Reintegrative Peacemaking

A few weeks ago in class, our guest speaker briefly mentioned the theory of reintegrative shame. It is a working theory developed by Jonathan Braithwaite in which he distinguishes between stigmatizing shame and reintegrative shame. Stigmatizing shame, Braithwaite argues, is shame that seeks to ruin the ties between the offender and community and most likely will ruin the offender's life. It is non-redemptive and seeks to disallow justice and healing to both the victim and offender. Howard Zehr explains, "Reintegrative shame seeks to denounce the offenses but not the offender, and opportunities are provided for the shame to be removed and transformed” (Restorative Practices: "Reintegrative Shaming" Central Virginia Restorative Justice Newsletter, Fall 2007, pg. 1).

The working theory is that the offender may be transformed and is given the opportunity to create something positive out of his remorse. He takes responsibility for his actions and takes steps to repair the harm he has done. Braithwaite argues that the manner in which an offender is affected by reintegrative shame depends on how much they value their relationship with the persons reprimanding them. In other words, relationships matter when it comes to reintegrative shame.

When I heard about reintegrative shame I started to do more research. My research is still in process but what I have learned is the word 'shame' carries with it an emotional charge. Being the hip 33-year-old I am, I posted some thoughts on Facebook and Twitter regarding reintegrative shame and I watched as five out of the seven responders had an emotional charge to their response. Fortunately for a couple there was room for dialogue, for others it was "Never use the word shame again. Ever" and that was it, end of discussion. I would venture to guess if you are reading this you too may be having a negative emotional reaction to the phrase “reintegrative shame”.

For those I was in a conversation with, it was the word shame that was the problem. The word carried with it a meaning which could not, or would not, allow them to view the word differently. For them shame meant "I'm a bad guy" while guilt meant "I've done a bad thing." For me, the definition of the two as stated is not transformative. I may be made to feel a sense of guilt about what I have done but the question I ask is: is it transformative? What about guilt is going to cause me to change not only my behavior but how I interact, contribute, and participate in the community? Will it only make me behave differently in front of others? How does it reintegrate me back into the community? How does it call to me to repent? How does it call to me to practice righteousness?

In his book Just Peacemaking: Transformative Initiatives for Justice and Peace, Glen Stassen defines righteous, specifically the blessing, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," to mean community restoration and wholeness. One who seeks righteousness seeks to restore the broken community. He alludes to the blessing as one about restorative justice for the community. In his writings, Stassen exegetes the Sermon on the Mount to be interpreted as a triad. He writes, "Jesus is not commanding the people not to be angry or not to call someone a fool or not look at someone with lust. He describes being angry and looking lustfully as involving us in a vicious cycle that leads to prison, judgment, and adultery” (Stassen, 43).

Pinchas Lapide writes, "Love of one's enemies, as Jesus understood it, means far more than covering things up with a smile by tolerating enemies or holding them at a distance with politeness; it entails an honest effort, a campaigning and struggling with them, so that they change, give up their hate, and become reconciled. In short--a theopolitics of little loving steps aimed at making the enemy cease to be an enemy” (Lapide, The Sermon on the Mount, pg. 97-98).

As I come to understand reintegrative shame, in its exploratory stage, it helps to place the phrase in the context of just peacemaking. By doing so, I believe, we see a clearer picture of the transformative work done when we confront with love and honesty the one who has harmed us. When we seek to make peace we are seeking to be children of God. Seeking peace leads to restoration and reconciliation which I believe is the theme of the Sermon.

It is hard to hear the phrase reintegrative shame and not react emotionally. Especially if you have ever been shamed by others publically. I understand and I offer an alternative: Reintegrative Peacemaking

In the teaching of Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Amos, a creditor who lends to someone who is needy and takes the coat as collateral must give the coat back before the sun goes down because it may be the only coat or garment for warmth the debtor may have. Some creditors would get around the command by suing the debtor for their shirt instead because it would be impractical for the creditor to sue for the coat since he has to return it every evening.  In his book, Stassen expounds the command "Give up your coat" with this humorous anecdote:

“It means you are standing there naked in front of the one suing you, in law court. In Jewish culture, this is a huge embarrassment for the creditor and everyone else. It confronts the creditor with his or her greed and his or her unjust violation of the spirit of the law, if not the letter. And Jesus’ Jewish audience would have laughed at the audacity, the embarrassment, and the disclosure of the creditor’s greed, exposed for all to see, just as naked as your naked body. Thus you, the poor person, seemingly without power, seize the initiative and confront the injustice, putting great pressure on the creditor to repent and be transformed. It is no strategy of passivity. It is a transforming initiative.” (Stassen, 65-66)

It is in the commands to give up our coat, go the second mile, to give to the one who begs, and to turn the other cheek that we see Jesus providing a restorative practice that leads to reintegrative peacemaking. It is a confrontation of the wrong doing with the goal being restoration of the community and the offender.

