A Palestinian Christian named Jonathan was coming home late one night with his wife and two young children, to their home in the West Bank of Israel.

Jonathan's property had recently been targeted by the Israelis for Jewish settlements. Jonathan thought this was illegal, but there was little he could do.

And when Jonathan and his family arrived home around midnight that night, they found several Israeli military vehicles blocking their driveway. Jonathan was met by a few of the officers who told him to get out of his car and identify himself.

Jonathan did so, telling the officers that he owned the land and that he just wanted to take his family inside so they could sleep. But the officers insisted that everyone get out of the car for interrogation, even if it meant waking up the small children, who would certainly be scared at the site of armed officers surrounding their car.

Nonetheless, Jonathan complied, and as he reached into the back of his car to awaken his children he lovingly told them, "Get up children! I have some wonderful friends I would like you to meet! They can't wait to see you!"

The Israeli soldiers overheard this conversation and tensions immediately lowered, as Jonathan took on the mantle of peacemaking versus confrontation.

After a few brief minutes, the officers let Jonathan and his family go inside. Soon after Jonathan came back outside to continue the conversation, getting to know the soldiers and eventually inviting them to come inside and to get to know him.

Friends, you and I are living in times of desperate conflict and confrontation, a racist mass shooting in Buffalo, contentious primary elections in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, a bloodbath in Ukraine.

And into our world comes those eternal words of Jesus that we will hear on Sunday, "Peace I give to you, my own peace I leave with you." Jesus gives us this gift because God's will for our world is peace. And Jesus wishes his followers to be peacemakers, who find ways to dial down the tensions, hold back the retribution, and harness thoughts of vengeance.

Where's the conflict in our lives?

How is God asking us to dial it down, finding ways to harness aggression and work to bring about peace?

Our calling is clear, not to contribute to the conflict, but to find ways to resolve it.