In Christian worship, we exchange the peace, reaching out to one another and engaging in this act of reconciliation as we prepare to be guests at the table Jesus prepares for us. This serves as a model for how we are called to live. I believe that if we as Christians are going to get to a place of true reconciliation, according to God’s standards, we need to be sure that the peace we share, the peace we offer others, isn’t just quiet. Peace and quiet are not the same thing.
In a March 1956 sermon, “When Peace Becomes Obnoxious,” the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. noted that peace is not merely the absence of tension, but also the presence of justice. King said that a peace that is boiled down to a stagnant complacency, deadening passivity, is simply obnoxious.
King also said that peace is “the presence of positive good.” This is the kind of peace Jesus stood for, lived out and called us to in our communities – a peace rooted in justice, goodwill, fellowship and a radical love for all.
This message is excerpted from “Passing the peace” by Tiffany C. Chaney in the July/August 2020 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate Lawrence, deacon, martyr, 258.
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