On Wednesday we will remember those men and women who have sacrificed their lives in two world wars for our peace. But does the world feel at peace?
Sadly, there have been conflicts since then and more loss of lives, both in the armed forces and civilians. The world seems to be a scary place for many.
Today’s Bible reading from Genesis (23 v1-19) concerns Abraham who was living in a foreign land negotiating with Ephron, a Hittite and the owner of the land, for a field to be able to bury his wife, Sarah who had recently died. The passage describes an amicable conversation between the two men, Abraham offers to pay the full price, Ephron offers to gift the land to Abraham. Abraham again offers the full price, Ephron tells him it is worth 400 shekels of silver, but he is not worried about the price. This was a high price and the custom would have been to bargain down to half that price. Abraham gives Ephron the 400 shekels without any further bartering.
This is a picture of friendly negotiations between people on “different” sides.
The hymn by Fred Pratt Green in STF (705) has the following lines
“It is God whose purpose summons us to use the present hour who recalls us to our senses when a nation’s life turns sour
God reminds us every sunrise that the world is ours on lease:
for the sake of life tomorrow may our love for it increase
may all races live together, share its riches, be at peace.”
We do pray for our world, for its natural resources and for the people of all nations, all colours, all faiths, that all can live at peace. We pray that we can come to our senses and life can be once more full of colour and flavour. We pray that we can look to the legacy we live behind in this world, that wars will cease, that all peoples can live in harmony, that we can enjoy but respect the beauty that is all around us. We pray for a world at peace.