Saturday, April 13, 2018

Luke 24:36

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' 

Where else?

If there was no other reason to believe that Jesus is divine, if there was no other reason for me to love him as I do, it is the word of peace he speaks to the friends who ran away from him in his darkest hour.

Peace, he says. Peace to the broken places in your heart. Peace to the anxieties about your life. Peace to your guilt and shame. Peace.

Let all other voices be silenced. Turn from everything that distracts you from the voice of the one who went all the way down into death and returned again to immortal life. Listen to the voice who tells you that the One who made you, the Creator who fashioned you, wants this for you, peace.

You are not condemned. You are not rejected. The things you fear may hurt you, but they will never take you from the love God has for you. Not now. Not ever. Peace.

Where else can you hear that word? And where other than the church, can you walk about with open hands, arms and hearts and greet other human beings, as mortal and fallible as you, with that greeting: Peace.

We may belong to clubs and sports teams, fraternities and sororities, neighborhood and community groups, wonderful organizations. But there is nowhere else human hearts greet you with this word for which we each crave.

Pr. David L. Miller