Peace Keeper vs. Peace Maker

Dear Friends,

I have many shadow sides. I wish they weren’t there. While I am aware of the ones I do see, I am not always seeing them. I’ll ignore that side of me or sometimes I even try to repurpose them into something good. But shadow sides are not good. They are often self-promoting or self-deprecating and always focused on self, one way or the other.

I am a peacemaker by nature. When God weaved me together, God placed this nature within me and I love this about myself. Every good and beautiful part of me finds its origin in the image of God. Unfortunately, my shadow side—my self-side—looks enough like peacemaker to temper the swirling waters around me. Peace-keeper points out all the commonalities between us. Peace-keeper sweeps the yucky under the carpet so we can all get along. Peace-keeper pretends/believes it’s all going to be okay because “God’s got this.” Peace-keeper avoids confrontation and whistles past conflict while spinning the story and potential outcome with positivity and prayer.

This is not the time for us to blanket our churches in positivity and prayer and peace-keeping. Many Christian’s idolatrous desire for keeping a king in place has caused them to see the marginalized as collateral damage while destroying the reputation of Jesus Christ and his church. We distance ourselves from the extremists, saying our faith isn’t like theirs. We might say they’ve been betrayed, hoodwinked, mislead because their focus was on a personality and president, but I wonder how many of us are placing the blame on someone else? If I can point to the president as the main problem, I don’t have to see the internalized prejudice, racism, judgement, and condemnation long embedded within me and historically in this nation. I can easily point out the sin of the other while avoiding the sin within me.

Friends, my shadow side of peace-keeping demands inaction instead of movement, slothful passivity instead of responsive activity. My shadow side loves to keep the peace and keep walking forward in “unity”—a vaporous lie like smoke vanishing with each heartbeat.

Peacemakers call for unity but never at the cost of those on the margin. Unity cannot exist without repentance. Unity cannot thrive without lament. I cannot walk forward into today or tomorrow without acknowledging the pain and trauma of yesterday—trauma and pain I may not have caused but I’ve certainly tried to silence to keep the peace.

Friends, the sin of white supremacy has long influenced peace-keepers around our country and sometimes pastors have been the greatest perpetrators. People with power will do anything to keep power and because money is power, Christianity has worked within the system to keep the machine moving.  

Jesus met a Samaritan woman by the well in her homeland, crossing boundary lines into unstable territories where he might not be accepted, one hot and thirsty afternoon. He recognized his own power and privilege and chose to lay them down to hear her story. I’ve long written scandal into her story, but Jesus never did. Jesus didn’t distill her life into some scandalous anecdote, cheapening this encounter into one of bad and good—she was bad and Jesus made her good. 

Jesus saw beyond the surface where one must tow-the-line-so-peace-remains. He saw into the insidious nature that power and privilege perpetuates where those on the top dictate the lives of those on the bottom. He saw the truth of this broken life with corrupt systems of power, privilege, supremacy, and patriarchy that holds some people back, that oppresses the most vulnerable, that causes suffering and division and hatred of oneself and the other. 

Jesus saw her. In the midst of a broken and corrupt world, he saw her. Her whole story and every mistake she’s made and the harm other people and the societal systems had done to her. Jesus saw it all and didn’t shame her or belittle her or tell her to do better. Because Jesus came to bring justice and grace and new perspective to broken places and hurting people. Jesus didn’t come to keep peace. Jesus came to make peace—peace that unifies because it never avoids conflict or turns a blind eye to oppressive, racist structures. 

Christian friend, may we repent from and lament and grieve over our involvement and perpetuation of unjust systems and deep seated supremacy. May we boldly trust God for all our needs inside and outside the church. And may we be a family of peacemakers bent of forgiveness and grace, given and received.

With (love),
Bethany