What we will reap at harvest time...
“So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” - Galatians 6:9
I've been feeling incredibly tired lately. Maybe tired isn't quite the right word. It might be more that I've been feeling weary. It's a combination of fatigue, of exhaustion, tied up with just being tired of hearing bad news, feeling like the world is crumbling around us on some days, feeling like any of the good we try to do together is never going to be enough. I'm tired of feeling riled up and overwhelmed, tired of feeling disheartened by the world, tired of feeling all of the things.
The song “Come now, Oh Prince of Peace” has been cycling its way through my mind and I realized that the answer to my weariness may not simply be rest or more caffeine and energy that I had thought it was. What I have been missing is peace, Christ’s peace. The word “peace” is confusing.
I recently read, “Peace is a process, not a state of being.” So often I associate peace with stillness and calm, and it makes it difficult to find in a world that seems consumed with wars and rumors of war. I began to wonder, what if peace–the process– isn’t very peaceful at all? What if peace leads us into recognizing the ways in which we are caught in systems that keep us trapped in feedback loops of violence, violence against bodies, minds, souls, nations, creation?
Perhaps the Prince of Peace is coming not to calm us down, but to rile us up: to interrupt the status quo, and awaken us to the beckoning potential of God’s reign.
That realization left me feeling frustrated for a moment. I don’t want to be riled up again I’ve felt riled up for awhile now. We are all expected to do and be so much in the world to so many people, caught up in systems that keep us locked in place, that encourage us to turn our attention away from the way things could be, away from the way God intends things to be. It leaves us fighting against who we were created to be, leaves us feeling weary. But when we lean into Christ’s peace, when we don’t give up and join the process of peace, something different happens.
Even though we may want a still kind of peace, the peace of Christ isn’t passive. It rile us up and empower us to act, even when we are weary. It may seem like more work, but the peace of Christ is something that renews and re-energizes by reminding us of what could be, reminding us of whose we are in God, reminding us of where our hope and energy should be founded.
How is the peace of Christ at work in your life today? How are you being beckoned as God’s child to speak truth to power, to change harmful systems, to share God’s love with the world around you?
When you need it most, may you find that peace that comes from our different kind of King, from God’s different kind of reign. May that peace stir in your heart to rile you up in a way that reenergizes and eases the weariness you may be feeling. May sharing that peace and love, looking for where you can do good in the world, encourage you to work towards God’s kingdom come. May you know and experience the ease of weariness as you are engulfed and grounded and loved by the Prince of Peace. Pastor Sharayah Robinson Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Kathryn-NomeFingal Parish