Submitted by Sabrina Slater, Spokane, Washington
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.—Matthew 5:9
Recently, in a devotional time with youth, one teenager shared that they had promised their mother that they would
change their name as soon as they turned eighteen. Their given name was too common. They wanted a name they
could choose for themselves. Would you? How many of us always like our names?
And yet God has given us a name that we cannot change. All around us, we hear our world’s brokenness: the death toll
from gun violence, wars waged abroad and at home, people living in terror around the globe. The news hurts—it’s
overwhelming! And I don’t want to read The Beatitudes because I know my name: peacemaker.
Through Jesus Christ we have been called children of God, and that means we are called peacemakers. Some days it’s
hard; some days we might be so tired we want to change our names, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t even matter where
you stand in the policies and politics of the day. In the end, we are all called children of God. In the end, we are all called
to be peacemakers.
Action: Find one way to pursue peace today. Join a peacemaking group, visit a town hall meeting—or at least sign up for
updates (http://pcusa.org/subscribe) from the PC(USA) Office of Compassion, Peace and Justice!
Prayer: Creator God, please give us the strength to live into our divine name. Give us wisdom in pursuing peace. Amen.
Sabrina Slater is from Spokane, WA and ready to serve as a Pastor. During her career in
higher education Slater graduated Princeton Theological Seminary and received the
Parish Pulpit Fellowship. With a deep interest in loving God and others well Slater is
honored to help represent PC(USA) at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland
during fall 2016. Her prayer is to see with God’s eyes, to hear with God’s ears, and to have
a heart broken where God’s heart is broken.
This year’s Path of Peace Reflections are based on the themes and stories being shared in
the 2016 Peace and Global Witness Offering (http://specialofferings.pcusa.org/peace-global) .