4 Pentecost/Year C - 7/3/22
Isaiah 66:10-14; Psalm 66:1-8; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
I always enjoy exploring the scriptures and reflections by other faith leaders and teachers and lay persons on the upcoming gospels each week…It’s wonderful to see and hear what parts of the stories they highlight and write about…It’s particularly a helpful practice for me each week, especially when the gospel reading is one of the more familiar ones…and I wonder what new revelations will come up this time around…
In the Episcopal tradition, we believe that the scriptures are the living Word of God…which means every time we read them and meditate on them, the Holy Spirit is always at work in us, helping us to discern and understand God’s Word and message for us today…
And the scriptures are most often brought to life and understanding even more, when we meditate and reflect on the scriptures, gathered in community, as we are today, and in conversations with others…
So, sometimes there is just a subtle shift, when the Spirit nudges me gently to go deeper on a particular scripture verse…other times, the Holy Spirit reveals something completely different than I have ever considered before…
This week was one of those times…The Holy Spirit, through the words of another preacher, shed a new, bright and delightful light on a section of today’s gospel reading…more generally, around the word “Peace”…
Preacher girl Kate, as she goes by on her website, is an Episcopal priest and blogger who writes a daily reflection on the upcoming gospels for the week…This past week she wrote one called “Boomerang Peace”….
She writes: I tend to think of peace as a static thing; I associate it with stillness, stability, rootedness. The way Jesus describes peace, though, it is dynamic, bouncing from person to person, house to house, community to community. This peace sounds downright restless: “Whatever house you enter, first 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.”
She goes on to describe this “Peace of God” as being filled with power, purpose and presence…much different than ordinary “human peace”…she describes the peace of God as a pure gift…
She talks about how world-changing the sharing of this greeting, “Peace to this house” could be, if we shared it in every encounter we had with others…and really meant it…
Or how powerful it might be to simply say, “Peace” instead of “hello”…and as we were saying it, to pray for the person to be filled with the same peace of God, that we experience at times…
And here’s where the “boomerang peace” illustration kicks in…
She writes, That’s all we would need to do. If the person had no interest in the peace we have to give, it would bounce back to us. But if we don’t even offer it, someone who really needs God’s peace might miss out
You can ask Loyd to verify this, but I so wanted to buy enough boomerangs this week, to give to every one of you today…I went to store after store after store trying to find some…but no luck…(I did find a couple at one place – but that was all)…
This boomerang peace illustration just brought me so much joy…and a delightful new way to think about how we can all find ways to spread God’ peace, and love and joy with everyone we encounter…and not be dismayed, when someone does not receive it or welcome the offering…
It also prompted me to think more on the unintentional ways, a simple encounter, and exchange of peace with someone could change a life…If any of you have had experience with trying to throw a boomerang…you know that it takes lots of practice and patience….and even after lots of practice…many of us never get the hang of it…We are often with someone else when we are trying it out…maybe someone is just there with us, or teaching us how to do it…we try to throw it out there, in hopes that it circles its way back to us…but often it ends up hitting another innocent bystander who is on the sidelines watching….
Then I thought to myself…Maybe that’s not such a terrible thing, if the peace we are sending out to someone…gets deflected over to someone else…that’s just one more person who has the opportunity to be changed and transformed by the love and peace of God…And then maybe that person tries to throw that boomerang of peace out there and maybe it comes back to them….or maybe it lands in someone else’s hands…
Imagine, what healing and peace would be possible in our world, if we did the same with love, with forgiveness, with gentleness, with kindness, with generosity, with joy…Imagine, if all of these fruits of the Holy Spirit, landed in someone else’s hands…
In today’s gospel reading, I think Jesus is trying to tell us, to just go…go now to put peace into each other’s hearts and hands… begin there…carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, (he doesn’t mention no boomerang); and don’t stop and get distracted on the way…just go to the places and people the Holy Spirit is nudging you to go….filled with the power, purpose, presence of God’s pure gift of peace, to share the good news of God’s love for all those you meet, with a simple greeting of peace… “Peace to this house!”
Rev. Julie Platson, Rector
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska
Hymn after sermon: Put peace into each other’s hands (WLP) 790
Put peace into each other’s hands and like a treasure hold it.
Protect it like a candle flame with tenderness enfold it.
Put peace into each other’s hands with living expectation;
be gentle in your words and ways, in touch with God’s creation.
Put peace into each other’s hands, like bread we break for sharing;
look people warmly in the eye; our life is meant for caring.
As at communion, shape your hands into a waiting cradle;
the gift of Christ receive, revere, united round the table.
Put Christ into each other’s hands, he is love’s deepest measure;
in love make peace, give peace a chance and share it like a treasure