I believe what makes this practice transformative is the confrontation through nonviolent means that forces the offender to deal with the harm that has been done. We do not live in a perfect world and we know not everyone responds the same way but, it appears Jesus believed the commands of the Sermon were practical enough to be transformative and reconciling. I believe God's justice to be redemptive only when reconciliation has taken place.

The purpose of reintegrative peacemaking is not only to make peace but to reconcile, to bring back into community, those who have harmed us. It is way to interpret the Sermon not as invitation to high ideals to strive for but commands to be practiced in practical everyday ways such as providing a hot lunch for a fatherless child or standing in the rain holding an umbrella for the drifter at the corner.

The question it raises for me as I continue to work through this is: How do we preach, teach, and sustain this within the local congregation? 

Jesus Gave Us a Light, Let it Shine

“You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of theworld…”

After nine blessings of the kingdom, Jesus transitions his sermon with another blessing. Just as the poor are not blessed because they are poor but because theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus makes another blessing, telling the disciples and others listening, “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” They, we, are blessed because they, we, are the salt and light of the world. It is a blessing Jesus intends for us to take concretely. Meaning this is not a blessing about an inner attitude or about being careful what we do in front of others. It is a blessing that carries with it a charge live it out in practical everyday ways.

I mentioned last week the importance of the Sermon on the Mount to the Christian faith. I went as far as suggesting it should be a requirement for church membership, something I’m starting to strongly consider the more I study these chapters. The Sermon on the Mount was the most often referred to biblical passage during the first three centuries of the church. In his First Apology around 154 A.D. Justin Martyr quoted fully from the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount—on chastity, marriage, truthtelling, loving your enemy, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, giving to the one who begs, not hoarding treasures or being anxious about possessions but seeking first the kingdom of God, letting your good works shine before others so that God is praised but not doing good works to be seen by others (Stassen pg. 128). Justin expected Christians to do these practices because they bear witness to the teachings of Jesus. And by bearing witness to the teachings of Jesus, they are to carry out these teachings because it bears witness to the power of the teachings to transform the way people live.

Justin emphasizes how Christians are blessed to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. But a crack appears in his writings when we learn that he is addressing his writings to Emperor Antonius Pius and his son, trying to gain their favor. He quotes Jesus in Matthew 22, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” and in turn interprets it to mean, “Whence to God alone we render worship, but in other things we gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men.” Justin ends up limiting Christian independence from the emperor to the matter of how worship. He was apologizing to the emperor, trying to persuade him to be kind to Christians. By doing so he divided up Christian responsibility so that our worship belongs to God, while in other things we do what the earthly ruler says.

Centuries later, Martin Luther follows suit. He suggests the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount where for the inner attitudes for every Christian. “But the outer self,” he suggests, “that has responsibilities to other persons should obey the authorities in the world and not the commands of the Sermon” (Stassen pg. 130). He held to the belief that the Sermon was about our attitude not our actions. But Luther, like Justin, was concerned with a ruler. Prince Frederick was defending him and his Reformation against the pope and Luther needed an ethic, an interpretation of the Sermon that would not undermine the authority and power of Frederick.

If you ever go to the Cloisters in New York City (something we should do some day), we would see the beautiful paintings and sculptures there depict only two themes: Mary and the baby Jesus, and Jesus on the cross--nothing about what happened between his birth and death. It is like the Apostle's Creed: 'Born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.' The Sermon on the Mount and all of Jesus's prophetic teachings are hiding, unseen, unheard, behind a comma that zips him from his birth to his suffering under Pilate, with nothing in between but a comma (Stassen pg. 130).

