Monday
Psalm 34.12-14 “Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”
These words could be standing orders for every fractious Church Meeting, the rules of engagement for family arguments, the ethical boundaries of political discourse, or, as they were intended, wise counsel for how to have a peaceful life. Peace doesn’t just happen. We build peace, maintain peace, and restore peace. To seek and pursue peace is to make sure our own character and intention honours truth, shows respect for others, and we act as “ministers of reconciliation,” that is, peacemakers.
Tuesday
Psalm 85.10 “Love and faithfulness meet together; justice and peace have embraced.”
The Psalm poet links four words into a chain of virtues ending in peace. He imagines faithful love and peace with justice embracing, and the result is human flourishing. Did the Psalm poet imagine the dancing of two pairs, the celebration of each human community shaped and moved by people learning to love each other, growing in trust and co-operation, acting with justice and a commitment to what is right, and so discovering that peace is possible? This is not a pipe dream – it is the vision of a poet who always thinks the impossible is possible because God is part of every equation!
Wednesday
Isaiah 32.17 “The fruit of righteousness will be peace, the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence for ever. “
Righteousness is a rich and complex word. When Jesus said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”, he was speaking of those who wanted to live in faithful obedience and loving service before God. But in a world of injustice, where much is unrighteous – when human life and community is broken by injustice and oppression, where so much is not right and therefore not righteous, what are we to do? We come before our Father in prayer, hungering and thirsting for justice and right, believing that we shall have our fill of the fruit of righteousness, as Jesus said.
Thursday
Isaiah 55.12 “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
These words were written to people in exile, for two generations cut off from their family, culture, and religious roots. Every day and everywhere Babylonian gods and temples reminded them they belonged to someone else. Except, no they don’t! God hasn’t given them up. Despite their fear, oppression and lost hope, they are God’s people, they will go home, and it will be soon. They will be “led forth in peace.” Isaiah is the prophet who makes peace sound possible, because he has an enlarged vision of God. The whole creation will celebrate the peace of God’s liberated people!
Friday
Isaiah 57.19 “Peace, peace, to those far and near” says the Lord. “And I will heal them.”
This is a promise to those of a contrite heart, those weighed down with guilt, locked into a sense of shame, anxious and regretful and wishing they could rewind and do things differently. Forgiveness is the healing of the heart, the closing of wounds, and the restoring of health in our relationships – to God, and to each other. However far we feel we have drifted from God, he speaks peace when we take the first step home. If I remember right, Jesus told a story about that kind of thing!
Saturday
Isaiah 57.20-21 “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
No rest for the wicked! Now used to describe working hard to get things done. But Isaiah was saying there’s no peace for those who build life on greed, dishonesty, power games, lying, and using and abusing others. Like a stormy sea, wicked actions dredge up the worst of those who do them. No, Isaiah warns, there can be no peace with a holy and just God for those who make a career out of selfishness, dishonesty, hurtful behaviours, and other ways of damaging the social fabric around them. The peace of forgiveness is impossible for those who think they have no need of it!
Sunday
Numbers 6.24-26 “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. (King James Version)
In 17th Century language, this has become one of the most beloved of biblical Benedictions. It asks the blessings of God’s protective care, the shining of the light of God’s love in the face of Jesus Christ, the enfolding of grace that enables and guides, and the gift of peace. In the end, the peace we need and the peace we seek, is that of an existence under the light of God’s presence, “kept by the power of God.”
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