Burnand
7th Trinity III
Luke 10:1-20
After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him, before his face, to every town and place where he himself was about to go. He told them, "An ample harvest, and few workers! Ask the harvest master, therefore, to send out workers to help with the harvesting. Go: I hereby send you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a wallet or knapsack or sandals, and do not pause to greet anyone on the way.
"When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a person of peace is there, your peace will alight on them; if not, it will turn round and come back to you. Stay in that place, eating and drinking with them, because the worker is worth his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
"When
you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you, and heal the
sick and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is close upon you.' But when you enter
a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of
your town that sticks to our feet we are shaking off before your eyes. Yet be
sure of this: The kingdom of God is approaching.' I am telling you, Sodom will
be better off than that town on that day.
"The worse for you, Chorazin! The worse for you, Bethsaida! Because if the deeds of the spirit that happened in you had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, they would long since be sitting in sackcloth and ashes as a sign of their change of heart and mind. But Tyre and Sidon will be better off on the day of decision than you. And you, Capernaum, won't you be exalted to the skies? You will go down to the depths.
"Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me, but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me."
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| Tissot |
He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Here, I have now given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy, and none of it shall ever hurt you. But do not be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your true being is taken up into the world of the heavens [or, that your names are recorded in the heavens]."
7th August Trinity
September 4, 2022
Luke 10:1-20
“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a person of peace is there, your peace
will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that place….”
These words of Christ give us insight into the true nature of peace.
First of all, peace needs to be invoked. At the threshold of any
new situation, we
Equanimity
need to stop for a moment and inwardly call up peace from
within ourselves. We do so in finding the calm center of our being in which
Christ can be found. Then we can send the peace we find there out before us
into the situation.
Then if that situation contains those who are also capable of calling up peace from within, if they too are sons and daughters of peace, our peace alights on them like a mantle that strengthens their peace. Peace multiplies, for they, in their turn, send peace back to the giver.
If not, then the peace we send out will turn and come back to us. Peace sent out does not dissipate just because there is no one out there to receive it. In such a situation, there is always at least one person of peace – the one who sent it out. Such a precious commodity is never poured out in vain. If not received by another, it can always return to the giver as a strengthening of their own forces of peace. It only dissipates if not caught again.
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| Stephen B. Whatley |
For Christ says, “This peace with the world can envelop you and radiate from you because it is I, the Prince of Peace, who give it to you.” His power of truth and self-disciplined love guide us toward humankind’s future. May we walk with him wrapped in the mantle of his ever-flowing peace.
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