Peace has been a dream for humanity for thousands of years. Early writings speak of people’s desire for peace but it somehow seems to escape us no matter how hard we try. How can we theoretically want something so badly and still not accomplish it? It doesn’t make sense in this “dream it and achieve it” culture. It’s as if we have a self-destructive mechanism inside ourselves that gets triggered when we get close to creating peace. There is something missing.

Principles of Peace

During this series we have tried to unpack the fundamental building blocks of peace. To realize peace, we first have to find peace with God. The first principle to peace is being rooted in God, and the second is to create peace within yourself. Only by being connected to God and a higher, larger perspective can you begin to see the world, not just from your own small point of view but from a larger perspective. In discovering God’s heart you not only recognize your own value but come to value others. Without such a heart peace is but a dream.

The religions of the world have provided some profound insights into humankind’s search for God or what the Divine Principle describes as forming a Foundation of Faith. But this is only half the story, and one might argue the easier task. Although God is invisible and this presents its own problems, the second step, learning to love others with God’s love, or what the Divine Principle calls a Foundation of Substance, requires a great deal more personal discipline.

God’s story is his relentless effort to help His children establish a Foundation of Faith and a Foundation of Substance (or the ability to substantially love others). He has been trying to remake us in His image because such people could create peace.

God is not some distant judge or depersonalized, loving energy. God is very much present in our lives, in our midst, in our pain, and even takes responsibility, like any parent would, for the mess we are in.  God feels bad that we are the way we are. He never meant for it to be this way.

 “The Human Fall was undoubtedly the result of human mistakes. Nevertheless, God also assumes some responsibility for the outcome because it was He who created human beings. Therefore, God has felt compelled to conduct the providence to correct this tragic outcome and to restore human beings to their true, original state. Furthermore, God created us to live eternally. This is because God, the eternal subject partner, wanted to share eternal joy with human beings as His object partners. Having endowed human beings with an eternal nature, God could not, by the laws of the Principle, simply annihilate them just because they fell. If He were to do that, He would be violating His own Principle of Creation. The only choice left to God is to save fallen people and restore them to the original, pure state in which He initially created them.” – Exposition of the Divine Principle, Eschatology 2.1

The hope for world peace rests upon all of us being able to restore our original nature. That is why Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” Matt. 5:9

To be peacemakers requires that we inherit God’s nature. So what is God’s nature like?

“As I live,” says the Lord God, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” – Ezekiel 33:11

Today, many religious people talk about who is saved and who is not, but such conversations have nothing to do with God. As our Heavenly Parent, God must want to save everyone. As His children, we too must want the salvation and restoration to happiness of all people. Peace is not possible until we want the best for others and recognize their equal value as children of God.  A measure of who we are, is our honest heart to desire the well-being of others and put others first, as God does.

“Do not enter ultimate liberation until all living beings have entered ultimate liberation.” – Buddhism (Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 4)

Rev. Moon once said the Messiah is the last person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven because he will be concerned with helping everyone else get there first.

Deepening what we know

There is a perpetual pulse behind history. God is trying to raise us up over time so that we can recover our identity as the children of God, the peacemakers he created us to be. Generations of people come like waves in an ocean crashing on the shore. It seems that each generation is trying to reinvent or improve upon the lifestyle and traditions of previous generations.

But there are always core principles that each generation rediscovers to be true and valuable. Greeks called them virtues; Christians describe them as goodness in thoughts, words and deeds; moral people call it character. Each generation adds depth of understanding into these core principles; coming closer and closer to the original principles by which God and all existence operates.

The Divine Principle gives profound insight for our generation that helps us rediscover truths contained within the world’s religion, the Bible and life, but on a deeper level. These rediscovered or new truths provide profound lessons in peacemaking.

From the Divine Principle we learn that God gave human beings a portion of responsibility to develop themselves. God wanted human beings  to exercise this responsibility through a process of growth, sometimes making mistakes, but improving themselves and developing good character. Psychologists confirm that children are largely self-centered; they are mainly interested in themselves, but as they develop or grow their circle of concern widens beyond self.

In the family we develop character

Family is a safe training ground for children to grow, make mistakes and learn from them. Mistakes imply forgiveness and love. Nobody can become mature or perfected in heart immediately. Furthermore, perfection is not a point in time; it is an infinite process, since we are eternal beings. Character is an outcome of our learning from our trials and errors, from parents and siblings, friends and community members. Our thoughts, words and actions build our habits and character, which form our destiny.

