Oh, That It Were Already Today
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
When Peace Prevailed Everywhere
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God Does Not Save Us From Our Trials,
But In Our Trials.
Isaiah 2:2-4
In days to come …
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
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Hebrews 12:14
Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
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Words of Grace for Today –
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The World is in chaos, again, or rather still.
John reports that Jesus says he will Leave Us Peace. What a promise!
On the 8th of May Germany’s 2nd TV service (ZDF) broadcast the Worship Service for the 80th Anniversary of the End of WWII in Europe, a memorial of being liberated. In the service the Germans remembered, with thanks for the end of war in 1945, yet still with endless guilt, for war did not just break out. It was begun by Germany’s Nazi Party. Even more, they remembered the efforts made to rebuild for decades after hostilities ceased. And they gave thanks for the prosperity and peace that Europe has enjoyed since.
Meanwhile violence, destruction, and death in Ukraine, just 100s of km east, remind us all that the lack of war is not ever guaranteed.
But peace in this world, which they celebrated, is more than just the lack of war. This peace is also to have institutions that honour all people, freedom to worship as one chooses, and a social contract wherein all are free to speak their mind, but no one is free to harm others, not even with words. Where justice is striven for earnestly by all, for all. Yet, nothing can guarantee peace.
Here in Canada, as the US has thrown chaos and fear at the world order, as global powers grow in strength and threat, and as extremist militias and failed states create chaos in our world, we must remain vigilant, and continually strive for those things that make for peace in our world, our nation, our province, our communities, and in our homes. Ignorance and apathy, fake news and heated rhetoric, extreme ‘solutions’ and the status quo can have no place in our lives, if we wish peace to continue, if we hope to avoid the complete loss of prosperity that we have enjoyed for many decades. Peace requires work and sacrifice to give it to the next generations. That work begins with each of us.
Yet, John reminds us that peace in this world, peace that we must work for every day, is not the kind of Peace God offers us. God offers us a more powerful, more life-changing, more effective kind of Peace. It is the Peace that the Holy Spirit gives us and teaches us to share with all people.
This Peace is already here today. Trust it. Live it. Share it.