What does this history lesson have to do with being salt and light? I’m glad you asked. The result of Luther’s application of the Sermon to the inner life and Justin’s interpretation focus to be about worship was secularism. The people were taught that the gospel has nothing concrete to say about how we live our lives in public. The Sermon is reduced to the point, “our inner motive should be love.” Such a motive can be shaped to mean anything that fits what we love. Basically it renders the Sermon to be true when it fits with our loves, meaning we compromise the Sermon to fit anything we think would be okay. The best example of this is when politicians and others take Paul’s words, “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat” to justify cutting important budget items that protect the poor and elderly, in order to weed out those who take advantage of those protections. But a gospel interpretation of Paul helps to see he is referring to a group of believers who were busybodies sitting up on a hill waiting for the Lord to return. If I were to put in today’s terms, he would be speaking directly to the believers and pastors who are more concerned about Blood Moons and astronomical signs for the end times, than about being salt and light.

The Bible never splits life into one world ruled by a secular ruler and the other ruled by God. When Jesus says, “Render unto God what is God’s,” he believed we were to render everything to God because everything was God’s. Jesus knew God to be the Lord over everything. God has authority over Caesar, Jesus is saying, so we are to render to Caesar only what fits God’s will. And that is what it means to be salt and light. It is to acknowledge the blessing that Jesus identifies us as the salt of the earth, the light of world and as such we are bound to only one ruler and that ruler is God alone. We cannot serve two masters.

And I believe Jesus is referring to such when he tells us what happens when salt loses its saltiness or when a light is hidden under a bushel. I don’t think he was implying that salt actually loses its saltiness. I’m not sure it ever does. I know salt dissolves but does it ever lose its saltiness? I guess we could check the salt down in the church kitchen. It’s been sitting there awhile. I’m sure it holds some its saltiness. And have you ever hid a candle under a bushel on a dry summer day? Which reminds me of a story.

One day my brother took some matches out into the driveway and began to melt some of his matchbox cars. My parents, being the kind they are, supervised from a far, and left the water hose running beside him. Well, our neighbor across the street saw David playing with matches and burning his cars and decided he wanted to do that as well. Instead of practicing it in the safe confines of the driveway, he went into the woods, lit a match and set the pine needles on fire. Next thing you know, the firemen are there with their cool toys putting out a small forest fire. So we know the bushel doesn’t put out the fire, and that’s not Jesus’s point.

Jesus’ point is that we are not to be ashamed of being blessed to be the salt of the earth or the light of the world. He wants us to see it as a blessing, a blessing that does not call attention to ourselves, or as we read later on, to be done in public so we receive public accolades. He wants us to see that we are a blessing to go out into the world and show that God is indeed at work, that God is indeed alive, and that his teachings, especially the Sermon on the Mount, are transformative in the lives of others.

He says it best when he tells the Pharisees, “You are like unmarked graves of which there is no longer any evidence and people walk all over you without being aware that there’s even a corpse there. There was a time when at least you had the capacity to raise a stink, but you’ve even lost that. And you make about as much impact on the world as a corpse that’s been dead and buried so long that there’s not even any fresh dirt left (Jordan, Clarence. “The God Movement” The Substance of Faith and Other Cotton Path Sermons pg. 70). The purpose of salt is to salt, and the purpose of light is to light, not stay hidden in the dark until its “safe” to come out.

How do we know if we’re being salt and light? Some believe the proof is in the fruit you bear, meaning it’s in the number that attend, the amount given to the budget, or how grand and beautiful your buildings are. But I would say if you wish to know if a church is being salt and light just take a look at their spending. Simply take a look at their budget. If the majority of the church’s budget is marked for maintaining buildings and preachers then the odds are they have lost their saltiness. A salt filled church is a spirit-carried away church. It is church that is not bent on maintaining but on transforming their community. They are bent on getting out and doing the work of the kingdom. They are not bent on maintaining. The reign of God does not have room for those who wish to maintain, Jesus says in Matthew.

I’m not a fan of Downton Abbey but Lacy was watching it during our snow day on Thursday while I was writing and I overhear a conversation that I had to ask her to play back for me three different times to make sure I heard it correctly. The conversation went like this (and keep in my mind I have no idea what the storyline is about):

“Is it from a lack of money why these places are failing,” Mary asks Charles.

“Usually, but why is that? Because so few of the owners refuse to make the most of what an estate has to offer. So few think about income. So few are willing to adjust their way of living.”

“You have to understand what these people are used to.” Lady Mary responds.

“No,” Charles states empathically, “they have to understand it’s time to get used to something different. They think nothing needs to change. That God will be upset if the old order is overturned.”

“But you don’t think he will?”

“No. To farm an estate is hard work. The owners must face up to that or they don’t deserve to keep what they have.”

