This was my notes for preaching this weekend

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 Question for you what do we do when we give a sign a piece? Whose peace are we giving? What are we doing? Are we simply going round the church trying to shake hands with everybody scared that Someone might miss out? So what is the peace? In the little video that we've just seen of the sign of peace as in sign language what we do is we share the peace of Christ for Jesus lives within us what we are saying in that moment is the peace of Christ that is in within me I want to share with you it's not just a ritualistic event in the process of the service it is a real challenge. It is it is sharing the peace of Christ with others. Paul says in ephesians today he treats us as equals so made as equals we are equal in the sight of God and Paul recognises this challenge often we have seen in our world where peace is hard and difficult not just in the world but in relationship to most of my stuff that I do at school and in my counselling after school is about building relationships that have broken helping people to navigate that broken relationships without peace within our hearts we cannot hope for World Peace for it starts with us in our community in both our local community and in ourselves as Paul says in verse 14 there is a divide in world of hostility in this present age we can also see this divide and rule of hostility both cultural and political divide in this country we are facing and we as Christians need to be countercultural we need to show as Paul says that we are better than this. If we're all equal in Christ no matter who we are no matter where we've come from no matter our language barrier or ethnicity they're all our brothers and sisters even those who wrong us. And that's a real challenge for us in this bringing the gift of Christ peace four that calls us to the challenge for reconciliation again Paul talks about this need of reconciliation this need of unity of bringing people together. There is no longer stranger he says but fellow citizens and all God's people let me just say that again there is no longer strangers but fellow citizens and all God's people.

 

Our church is not just a bricks and mortar that build a foundation of a church Paul talks about a living church a living temple not built at a brick but built out of love and of peace end of one of the community we are the peaceful presence of Christ in a broken world. This responsibility lies with old Christians. To be truly authentic we need to be truly field of the Holy Spirit challenge the SoC and those norms that seemed to be coming in of hatred and division and bring peace I'm reconciliation and understanding we use our gifts and talents that God has given to us each one of us filled with the Holy Spirit to proclaim this peace of Christ at the end of Jesus ministry when he appears amongst his disciples he says peace be with you may his peace reside and rest on us that then we can be creatures of reconciliation that we can be people feel devoted spirit 2 proclaim that peace I think of the words of jump over second when he strongly urged Christians to reject modern tendencies and act as peacemakers he said that we need to bring that piece of Christ to this fractured world. This can only happen by working together and find it in reconciliation and peace in our own lives so how can we do this how can we bring practical steps to proclaim this peace that is talked about in fusions today 1 be open and honest and to have honest conversations.

2 actively include others no longer are we a closed shop we are open.

 

#3 challenge hatred challenges stereotypes that we see challenge our own prejudices our own stereotypes and sometimes we have grown up with these but now is the time to challenge them

 

4 serve others as a family of God this means lastly that we look for you in the T in the Christian Church and pray for unity but although we may have different ideas about what Jesus says and what Jesus does that we are Christians togetherl


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