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Monday, Week Eleven

For almost two decades, I pronounced the same benediction at the end of every worship service:

Our worship has ended, but now our service begins! Go from this place for you are the body of Christ and the whole world awaits you. So live passionately, love faithfully and celebrate every moment of your life from now until the finale. Our God of resurrecting grace goes with you! Amen.

My intent was to have our final word together be a word of challenge and of hope. When I first began pronouncing that benediction, we were averaging more than one death a week from HIV/AIDS, so it was quite likely that these really were the last words someone in the congregation would hear me speak. I wanted them to be valuable, so I crafted that benediction carefully.

How different would life be if we considered all our words to be benedictions?

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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