For 223 years, our Christian ancestors have farmed this estate in this community. They farmed it with no intention of growing into a place that was fixated on maintaining the farm. They farmed it with the intention of being a place that was continually cultivating the ground as the seasons changed and years gone by. We did not inherit this farm to maintain its buildings, its salaries, or its gravestones. We inherited this farm so that we may continue the work begun two centuries ago, work that began over 2000 years ago, work that began the very second the Lord said, “Let there be light.”

Jesus did not bless us to be builders of monuments to our past. Jesus did not bless us to be maintainers of an estate with half a million dollars endowed to an uncertain future. Jesus blessed us to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world in the here in now. I have said this before and it merits repeating:

On the morning of the resurrection, God put life in the present tense, not in the future. He gave us not a promise but a presence. Not a hope for the future but power for the present. Not so much the assurance that we shall live someday but that he is risen today! Jesus’ resurrection is not to convince the skeptical nor to reassure the fearful, but to enkindle the believers. The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled community of faith. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church. (Jordan, Clarence. “The Humanity of God”, The Substance of Faith and Other Cotton Path Sermons. Pg. 25-26).

We are salt and light. We are a carried-away church. Let our light shine as bright as the sun off a hot tin roof in July.  

The Virtues of a Kingdom People

This morning I am going to preach to you a sermon I wish my pastor would have preached to me. Growing up I always struggled with the requirements of a Christian. Over the years I have been told several different variations but the common theme was “don’t do this or this.” If I really loved Jesus I needed to abstain from certain things such as drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, sex, secular music, rated R movies, and I needed to wake up at 6:00 am and spend ten minutes praying and needed to lead at least one person to Jesus every week. In a nutshell that is what I was told over the years was required of me to be a faithful follower of Jesus.

As I got older, went to college, and such some of those requirements were loosened. I learned in college it was okay to drink when your 21 as long as you do so in moderation. It was okay to smoke as long as you smoke cigars or pipes because that’s what CS Lewis smoked. It was okay to listen to secular music as long as they thanked God at the Grammy’s. You could watch rated R movies as long as it was the Matrix or the Passion of the Christ. You can do your quiet time at any time and in any way you wish. Don’t fret over leading someone to Jesus once a week. Let your light shine and know you’re planting a seed. And of course, there was a strong emphasis on getting married. When I became a minister I was told that if I didn’t preach on the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and Hell, I was not really saved.

These lists or requirements I was given found some merit in the scriptures, a verse here or a verse there when stretched and manipulated, but they were never really listed by Jesus, and they never really did anything for my spiritual life except make sure I was afraid Jesus would stop loving me and kick me out of heaven if I didn’t keep these rules. Fortunately, I learned to read to at an early age and in time have come to see what God requires us, Jesus lays out for us in Matthew 5-7.

There is some thought these are a collection of Jesus’ sayings. I don’t think they are a collection. I think he put them all together in one lesson and this was his platform for his ministry. Likewise, I believe it to be our platform as Christians. I am tempted to make the argument that memorization of the Sermon on the Mount should be a greater requirement for church membership than baptism. But I’m Baptist so I won’t.

I think even the disciples knew these virtues of the kingdom forwards and backwards, inside and out, up and down, left and right. I think they also knew that when Jesus began, “Markarios...”: “Blessed are…” he wasn’t saying, “Happy are those…” or “Joyful are those…” I think they understood Jesus to mean blessed as to be in relationship not be in a state of happiness or joyfulness. It means to have the deep security that comes from loving and being loved. It means to have the deep soul-satisfying experience of being in a fellowship of which you feel that you are a part and you’re carried along with it. It means to be God’s people. (Jordan, Clarence. “The Lesson on the Mount—I”, The Substance of Faith and Other Cotton Patch Sermons pg. 66).

They did not understand, I believe, Jesus to say they are blessed in some pseudo-Christian belief as a key to your best life is now, but they understood these words to have a deeper meaning than happiness. These whom Jesus mentions are not happy people or people who live a life free of conflict and struggle. These are people who are blessed because they belong to God. Jesus is taking us up the stair steps in the new order of God’s movement, of the Kingdom of heaven.

Let us begin with the bottom step: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Luke 6:20 says “Blessed you who are poor; for yours is the kingdom of God.” So, which did Jesus teach, poor or poor in spirit? Our answer is both. The word has connotations that mean both poor as in poor economically and in spirit. Jesus teaches that the spiritually humble, those who pray humbly without claims of being better than others, are the ones who participate in God’s reign. The focus is on God’s grace and compassion not on our humility or virtue.

