Peace in the face of conflict

How we relate to one another in a diverse world is one of the big questions facing us in the world today.  Modern travel and migration have added to the need to find good ways of relating to one another – ways of peace and not of conflict. 

Belfast Peace Line

There is something about our humanity that seems to seek to define ourselves against others.  My own upbringing in Northern Ireland was in the setting of the two tribes of Irish Republicanism and Ulster Loyalism, who defined themselves against one another and spent a bloody number of years in conflict.  I have a memory as a child of meeting up with a group from Catholic West Belfast who had never knowingly met with Protestants in their lives.  With such distance and separation came suspicion, fear and a lack of trust.  Religious issues were drawn into the conflict, in part to legitimise the conflict by claiming that God was on one side or another.  The two communities were divided by the ironically called ‘Peace Line’.

Recently at meetings of the Baptist World Alliance in Chile, I have had the privilege of meeting with a number of people who seek to follow the ‘Prince of Peace’ in situations of conflict.  Some of these people have come from the deeply divided land of Nigeria, where there has been a flare up of violence in recent days, directed against the Christian community.  It seems that the Gospel demands that we pursue peace in the world.  The picture presented of the heavenly community gathered together from every tribe and tongue is to be no mere heavenly dream, but something that we strive for here on earth.  This striving after peace is no easy pursuit, but rather is one that demands costly forgiveness and grace.  We need to see others first and foremost as created in the image of God and loved by him, rather than labelled as the enemy, whether by virtue of race, religion or some other criteria.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).  Peace-making necessitates the closing of the distance of separation, the growing in mutual understanding, and the commitment to love as Christ has loved us.  We all need to consider what this means for us personally – Where and with whom do we need to make peace?