There are two kinds of silence.
There is the silence of the graveyard.
Here silence speaks of one thing – death.
This silence tends to frighten and repel.

Then there is the silence of a spring evening.
Not a leaf stirs,
Not a sound is heard except the music of the birds.
Yet all things are awake, all things are growing.
This silence is mysterious and enchanting.

So there are two kinds of peace.
There is the peace of the swamp:
Things look normal on the surface,
But its depths are full of rotten things.
Peace that is based on injustice is like that.
It is a false peace and Christ came to disrupt it.

But then there is true peace –
A peace in which all of God’s children
have their basic rights respected,
and are able to live in freedom and dignity.
This is the peace Christ came to bring.
But peace like this doesn’t happen.
It has to be made. Sometimes the makers of it
will be branded as troublemakers.
But Christ had another name for them.
He called them ‘children of God’.