The persecuted (Matt 5:10)

Matthew 5:10-12 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 

Wait... the last blessing (and the last post) talked about peacemaking.  And then here in the very next sentence, Jesus is talking about persecution?  How did we get from here to there?  If we are out making peace, then aren't we pretty safe from persecution?

Right out of seminary, a church in North Carolina where generations of my family comes from invited me to come and be their pastor.  It was a well funded - fairly large church - especially for a rural area where most people earned their living from farming.  As part of the interview process, I spoke to the interim pastor.  She said to me, there is something you need to know about this congregation... "everyone is involved in the tobacco industry in one respect or another."  I thought about that for a minute. What was she telling me?  My grandmother worked all of her life inspecting cigarettes in a factory.  After using her money to care for her family, she put some away by buying stock in that same company.  Over the years, that stock became worth quite a lot of money.  Likewise, my father worked summers in the same factory rolling cigarettes to earn money for college.  Yet, neither of them smoked which is probably why I had never considered this predicament before.  But how do you pastor a congregation whose wealth is built upon a product that is known to bring harm to those who use it?  Could this possibly be the way of Jesus?

I asked the interim just that question.  She said that their previous pastor's first inclination had been to ignore it and keep the peace.  But then after years of being their pastor, he realized that peacemakers following in the way of Jesus would be required to name the problem and offer solutions - not ignore it.  So he did.  Can you imagine the persecution that followed?  This church had been built off of money from tobacco and now their pastor was suggesting to them that it was time to plant a new crop that brought wholeness to people and not harm.  You can only imagine how that worked out for him - and it explained why they were currently without a pastor.

Peacemaking - working for wholeness (Shalom) for all people -  is difficult business.  It often means naming a wrong and leading others to a better way - a way that will bring wholeness and not harm.  Peacemakers are more often persecuted than not.  Jesus says to work for peace anyway.

Are you keeping the peace for your sake or for the kingdom's sake?  Can you name the broken places out of love  for others and offer a better way? Can you love those who are persecuting as much as those who are being persecuted? Are you willing to be persecuted for the sake of real shalom - wholeness - peace?

This is one of the uncomfortable places that Jesus often takes his followers.

Luke 6:22-23  22 "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.  23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.