. It’s very clear that we need to find a ladder to climb down.”

The world longs for peace this morning. In the face of the world’s warring madness, we have the audacity to celebrate a Sunday that is dedicated to the making of peace. Since 1983, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program has been working with partners around the world to provide humanitarian support and disaster assistance to war plagued people and places. Beyond the war zone, Presbyterian Peacemakers seek an end to human trafficking, racism, and the tragedy of displacement and economic crisis driven by climate change.

This church’s commitment to peacemaking began more than thirty years ago. In 1990, the late Rev. Dick Stone led a Bible Study on peacemaking with this congregation. Dick and the participants in that study convinced the session to make the commitment to peacemaking, inviting us to work for peace in our families, communities, and even in the international arena. The elders voted and made it official. We are peacemakers.

Our calling to be peacemakers is grounded in the teachings of Jesus. Reading Matthew’s gospel is like a master class in peacemaking. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Turn the other cheek. Before you do anything else, go to your alienated neighbor and be reconciled. Forgive seventy times seven, which basically means forgive others without limits. These are the words of Jesus. They are a clear call to peacemaking and an anticipation of the peaceable kingdom that the Lord would have us forge on earth as it is in heaven.

Living into those words isn’t easy. Our whole-hearted commitment to God can get pushed to the margins by the demands of family, work, and civic engagement. In this politically fraught climate, it feels tough to trust our neighbors and love them as ourselves. Do we really have to love our enemies? Jesus, you must not have met them. Be reconciled? We would rather steer clear of our alienated neighbors, friends, or family members and pretend they don’t exist. Limitless forgiveness? It’s a whole lot easier to forgive when we get a public apology, so that the world can know that we are right. Jesus may have taught us the things that make for peace, but putting them into practice, embracing that radical ethic of peacemaking, can feel easier said than done. Help us, Jesus.

In our reading from Matthew’s gospel, the risen Lord gave his friends an assignment that must have felt just as daunting as our calling to be peacemakers. Jesus sent his friends out into the world, not just to their Jewish neighbors but to all the nations—that means gentiles. The gospel of God’s great love for all people needed to be shared and the disciples were the people to do it. They would need to talk about their experience and belief with complete strangers who seemed likely to reject them as religious fanatics. Then, through baptism the disciples were to welcome a growing crowd of people who never mixed into the family of God. I imagine the disciples, especially those who struggled with doubt, found themselves thinking as we might: that great commission sounds easier said than done, Jesus.

Jesus assured his friends that they were more than enough to meet the challenge. It wasn’t that they were gifted public speakers or had access to the halls of power. It wasn’t that they had charismatic personalities or had spent their lives studying the Torah. Rather, Jesus’ friends would be fine because Jesus would be with them always. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus would meet them where they were and as they were. His great love for them would follow them, even to the end of the age. Bible scholars like to call these words of Jesus the “promise of eschatological presence.” Jesus is with us always.

The “promise of eschatological presence”? Those are some fancy theological words, but when we think about it, we know the nearness of Jesus. We feel his presence in times of prayer and contemplation. We sense his wonder in our forays into the beauty of God’s creation. We know he is with us on Sunday mornings as scripture is proclaimed and the Lord’s Supper is shared. We feel Jesus’s love when others love us at our most unlovable. Jesus is there when someone turns the other cheek to our bad behavior. Jesus is there when we find common ground with our alienated friend. Jesus taps us on the shoulder when we find the courage to seek forgiveness and accept the grace of others. The presence of Jesus equipped his disciples to go forth with God’s love; the presence of Jesus equips us to go forth as peacemakers.

Just as we trust that Jesus is with us, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program allows us to be with others around the world who are desperately in need of peace, safety, and love. In November, Presbyterian Peacemaking and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance reported that they were partnering with the Middle East Council of Churches to provide humanitarian assistance amid the Israel-Hamas War. Emergency food and hygiene kits have been distributed to displaced people. Damaged housing is being repaired. Churches and community centers, that have been hosting homeless families, are receiving much-needed support. Medical and hospital supplies have been shared. Counseling help has supported those traumatized by the conflict.

For 2024, the PCUSA is teaming with the ACT Alliance to continue this work on a broader scale. ACT stands for Actions by Churches Together. It is a partnership of 145 church groups in 127 countries who are committed to peace and human security. With ACT, we have pledged $5 million in humanitarian assistance to the conflict in the Middle East with a goal of improving the lives of 50,000 individuals. Our contributions to Peacemaking are a visionary statement that, like Jesus, we are committed to being with others, even when life feels overwhelming and the way forward is hard to see.

