A Homily for Peace

A Homily for Peace

Prayer Service                        Sept 17, 2025                                      by Kent Walley

The following homily was preached at our prayer service for peace held at St. Luke's Gladstone on September 17th in the wake of political violence and mass shootings.  You can always watch videos from our live worship on our YouTube channel.  Also you are welcome to visit our website www.stlukesgladstone.org.  

This will be short...I have 3 points

1. God is Love

That is what the scriptures tell us.  We read the 10 commandments tonight, but Jesus said all the commandments and scriptures could be summarized as love God with your all and love your neighbor as yourself.

 

Regardless of your party or your viewpoints on issues... Everyone must abhor violence, especially political violence.

 

In the quest for political power the nastiness and volume of the rhetoric has been turned up too high.  It provokes hate.

 

Reasoned disagreement may not make the headlines the way a vitriolic emotional statement will, but it is the way forward for liberty and democracy.  As Christians we need to follow the example of Christ and be an example of love in our world. 

 

And as the scriptures teach us: We should speak the truth to one another but with love.

 

Jesus said that to insult someone or to call someone a fool was just as much a sin, placing one in the dangers of the fires of hell, as to literally murder them.  Think about that for a moment considering what we regularly hear from our leaders.

 

We need to remember that every person, no matter how badly they are behaving or how wrong we think they are -- is a person created in the image of God and therefore worthy of dignity, love and respect.

 

As Christians we need to be people of love not of polemics, not political conquest.

 

2 Jesus said, those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

 

We need more humility.  We need people willing to listen to the other point of view and not just try to win the argument, but rather listen, and learn, and say I realize I could be wrong about this...because I am not perfect, not all-wise, and not all-knowing.

In other words: I am not God; therefore, I do still have much to learn and I could be wrong.

 

As Christians let us humble ourselves and listen to one another and especially listen for the voice and leading of God.

 

We need to be humble.

 

3. Prayer is essential.  There are voices in our culture speaking with disdain about the phrase “thoughts and prayers.”  They have a point.  To simply utter those words as a cliche and then do nothing and forget about it is not what love demands.

 

But we also have to be honest.  The problems in our country and in our world are so complex and there are such strong disagreements that they defy easy human solutions. 

 

For example, you could make all guns illegal tomorrow, but would such an extreme measure suddenly eliminate gun violence?  There would still be so many guns out there and these days, people can make their own guns with 3d printers.

 

That doesn't mean we shouldn't come together and talk and try to do more to keep guns out of the hands of those inclined to violence and who have mental health problems.

 

I am just using that as an example to say the solutions are not quite as simple as we often assume.  How do we solve the violence, the terrorism, unjustified aggression, and the many other problems in our polarized country and in our divided world?

 

All of our big complex problems should remind us that we need God.  We need Him for everything, but especially as we look at the challenges of this present moment.  Let us be wise and realize we need God to act and to lead us.

 

We need divine intervention.  We need the God of love to move in all of our hearts and bring us together to find real solutions, rather than fighting against one another.

 

God does move in amazing ways in answering our prayers.  I have seen it time and time again. Yes, we should take action... We should come together... But above all else

we should pray and call upon God to bring justice, freedom and peace to all, as well as comfort to those who mourn.

 

This moment in history makes it clearer than ever that we need 1) love, 2) humility, and 3) prayer.  May God help us to be examples of these to those around us.

 

We need the mercy of God.  So let us now go to Him in prayer, trusting God to be present to His people at this crucial moment is history.

 

Thank you for your presence here tonight.  And thank you for your prayers.