Read the story and see what wisdom you think it might offer into situations of Conflict both at home and abroad.
Once upon a time...
Once upon a time there was a rich man who lived in the deserts of the Middle East. You could tell how rich he was because of what he owned and especially how many camels belonged to him. In fact he was so rich that he owned not 1, not 2, not 4, not 6, but 17 camels.
He had led a peaceful and prosperous life and so when he was very old and near to death he wrote his will, explaining how he intended to leave his wealth to his only son, his grandson and to his one nephew. The terms of the will were these: one half of his riches should go to his own son; one third should go to his grandchild and one ninth of his wealth should go to his nephew. This seemed fair.
A problem dividing the inheritance
Soon after this the rich man died. Now when it came time to dividing up the camels according to the will, the three beneficiaries ran into a problem!
- If half the camels were given to the son, then he should get eight-and-a-half camels, which would mean killing a camel!
- If a third of the camels were given to the grandson, that would mean again killing a camel so he could get five and two thirds!
- And when it came to the nephew, there was no way he could get his share unless another camel was killed.
The three of them became frustrated and soon got very angry with each other. They shouted and quarrelled and argued and even threatened to go to war with one another over the camels. Secretly they began stockpiling their weapons and plotting their battle campaigns.
Nearby there lived a very poor man. You could tell he was very poor because he only had one camel. Although he was so poor and seemed to have no influence, he still felt he should do something to help. He wanted to stop war breaking out. He knew what damage it would cause not only others but him too. He wanted to be a peacemaker. But what could he do? he had so little? So little influence
A Sacrifice
He decided to offer his one and only camel into the rich man's inheritance to help sort out the problem. It was a huge sacrifice. The inheritance now consisted of 18 camels. The three sat down and did the sums.
- Half of 18 would go to the son, so he took 9 camels.
- One third of 18 would go to the grandson so he took 6 camels.
- And one ninth of 18 would go to the nephew, so he took two camels.
- After each had taken his allotted number, to their great surprise there was one camel left over!
The poor man received his camel back! He had made peace by his willingness to give up all he had and it had made all the difference.
Some questions to think about…
- What is it that people fight over in war if not Land, Riches, Power! Similar things to those things in this story
- What are your thoughts about those preparing for battle?
- Who would you like to be in the story?
- Who would Jesus be if he were a character in the story?
- What could this story saying to us about making peace? Can peace can only be achieved through great acts of sacrifice? (e.g.The man giving up his camel?)
- What could our country sacrifice to bring peace?
- What about us? What would we be willing to give to bring peace?
- What did Jesus sacrifice to bring peace?
(Story adapted from http://www.barnabasinchurches.org.uk/remembrance-sunday-making-peace/)
