{"id":724,"date":"2014-12-21T00:06:59","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T05:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joshuastairhime.com\/?p=724"},"modified":"2018-12-04T22:58:12","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T03:58:12","slug":"brevity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.joshuastairhime.com\/index.php\/brevity\/","title":{"rendered":"Brevity (DOP #20 2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t particularly care for the word blessed<\/em>.\u00a0 It fits well into this category of words that I consider \u201cchristianese\u201d, a dialect of English spoken by regular church attenders.\u00a0 It is rarely used outside of a religious social group, and it just has this\u2026feeling\u2026I don\u2019t care for.\u00a0 It\u2019s just so schmaltzy and broadly applied.\u00a0 I struggle to take someone seriously when they tell me that \u201csomething really blessed them\u201d.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t that they don\u2019t mean it, but that I don\u2019t really know what the word means.\u00a0 It\u2019s the kind of word that finds its way into poorly produced religious films as a description of some emotion or feeling that is poorly defined and portrayed by the actors.\u00a0 It leaves me wondering what if the film\u2019s director had worked himself into a corner and needed a way out of it.<\/p>\n

So when Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that the peacemakers are blessed, I haven\u2019t really understood why that was a good thing.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t Jesus assure the peacemakers something more tangible, perhaps something like \u201cThe peacemaker will be highly regarded by his peers, and they will turn to him for advice.\u201d?\u00a0 Instead Jesus chooses to use the word blessed, which I just don\u2019t have a grasp on.<\/p>\n

The dictionary gives about 12 variations of a definition, and the one that I guess I hope applies to this passage is the following:\u00a0 Bless- \u201cTo endow with a particular cherished thing or attribute\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0This leaves me asking what attribute or cherished thing is being endowed on the peacemaker.<\/p>\n

Ultimately I think our biggest clue is found in the rest of the passage in Matthew.\u00a0 \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

If being someone who pursues peace is the mark of a child of God, then I am overjoyed to consider it my duty to bring peace into situations where there once was none.<\/p>\n

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#25 Days of Peace (An Introduction) <\/a><\/p>\n

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