Opito Bay panorama 2016
Our national PCANZ moderator Rt. Rev. Hamish Galloway reminds us it is Peace Sunday this week. As I continue to manage the outworking of a fairly confronting brush with Covid-19, it's good to have these resources for Sunday. Thanks to Lorna, Session and others who have stepped up to minister in my absence. I knew they would. If I become 'indispensable' in ministry and community, then I'm not doing it right.
Talk of peace seems a vain hope, tenuous at times in this contemporary world. Reported on Stuff today, as part of a review of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warns; “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation”.
So it would seem, as a worrying proportion of leaders of the nuclear-armed powers seem not to be worthy statesmen, but rather conniving bullies, more school-yard standoff artists than international diplomats.
Yet still the Christians pray for peace, as citizens of Heaven rather than partisans in some temporary human kingdom. All of our nations, great or small, will in the end answer to God. In time, all dictators, presidents and politicians will review their life's work before the throne of God's judgement.
Meantime the work of faith, hope and love continues for our believing communities. What can we do to bring peace? We have no power. Yet we are called to be and act and pray within the sphere of influence God has given us. This might simply be family, church and community, or it may be more.
Pastor and teacher Henri Nouwen in his book Here and Now (1994) gave some good encouragement for us as we seek to live for Jesus in our place, in challenging times;
More important than ever is to be very faithful to my vocation to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me. I must resist the temptation to let the forces of darkness pull me into despair and make me one more of their many victims. I have to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus and on those who followed him and trust that I will know how to live out my mission to be a sign of hope in this world. (p.59-60)
God still has many good things for us here at FHPC. May you know the shalom, the encompassing peace of God in your lives. Worry about global issues must be put to prayer. By all means advocate, but act locally. Place everything you are holding onto in God's care. See you soon...