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A Season of Peace
I wonder how many times I’ve said or written “peace be with you.” It is a greeting many of our congregations use weekly as an act of worship. It is a salutation I use in many of my correspondences. It’s such a common utterance to me that I sort of forgot that it’s biblical, too. Good for me for citing Scripture with such regularity. The phrase comes to us from the Gospels, spoken by the resurrected Jesus when he appears to the disciples behind locked doors. It is a way he makes himself known to them.
The words of Isaiah 55 convey a profound message to us during A Season of Peace: For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace.
Not surprisingly, Hannah Lundberg’s sermon on peacemaking for World Communion Sunday opens with a series of questions:
“What is peace for you? Is it a simple state of being? The way things are until something goes wrong? Is peace the absence of conflict?”
Congregations of many denominations extend the peace of Christ with a blessing during their service. “The peace of Christ be with you (and also with you).” It is a blessing offered and a blessing returned in kind. The peace of Christ is part of what our faith offers to us. Extending the peace of Christ is part of an active, engaged faith — a witness to what it means for us to be building the household of God.
