This morning I get to speak on peace, the next-in-line of the fruits of the Spirit listed in from Galatians.
When I first saw the schedule, I thought, “Oh good, this should be a good fit.” … which I’ll explain with a story later. But over the last few weeks it’s like the peace has been drained out of me, so this has been …interesting to prepare.
I expected that this was one of those things I could talk about the straight-forward way, focus on “spiritual” peace and not all of the other messy uses of the word. But apparently God didn’t want to keep things that simple for me.
So let’s start off by looking at all the complications. Here are some uses of the word “peace”.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does.”
- John 14:27
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword.”
- Matthew 10:34
We probably get the impression here that Jesus is using two different meanings of the word “peace” here. Maybe?
Here’s a current-events usage that’s impacted me personally as a teacher:
“Premier Clark and I have been discussing how we can move forward on our goal for 10 years of labour peace for students in our public education system.”
– Education Minister Peter Fassbender
For those who don’t know, the BC government had tried to market this idea to the public over the last year. It sure sounds great, doesn’t it?
But, to keep things simple, let me just say that this wouldn’t have been a “peace” created by coming to agreement on a fair middle-ground. The 10-year deal was heavy-handed, and much of what they proposed amounted to dismantling the other side, silencing their opposition. It was a threat, not a promise. (Since then the two sides have made some progress, and no one’s talking about a ten-year deal anymore.)
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”
- Matthew 5:9
So we are told to be peacemakers…
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