The world longs for peace this morning. Jesus has hope for us. He has taught us the things that make for peace and promised to be with us. I trust that the Lord can even be at work in the chaos and pain of the Israel-Hamas War. Jesus is with displaced people, like Halima Abu Daqa, who have lost everything. Jesus is with concerned Israelis, like Udi Goren, who seek a way forward to end the violence. May we be a part of the peace.

Resources

Ephrain Agosto. “Exegetical Perspective on Matthew 28:16-20” in Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew, vol. 2, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press), 2013.

Daniel Estrin. “Israelis are increasingly questioning what war in Gaza can achieve” in NPR Special Series: Middle East Crisis Explained, January 11, 2024. Accessed online at https://www.npr.org/2024/01/11/1223636086/israel-hamas-war-gaza-victory

Josel Federman. “In 100 days, the Israel-Hamas war has transformed the region. The fighting shows no signs of ending” in the Associated Press World News, January 13, 2024. Accessed online at https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-100-days-palestinians-takeaways-05422978a87ab52d51df152bc9248a7f

Julia Frankel. “As Israel-Hamas war reaches 100-day mark, here’s the conflict by numbers” in the Associated Press World News, January 13, 2024. Accessed online at https://apnews.com/article/war-gaza-israel-hamas-100-numbers-death-c4d6d42269c3cd6bf74d4e6fc612114e

Martha Moore-Keish. “Theological Perspective on Matthew 28:16-20” in Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew, vol. 2, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press), 2013.

Scott O’Neal. “Presbyterian Mission Agency ministries authorize funds to support relief efforts in Israel-Palestine” in Presbyterian News Service, Nov. 8, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.presbyterianmission.org/

William H. Willimon. “Pastoral Perspective on Matthew 28:16-20” in Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew, vol. 2, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press), 2013.

Matthew 28:16-20

¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

attribution: AP Photo, Hatern Ali, accessed online at https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-100-days-palestinians-takeaways-05422978a87ab52d51df152bc9248a7f

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

January 29, 2023 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Blessed are the Peacemakers” Matthew 5:9

It’s one of Jesus’s most essential teachings. Many of us know it by heart. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” But if we were to ask the man or woman on the street what a “peacemaker” is, we might be surprised at the variety of answers we get and the diverging opinions about the things that make for peace.

Young people today, especially DC comic fans, will tell you that “Peacemaker” is a super hero, well maybe a little more like an anti-hero. This “Peacemaker” grew up in a dysfunctional family with a violent, unloving father. Peacemaker made an oath to keep the peace, regardless of the means or how many people he must kill to achieve that peace. He acts as a vigilante, leaving a destructive trail of death and mayhem in his wake. He’s popular enough to merit his own tv series, where he is played with tongue-in-cheek humor by former pro wrestler John Cena. This is not what Jesus was talking about.

Looming larger in the imagination of older Americans is the Colt single action revolver, dubbed the Peacemaker, standard Army issue between 1873 and 1892. This Peacemaker has been popular with ranchers, lawmen, and outlaws alike, an iconic symbol of the Wild West. It was carried by Doc Holiday, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and Buffalo Bill Cody. General George S. Patton wore a leather gun belt that carried his Peacemaker throughout the second World War; Patton’s Peacemaker had ivory grips and was engraved with his initials and an eagle. This is not what Jesus was talking about.

If super heroes and handguns don’t make you think peacemaker, beer might. The Peacemaker Brewing Company in Canandaigua is known for their tasty and innovative craft beers. You can drop by the Peacemaker Brewery on Monday nights and sample the 1000-Yard-Stare Scottish Ale while you play Euchre. Or, try Thursday night trivia with a Peacemaker Moon Perfume India Pale Ale. January is stout month, so we have a few more days to sample the Peacemaker Ginger and Molasses Stout. This is not what Jesus was talking about.

It’s not surprising that people in Jesus’s day also had conflicting notions about peacemakers. In the first century, the denizens of the Roman Empire saw themselves as makers of peace. They boasted that the Pax Romana – the Peace of Rome – had brought stability and prosperity to their world. The Roman peace was achieved through violence. Caesar’s legions sailed and marched across the Mediterranean world to defeat local powers, depose their kings, and install their own hand-picked leaders, like King Herod and Pontius Pilate. The Peace of Rome was costly. Troops were garrisoned in the countries they occupied, and an imperial tax was levied to cover the costs of that occupation. Challengers to the Pax Romana were met with brutality, including crucifixion. This is not what Jesus was talking about.

Jesus’s understanding of peace was grounded in the Hebrew word for peace: shalom. Shalom has great depth of meaning, including wholeness, completeness, soundness or safety of body, health, prosperity, quiet, tranquility, contentment, friendship in relationship, non-violence, and the absence of war. Shalom is peace that comes from God and is found when we are in right relationship with God and neighbor. You might even say that shalom abounds when we generously and selflessly love (agape) God and neighbor.

