[AI translation] This next verse of the Sermon on the Mount is particularly significant and topical in the world situation in which humanity is living on earth today. It is indeed the case, as we hear so often and in so many different forms, that today man has two options: either to live together in peace or to perish together in a catastrophe. In our time, with our present level of technological development, the concept of war has changed completely. In the past, warfare could be considered legitimate on the part of the party seeking to restore peace against the aggressor, but today, war cannot be a means of restoring peace. After today's global destruction with nuclear and hydrogen bombs, there can simply no longer be an era of peace. Simply because there would then be no life left on Earth, but the silence of death would fall upon the world. It is said that Einstein was once asked by his students what weapons he thought would be used in the Third World War. He replied, "I don't know, but if World War III breaks out, I have a hunch what they'll use for World War IV - a stone axe. Well, this tragic vision of Einstein's is now an optimistic one, because experts now say that we can no longer trust that a few people here and there in the corners of the earth might survive the catastrophe. Today, there are really only two options: to live together in peace or to perish together in a catastrophe. This is not a phrase, this is not propaganda, this is reality.Do you feel the weight of the word of Jesus in such a world crisis? "Blessed are those who seek peace, for they shall speak to the sons of God." (v.9) I could almost say that the most urgent political, social and general human task of all people of faith in God today is this: to seek peace, to work for peace. He who once expressed himself in this way is right: If not me, then who? If not this, then what? If not now, when?
Yes, it is not only out of our well-understood interest, but simply out of our Christianity, that we have a duty to work for peace. For you and I have become children of God through a great reconciliation. To be a Christian is precisely to acknowledge and accept that God has made peace with me, his enemy. He made me from stranger to friend, from enemy to child, for the sake of Jesus. There, at Calvary's cross, a great peace was made between heaven and earth, between man and God. And God was the initiator of this peace. In the death of Jesus, God offered a kind of peace from heaven to the earth. In the death of Jesus, it is as if God is saying: 'People, whatever evil, whatever rebellion, whatever insolence you have committed against me, let it be forgiven, buried, forgotten. God so wanted this peace, so wanted to reconcile with men, with men who forgot Him, who were constantly annoying Him with their sins, that He Himself took upon Himself all the burdens and the costs of this reconciliation, this peace. So dear to God's heart was this peace that He sacrificed a part of Himself, Jesus Christ, for it. This is what the prophet Isaiah expresses at one point: "the penalty of our peace is upon Him" (Isa 53:5c) - Jesus. God sees the death of Jesus on the cross as the punishment for the sins of all those who believe in Jesus, in him and through him. Yes, then: in your place and in my place Jesus suffered, He paid, He made satisfaction.
Therefore God does not accuse us, even though we were His enemies. That's why He doesn't throw up in our faces what we have done against Him. That is why he does not complain that we have denied him, that we have not loved him, that we have not obeyed him, that we have not trusted him, but simply points to Jesus who was crucified and says, almost, 'See, I love you so much, you are so dear to me, that I was able to do this for you. That is how God has reconciled us, and that is how all of us who believe have become Christians, children of God. That is why I said before that we have a duty to seek peace, to work for peace, not only out of our well-understood interest, but simply out of our Christianity. The fact that we have become children of God by a great divine reconciliation, that we live by a great reconciliation both here on earth and in eternity to come, is a fact which determines the whole conduct of the Christian man. The sons of God prove themselves to be sons of God precisely by doing what their Father did: by doing everything passionately for peace. For this is what it means to strive for peace: to work for it, to create it, to do everything for peace.
And let us take peace as it is most topical today: on a world scale, internationally. What can the child of God, what can the Church do for peace, which is the most urgent and most pressing problem of all humanity today? My brothers and sisters, I am not going to say something new that you have never heard before, but what I am going to say I want to say very seriously, deadly seriously: Well, we Christians have the special task in this quest for peace to pray for it from the heart. We have to pray earnestly that this word that millions of people are uttering - peace - may be filled with the Christlike content, with the energy that will really create the possibility of resolving international tensions. We must pray very earnestly that this word may be a word as true and pure, as powerful as the word of God which proclaims peace to the world through Christ.
