...a time to act...

A Time To Act For Peace!

1 “At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did.”

6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the man working the vineyard, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8 He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down’ ” Luke 13:1-9.

Dear friends, Herod is out to kill Jesus in Galilee, but Jesus knows that he must get to Jerusalem. Nowhere is now safe anymore. Yes, Pilate has killed Galilean pilgrims in Jerusalem; but they were no more sinful than any other Galilean pilgrims. So, Jesus repeats the point He has made countless times before: “Unless you repent, you will all be destroyed.” But be careful here, Jesus is not speaking about going to hell if we refuse to repent. No, Jesus is making it clear that those who refuse His summons to change direction, to abandon the crazy national rebellion to fight against Rome, they will suffer the consequences. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.

So today Jesus invites you and me to examine our conscience and ask, not just what “sins of commission” we have we committed, but what “sins of omission” have we committed? In other words, what are we not doing when we hear Ukrainian President Zelenskyy report, as of Jan.1, 2025, more than 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, and more than 14,000 civilians have been killed? And what reaction do we have when we heard that, as of July 1, 2025, 60,000 Palestinians have died? The tragedy is that we are continuing to leave the slaughtering of innocent people in the hands of political and military leaders whose only solutions continue to be more and more weapons and more and more fighting.

Jesus is warning us to remember that we will be destroyed if we don’t repent. Biblical repentance, the kind of repentance Jesus is speaking about, means that we STOP, RETRACE OUR STEPS, AND BEGIN ANEW WITHOUT REPEATING THE SAME SINFUL BEHAVIOR AS WE DID YESTERDAY. We must CHANGE, in other words, in order to repent. We are a broken world, and many of us are members of churches that are fully engaged in and generous to the surrounding community, but we say and do little or nothing about our leaders at home and abroad who continue wars that kill many innocent people. When we fail to speak up and demand that we make decisions based on providing solutions that are a blessing to the common good of all humanity, we are living too comfortably. We must demand from all our leaders to work together for peace. The veterans I know who have fought in wars, always tell me that there are never winners in war. They tell me that war is an unnecessary and horrible waste of human life. They always tell me, “You never want to be in a war. War is the most frightening, destructive, and unimaginable conflict on earth — ever!”

So let us pray for our leaders, send them letters to this affect, and beg them to work together for peace, for the common good of all humanity. Let us work together in our congregations and ask our church leaders to work together with other churches to be a voice of peace. We must all agree to use nuclear power for energy, and to work together to dismantle nuclear weapons — for the common good of all humanity.

Consider the texts below:

Isaiah 2

1 “The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2  In days to come    the mountain of the Lord’s houseshall be established as the highest of the mountains    and shall be raised above the hills;all the nations shall stream to it.

3     Many peoples shall come and say,“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,    to the house of the God of Jacob,that he may teach us his ways    and that we may walk in his paths.”For out of Zion shall go forth instruction    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4  He shall judge between the nations    and shall arbitrate for many peoples;they shall beat their swords into plowshares    and their spears into pruning hooks;nation shall not lift up sword against nation;    neither shall they learn war any more.

5  O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Joel 4

2 “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,    to the house of the God of Jacob,that he may teach us his ways    and that we may walk in his paths.”For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3 He shall judge between many peoples    and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;they shall beat their swords into plowshares    and their spears into pruning hooks;nation shall not lift up sword against nation;    neither shall they learn war any more.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.