BBC Radio 4 2016-09-23

Good Morning,

Since Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced that they are to separate because of ‘irreconcilable differences’ much has been made of what those differences might be and what makes them irreconcilable. The pawing over what is essentially a private and painful matter will of course be justified by the couple’s great celebrity. Irreconcilable differences make for good copy.

As a tireless ambassador for the UN Jolie would probably be the first to point out that far graver concerns demand our attention. Thousands have died fleeing a conflict in Syria: the tragic outcome of irreconcilable differences. On Monday, campaigners from the international rescue committee laid 2,500 life jackets on the lawns of Parliament Square to represent refugees who had drowned trying to escape the wars in Syria and other countries. 350 had been worn by children.

Meanwhile in New York the principle reconcilers of the conflict had gathered at the United Nations to discuss the cessation of hostilities only to find their best efforts thwarted by an alleged Russian attack on a humanitarian aid convey. The heated exchanges between America and Russia threatened to end the hard won ceasefire. ‘This is not a joke’ an exasperated US secretary of state John Kerry said, staring down his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. And he added ‘A chance for peace hangs by a very thin thread.’ When the peacemakers themselves cannot find agreement what hope is there for peace?

The job of the peacemaker tends to be a thankless one, and rarely grabs the headlines. Indeed, it is still a kind of miracle that there are people willing to sit in a room for days and weeks – sometimes with enemies - trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. But this is, arguably, the very essence of the Christian message. As the prophet Isaiah says ‘we have lips that have spoken lies, hands stained with blood, fingers with guilt, and it is hard to find anyone calling for justice with integrity.’ But incredibly, God’s response is not to count these things against us but to meet them head on and cancel them through His intervention in Christ, because to Him there are no differences that are irreconcilable.

In the face of bleak reports from Syria this morning, something of this divine ethic is needed more than ever to help keep the dialogue alive. The Apostle Paul spoke of those who do the work of reconciliation as Christ’s ambassadors. Whether they profess faith or not anyone trying to restore broken relationships between people and nations is an ambassador, for every act of reconciliation is in itself an echo of a divine act.