Jesus calls us to be peacemakers.

We see this every day as we experience our world’s need for Christ’s reconciling love, peace, and justice. We feel this as we long to know God’s peace in our hearts and relationships. The promise of Jesus “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9) is both a comfort and a challenge. It reminds us that the path of peace is something we both follow and forge.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus reads the Isaiah passage that would frame his en-fleshed life. It is here that he grounds his calling in the work of peace. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19).

Distractions are everywhere, threatening to pull us to the margins of living an authentic peace-filled Christian life. Important issues, breaking news, and our ragged pursuit of a more meaningful spiritual life all distract us. We are reminded of this every time we power up our computers, turn on the television, or struggle to handle conflicts in our families and communities in a way that will not alienate them or us. And we certainly experience it as we negotiate our own inner worlds of chaos and longing.

The journey of peace is a pilgrimage of our whole selves: spirit and body; heart, feet, and mind. The pursuit of God’s peace is both an inner and outer journey where the well-being of one is held in the well-being of all. In order for us to walk farther along this road of peace-full living, we can and should engage both inner and outer aspects of faithful spiritual living. Doing so allows us to become more authentic and effective bearers of peace in our world.

Each year from early September until World Communion Sunday the PCUSA focuses on A Season of Peace as a reminder of the path we journey each an everyday as people of faith.

Let us pray for peace and the courage to be peacemakers.

Holy God, your people come to pray for the world and all that is in it.  Lord hear our prayer for peace and justice.

Free us, O God, to speak your word to a lost, hurting and angry world. Enmity and strife have overtaken the land and fear and anxiety has crowded out love. Iniquity has spread like a stain, magnifying the division between rich and poor.  Give us your voice, that your church can serve as shepherd, guiding your people to your call for the world.

Free us, O God, to tend to those who are in need. You always care especially for those abandoned or rejected or live on the margins.  Give us eyes to recognize them in our midst; those living with chronic and debilitating illness, those in fear of deportation, those in abusive relationships, those overwhelmed with all that goes with the pandemic, those who live in the shadow of fear and indifference. Use us to connect to them in ways that bring peace and justice.

Free us, O God, from asking, “Who is my neighbor?”  Guide us to ways we may live a life of compassion, help us to bind up the wounds, both visible and invisible, of your people.  Carry us and give us strength to carry others so we may all know the peace that comes from you. Heal your aching world and use us to answer the call to peacemaking.  In Christ’s Holy name we pray. Amen.