I preached a sermon this morning. Like I do every Sunday (except when I don’t!).
The sermon today was on peace. I talked a bit about peace brought by the world around us. This peace includes racism (of the benevolent type where we separate warring factions); religion (let everyone develop their own approaches to God); rationalism (the world around us is a closed system, just figure it out and make peace with it); and righteousness (tip the scales of good and bad hoping that enough good is good enough).
On the other hand, Jesus provides peace. All Christians are brothers and sisters together with Jesus — we have an obligation to work together. There is one way to God — Jesus is the Lord of all. The world contains mystery because we are not God — we can have the mind of Christ to help us know God. One wrong thing is a conviction of evil — but Jesus provides forgiveness of sins.
When we live in the ambiance of either system, we begin to develop actions and activities that reflect that system. A worldly system will lack trust and a sense of truth, a lack of mystery and people who seek to do good only for the sake of overcoming what they do wrong.
A Christian system works from trust, is based in certainty, invites God and his activities into our daily lives and does good because we love others.
Quite a contrast that needs further development.