Jesus is not suggesting those who are poor in spirit are perfect, and he’s not saying we should bring attention to our lowliness. He is making the claim that those who recognize their strength does not come from within but from above are the poor in spirit. They know, better than others, how unvirtuous they are.  They are blessed because God wants to rescue the poor. God knows that people who have power often misuse or abuse that power to protect their own and often seek more power. We see throughout the scriptures, the poor being cast aside by the wealthy and the powerful.

Many of us understand this, we understand that one misstep, one sickness, one divorce, one death, one job loss can keep us from paying our bills, buying food, paying our rent, and we become evicted, homeless.  We see in scripture, God’s compassion for the poor and the outcast. Jesus said he came to bring good news to the poor. He embraces the social and religious outcasts. He delivers them by inviting them into his community, feeding them, making them into his disciples. I am convinced the reason Jesus chose four fishermen as his first disciples is not because they were “yes men” but because they were dependent.

Being poor in spirit is to be dependent on God and God alone. It is to recognize that God’s movement, God’s kingdom, can only be ushered in by relying on God’s strength, and we give ourselves over to God. In other words: Blessed are the humble before God, who cares for the poor and humble. (Stassan, Glen H. Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context pg. 39).

The second step: Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted

Once again we get a blessing that carries with it two different meanings. The first is what many of us have been taught, it is a blessing to those who mourn the hurt of life. It is the grief, sorrow, and sadness of the real experiences of life. When we understand these beatitudes to more about God than ourselves, meaning the focus is on God, we hear God speak, “I will wipe away the tears from every face, and death and mourning will end. (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4).

Mourning also means repentance. In the scriptures, sinners mourn for their own sins and the sins of their community, and truly want to end their sinning and serve God. It is being moved to tears by our sinfulness that we sincerely return to God and causes us to change our way of living. In other words: Blessed are those who mourn what is wrong and unjust and sincerely repent, for God comforts those who suffer and those who truly repent. (Stassen pg. 40).

The third step: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Once again we have another word that means more to it than we think. This beatitude basically means the same as the first. It is a form of humbling, of humility in the sense of surrender to God. It is submissive to God, keep that in mind. I’ll say it again, it is being submissive to God. If we are humbled, poor, and surrendered to God, we are blessed because in Christ God is delivering us, and we shall inherit the earth.

It does not mean to be a Mr. Milquetoast, someone who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick. They are not Jon Arbuckle. It does not mean to be all things to all people. The word meek is only used two other times in the scriptures to describe people. It’s used once to describe one Old Testament character, Moses, and one New Testament character, Jesus. Moses did not walk into Pharaoh’s court saying, “Well, now gosh, Mr. Pharaoh Sir, it’d be great if you’d let my people go out for a church picnic.” No, Moses walks in and says, “Thus says the Lord. Let my people go!”

Being meek means to be broke, to be humbled. Think of it in terms of horses, since in the classical Greek, meekness refers to horses. It is being trained to wear the bridle of God. Both Moses and Jesus were fearless and they were surrendered to the will of God. One of the meekest statements in the scripture is this: “When the Sanhedrin told Peter and John, “Don’t y’all ever preach in the name of this Jesus anymore—we just got rid of him,” Peter says, “Whether it be right for us to obey God or man, you judge. But we cannot help but speak those things which we have seen and heard.” (Jordan pg.68).”

It is the meek man, Dr. Jones, who obeys the pull of God. In other words: Blessed are those who are surrendered to God, who is the God of peace. (Stassen pg. 41).

The fourth step: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

What does it mean righteousness mean? Because our culture is highly individualistic (don’t tread on me, Jesus loves me, this I know), we think of righteousness as a virtue of an individual person. We tend to think it is something someone possesses; but if someone possesses righteousness, what they are in possession of is self-righteousness. And that is something Paul says the gospel says we cannot have.

Jesus means, explicitly (just like those who mourn) those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are hungering and thirsting for God to deliver his justice, a justice that rescues and releases, and a community restoring justice that restores the powerless, the offender, the outcasts, the lost, the forgotten back into their rightful place in covenant communion. And that is what we are to hunger and thirst for.  In other words: Blessed are those hunger and thirst for a justice that delievers and restores to covenant community, for God is a God who brings such justice. (Stassen pg. 43).

