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A Wesleyan Summons
to Peace and Love |
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Invocation “Pray for Peace” Global Praise 2, #58 |
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Hymn “For the Fruits of the Spirit” Charles Wesley
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Tune: MESSIAH, The United Methodist Hymnal, #399; refrain, S T Kimbrough, Jr. |
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1. Jesus, God of peace and love,
send thy blessing from above,
take, and seal us for your own,
touch our hearts, and make us one.
Refrain
3. Root up every bitter root,
multiply the Spirit’s fruit:
love, and joy, and quiet peace,
meek long-suffering, gentleness.
Refrain |
2. By the sense of sin forgiven
purge out all the former leaven:
malice, guile, and proud offense;
take the stone of stumbling hence.
Refrain
4. Grant us general temperance
boundless pure benevolence,
cordial, firm fidelity,
that your mind may in us be.
Refrain |
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Refrain
Bring the reign of love and peace,
that all war and hatred cease.
May peace rule in every heart,
love and unity impart.
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The Wesleyan Heritage Speaks of Peace |
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| Reader 1: |
What have we learned about peace from Holy Scripture? Have we taught our children the Gospel lesson of Luke 10:5, “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house’”? What a message for times of peace and war! Do we dare say, “Peace” as our first word upon entering the home of friends and enemies alike? What might happen if soldiers had on their lips as the first word upon entering the home of the enemy: Peace, Salaam, Shalom, Paix, Friede, Pax?
One of our forebears in the faith, Charles Wesley, reflected on these words from Luke’s Gospel, “Into whatsoever house you enter, first say, Peace,” and wrote these poignant words: |
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1. Peace to this house! the greatest good
which sinners can from God receive!
The peace Divine on all bestowed
who in a suffering Christ believe,
the peace which seals your sins forgiven,
and brings you here a taste of heaven.
2. We cannot wish our neighbor more
than present and eternal peace,
the riches these of Jesus’ poor,
with which we all on earth now bless,
and spread through earth the precious prize,
and turn it into paradise.
Charles Wesley |
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Are we prepared to “spread through earth the precious prize” of peace “and
turn [earth] into paradise”? |
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| A Wesleyan Prayer for Peace |
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| Reader 2: |
In The United Methodist Hymnal, there is a powerful anti-war hymn of Charles Wesley: “Our Earth We Now Lament To See.” It is as timely today as it was in the 18th century, when the world was teeming with wars on many fronts: the American Revolution, frontier wars with Native Americans, the Thirty Years War, the killing fields of Culloden, and many others. It is Wesley’s eternal prayer for peace.
Wesley uses some images that are less familiar to us today, but are descriptive of the horrors of war and death. In the second stanza, we hear echoes of Revelation 9:11, with its Satanic images from the depths of Sheol, and of 2 Kings 23:10, where children were sacrificed as burnt offerings to the god Baal at an illicit place of worship known as Tophet.
Please join in singing this Wesleyan summons to peace and to the end of war. |
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| Hymn “Our Earth We Now Lament to See” |
| Tune: ST. CATHERINE, The United Methodist Hymnal, #710 |
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1. Our earth we now lament to see
with floods of wickedness o’erflowed,
with violence, wrong, and cruelty,
one wide extended field of blood,
where men like fiends each other tear
in all the hellish rage of war.
3. O might the universal Friend
the havoc of his creatures see!
Bid our unnatural discord end,
declare us reconciled in thee!
Write kindness in our inward parts
and chase the murderer from our hearts! |
2. As listed on Abaddon’s side,
they mangle their own flesh, and slay;
Tophet is moved, and opens wide
its mouth for its enormous prey;
and myriads sink beneath the grave,
and plunge into the flaming wave.
4. Who now against each other rise,
the nations of the earth constrain
to follow after peace, and prize
the blessings of thy righteous reign,
the joys of unity to prove,
the paradise of perfect love! |
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| Prayers of Intercession for peace |
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| Benediction “Peace is My Last Gift to You” Global Praise I, #55 |
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| © 2007 S T Kimbrough, Jr. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Units of United Methodist Women may reproduce this liturgy for use in their own programming without further permission. Any print, electronic, or other form of reproduction by parties other than United Methodist Women may be made only by written request to the holder of the copyright. |
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