Skip to main content

Let Your Peace Return To You?


Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. (Matthew 10: 11-15)

          I listened to this passage on my way to the hospital yesterday morning. The first thing that came to mind was “so much for ‘judge not, that ye be not judged.’” Shake the dust off my feet if they don’t listen to me? I suppose that’s not calling down fire and brimstone, but then again, Jesus said that fire and brimstone was too good for those who rejected what the disciples had to tell them.
          But there’s another way to look at it that doesn’t speak to me. It screams. It’s not about what happens to “those fools.” It’s about how I respond to what those fools do. Those who know me even a little know that I’m not a “let your peace return to you” or “shake the dust off your feet” sort. Neither am I a “call down lightning on them” sort. But I am a bit of a pit bull mixed with a bull in china shop. How do I stop caring and walk away like nothing is wrong? That, to me, sounds like hatred. That sounds like judging them and declaring them not worth my bother. 
          And yet, Jesus said to shake the dust off my feet and let my peace return to me. This reminds me of my thoughts on peace as I was starting to look at the fruit of the Spirit. The problem with peace is that peace is calm. In other words, there aren’t highs and lows. It’s a flat line. Peace is “dead.” That’s not entirely true, of course, but for a beginner, it is. How does one let one’s peace return to one when one is all riled up? How does one let one’s peace return to one when all around one is riled up? 
          I think this one will require much thought and prayer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more