Newsletter Piece on Peace

What does peace mean to you?

Just before I started writing this piece I had been thinking of what I would do for the Time for the Young at Heart on Camping Sunday and a big part of church camps is singing around the campfire. The two trains of thought sort of collided and I started thinking of campfire songs that talked about peace.

“I’ve got peace like a river in my soul” [had to pause to do the actions after typing that one]
“I’ve got the peace that passeth understanding way down in the depths of my heart (where?)”
“Turned the stone and looked beneath it...Peace on Earth was all it said”

There are multiple hymns and other church songs that talk about peace as well. But what do we mean by it? How is it that we find peace to be a fruit of the Spirit, a sign that we dwell in the Spirit of God/God’s Spirit dwells in us?

Peace, like many other words, has a wide variety of meanings and uses. Sometimes we use it in geopolitics (usually to comment on how it is lacking). Sometimes we use it to describe a quiet setting, often outside. Sometimes we use it to describe a feeling, something internal to ourselves. What is the peace that is a fruit of the Spirit?

I think it is all of those meanings. Internal peace, community peace, peace with our environment, world peace are all signs that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives and in the world. But more than anything I think that peace is a sign of transformation. And the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the work of transformation.

So I have to ask: where have you found peace in the world this week? What had to be transformed for that peace to exist?

For the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in our lives we have to be open to being transformed. The change may be small, seemingly insignificant or it may be so big we are not sure it can really even happen. Either way transformation is at work.

We could sit in the park and only be distracted by the street noise or the people walking or the worries about what might come around the corner. Then something transforms us and we notice the peacefulness, the colours of the flowers, the gentle breeze rustling the leaves, the rabbits hopping past.

We could be totally distraught by the busy-ness and uncertainties of life. We could be totally stressed out. We could let the anxiety tear us apart. Some of us think that is the natural way to be. Then we follow the advice of Psalm 46 “Be still and know that I am God”, which transforms us and we find some measure of inner peace amidst all the busy-ness and uncertainties.

Age-old enmities and conflicts erupt into open warfare. It seems there is no end to wars and rumours of wars. What would it take for God to transform all involved to find a path for peace? It seems impossible so often but it happened in Ireland. Transformation and peace are possible.

Peace is a fruit of the Spirit. Peace is a dream sometimes. Peace based on justice is a sing of God’s Reign breaking into the world. It will really only come when we open ourselves, as individuals and as communities, to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit blowing through our lives.

Will we have the courage to be open to being changed, transformed, reshaped? Will we have the courage to be makers and seekers of peace?