MarsHill

A pleasant two-hour Sunday drive up the “coast” of Lake Michigan brought me to the bustling little city of Grandville, Michigan to Mars Hill Bible Church. I enjoy listening to Rob Bell’s podcasts every week, and the NOOMA video series has affected me in profound ways. It wasn’t a typical megachurch at all as they have carried their mission of simplicity throughout the service and the way they operate. The large 3,500 seat auditorium was unadorned — pale grey walls with a black exposed truss ceiling and warm dim lighting, a square stage in the center of the room with a 4 sides screen above it. The stage lighting was bright but minimal and not showy. The projection was also simple – white on black… just the way i like it. Worship began at 11 with the familiar sounds of Axel f, an 80s song made popular in the movie Beverly Hills Cop II. There were 5 keyboards, an electronic drum kit and a keytar. Oh yes, it was 80s madness day there … They took familiar 80s songs – Berlin’s Take My Breath Away, Prince’s 1999, that 99 Red Luftballoons song, and Aha’s Take On Me (and several others) and wove them into various worship songs, and oh gosh it was fun!

Rob Bell took the stage after that and continued his series on the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5. Today he dealt with the seventh beatitude, “Blessed are the Peacemakers.”

“Life is anything but easy for peacemakers. They advocate on behalf of the one to the other, then turn right around and advocate on behalf of the other to the one. They’re constantly stuck in the middle. They haven’t aligned themselves with a side, which draws the ire of everyone around them, because choosing sides is a fundamental part of how our world functions. Align yourself with this group and exclude that group. Whose side are you on? What are you for? What are you against? Pick a side already. Picking sides helps maintain the illusion that there are those of us who are right and those of us who are wrong, and it’s as simple as that. Such a view of the world allows us to project all of our worst fears onto the other team. Not so with peacemakers.

Once God has met you in the midst of your own badness it becomes harder and harder to not meet others in the midst of theirs. Peacemaking is complicated. It involves bringing the two sides together. Peacemakers are the ones who, in the midst of a side-taking world, make the  disturbing and counter-intuitive choice to transcend and include. “I’m on both sides.” “There is some right in that person’s wrongness and there is some wrong in that person’s rightness.” In the ancient world, rain ensured you weren’t going to starve, and God, for some odd reason, sees fit to send rain on the just and the unjust alike. God extends goodness to all sides, and the peacemakers who do the same are the sons and daughters carrying on the heritage.”

For me, I feel this tension all the time. I am the “walk a mile in someone’s shoes” guy. I say it to myself frequently. As a reminder.  I need to understand someone before I rush into a snap judgment. I need to see both sides. I want to be able to have all the information before I make a decision. And I know that I need to get better at bringing the two together. I want to be a catalyst to bring peace, not just someone people vent to because I am a good listener.  I do love it when it happens. I love to see reconciliation and peace made. A few years ago now, how my heart was glad when Corey and Meredith stopped looking at “his side” and “her side” and came together, reconciled as “them.” Peace was made, and continues to flourish. That is the hope. That is my desire.