Daily Worship

Peace be with you

Katy Emslie-Smith April 27, 2017 0 0

John 20:19-23

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Lord, today we pray

For all those who fear what lies 

On the other side of the locked door.

For those who have shrunk their world 

To the size of an embattled room 

Because their wider world includes

Gunfire, grenades, bombs, abuse, pain; 

For those whose own thoughts imprison them

Behind bolted doors, keeping out uncontainable fears.

For children who hide behind bedroom doors

Fearful of what the footsteps on the stairs might bring.

 

To these Lord, we pray

That as the body of people on whom

You have breathed your Spirit,

We would come with your message

Of tough, enduring, costly peace,

Won only through the deep conflict

Of the cross,

Which left you, Jesus,

With an aching wound in your side

And bleeding holes in your hands.