Steven Sim

Jan was right, we do not know which is worst, “sitting here and not knowing what to do or huddled up together calling for God!” (see here for the news: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/23/ap3940481.html)

Every man and woman on this planet, I am sure wonder, will there ever be peace. And  the Church many times loudly proclaimed, Yes, there is peace and we'll have it. Yes, we've got the Prince of Peace. Yes, peace be with you. But behind these confident (and loud) proclaimations, behind the sermons of peace and the greetings of peace we hear so often within the comfort of our church halls, are most unfortunately a bunch of passive peacelovers.

So often we read the sermon on the mount, so often we missed the heavy responsibility of the blessed. We are called to be peaceMAKERS.

But are we?

And we are just so stubborn and naive, thinking that our street preaching of the “world-going-down-the-drain-and-jesus-wanna-save-you-to-heaven” gospel will ever bring preace to the world. Thinking if we make every fellows on this planet become slaves of our gospel and worship the blue-eye-of-a-Jesus, peace will follow suit.

Or some of us who think that nothing else can be done, peace will only come when god destroy all the bad guys (who happens not to be us) and bring the good guys to Olympus to sip on heavenly nectar forever.

What are we thinking?

Dr. Mahatir once declared that Malaysia is an Islamic country. Now Najib did the same. Except that now, the declaration came with a strong imperative not to question or even discuss about it.

And most of us think that there, that's the devil doing his thing. Let's intensify our street preaching. Let's sing louder in Church, remind god that these are the last days and he'd better come soon. Let's go into our Church and show god how much a martyr we have been for his cause, and we'll be strong. Let's build bigger churches, let's fast and pray for our leaders to have wisdom. Let's send chain sms prayers. Let's do the bring down the stronghold thing. Oh, let's just move to some western “christian” country. Or Singapore. 

Moorthy and Revathi, hindus with their idols. Why care about their religious rights?

Nine Emperor Temple in Bkt Mertajam, do we even cheer the local government for tearing down the temple?

Lena Joy, what most of us did except to talk a bit about it, put on a bit of our sourish face and move on? Was the silence of the Church in the aftermath a sign of maturity and wisdom OR a sign of apathy and indifference?

Are we missing the point?

Peacemakers do not just long for and enjoy peace. It is imperative to go out and live peace, to proclaim peace and with that proclaimation to demonstrate with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, what is peace in the term of Prince of Peace.

I remember telling Josh, peace is such a pregnant word. It's not enough to just preach peace, to just say peace to just greet peace. If we are who we claimed to be, the subjects of the Prince of Peace, we need to UNPACK his brand of peace to a world where often times, peace means many different things if not nothing at all.

And this requires much more effort and sweat than singing our Jesus-is-my-boyfriend-and-I-have-peace songs. Sometimes, shamefully, I think L's indicment against the Church is true, we waste too much time doing church-stuff. The real christians are out there living the REAL world.

Peacemakers pray hard, study the scripture hard and have a strong heart to stand againt the powers and principalities. Peacemakers move in the power of the Holy Spirit to reconcile man to god and man to man. To be light in the dark regions of the earth where hatred and terror paralyzed the man and woman, making them slaves to fear.

Peacemakers comfort their buddhist friends and insist the powers and principalities to recognize the right to places of worship.

Peacemakers stand with their hindu friends to demand the right to freedom of religion.

Peacemakers embrace their muslim friends and assure them that there is no discrimination. That there is love, that there is mercy, that there is PEACE, the Prince of Peace type.

And of course these are not easy task. But peacemakers do not have it easy. We are to empowered. And I really do not mean some funny fellow putting his hand on your head to bestow you power from god. (sometimes it probably is, but let's not waste too much time on insisting on it) Empowerment through prayer, yes, empowerment through the Holy Spirit, definitely, but also empowerment through a disciplined life of studies and training and focused work.

Going out with a blank mind to do the christian thing, what are we thinking? And when the world laugh at our foolishness, we think we are martyrs; hey, many times, they are right, people laugh at our foolishness because we are really foolish, and trust me, this is not the foolishness Paul talked about on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tonight, I had the priviledge to pray on the phone with a former teacher. She called to tell me about the fate of 20 over Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan by the talibans. They were threatened with death if their government does not comply with the demand to pull out their military from Afghanistan. And after that, JR and I prayed together.

Jan was sleepless, we all ought to be. But god is still in control and he still demand peacemakers, not peacelovers. At times like this, we can probably only pray. Yet for al our doubts and uncertainties and vulnerabilities, we do not pray because we need a crutch in these dark moments. We do not pray because we need a fix at the opium of religion. We pray because we know that there is a Prince of Peace, whose government and whose brand of peace is sure and unending. The zeal of YAHWEH of host will do it.

But tomorrow, there are thousands of things for peacemakers to do. There are regions of darkness crying out for light - Ye are the light of the world. There are buddhists, hindus, muslims, sikhs, atheist, all wondering will there ever be peace - How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peaces, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Let's not waste our time too much in church, let's be Church for real.

Blessed are the peacemakers, they are god's children.
And that descpicable book of James (because it forces us to consider “works”)