The Walk Home From the Mount

I have been sitting with a question lately.

Not rushing it.

Not trying to answer it too quickly...because it feels like the kind of question that changes shape the longer you hold it.

“What are your Sermon on the Mount moments?”

It came up during my study last week as I spent time with President Gary Stevenson’s talk, "Peacemakers Needed".

I thought I would jot down a few thoughts and move on.

Instead, the question followed me into the rest of the day...Into quiet moments. Into prayer. Into the spaces where answers tend to come slower, but deeper.

As I listened to the talk, I kept imagining Galilee... I have been there myself... but I image that young teenager in Galilee. Walking dusty roads with a crowd buzzing about a rabbi everyone was whispering might be the Messiah. Sitting on a hillside near the Sea of Galilee. Hearing words that did not just teach, but rearranged something inside. Turning the other cheek. Loving enemies. Blessed are the peacemakers.

I imagine the walk home was quieter than the walk there.

Isn’t that often how it goes?

When something holy lands, conversation feels unnecessary.

You carry it instead. You turn it over. You wonder what it will require of you.

Fast forward two thousand years and here we are. Different pressures, maybe louder ones. Polarization. Outrage. Fear that sneaks into places we did not invite it. And still the same invitation. Let your light shine. Seek righteousness even when it costs you something. Be a peacemaker.

I find myself asking the same question that young heart in Galilee might have asked.

Can I really be a peacemaker when the world feels unsettled and my own heart feels unsure?

What I love most about this teaching is how gentle the answer is.

Yes...But begin small.

Peacemaking starts in the most ordinary place. In our own hearts. In the way we speak to ourselves. In the way we listen instead of react. Then it moves into our homes. Our relationships. And slowly, almost quietly, it finds its way into the world beyond us.

Maybe our Sermon on the Mount moments are not always dramatic. Maybe they happen in scripture study that lingers longer than expected. In a talk that refuses to let go. In a nudge to soften instead of harden.

I am still discovering mine. Perhaps you are too.

And maybe that is the point. Not to rush to an answer, but to notice when the Savior invites us to walk home changed. To choose peace. To begin again, right where we are.