The fifth step: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Mercy is about action. To be more specific, it is an action that is a generous action to deliver someone from need or bondage. When the lepers cried out, “Have mercy!” They were not asking Jesus to forgive them or to be let off easy. They were asking to be healed. They were asking to be delivered from their affliction. Showing mercy is not weakness, it is a strength. It is an action that one does to show loyalty to God, and that what God demands, desires is not so much activity directed toward God, such as sitting in our pews singing “Amazing Grace”, but loving kindness benefitting other people. As Hosea 6:6 says, “I desire mercy not sacrifice.” In other words:  Blessed are those who, like God, offer compassion in action, forgiveness, healing, aid, and covenant steadfastness to those in need. (Stassen pg. 44).

The sixth step: Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God.

To be pure in heart does not mean to remove oneself from others who are bad, or shrink away from outside influences and relationships. Jesus is not saying, “Only listen to Christian music” or “Only read Christian books, watch Christian television shows, etc.” He is not speaking to those things, mainly because those things are not absent of corruption just because it has the label of Christian. What Jesus is referring to is within. He states what comes someone’s mouth is what comes out of their hearts. In the 17^th century monk by the name of Brother Lawrence captured eloquently in his writings what I believe Jesus means by pure heart.

“I know that the right practice of it (the presence of God),” the monk writes, “the heart must be empty of all other things, because God will possess the heart alone; and as God cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neither can God act there, and do in it what pleases, unless it is left vacant to God.” (Nouwen, Henri. “An Oratory of the Heart” Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings pg. 97).

In other words: Blessed are those who give their whole self over to God, who is the only One worthy of the heart’s full devotion. (Stassen pg. 45).

The seventh step: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

In this beatitude Jesus is making a serious point to the Zealots in his presence, as Matthew is to the Zealots in reading the passage. The Zealots were Jewish revolutionaries who hoped through the means of violent revolution would bring about the kingdom of heaven, the reign of God, God’s movement Such a means, such an ideal would be a temptation for the downtrodden, the oppressed who longed for God’s kingdom, just as it is a temptation for us today. The Zealots hoped, by their militarism, to demonstrate they were the loyal sons of God. But Jesus turns them on their heads. He boldly proclaims the opposite. It is the peacemakers who will be children of God.

Again, as with the rest of these steps, these virtues of a kingdom people, it is a total surrendering to God and abandoning the desire or effort to get our needs, our hopes, our dreams, our satisfaction met through the destruction of our enemies. We are not God’s children when attack others. We are not God’s children when we meet our budget or raise enough funds to keep the doors open. We are not God’s children by our worship style or doctrines. We are God’s children we are surrendered totally to him. And when we are surrendered to God, we become his agents of peace, and this is not some John Lennon form of peace, laying around in a bed and allowing photos to be taken. Being agents of God’s peace means to reconcile and love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. It is to see them as God’s sees them. And that can only happen by total surrender. In other words: Blessed are those who make peace with their enemies, as God shows love to God’s enemies. (Stassen pg. 45).

Steps eight and nine: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The eighth and ninth beatitudes summarize and conclude what Jesus is getting at. Jesus is getting at this: these beatitudes are about persecution for righteousness and for Jesus just as the prophets were persecuted. And truth be told this is something many of us in America will never fully comprehend. We believe Jesus is referring to folks like Tim Tebow, Kirk Cameron, or Phil Robertson. But he’s not. I think he’s referring to Elijah hiding in his cave from Jezebel or Peter hanging upside down, or James being beheaded, or John being boiled alive, or the hundreds of martyrs burned at the stake, or the hundreds of Baptist ministers imprisoned for preaching without a licenses, or the Christians in other countries who have to flee in order to live, or the ones lynched, bombed, or a cross burned in the yard. I think Jesus is referring, not to millionaire celebrities, but the ones, like the prophets, find themselves nailed to a cross.

In other words: Blessed are those who suffer because of their practices of loyalty to Jesus and to justice. (Stassen pg.46).

These beatitudes are not a guide to right living or a guide to perfect happiness or to your best life now. They are a call. A call of complete surrender to the will and reign of God in our lives, in our community, in our nation, and in the world. These virtues cannot be obtained without complete surrender. Jesus said those who love me keep my commands. These nine steps of the reign of God cannot be kept if we do not surrender to the One who gave them. Let us turn our past, present, and future over to the untamed will of God. Let us surrender together.