Blessed are the peacemakers.
It is so easy for us to not see each other. It is so easy for us to write each other off, to put someone we don’t agree with in a box and close the lid. It is so easy to see only the different religion, different culture, different colour, different political stripe, and be blind to the person standing in front of you.
This is the world we live in. We see it in the Holy Land, where Jews are being murdered and held hostage and Palestinians are being shot by snipers and are pulling their children out of rubble. We see it in the US, where migrants are being demonised as pet-eaters. And we are seeing it right here in our own community, where Jewish men think twice before putting on their kippah, while 40,000 dead Palestinians means nothing to most people.
We find it very difficult to see past our own prejudices, our own self-righteousness, our own pain. We find it very difficult to get past ourselves, to see and hear and touch the humanity of another.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
It is World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel. What does it mean to be a Christian disciple, in the knowledge that 10,000 children have died in 10 months in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli government…all while Australia continues to export weapons to Israel? What does it mean to be a Christian disciple, knowing that over a thousand innocent Israelis were murdered in their beds and whilst out dancing, and sons and daughters and wives and uncles continue to live a terrified existence as political hostages?
Do we say simply, “Israel has a right to defend itself!”?
Do we declare, “Well Hamas offered to release the hostages as long as Israel released the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners!”?
Or do we brush our hands and say, “It is too complicated, too political. There are always two sides to every argument.”
Blessed are the peacemakers, says our Lord and Master.
What does it mean to be a peacemaker, in this world, in this community? I don’t fully know the answer to that, but I know one thing: it has something to do with seeing the whole person who is standing in front of you. The fullness of their story, their pain, their humanity. If we can learn to do that, we are on the road to being peacemakers.
Words by Rev Andreana
Image by Ahmed Akacha
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