Where Is The Level Place?
To Be A Christian Is To Be An Active Peacemaker
by Eric Elkin
"He came down with them and stood on a level place." These are the words Luke uses to introduce us to a sermon given by Jesus. The words Jesus spoke on that level place became the foundation of Christian ethics in the early church. We call them, The Beatitudes, or the blessings. We modern Christians have lost our way somewhere along the journey, and these words no longer guide us as they once did.
After reading The Sermon on a Level Place this morning, I thought about Amir Locke. I was too busy doing church work to notice him. Thinking about his absence from my thoughts left me feeling empty and ashamed. There was no time for politics or social justice when a sermon needed to be written, a meeting planned, and a fundraiser supported. But Amir was not a cause; he was a life, a human being, and perhaps a troubled spirit.
This was a good week for me. We are starting to see the light at the end of the COVID tunnel. There is optimism we will be able to return to regular worship. Plans are being forged to renew the ministry of the church. Life is good. Then my morning was turned upside down by Jesus. Now, I am not sure of my place in the world. Or if I am doing the right things.
Jesus came down to a level place because he had been up on a mountain praying. Mountain tops were where people of faith went to escape the chaos of life. Even Jesus needed a break from the concerns of the world to speak with God. The level place, though, is where the ordinary people lived. It was where those with diseases and unclean spirits dwelled.
Why would Luke call this location a level place? In Jesus' world and ours, we never seem to live on a level place. A division between rich and poor, hungry and fed, healthy and sick, has always existed. And, there seems to be no indication a leveling out will happen any time soon. So tell me, Jesus, where is this level place where you preached and healed because I want to live there too.
My words of protest to injustice never seem to make a difference. Whether I speak or remain silent, the land I walk on never seems level. Our continued push to arm citizens with guns has done little to cure those with troubled spirits. An increased commitment to punishment seems equally empty. So tell me, Jesus, what are we to do?
I think Jesus is not trying to divide the world between blessed and cursed or right and wrong. Instead, he is inviting us to be healers. He wants us to join him in healing troubled and unclean spirits by becoming peacemakers.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and a dedicated advocate for ending slavery, provided insight into what this looks like. He wrote, "[Peacemakers] use all innocent arts, and employ all their strength, all the talents which God has given them, as well to preserve peace where it is, as to restore it where it is not." To be a Christian is to be a peacemaker because peacemakers can make any community a level place.
Click to read Luke 6: 17-26
Reflection Questions:
What would you consider a level place?
How much do you work to make a place level to live in?
What does it mean to be a peacemaker in your environment?
How can you maintain peace in order to create it in others?