Practice peace if you want to see peace
November 08, 2017
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Micah 3: 5-12
5 This is what the Lord says:
‘As for the prophets
who lead my people astray,
they proclaim “peace”
if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
who refuses to feed them.
6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
and darkness, without divination.
The sun will set for the prophets,
and the day will go dark for them.
7 The seers will be ashamed
and the diviners disgraced.
They will all cover their faces
because there is no answer from God.’
8 But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression,
to Israel his sin.9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of Israel,
who despise justice
and distort all that is right;
10 who build Zion with bloodshed,
and Jerusalem with wickedness.
11 Her leaders judge for a bribe,
her priests teach for a price,
and her prophets tell fortunes for money.
Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,
‘Is not the Lord among us?
No disaster will come upon us.’
12 Therefore because of you,
Zion will be ploughed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
If you live out anger and misery with those close to you what can you expect in return? If the leaders of our society promise one thing but deliver another what can they expect in return?
If the leaders in our church don’t practice what they preach – what hope for the gospel of truth?
These may be the most obvious of home truths, but they are the most common of our failings. Many of the conflicts, and much of the discontent, that exist in our society and culture are due to these most common of human failings. So, never a day can go past without a prayer for consistency between what we believe and how we live. Integrity of character is when ‘doing’ and ‘being’ are fused together.
Just a couple of years ago I laid a wreath at the grave of Mary Slessor in Duke Town and that day there were 50 pairs of twins present. Before Mary Slessor went to Calabar it was the practice of the Efik to abandon twins to die in the bush (they believed that the mother must have been possessed by an evil spirit), but Mary Slessor found these abandoned children, took them into her home and raised them as her own. She didn’t just preach her faith - she demonstrated it in action. And it was her action which changed a culture.
Can you imagine actions that would change our culture? That would promote trust instead of suspicion or peace instead of aggression? Even if it’s a very small thing that you can do today - to demonstrate your integrity of faith and life or to change the direction of our ‘dog eat dog’ culture, then you will have made a difference.
Great God the author of creation and the life blood of every life, we pray for the wisdom and the strength to be consistent in our discipleship – to practice what we preach and to live up to the hopes that we have for the future of our life in this global village that we call earth.
When we fail forgive us. Dust us off and send us on our way to do more and to do better.
Remind us each day that peace starts with being at peace with ourselves and that being at peace with ourselves starts with being at peace with God and that being at peace with God starts with consistency of faith and life. Amen.
Image - John Chalmers standing in front of Mary Slessor's grave in Calabar, Nigeria.
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