July 22, 2013
“What a Lousy Idea It Is for Other People to be the Source of Our Peace”
From her Sarcastic Lutheran blog on Patheos, Pastor Nadia Bolz Weber shares her thoughts about Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 (which was the July 7 scripture for the liturgical year) and provides a fresh way to think about the text and apply it to our lives. She writes: “But it’s not helpful to make other people the source of our peace when, as our text says, not everyone shares in peace. Not everyone is up for this, maybe not your boss or your friends or your parents, and if you extend peace to them and they do not take it, that peace is not wasted—Jesus says it returns to you —and you know why? Because they were not really the source of your peace to begin with.” Related reading: While you’re on Nadia’s blog, take some time to read her moving tribute to a friend who died recently, a woman who not only offered her loving acceptance and peace in the midst of a tumultuous life but gave her a room in her home, an act of kindness that helped turn Nadia’s life around twenty years earlier— simply because this woman believed in her. (For more about Nadia’s amazing story, watch this video in which she addresses a conference of Lutheran young people. We’ve featured it before, but it’s well worth watching again. Nadia Bolz Weber’s ministry is reaching people who all too often don’t feel welcome in other churches.)
