"Bringing Peace to Our Homes"

Pastor Laura Guy

December 14, 2008

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

We revisited the past weeks of our series on "Peace on Earth" by recalling how Jesus brings peace to our world and peace to our nation. Then we narrowed the focus to how Jesus can bring peace to our homes, acknowledging that we must know his peace in our hearts before we can truly experience peace in our homes.
We discovered that one reason our homes aren't peaceful is because we allow the culture to define for us what home is supposed to be. Our me-first culture says that home is the place where we can be our "real" selves. This means that home becomes the place where we unload all our pent-up frustrations and anger that we've stored up all day. But the biblical model for home is that it is the place where we should be our best selves, not our real selves. This might mean we decide to go to gym to run off our frustrations or meet a friend for coffee to vent before we go home.
We read Paul's words about living in peace with one another from Rom. 12:14-18. Pastor Laura was careful to say that God does not want any of His precious children to live in abusive relationships, to live with those who persecute them. But the rest of Paul's words - living in humility, don't repay evil for evil - can all apply to our family lives, too. Finally, Paul says that "as much as it depends on you", live peaceably with others. It is our responsibility to create peace in our homes.
We read the prayer of St. Francis which begins, "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace." it became our prayer for being a peace-maker in our home.
We celebrated communion at the table of love and reconciliation.