Introduction and Ice Breaker
How did your family of origin deal with conflict growing up?
Themes to Consider
Peacemakers
They experience inner flourishing that exemplifies itself in this expression of outward happiness
Will be called children of God… true followers of Jesus
Colossians 1:20: “...and through him to reconcile to himself, whether on Earth or Heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
GOD, IN JESUS WAS A PEACEMEKER
Peacemaking through reconciliation: So to be a peacemaker, is to be an active agent of reconciliation “as if God were making his appeal through us”
God makes his case for reconciliation and peace through us.
Receive the peace that come through Christ
To be a peacemaker is to bring restoration and peace to people for people
Peacemakers from a place of privilege
Peacemakers from a place of pain
Discussion Questions
Think of places in your heart, your personal life / relationships where you don’t experience peace.
Is there any reconciliation needed in your relational world?
In our conflicted world, consider where you need reconciliation from a place of privilege or pain.
What acts of reconciliation could you do this week?
Guided Prayer
Silence / Remove distractions as much as you can and spend two minutes (time it, if helpful) in silence, noticing your body, your emotions and thoughts. Perhaps use a simple phrase to pray silently so that you stay focused.
We come before our Father and ask that he would bring peace and wholeness to our world, which is mourning; to our communities, which are broken; and to our hearts, which are divided. Come, Holy Spirit, and hear our supplications.
Read and Respond / Heavenly Father, you made everything in the world to be in fair and healthy balance, with no oppression or exploitation or violence, and you saw that it was very good. Now your creation has turned its heart away from you, and our relationships are broken—the land is broken, the people are broken, and our ways are broken. As we struggle in the midst of all this disorder, we believe that you are working among us to heal the broken. We cling to your promise that one day soon, we will gather together at your table, as one, to feast and rejoice once again in your Shalom.
And so we come together this morning to ask that you would, even now, hasten your Holy Spirit to bring wholeness and rest to our world. We pray for those who continue to suffer from violence in war. We ask for a cessation of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and for lasting reconciliation in Kashmir, Korea, Israel & Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other long-standing conflicts.
O Father, bring your peace.
We pray for restoration of relationships in our communities that have been torn apart by crime and by oppression. We ask for understanding, resolve, and goodwill in our nation as we navigate the deep waters of criminal justice reform and racial reconciliation.
O Father, bring your peace.
We pray for those who are already peace-makers, who seek to understand and repair the broken places in the world. In our community we pray especially for our mental health workers and for those laboring to feed the hungry in missions and food pantries. We pray specifically for Recovery House of Worship; Trellis; the Preemptive Love Coalition; Roots Cafe; and Park Slope Women’s Shelter. Father may their efforts bring peace far beyond what is possible by human means.
O Father, strengthen and guide those who are peace-makers. And Father we pray for the wars that are waged daily in our own hearts. We ask that you would give us discernment and self-control. Empower us by your Spirit to turn away from the anger, envy, ambition, and pride which daily threaten to separate us from you and from each other. Turn our eyes away from our own needs and desires, and lead us to sacrificially serve those around us.
O Father, make us agents of peace.
God of Peace, may your desire for wholeness and rest run through everything that we do, and may your Spirit settle gently on our broken world, to restore the Shalom that only you can bring.
Amen.
Supplemental Content
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. —2 Corinthians 5:17-20
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory, will himself restore you, confirm you, strengthen you, and establish you. —1 Peter 5:10
Reconciliation is an on-going spiritual process involving forgiveness, repentance, and justice that restores broken relationships and systems to reflect God’s intention for all creation to flourish. —Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil
