Live in Peace (2 Corinthians 13:11)

A group of Chapel Hill clergy met in the prayer garden at University Baptist one week after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. We began our prayer service at exactly 11:33, the time the horror began. Leaders from different churches and faith traditions were invited to have roles in the prayer service. I was assigned the benediction.

            I read the final verses of 2 Corinthians. It says, “Put things in order, … agree with one another, live in peace.” Then in the next verse Paul tells the Corinthians to “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (13:12). COVID 19 has greatly deterred this practice. I wonder what the world would look like if Christ followers were as concerned about greeting one another with love and affection as they are about getting their point across in arguments.

            While we aren’t kissing each other right now, we can strive for agreement, or at least mutual respect. COVID or no COVID, we can commit to working for peace. As tragic as what happened in Uvalde is, it has not brought people together. Advocates for restrictions on gun ownership are in a full fury, and gun-rights proponents are not giving an inch. Everyone is doubling down, staking their position. Compassion is not breaking through.

            It won’t. Tragedy does not make us more loving, more Christlike. The world is fallen. The loudest voices insisting that the proliferation of guns is what causes gun violence cannot help themselves from speaking in tired, politicized imperatives that leave no room for those who disagree with them. Those who love their guns are tone-deaf to the cries of the departed. Tragedy increases our animosity and gives our sinful nature an avenue of expression.

            In Christ though, we aren’t under sin. In Christ, seeking agreement and promoting peace and giving out buckets of compassion are all more important to us than winning an argument. We Christians should participate in the national conversation, but when we do, we need to remember who we are. We are His possession. The Holy Spirit speaks through us. So, we seek peace. We see Christ in the red-faced anger of those shouting their positions whatever their stand might be. We strive to love in Jesus’ name, and COVID be darned, we give the kiss of peace.