The first time I was taught that peacemaking is the primary work of Jesus-followers was from Elias Chacour, who came to my church in Cairo, Egypt.  I was a young teen or pre-teen, and it was the first time I’d ever heard from someone who lived within a system of such bad blood, fraught history and sworn opposition, who decided to choose the third way.  The way of Jesus.  By then, I’d lived in the Middle East for years, and went to school with kids from many conflict regions.  We’d all just been, well, kids.  Played on the same teams and performed in the same plays.  Our discussions in Social Studies had much more meaning and impact than they probably do Stateside, but while I supposed they led by example of what reconciliation can look like- just growing up together as human beings, I didn’t yet fully grasp what it meant to choose to coexist peacefully among enemies when you graduate into adulthood.  When the historical and cultural expectations of allegiance bear down, and the child’s play is over.  It was also the first time I’d ever heard a preacher dispute that God is fully on the side of Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  That our role as Christians is to choose the third way.  Thinking about it now, it was probably one of the first incidences where I realized that the God lives in the gray, not black and white like I’d been taught.  (Another great example of the gray was when our Canadian pastor at our international church was asked by a Sudanese man with two wives, what they were supposed to do regarding marriage after their whole family accepted Christ,……I still don’t know what he said).  Sadly, in the years since, when I think about the major social justice or faith conflicts, I struggle to think of ANY truly groundbreaking or meaningful displays of the pursuit of reconciliation between two warring opponents that I’ve witnessed in my personal life or the communities in which I’ve lived or worked.  But boy do I see the conflicts. 

Today, I find myself preoccupied by the fact that a church in a nearby town was allowing their kitchen to be used to serve a hot meal to the homeless.  But they locked the bathroom.  Because, they are afraid people might use the shower in the bathroom.  Expletives.  What else should a church building be used for, then to feed and cleanse the downtrodden?  But, they might. Use. The Shower.  God forbid. 

My main area of conflict affecting my day to day work, and my patients, is our community’s divisive response to the unhoused.  And I can’t even count on the local church to open their doors without conditions.  So, I guess to that end, my other primary teacher of reconciliation really is Jesus.  I cannot reconcile how Jesus lived and taught, with the withholding of care to the needy, from within our church and non-church community.  So, naturally, I really struggle to not see my fellow church people as enemies in this context.  But, He is the ultimate reconciler, and has equipped a lot of really amazing folks with reconciling skills!  And here I am, ready to learn from them.