Monday, May 27, 2019
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23
A story is
told of a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but was
very frustrated. The world seemed to be
falling apart. She would read the papers
and get depressed.
One day
she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at
random. She walked in and was surprised
to see Jesus behind the counter. She
knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she'd seen on holy
cards and devotional pictures.
She
finally got up her nerve and asked, Excuse me, are you Jesus? I am.
Do you
work here? No, I own the store.
She did
just that, walked up and down the aisles.
There was [for sale] peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty,
peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of
resources. She wrote her list
furiously. By the time she got back to
the counter, she had a long list. Jesus
took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled. No problem. And then he bent down behind the counter and
picked out all sorts of things, stood up and laid out the packets.
She asked:
What are these? Seed packets, Jesus said. This is a catalog store.
She said: You mean I don't get the finished product?
No, this
is a place of dreams. You come and see
what it looks like, and I give you the seeds.
You plant the seeds. You go home
and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.
Oh, she said. And she left the store without buying
anything.[2]
Sometimes
it is easier to dwell on having personal peace than on the
peace which compels us to go into all the world with
the good news.
Jesus came and stood among them and
said, “Peace be with you.” That was the eighth day…a whole week later than the
first time Jesus said “peace” to them.
This time he came back when Thomas was there. Thomas may have felt pretty much a second-class-citizen
as a disciple. But Jesus came back and
spoke the same wonderful word to him…. “Peace”!
We all
come to Jesus at different times and in different walks – but his peace is
still his peace. Symbiosis is: a cooperative, mutually beneficial
relationship between two people or groups.[3] To be “symbiotically-peaceful” is to get
along with each other in the kind of love God planned for us. It is symbiotic peace that conjoins us and
holds us together in a bond of brotherhood and the selfless love of God. This is the whole point of Easter. It is what Paul meant when he told us that
God was in Christ to reconcile the whole world to himself[4] –
and has given us that very same mission.
Peace is
the work of reconciliation – first I am reconciled to God with his saving
peace, having been rescued from my sins.
Then I take part in rescuing others because of his sending peace. And I am taught to live in symbiotic
God-love, the peace that passes all understanding. It is a matter of living in God’s peace.
So…Pass
the Peace brothers and sisters….take a moment and pass the peace; take this
lifetime and pass the peace!
For You Today
Let the peace of Christ dwell in you today.
For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17
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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
[2]Migan McKenna in Parables, cited in Frederic and Mary
Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 359.
[3] Encarta dictionary
[4] 2 Corinthians 5:19
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