Blessed are the Merciful/Peacemakers

As I was driving today, I listened to two Mars Hill sermons - "Blessed are the merciful" (Ed Dobson) and "Blessed are the peacemakers" (Rob Bell.)

I was surprised at how similar these were, or maybe just my reaction to them.  Ed used the story of the Samaritan to illustrate his point.  When the teacher of the law asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?," he answered with the story of the Samaritan.  Jesus asked the teacher who was a neighbor to the man caught by thieves and, of course, the answer was the "one who had mercy on him," the Samaritan.  I think most people have heard this story so often that we think of the "good Samaritan" and we forget that in Jesus' time, the Samaritans were the bad guys, the enemy.  Samaritans and Jews hated each other, so for the Samaritan to show mercy to a Jew was just unheard of.   Showing mercy was more than just feeling sorry for the man, but actually doing something to help.  Ed said we need to love our enemies, to try to understand them, to "get inside their skin."  This has really hit home for me, because lately, the group I have felt like were my enemies are tradition evangelical Christians. This reminded me that I need to have compassion and mercy for them as well.

Rob basically defined peacemakers as people who don't create divisions.  It seems natural in this world to split everyone into groups.  Are you with them, or with them?  Whose side are you on?  He talked about the part in Joshua where Joshua meets the angel of the Lord and asks him, "Are you for us, or our enemies?" and the angel answers "neither." That should be our attitude as well.  As God transforms us, we will start to love the people who are oppressed and the people who are oppressing.  The people who are being pointed out AND the people doing the pointing.  I find this very hard.  It's not so hard to love the people who are being oppressed or picked on, but it's a lot harder to love the ones doing the oppressing or the picking.  Again, it made me think of the traditional evangelical Christians.  Although I am often disgusted by the things they do, I still need to love them as well.  It doesn't mean I have to agree with them, but I do need to love them. This seems especially hard because they are the ones persecuting so many groups, including other Christians who don't agree with them.  I'm looking forward to the sermon on that!  Maybe it will give me some ideas on just how to do that!