Word from Wiese

Pray for Peace

Pray for Peace

23 February 2022

In one of my favorite Beatles tunes, “Back in the U.S.S.R,” there’s a line: “the Ukraine girls really knock me out.” I’ve never been to Ukraine, but I have no reason to doubt that the girls of all ages are pretty special. And I assume that God is pretty pleased with all the boys too.

As I write this note to you early Tuesday morning, it’s tough to discern the intended end-game for Russia’s President Putin as he amasses troops at Ukraine’s borders and is now activating troops in pro-Russia sections of Ukraine.

Pray for PeaceBut I know Jesus calls us to pray for peace in these kinds of situations, so I’m asking the COS faith family to include this tense and dangerous situation in your prayers today. In the Beatitudes, Jesus promises, “blessed are the peace-makers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 6:9) So let’s pray for all those in Russia, Ukraine, the United States, NATO countries, and indeed anyone who is using their influence for peace in this situation. Let us even pray specifically for Vladimir Putin, that the Holy Spirit would steer whatever compulsion or fear that is driving his decisions. What? Pray for even Putin? Well, visiting preacher Pastor Katie’s sermon this past Sunday quoted Jesus’ challenging gospel words about Christ-like love even for our enemies: “But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you . . . pray for those who abuse you. . . . If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” Luke 6

Pray for PeaceAs we near the end of Black History Month, so many wonderful quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King swirl in our minds, including “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” We see the truth in King’s words with this Ukraine situation. Our rising gas prices in Georgia are connected to “an inescapable network of mutuality” on the economic front. Even more important, our beloved COS daughter, Sarah Juhasz, might be deployed to that region—aha, a single garment of destiny. The story goes that the Beatles wrote “Back in the USSR” as a fun response to the Beach Boys’ “California Girls,” making the case that there were beautiful women in our enemies’ homelands as well as those of our friends . . . a single garment of God’s family, all beloved and cared for by our heavenly Father.

All of us are cautious about statistics we read these days, but according to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 84 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide in 2021 as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. So, first, let’s pray today that no more are displaced from their homes in this Ukrainian conflict. Secondly, as we pray for Ukraine, let our whispers to God simultaneously ask for “justice everywhere,” in the hundreds of other global conflicts currently simmering or raging, causing anguish for so many in our “inescapable network of mutuality.”

Dark moments of these days.
But approach this day living up to what Jesus says about you: YOU are the light of the world. So, shine today!

In Christ’s hope,
Pastor Fritz