The last farthing

We live in a world of

against

. This means there is ample ground for peacemaking. Where, then, are the sons of God, those who risk failure to enter the fray? There is a common story illustrating the peacemaking endeavor. The story is this: A little girl is walking along the beach. She finds a number of starfish washed upon the shore. There are too many to count. She picks one up and throws it back into the ocean. One-by-one she continues. Then, a man comes along, observing the little girl and says, “What are you doing?” The girl replies, “I am throwing these starfish back into the ocean.” “But there are too many,” the man says. “How can you make a difference?” With that, the little girl picks up a starfish, throws it into the ocean, and says, “I made a difference to that one!” Peacemaking is a doing endeavor, frustrating in every way known to human nature. But not doing it is a misery besetting those who remain within the confines of a closed life, one failing to risk being called a son of God. The closed life is the one that throws its hands into the air, surrendering because the effort to make peace just seems unattainable. To say

whatever

is not a Christian response. Retreat and resignation surrender to the devil named self-righteous. The girl in our story could have simply walked by keeping to herself her moment of wonder and delight in the walk, ignoring the starfish and thinking like the man. Peacemaking arrests our attention, interrupts that place where we desire to retreat from effort, our solitude. Or maybe that other place where we choose to ignore God, the digitized, AI generated, everything media world that attempts to grab our attention with every intent to serve something other than neighbor. The plethora of self-help avenues seeking to cure what ails us is never-ending,

Runnin’ like I’m Standing Still

as the Grassland String Band sings it. In the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew, Jesus tells us plainly what peacemaking looks like. He says,

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Make peace with your neighbor—again and again, if necessary. You may be refused, but in the doing, you have paid the last farthing, you have thrown the starfish into the ocean. No rationalizations or excuses for not doing so will save you. Go is the imperative of peacemaking.