God created the World based on goodness; God looked at it and said “It is very good.” He/She gave the children free will and surrounded them with goodness. As we know, according to Genesis, Lucifer tried to dominate God’s Creation based on his own ideas, putting himself in charge and leading Eve and Adam away from goodness and into his world of envy, jealousy, judgment and punishment.  Sound familiar?

That is the world we are living today. Rich and powerful business corporations lobby politicians and presidents with their money, to persuade them to organize this world according to their ideas of “perfection” or that which is most beneficial to themselves. But the root of this manipulation starts within each individual character, from our inability to see from God’s perspective, or from the perspective of others. This corruption of our original nature is the core of all of our problems.

The trouble between God and Man

Because of the Fall, humankind began from a very low point in their collective character, whereby they treated everyone as enemy, adversary or competitor, whom they then tried to eliminate.  Religious history is the story of people climbing out of this hole. This is why you see a pattern in the Bible which went unnoticed for generations until Rev. Moon revealed the thread that weaves itself through seemingly disconnected stories.

That thread is God and people’s efforts to create a Foundation of Faith and Substance so that people could be in a position to receive God’s forgiveness and restore their original purity of heart and become the peace makers we were meant to be.

An unlikely hero

One pivotal story in this thread is the story of Jacob and Esau. On the surface, this is the story of a sneaky younger brother who stole the birthright from his older brother with the help of his mother. What is the lesson here? Like many Biblical stories it has multiple layers.

In studying the Bible a pattern emerges, starting with Able, whereby God gives his blessing to the younger son. There is reason behind this that I will save for another day. Suffice it to say, this was important. Naturally, the elder brother, Esau, was mad as hell and planned to get even. Rebecca, like all mothers, had a sense of when sibling rivalry was getting out of control and told Jacob to leave town, until his brother cooled down.

Jacob was meant to receive the blessing, but that didn’t mean his brother was happy. Ironically, it was the 21 years in exile that perhaps matured Jacob’s heart and developed him into someone who could create peace and make that illusive Foundation of Substance with his brother. In exile, he was worked mercilessly by his Uncle, tricked out of his chosen bride and was initially without possessions. All of his experiences made Jacob into a man who was determined to return to the land of his father and reconcile with the still angry Esau.

In the end it wasn’t the wives and sheep and goats that Jacob sent ahead to win his brother’s heart, for Esau had plenty of wealth and power of his own. It was the moment when Jacob humbled himself in front of Esau and declared, “When I see you, I see the face of God.”

A Similar Story

This is the same relationship that the LEGO Movie explores. In this movie, selfish President Business wants to create a perfect LEGO world, according to his concept of how the world should be and over which he must have absolute control. To prevent other people from creating new designs or doing anything he doesn’t like, he uses Craggle (Crazy Glue) to fix everything permanently in place.

President Business is anti-creativity and against others having any ownership. The LEGO construction worker, Emmett Brickowski, accidentally becomes the ‘Special One’ about whom the prophesy spoke, and who is called to save LEGO world. No one accepted him at first as the Special One, but together with his very different super-hero-type partners he manages to save the LEGO world! Interestingly he uses the same strategy that Jacob used. He chose to see the potential and goodness in the author of evil, President Business and through the purity of his love he won his enemy’s embrace.

Through the LEGO movie the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau has been introduced anew for the next generation. In having the opportunity to encounter the principle of winning the heart of the enemy, or creating a Foundation of Substance, we have to ask ourselves, “How can I bring peace in my world?”

Perhaps you know an Esau or a President Business with whom you must make peace. How could you approach that relationship in a new way? What can you give your enemy? Ultimately, you can only create peace with someone by first appreciating their value from God’s point of view. You don’t hate people you value.  The gold standard is arriving at the place where you can say, “When I see your face, I see the face of God.”

It’s not easy to walk the path of Jacob or Emmet but the world peace we crave will only come about when we can sincerely apply these Principles for Peace in our lives. This week work to win someone’s heart. It will, no doubt, take more than a week but it will be more than worth it.

*This message was developed in collaboration by Pastors Dmitry Vilchitsky and Heather Thalheimer.