Dionysus on a Bike

Matthew 5:1-12 – 5/23/2026

Who are the peacemakers when there is no peace? Certainly there are many who are not actively contributing to the violence of our age. The large mass of humanity who suffer under the exploitation of capitalism and its wars are not the ones responsible for the needless deaths and the slaughter in the service of greed, religion, and nationalism. It is easy enough to see who the war makers are, if you are wise enough to know where to look. But who are the peacemakers? Who are those who would resist the times of violence? I long to be a peacemaker, but I do not know how. I have so little power. No one listens to my calls to put down arms and choose the well-being of all over the wealth of a few. Where will our peacemaker come from? Who will call out for an end to war and an end to exploitation and be heard? Reading Matthew’s record of Jesus’s blessing the peacemakers makes their absence and their weakness—which amount to the same thing—all the more present. A present absence of peace; this is our time, a time when God seems absent and peace elusive. All I know to do is to cry out for peace in the hope of suspended disbelief, hoping my voice will be joined by more of the children of God.