Micah 4:1-5
Psalm 85
Ephesians 2:13-18
John 15:9-12
On September 21, 2009, churches and communities throughout the world are committing to the International Day of Peace through prayer, meditation and other forms of spiritual observance. ELCA congregations, institutions, and organizations are invited to join others from around the world in praying for peace.
The International Day of Prayer for Peace was proposed at a 2004 meeting between WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia and UN secretary general Kofi Annan. The WCC’s invitation to pray for peace on 21 September, or the closest Sunday, coincides with a United Nations’ initiative that encourages “global 24-hour spiritual observation for peace,” which “is meant to demonstrate the power of prayer and other spiritual practices in promoting peace and preventing violent conflict.”
I.N.I.
We are a community of peace.
In the liturgy of the church, when we sing the Kyrie, we are invited to pray for peace. In peace, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. For the peace from above, and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
For those who have lived under God from time immemorial, peace is a way of being. It can be applied to the beauty and glory of the creation described in Genesis by the creator as “good.”
In confirmation last week, as we studied the third and fourth chapters of Genesis, we also discovered that no sooner is the creation complete then the human tendency toward rebellion and violence toward another steps in. The root sin for our spiritual ancestors Adam and Eve is “wanting to be like God.” And the root sin for first murderer Cain is jealousy.
In these stories that describe God’s intention for humanity followed by rebellion and violence, the peace and order of present creation becomes broken. Innocence is lost. Yet God makes clothing for Adam and Eve. And God puts a mark on Cain to protect him from further violence against him.
For us who live by the primary resource of faith, God’s Word, we understand that peace, wholeness, being well is the way to live under God. We also understand that justice needs to be wed with peace, even as the psalmist in today’s Psalm 85 articulates it so fetchingly by saying, “righteousness and peace will kiss each other.”
Are you with me?
Our friends in the Palestinian Lutheran community say there can be no peace without justice.
Where there is war, in the Sudan, Iraq, and in Afghanistan,
where there are injustices in the Gaza strip and disagreements about health care in the United States,
those who suffer the most are those who have the least.
In all conflicts, the issues of power and control are important to understand and come to terms with.
The prophet Jeremiah was a burr in Israel’s side. Israel had become complacent. Israel was ignoring God’s way of shalom at its own peril. Nobody liked what Jeremiah had to say, but Jeremiah said it anyway. He said
For from the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
saying, "Peace, peace,"
when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:13-14)
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America names this when it charges the church to be like Jeremiah through its 1995 Social Statement on Peace called For Peace in God’s World as it says
The Church is a disturbing presence when it refuses to be silent and instead speaks the truth in times when people shout out, "'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace" (Jeremiah 6:14). The Church is this presence when it names and resists idols that lead to false security, injustice, and war, and calls for repentance. We therefore denounce beliefs and actions that:
http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements/Peace.aspx
We are a community of peace.
We walk for peace with justice, and invite God to rule our world, our community, our families, and our church with shalom. We remember and act for the poor in our community and our world with the Anne Marie House Walk/Run today, and the Nashua Area CROP Walk for Hunger on October 25.
Jesus, the promised one, breathes peace on his disciples who were walled in fear and grief at the wake of his violent death. He appeared to them on a dark Easter evening to reclaim the ways of God from the time of creation. He revealed God’s power over those who wreak violence and injustice, shown in his nail-scarred hands and feet and his pierced side. Death does not have the final word. The community that lives in Jesus through the Holy Spirit is filled with new life and breathes peace to one another and reconciles the world that too easily erects walls that divide.
Sadako Sasaki was only two years old when the Atomic Bomb dropped near her home in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. By the time she turned eleven years old in 1954, she developed chicken pox. In January of 1955, purple spots began to form on her legs. She was subsequently diagnosed with leukemia and given a year to live at the most. Sadako’s best friend Chizuko came to visit her in the hospital and cut a golden piece of pager into a square and folded into a paper crane. This was based on a Japanese saying that the one who folded 1,000 paper cranes was granted a wish. In the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, it says that having only folded 644 before her death, Sadako’s friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her. Sadako herself breathed peace as her small act continues to speak to the world. In 1958, a statue of Sadako was built in Hiroshima Peace Park. On the base of the statue it is written,"This is our cry, this is our prayer; peace in the world.
I invite you to pray for peace today.
I invite to invoke St. Francis’ prayer: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
I invite you to recognize that the walls of hostility have been brought down, and its place the church offers tables, tables that serve food for those hungry for God’s peace, won by Jesus who continues to walk with us as we are guided the cross and through the Spirit breathe shalom.
I invite you to consider the places of hostility in the world, in your circles, and in your heart, and to release them to Christ, who is our peace.
We are a community of peace,
Let us pray
O heavenly Father,
I praise and thank you
For the peace of the night;
I praise and thank you for this new day;
I praise and thank you for all your goodness
and faithfulness throughout my life.
--Prayers for Fellow-Prisoners, Christmas 1943 by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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