One day I was out running errands when I had a passing encounter with an older gentleman. We were both heading out of a bank, approaching the door at the same time. We exchanged pleasantries on the way. But there was something real going on, in how we looked each other in the eye, we were regarding each other in more than just a surface level. It was clear to me that here was someone who carried himself with a lot of dignity, who I had the feeling had probably suffered his share in life, there was a sadness with him, and strength and depth. He had a brace on his leg, so I held the door open for him.

As we went outside and parted ways I said, “Take care.”
He replied, “Wish me peace. I’ve taken on enough cares.”

Peace can be a blessing we give to each other. Peace as a prayer we share with each other and for each other. Peace. I wish you peace. I pray you may be blessed with peace. I bless you with peace. 

This is an ancient and enduring practice of our faith, to offer each other peace, bless each other with the peace of Christ, the peace that Christ passed to his disciples: “My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you,” the peace that has been passed down through generations and generations of followers of Jesus.

Many Christians pass the peace of Christ with handshakes or hugs every Sunday in our service. The ancient Mediterranean practice is to do this with a kiss on the cheek, known as “the kiss of peace.” Many Christian liturgies begin with the blessing of “Peace be with you,” to which everyone replies, “And also with you.”

This is a blessing we share with countless other folks who follow other faiths. “Shalom” is an ancient and enduring Jewish greeting, meaning peace. The Muslim greeting is “as-salamu alaykum” – “peace be upon you.” The response is, “wa-alaykumy s-salam” – “and peace also upon you.”

An essential Buddhist practice is “Metta,” which is a meditation that focuses the heart on the sincere wish for peace and wellness and safety for oneself, for one’s loved ones, for strangers, and for one’s enemies.

So, blessing each other with peace, blessing each other for peace, and receiving those blessings, clearly has something to do with the heart of human efforts to be orientated toward the Divine.

I recommend, I urge, I invite, I challenge us to go deep with our practice of sharing the blessing of peace.

Be sincere with your blessings of peace. Make it your heartfelt wish for the person you’re saying it to. Use it to bless your friends and your loved ones. Use it to bless yourself. Use it to bless strangers and passersby. Use it to bless even your enemies.

God knows we all need it. God knows we’re taking on enough cares. God knows that anyone we encounter in whatever way through our days has taken on enough cares – whether we know it or not, God knows the troubles folks carry on their hearts.

We may not be coping with our cares very well; they may not be coping so well. Peace in the soul is truly what we each and all need.

This blessing of peace is a powerful thing. This is a powerful blessing.

There are two beautiful images from the teachings of the Apostle Paul that I try to keep close to my heart. One is that the peace of Christ can “stand guard over your heart” when we sincerely give our cares to God. The other image is that this peace is peace “that surpasses understanding.”

May the peace of Christ guard your hearts, may you take comfort and take courage in the peace that surpasses our understanding, the peace that goes deeper and farther than the troubles of the world. If we truly receive this peace, and if we truly offer this peace to others, if we truly wish to pass this peace along, how much can this change our lives?

When we offer this blessing in a good way, when we’re coming from the heart, when we’re speaking to the soul of the person we are with when we wish them the blessing of “Peace,” this has the power and potential to truly bring about that peace.

This just may be a case of “be careful what you pray for, because it may come true.” This peace of Christ is not just a good feeling. It’s not some distant wish. It’s not some way to deny, deflect, and distract. No. This kind of peace requires an honest account of how we are not at peace, just as it calls us to glimpse the sacred possibility that we can know peace even in the midst of our troubles.

Can we wish someone peace if we are making war with them? Can we truly wish them peace if we’re judging them and resenting them and hating them? Can we truly receive this blessing of the peace of Christ if we are making war with ourselves? If we are judging or hating on ourselves? If we are not standing up for ourselves?

Now, the peace of Christ is not passivity. Yes, there are ways it will call us to surrender and accept those things that are out of our control. But my personal experience is that it also stirs me into action. Often enough when I pray deeply in the light of the peace of Christ, I find that part of my troubles is because of moral distress. Ah, I do need to go out and do something for the sake of my moral integrity.

Maybe I need to confess. Maybe I need to be convicted to not standby any long, and act. In order to be at peace within myself, I need to be doing what I can to live out my Christian values when they are being violated (whether by myself or others). The peace of Christ can support me with the grace and the confidence to do so in a good way.

The blessing of peace is also a good blessing for those who really get under our skin, even our enemies. Again, this does not mean passivity. The Way of Jesus is very clear: “bless those who curse you;” “do not answer evil for evil;” but meet hate with love. When our blessing for our enemy is for the peace that surpasses understanding, this is not at all blessing them to persist in their vile and crooked ways. For them to know the peace of Christ they would need to desist from their detestable ways.

Like many of you, I am very upset with the ways some Christian leaders are using the language of our faith to celebrate and support war, and to attack those who urge peace. I genuinely wish for them that they may let the peace of Christ into their hearts.

Like many of you, I am distressed by the culture and cycles of violence in our country. Just this morning we awoke to news of another act of political violence. Violence leads to violence unless we stop the cycle.

The Letter of James teaches: “Where do the wars, fights, and arguments among you come from? Do they not come from the selfish desires that wage war in your own bodies?” (James 4:1).

“But the wisdom that comes from the One Beyond us is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, full of mercy, and open to another’s way of seeing and thinking. People with this kind of wisdom are like trees filled with good fruit. They have open hearts with nothing to hide. This wisdom will bring about a harvest of doing what is right, because they are peacemakers planting seeds of peace.” James 3:13-18 (First Nations Version)

If those who make war receive the peace of Christ into their hearts, their motivation for violence dissolves. Countless people can attest to this, when their walk with Jesus has led them to turn away from their violent ways.

If I can wish the blessing of peace to even the one who is cursing me out, this helps me to pull out of getting sucked into the cycles of hurt and hate. It in no way prevents me from acting in integrity to resist the ways of war.

“Peace” is also a good blessing when you don’t really know what else to say. Not that long ago I was at a gas station to fill up the car. The person using the other side of the pump was weeping in a heartbroken kind of way. I felt like I shouldn’t just ignore it. I said, “Hi. I see your tears. I don’t know what you’re going through, and I don’t need to know more than you want to say. I just wish you some measure of peace through it all.” She really appreciated it. She said she just gotten some bad news. She didn’t want to say any more than that. So, I left her with the blessing of peace.

These little things we can do for each other can help make life more bearable.

Now, for the record, I’m not always so gracious and caring. I often can be callous or frustrated or self-absorbed. That’s the honest-to-God truth, God help me.

Whoever we are, wherever we are on our walk with God, it does help to have the practice of receiving peace from God, inviting the peace of Christ to guard our hearts, and sharing that peace as a blessing to others, when we can.

We are made for the peace that surpasses understanding. We are made to be blessed and to bless others with this holy peace.

So, I invite you to really be earnest in receiving the blessing of peace.

Do you want to try it? If you’re comfortable doing it, just put your hand on your heart, close your eyes, and wish yourself “peace,” may that you may have peace in your soul. Invite in Christ as the bearer of that peace, or invoke however it is you most easily feel the nearness of God, and let that higher power pray through you and bless you with “peace.”

Then open your eyes and keep that hand on your heart, and look around you and see who’s eyes you meet, and wish them peace, sincerely wish them peace.

Thanks be to God.

Delivered Sunday, April 26, 2026, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg, at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge.

Image by Shameer Pk from Pixabay