September 4, 2022
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.
Go out in joy. When we look around our world these days, it is sometimes hard to feel joyful. Yet joy inherently embraces optimism. Joy is the companion of faith and hope. In our polarized world torn by war, famine, and marginalization of the poor and disenfranchised, we are in desperate need of joyful and brave people who are willing to ask the hard questions and live the difficult solutions that make peace possible.
Be led forth in peace. Through the Peace & Global Witness Offering, we connect with each other, as the Church, together, to confront systems of injustice and promote reconciliation in places around the world and right here at home.
It’s easy to see peacemaking in the world as some distant impossibility, too vast and unrealistic to ever engage in effectively as individuals. A Season of Peace is meant to help us remember that engaging with our own internal conflicts, building healthy relationships with each other, grappling with issues of justice in our communities and re-imagining international relations are crucially interconnected steps on the path of peacemaking.
Daily reflections during A Season of Peace are designed to help participants explore practices for building peace on every scale. This monthlong pilgrimage is designed to deepen the pursuit of peace for congregations, small groups, families and individuals. The theme for the 29 days of the 2022 Season of Peace is “Led Forth in Peace: Critical Areas of Engagement for Peacemakers.”
A Season of Peace begins Sept. 4 and culminates on Oct. 2, World Communion Sunday, when the Peace & Global Witness Offering is received.
We are the church, together. We are peacemakers, together. We are the builders of God’s household of peace. And when, together, we all do a little, it adds up to a lot.
William McConnell, Interim Director, Special Offerings
Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, September 4, 2022, the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Today’s Focus: A Season of Peace
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Carla Dobson, VP, Director of Philanthropic Services, Trust Services, Presbyterian Foundation
David Dobson, President & Publisher, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Let us pray
Gracious God, sharpen our vision through the eyes of Christ, that we might practice your peace, at all times and in all ways. Amen.