When Will There Be Peace?
Good Morning Friends,
Yesterday the Pope met with others to pray for peace in the town of Assisi. It was an international summit of interfaith leaders. The first such gathering in Assisi to pray for world peace was convened by Pope St. John Paul II in 1986. It reminded me of a sermon I had heard back in the 1980’s at Moorings about a Peace Academy to counterbalance all the “War Academies”. It all makes me wonder: When Will There Be Peace?
Scripture: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NRSV)
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9 (NRSV)
Bottom of Form
He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:4 (NRSV)
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
John 20:19-22 (NRSV)
Message: Today’s message is offered because our world is filled with people who desperately long for the peace that begins with Jesus. Friends, the world is at war. We do not always see it but it is closer than we might think because the fighting touches our very hearts. And when we shut our hearts to the situation we too suffer. And the suffering is not just spiritual, but physical and mental as well. When long term stress becomes chronic, many systems in the body are affected. Chronic stress, like prolonged elevated threat levels for terrorism, can result in high levels of cortisol and other corticosteroids circulating in the blood. If this continues for a long period of time our health suffers. You see our hearts are at war and unless we learn to love, it will kill us mentally and physically as well as spiritually. Perhaps you have seen the bumper sticker, No Jesus, No Peace! Know Jesus, Know Peace! It is a strange plan for an estranged world. But is all we have got. Friends, serving Christ will help us grow into peacemakers. He is the way to peace. And that can save us in this world and the next. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and pass the peace to one another. Let the peace begin with each of us.
Pray we are at peace with ourselves. Pray we all receive a blessing of grace and peace. Pray the God of Peace sanctify us entirely. Pray we not turn a deaf ear to those who suffer.
Pray we choose to allow Jesus to calm our troubled minds with His peace. Pray we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts right now. Pray for a time when we no longer learn the ways of war.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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