Things That Make For Peace
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
As we enter Holy Week, we might ask ourselves: do our prayers merely name our longing for peace, or are they also opening our eyes and hearts to recognize—and embody—the things that make for peace in a suffering world?
The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.
— James Baldwin
Luke 19:37-44
Now as he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
Food for Thought
Prayer arises from the deepest hopes and longings of the created world. It acknowledges that we are held by something transcendent. It also acknowledges that we have the capacity to hold others in ways that transcend physical boundaries or barriers – real or imagined – connecting us across time and space with one another, and the Divine. Prayer suggests that something beyond or within us holds the capacity and wisdom for goodness, for Godliness, for beauty, for life, for the capacity and wisdom to heal and forgive, to love – that we have the capacity for the things that make for peace.
Jesus lived for that capacity; he prayed toward it, “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But we can be so obtuse, so selfish, so short-sighted, to our own peril.
Yesterday I was on a prayer call – praying with my colleagues and ministry partners in Lebanon for all those suffering the violence and indifference of our world. As we enter into Holy Week, we do so as Jesus once did, lamenting for our world – crying out with all of nature for peace, for an end to suffering, for an end to the nightmare of war.
Jesus warned that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. He knew there are things that make for peace—and that we must learn to recognize them, for our sake and for the sake of all God has made.
If even the stones know the things of God and cry out for them, why do we struggle to recognize them?
Twice Jesus wept in the Gospels. We are told he wept over the death of his friend, Lazarus, and then again, over the city of Jerusalem he wept because their eyes could not “recognize the things that make for peace.”
Jesus's tears coalesce with the tears and prayers of the streets, the cries and prayers of the world, even the cries and prayers of nature itself as our collective lament of Palm Sunday rises, “Hosanna! Save us!” to the highest heavens. I am reminded of our children, some of whom will playfully wave their palms in spaces of worship this Sunday, singing this familiar refrain for salvation; others will cry their refrain from the depths of fear and trauma.
Jesus’s lament, his tears, his cries, his prayers are a part of his journey to the cross as he, one who came in the name of the Lord – God’s own beloved child – makes his way into the city that will rob him of his own life.
The inability to see, to prioritize, to value peace, carries a costly consequence. And Jesus reminds us that the children, the innocents, the most vulnerable – those ones to whom Jesus says the kingdom of God belongs – will be the casualties of our indifference. Jesus weeps not just for Jerusalem, but for the children of God of every land, of every place, of every city – where peace is an afterthought.
Let us hear the echoes of our children’s prayers in Jesus’s own as we heed his lament again: “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
Oh, that we would recognize the things that make for peace, that one day we might truly welcome the peace of Christ for our world and all our children.
Bandage Prayer: Write one-word or short prayers on bandages/band-aids; then stick the band-aids on a map of the world, or globe — inflatable globes work well for this activity. As you pray for the people of each place, remember we all share this planet and are all connected to one another. Our wellbeing is bound up in the wellbeing of our neighbor.
Go on a nature walk. As you breathe in, breathe in life; as you breathe out, breathe out peace. Trust that the prayer of your breath will meet the prayers of creation toward peace for our world and all God’s children.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
God,
Keep us vigilant and awake to the things of peace and to those that would lead us farther from it. Keep us ever mindful that we are held by you, and called toward creating ways of peace.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
What does a peaceful world look like to you (feel free to draw a picture of your vision)? What differences do you notice between your vision and lived experience? What ways of peace can you adopt in your life?
How are peace and justice related? Can you have one without the other?
Lament is a form of prayer expressing deep longings, regrets, repentance, sadness, grief, disappointment, etc. What are some practices of lament you have seen or experienced? What did you find meaningful/interesting about those practices? How might lament be a helpful tool for seeking things of peace for our world?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
What things do you think get in the way of experiencing peace in our world? How can we create opportunities for peace to grow?
What prayers for peace are you holding this day? As you say each prayer, place a visible reminder of that prayer somewhere you will see it often (tie a ribbon, light a candle, etc).
How can we support one another in times of uncertainty? How does the support we receive and give one another create something of peace for our world?
Meet This WEek’s Writer...
Rev. Daryn Stylianopoulos is originally from North Carolina, but has called Boston, MA home for nearly twenty years. Daryn is an advocate for the marginalized and works against injustices in her community. She believes in creatively cultivating a spirit of cohesion, welcome, and healing in the world. A lover of art, music, gardening, and, most of all, family, she often looks to these for inspiration in her work and ministry. Daryn is on staff with American Baptist Home Mission Societies serving as Program Director for the Nurturing Children Initiative, and also serves as a Baptist pastor in the Boston area. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Boston University School of Theology.
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