Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. – Psalm 85:8

 

Ezekiel 36:24-28 – New Revised Standard Version

I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.

Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

God is not subject to those outer forces that capture, colonize, and corrupt humanity. God's Word and power, moved by God's compassion, justice, and mercy override the authority of the idols of society and the voices of empires.

God takes what is unclean and washes it clean.

God takes what is hard and useless and softens it so that it can be enlivened and revived to be and to do what it was intended to be and to do.

God takes what is empty and fills with His Spirit so that people and peoples whose lives were aimless, reckless, and undisciplined will become observant of God's ways.

God takes the homeless ones and the refugees and resettles them.

God takes the abandoned and makes them His own people.

He does all of this without the permission of any higher authority and He has no need to justify His actions.

Thus, God speaks peace.

Oh, that we might have hearts that work like hearts ought to work.

Jesus speaks peace also, and the powers of the day grow suspicious and feel threatened.

Mark 11:27-33 – New Revised Standard Version

Again they came to Jerusalem.

As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?”

Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.”

They argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet.

So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”

And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Jesus did not have to campaign for his position.

He did not have to appeal to judicial authority for his credibility.

He needed no public referendum to speak, heal, and lift the lives of people.

He was not required to argue the veracity of his words.

He was not dependent upon popular assent nor official sanction.

He could simply refuse to answer irrelevant questions and keep preaching, teaching, healing, serving, loving, and being who he was.

Whenever he spoke and whenever he speaks peace over waters, and cities, and lives there was and there is peace.