How many times have you found yourself awake in bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, replaying what you did not say or what someone said to you that you cannot get out of your head? The room is quiet. The heart is not. Where does that quiet leave you?
God loves us too much to let avoidance pass for wholeness. Jesus says it plainly in Luke 12:49–56. His coming brings division, hard as that is to hear. Pay attention to what he divides. He is not severing us from one another. He is cutting through the false peace we stack like sandbags to keep truth and healing out. Avoidance is a place we go when things feel uncertain or too much. Jesus calls us out of that place.
Peace-keeping and Peace-making are not the same.
Peacekeeping keeps a silence that harms. Peacemaking steps toward truth, confession, and repair. Jesus does not preserve a fragile calm; he makes the kind of peace that goes the long haul. Peacemaking opens space for our holy longing, the deeper quiet where a soul can finally rest.
We know the other pattern. We answer the easy notes and delay the conversation that matters. We add another meeting instead of the one we need. We speak in generalities and call it wisdom. From a distance it looks like peace; up close we are crossing our fingers.
The love of Jesus tells the truth. His grace loosens our bargains with comfort. His mercy retires the ledger and sets the table. For those who avoid conflict, cure can feel like cruelty at first. The peace Jesus brings is the narrow way. It is not easy….AND….. it is worth it. We are invited to trust that the Holy Spirit can and will hold what we cannot fix.
This week I urge you to consider:
What contract with comfort is ready to be set aside?
Where have you quietly promised yourself, “I will not risk this as long as I can stay comfortable”? Name one small bargain. What would the next faithful step look like?
What ledger are you still carrying, and can you put it down?
Whose name lives in the margins of your memory with tallies beside it? What would it mean to stop keeping score and let grace balance the account?
What fence could become a gate if you asked for help?
Where have you built a boundary that now keeps love out too? Who could step through with you? What simple request would you make first?
Where is the Holy Spirit nudging you from peacekeeping to peacemaking?
In what conversation are you keeping the peace instead of telling the truth in love? What first sentence could open a path toward confession and repair?
May the love of Jesus tell the truth in time to heal us.
May his grace interrupt our comfort and carry us.
May his mercy set the table and save us a seat.
Grace and Peace,
Rev. Sterling W. Severns
Pastor
