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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in Gods work to save the world.

Peace to This House

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    I awoke with fragments of a dream in my mind this morning. As I reflected on it (I do reflect on what I remember of dreams, and find that dreams are like thoughts--some are worth more than others!) I decided that I was hearing that "the conversation is history-making and history-shaping." That is, history is made by people having conversation with each other. Scripture itself is nothing more or less than a high level of that conversation.

   Thinking about the current state of ECAPC in general, and Matthew Johnson's commentaries in this space in particular, I asked, "Where is the invitation to conversation and to change?

   My memory suggested that there have been more commentaries on Old Testament texts than on the words of Jesus. A short look at the commentary archive did not discredit that perception, but it also enriched my appreciation for what has been said on those Old Testament texts.

   Reflecting more on "Where in ECAPC is the invitation to conversation and to change?" I thought that it is in, but slightly submerged, the current emphasis on "UNITING VISIONS" through "Great Conversations" and "Paxion Centers." These are definitely turned toward conversation and change, but in reality we have not been hearing much about them in this space. So maybe we can lift them up here. Maybe we can hear a little less from Jonah and a little more from Jesus.

   I think of Luke 10, where Jesus said to his disciples as he sent them out, "When you enter a house, say 'Peace to this house.' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person, but if not it will return to you."

   This process requires at least three things:
   1) The belief that there could be a person of peace in the house.
   2) A way to recognize a person of peace, to see them when they're there.
   3) An appropriate response.

   I'm committed to working on this process, and invite you to joing it, to feed back, to share your thoughts in writing, by phone-- whatever maintains the conversation.

John K. Stoner   jstoner@ecapc.org

Comments

Very interesting to me that you should mention Jesus command to the seventy to speak "Peace to this house" in Luke 10. Next Sunday(25th July) I'm due to preach on Matthew 10, which contains similar instructions to "the twelve". The object of both missions is to proclaim and demonstrate that the kingdom of God is close (Matthew 10.7, Luke 10.11), and peace (from God, with God, and with one another and towards enemies) is the nature and fruit of the kingdom. Yet the remainder of Jesus' message is about the response they should expect to this message - rejection, hatred,persecution, a sword, a cross - and how they are to react to that.
But how do we relate it to ourselves? What is the Spirit saying to us? And the other question I'm wrestling with is the kingdom language - understandable to 1st century Jews, although Jesus transformed it from being a violent image to a peace -making one - but how do we speak of the kingdom of God meaningfully to a generation that's totally unfamiliar with biblical imagery?
Maybe you're questions offer a clue and I'm going to give them some prayerfull thought and look forward to seing how this conversation develops. Hope others respond too.(And I'd value your prayers for the preaching!)
shalom
eric macarthur, United Kingdom

Posted by: John Stoner

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