I used to say that reading the newspaper is a duty for a Christian man. To be informed about the world situation, to know the current problems facing humanity, is the duty of a believer. If only because this is the only way to pray for this world in a real, concrete way. And I cannot emphasise enough how urgently important it is for us to pray for this world. To go before God for this world and to pray for mercy on behalf of the peoples of the world. To take upon ourselves the burden of responsibility for the life and well-being of all humanity, and to pray for it, in suffering. I cannot emphasize enough that the prayerful person should not only have prayer as a private matter, but should feel that prayer is a matter of national importance, a matter of universal concern. God has included in the government of the world the prayer of His children. And there are things that God does when He is asked. There are gifts that God can only give to the world through praying hands and hearts. So indeed, much depends on the prayers of believers in the world. Yes, the Church, the faithful, have the primary task of surrounding the whole of international politics with a prayer ring and asking for an atmosphere in which nothing but peaceful results can be achieved. The believer has a very special weapon with which to fight for peace: prayer. I hope you, too, and you, too, and you, too, are in this line of battle! In the struggle of common prayer and solitary, but certainly regular, daily prayer. What did I just say? If not me, then who? If not this, then what? If not now, then when? - Yes, if a believer does not pray for this now, then why pray at all? If not I, then who? If not this, then what? If not now, when?
In what follows, I would like to further explore the importance of prayer in the ministry of peacemaking. Just as the air is always polluted with all kinds of germs, so the spiritual atmosphere is constantly saturated with the germs of discord, with the explosive emotions of sensitivity, jealousy, envy, mistrust. It is this unrest, this nervous spiritual atmosphere that we must constantly purify with our prayers. I said at the service on Holy Thursday that when a believer truly prays, it is like entering heaven, because prayer is nothing other than an appearance before the throne of God. And when we then rise from prayer, we are as it were returning from heaven, but we do not come empty-handed. Then we always bring something from heaven back to earth. That is why the apostle Paul says: "Take care of those who are up there" (Col 3,2a) For what is up there? Up there in heaven is perfect peace, harmony. When we pray, we are filled with this peace, and we take something of this peace with us and bring it into our homes, our families, our churches, our society.
Yes, the man who strives for peace according to Christ first of all imbibes himself with the peace of heaven, so that no unpeaceful impulse, resentment, anger, grudge, or resentment remains hidden in any corner of his soul. First he himself is reconciled, but truly, with man, with God, and then he breathes out this peace from heaven, spreads it among men around him. For this peace is not only a certain inner spirituality, but also a productive force, a radiance, an attitude of wanting reconciliation and working for it. Therefore, Jesus does not say that happy are those who have peace in the depths of their souls, but happy are those, the children of God, who strive for divine peace, that is, who do their best to restore peace between God and man, man and man.
You know that there are people who almost take pleasure in setting men against each other. They like to kindle the fires of discord, they like to prick thorns between friends, between family members, between spouses. They instinctively sow seeds of discord with every word and comment. Some people can say so many bad and ugly things about others in a short time that they leave a pregnant, stifling air in their wake. Well, look you, if it was and is God's ambition so much to reconcile even his enemies to his friends, then let the sons and children of God be very careful, and woe betide them, not to play recklessly with such fire! The children of God are not people who stir up unrest, who stir up quarrels, but they are peacemakers, peacemakers.
Interestingly, the New Testament word for "peace" comes from the verb eiró, which means to speak again to one another. God's peace through Christ also means that through the death of Jesus the possibility of conversation between God and man was restored. "Blessed are those who seek peace", says our verb, that is to say, those who strive to re-establish the possibility of conversation in a spirit of love and forgiveness wherever it has been interrupted by something, wherever it has been impossible to understand each other's words.
Let us begin to talk again with those with whom we have lost contact because of a grievance, and let us help others to do the same. This is our peacemaking ministry. And in this way, our prayer for peace in the world becomes truer and more authentic. Let me say again the three little sentences I have just repeated several times: If not me, then who? If not this, then what? If not now, when? Come, then, let us pray together.
I lift my heart to you
And trust in you, Lord;
And I will not be ashamed,
No one will laugh at me.
For they will not be ashamed,
Those who cry out to you,
Let them be scornful,
Those who live in unbelief.
Show us your ways, O Lord,
That I may not go astray;
Teach me thy paths,
By which I will walk.
And guide me
In your holy true word;
Protect my life,
For in you, Lord God, I trust.
(Psalm 25:1-2)
Amen
Date: 26 May 1963.
Lesson
2Kor 5,17-21