“Peace to you,” he says. “Peace to you.” Quiet those fears. Let me quiet them by taking them onto myself. See? It is I, myself. And my gift to you is peace. Not just what you used to think was peace. For this peace comes, indeed, from the other side of the grave. It’s a whole new peace. Call it “my” peace, he had once said. It’s his unique peace, because it’s won by taking fear and death into himself, as he bears our infirmities and carries our diseases. Bearing them, he frees us. Invading our prisons, he releases us. Carrying our death in himself all the way to cross and grave and beyond, he swaps that death for his own life, swaps our fears for his peace, swaps our anxiety for his calm and love, swaps our hunkered-down imprisonment for his mission that came from the Father and now involves us, as well. “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” Released from the prison of our fear, we get to live and move in the freedom and audacity of his own mission.
-Rev. Dr. David G. Truemper, Sermon: "Breaking Into Prisons", April 18th 2004
Hi Abby,
I dropped by the blog and wanted to say Hi. PTS is not the same without you this year. I hope you are doing well, growing, loving your field ed experience.
Peace,
David
Posted by: David H | November 03, 2005 at 07:21 PM