So What Kind of Peacemaker Do You Want?
Good Morning Friends,
Bethlehem knows what it wants for Christmas. They want more tourists. They want a new tradition that does not include whatever it is that divides people. You see, hate is bad for just about everybody but the gun business. We need to grow in love. So What Kind of Peacemaker Do You Want?
Scripture: Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:9-23 (NRSV)
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Matthew 5:44 (NRSV)
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” —although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— he left Judea and started back to Galilee.
But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”
John 4:1-39 (NRSV)
Message: Making things right when they go wrong is not easy, but John in the story of the woman at the well and Paul in his letter to the Romans have a few suggestions that might help us on this journey to Christian living. Scripture instructs us to love sincerely, to cling constantly, to honor graciously and to serve zealously. We are to be genuine in our desire to emulate Jesus when it comes to loving people. Like Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman we are not to point out another’s sins. There is always something to love in another person, even our enemies for if we hate them it is as if we are killing ourselves. Love is the better way. Here we share and also experience grace. That makes things go right when they have gone wrong. Related to that is clinging to what is good in life and the lives of people. We have to give up on revenge. Fighting with force, twisting arms does not cure evil. We are to hate the sin but love the sinner. Clinging to what is good can help bring peace, but we have to be slow to criticize and quick to commend. This brings us to the reality that to bring peace we have to honor one another above self. We have to be second. We have to be asking what we can do for others that bring dignity and honor to the relationship. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus has need of you to walk in witness to reality of the Messiah… a walk of love. Here in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, we face the truth that the disciples were bigots. Here we meet a woman who was living on the margin, nearly an outcast herself in an outcast community. And yet Jesus had need of her not only for some water but more importantly for her to become a disciple and share the message. Here we discover we cannot multiply the message of love and peace alone, we need passion and spiritual zeal that energizes our service as we point to Jesus as the author of our good deeds. Friends, serving Christ will help us grow into peacemakers. Friends, know that Jesus is the covenant that was born on Christmas, died on the cross and was raised up on the third day so we too might share in the miracle. He is the way to peace. Jesus is the way to love…a love meant to be shared.
Pray we grow in fellowship. Pray we love one another. Pray we honor one another. Pray we be gracious to one another. Pray we empathize with one another. Pray we get along with one another. Pray we be humble toward one another. Pray we be honest with one another. Pray we be good to one another. Pray we love one another. Pray we be a gift of encouragement.
Pray we grow into Peacemakers. Pray we be the ones that witness with love. Pray we always remember that God is love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 