In Jesus’s understanding, the work of shalom/peacemaking is active and ongoing. Jesus could have said “Blessed are those who are peaceful” or “Blessed are those who have peace.” Instead, Jesus’s blessing is more nearly but less eloquently translated: “Blessed are the peace-doers.” We are blessed when we are actively seeking and working for the wholeness, health, well-being, and non-violence of our world.

God is a peacemaker. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Paul described what God achieved through the cross, saying, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus, and through Jesus to reconcile everything to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:19-20). To heal the alienation that existed between humanity and God, God chose in self-giving love to become flesh and face head on the sin of our world. The peace of God met the Pax Romana on the cross. Instead of sin and death prevailing, God worked a miracle of life. Jesus rose and lives, always reaching out to us with love and forgiveness, so that we can in turn reach out to one another with love and forgiveness. As children of God, we are called to be busy with our Father’s work. We are called to pursue God’s peacemaking.

When we choose to be makers of peace and live as children of God, we begin to move and think and act in ways that bring wholeness, safety, good will, and non-violence to our lives and the lives of those around us. In a world where partisan politics have us drawing dividing lines, the work of peace demands that we stay in relationship with others, even when we disagree with them. In a world that can often be bigoted and intolerant of diversity, we honor and respect others, regardless of skin color, gender identity, religion, nation, or physical ability. In a world where gossip, trash talk, and insults abound, peacemakers guard their tongues. Those who follow Jesus in paths of peace refuse to return evil for evil; we turn the other cheek to those who do us harm and even violence. These are the things that make for peace. This is what Jesus is talking about.

Those who would make peace learn to live into the prayer of Francis of Assisi,

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

In a world where the name “Peacemaker” is more often associated with super heroes, hand guns, and beer than it is with God’s work of wholeness, healing, and non-violence, it is up to us as children of God to follow Jesus in ways of peace. It starts with those everyday choices we make in relating to our beloved ones, co-workers, and neighbors.

Those paths of peace continue in our efforts as a national church through Presbyterian Peacemaking. The program works in communities across the United States and around the world to promote the things that make for peace. Today we are partnering with the IndyTenPoint Coalition in the city of Indianapolis to address record-breaking violence and homicide. One young man made a tearful confession about growing up in places like Indy, “I was living in a community that was so violent, it was forcing me to do things I didn’t want to do but felt like I had to do.” The IndyTenPoint program serves as a support system, providing presence in the community, mentoring, job training, avenues to employment, and school help for kids on the street who may be more likely to get involved in drug trafficking and gangs, which put them on a pathway to prison. In the neighborhoods where IndyTenPoint has boots on the ground, the reduction in the level of shootings, stabbings, and homicides has been a shocking 100%. This is what Jesus was talking.

Presbyterian Peacemaking is also at work globally to promote non-violence, healing, and wholeness. In Greece, we have partnered with Lesvos Solidarity, which assists Syrians, Afghanis, and Iraqis interned at the Pikpa Camp refugee camp. Luciano Kovacs, the PCUSA area coordinator, says, “Lesvos Solidarity is a living example of how we can show love to the stranger and promote dignity among those who flee war and poverty. Helping those who leave war-infested areas is a peacemaking act.” Lesvos Solidarity helps with practical things: finding asylum, permanent housing, and employment. Even more, at their Mosaik Support Center, they focus on the sort of things that make for wholeness and meaning for life in a new land, like language classes, educational activities for children, computer classes, guitar lessons, yoga classes, literature workshops, human rights workshops, poetry nights, cinema screenings, and two choirs. These are the things that make for peace. This is what Jesus was talking about.

When we go forth as peace-doers, we get blessed, even as we are a blessing. Our relationships with family and friends are strengthened, our communities are safer, vulnerable people find encouragement and support. When we go forth as peace-doers, this world begins to look and feel a lot less like the Pax Romana and a lot more like the Peace of Christ. Peacemakers working together forge a Beloved Community, that earthly Kingdom that God would have us build. Let us go forth to make peace.

Resources:

Jillian Engelhardt. “Commentary on Matthew 5:1-12” in Preaching This Week, Jan. 29, 2023. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org.

Amy G. Oden. “Commentary on Matthew 5:1-12” in Preaching This Week, Feb. 2, 2014. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org.

Eric Barretto. “Commentary on Matthew 5:1-12” in Preaching This Week, Feb. 2, 2020. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org.

This sermon drew on my research from the 2013 study series that I led on The Beatitudes.

Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/peacemaking/

Matthew 5:9

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”