By Diana Kim

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

-Matthew 5:9-

When preaching for Children’s Ministry last week, I asked the students: “Do you think your friends and classmates can tell that you are a Christian just by the way you act?” Some immediately said “yes” (though I think this was just their Sunday School response training kicking in), others said “maybe” (they probably gave the question a little more thought than the students who answered “yes”), and some remained quiet. This is not just a question that can challenge elementary students; it should challenge all of us.

To be a Christian is more than having perfect Sunday service attendance. The call to live as children of God is not limited to what I think or say, but is revealed in what I DO. Faith that is bound by the walls of the church building, that is compartmentalized as Sunday-life, separate from secular-life, is a passive faith. We are not called to live or have a passive faith but an active one, a faith that goes beyond just reading our Bibles or singing praise songs in the car — a faith that causes us to actively work and strive to bring about God’s peace on earth.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus calls us to be peace MAKERS rather than peace KEEPERS. Some may think that they are the same thing, though I would disagree. When people consider themselves to be peace KEEPERS — one who keeps the peace — it is often in a very passive sense: so long as you don’t ruffle any feathers or disrupt the motion, you are helping to keep the peace. In the hopes of “keeping the peace” what can happen is that the passive silence can cause more harm, leading to more disruption than actual peace, leading to more injustice than God-ordained peace. When Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, He is calling us to participate in the divine work of creating something, to practice in God’s creativity. What does this mean? It doesn’t mean sitting in silence, hoping for change; it means to bring about change, to bring about the peace of God, that all creation can experience in it.

During this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, it seems appropriate to consider how King embodied his call as a Christian, a prophet, and a peacemaker. In his fight for civil rights, fueled by his faith and his calling, King participated in what is known as civil disobedience. He intentionally rocked the boat of society because he knew that society was unjust. The only way for the white majority to pay attention and hear the voices of the African Americans was if they disrupted the status quo, which they did. Civil rights was not fought by peace KEEPERS but by peace MAKERS. 

For the sake of the Kingdom, let’s rock the boat and ruffle some feathers, that we would be in the work of peacemaking.

Diana Kim is a pastor of a local Korean church in Torrance, CA. Her primary goals in serving are to teach and equip the next generation to be passionate for Jesus and to live out His passion and care for the world. Diana is currently a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary and is majoring in Christian Ethics. Her current research area of interest is Asian American feminist ethics.