It is amazing how big problems can spring out of small issues–and every pastor knows it! That is why we must be committed to our duty to be peacemakers. Dr. Paul Chappell relates this sad story to illustrate the importance of this:
“Several church members commented on how bitter the coffee was that Sunday morning at the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in New Sweden, Maine, in 2003. Soon a number of them became violently ill, and one elderly member died. When a police investigation began, another church member, fifty-three-year-old Danny Bondeson killed himself, leaving behind a suicide note apologizing for what he had done.
Bondeson and his family had apparently donated a new table for use in the communion observance, but some of the members of the church objected to replacing the one they had used for so many years. In anger, Bondeson placed arsenic in the church coffee pot. He claimed he only wanted to make people sick to get even for what he felt was his mistreatment rather than to kill anyone, but his refusal to make peace and forgive cost two people their lives.
In any situation in which we have been wronged or offended, we face the choice between holding a grudge and forgiving. But peace requires more than forgiveness—it requires that we work at restoring the relationship as much as is possible. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). The clear implication here is that peace requires effort and work. Peace does not come naturally in response to the offenses of life.
Part of making peace is putting the past behind us. That is an integral part of ceasing from strife. If we are harboring bitterness in our hearts over what has been done to us in the past, there will be no true peace—in either the relationship or our own minds. The past cannot be changed. The only thing that can be changed is our response, and our response should be to seek peace.”
