If you listened well to the gospel reading you may have some doubts that this Sunday should have the theme of Peace. John the Baptist passed on to Jesus his call for repentance and preparation for the realm of God, where the first would be last.
In fact there is a lot of Peace in the message of Jesus and those who told his story. Like Luke, who describes the chorus of angels at his birth singing Glory to God in the highest and Peace to people on earth.
Jesus is portrayed as ambiguous about peace himself. Like John. Peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give. Versus, I have not come to bring peace but a sword.
If you translate peace as tranquility and withdrawal from life then Jesus is not your model. He was a disturber as much as a healer. His teachings had social impact as well as spiritual bite.
But with my book Jesus Green, I have thought a lot about a particular passage that takes birds as inspiration: it is set within a teaching about money, that serving God means you cannot serve money so immediately you may be anxious about the consequences. Don’t worry says Jesus, look at the birds of the air who don’t work yet are clothed better than King Solomon. Do not worry, do not be anxious.
Jesus’ answer for Peace of Mind was to seek the realm of God first and foremost and all other things will fall into place.
This week and last has been a very anxious time for our small team who run this church. We had a heating crisis and more. Without telling you the details it was overwhelming and very anxious-making and most of us lost sleep.
So I asked Jesus about the Peace that comes with him and here are three answers.
- Seek first the realm of God, and this is not the church – we are struggling to run this little church as so many are, but this is not, thankfully, trying to prop up God.
I admit to you I forgot this in the demands of fixing heating and communicating with tenants. I should read the Bible more often. I think this reading is very important because the first Christians were like us in being insecure. Many died because of following Jesus, whilst we worry about running committees. I know we love our church, but in the end, finally, this is not what matters. What matters is the realm of God we have entered into, it is beyond us, beyond anyone. And this is not at risk when running a church can be.
For us at Westmount Park United Church, we are seeking the realm of God, in worship, in service, in re-connecting with nature especially and it is not me, nor you, but we, together. The relationships we make with one another, in worship, in service, in reconnecting with nature are for keeps, eternal. I have a very real sense of this when I remember recent members who have died after long Christian journeys, Ron McFarland and Finlay Nicolson. These relationships sought out the realm of God, they bring me peace of mind as a fruit of their goodness.
Seek first the realm of God. - Peace comes through dying.
Ironically the Peace that Jesus brought was more obvious when he left his disciples. despite his violent death.
The fourth gospel John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
People wished each other peace when they were leaving each other, and Jesus says this at the last supper.
The Peace he would give was peace beyond death.
I think Luke was teaching this when he claimed the angels promised peace on earth.
The peace that defies the terror of dying. Because the Spirit of Jesus came to people in grief and loss and brought joy and hope and love. These Advent themes. So we get worried about a partner, a friend, ourselves, dying, which is natural, but these worries will never outlast the peace of Jesus, that has broken the hold of death.
I cannot prove this to you, but I think all the witnesses around Jesus’ dying are consistent that his death and his Spirit beyond death, gave them peace. I remember the saints I have known and how their spirits bring me peace. There are places too with a powerful sense of peace. I think of Marrick Priory, in North Yorkshire, that I visited as a teenager with the church youth group. We had a week based there walking the hills, even potholing, but it was the chapel that I remember, its simplicity and sense of past, the generations gone before, who wore down the stone steps, yet who lit candles just as we did. The Spirit of Jesus gives peace.
3. Peace lies out of reach, like the reign of God, its future facing, it’s a yearning that is about us becoming fuller human beings together; the reign of God is the peace of the lion with the lamb.
We heard this in the final verse from Romans today: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome, not an individual he means you plural. Just as Jesus taught us to pray ‘our’ Father.
I have a trepidation as I go this week to participate in COP15. I don’t really have the time. I don’t really want to learn more about species dying, as it is too sad. But I go reaching for peace: reaching for the coming of the reign of God, in us becoming fuller human beings, living with respect and regard for other creatures. The lion and the lamb, the wild and the domesticated both need our respect, both demand we change.
I continue the prayer of Jesus, that joins recognizing God’s nature as Father, as Holy, as coming to us, as having the Will, on earth as in heaven, to bring God’s realm. All this is to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit, and to be so full of hope we are changed, together, our Father. As I remember these things, my life, our life is challenged to make room to receive it. Peace is about us changing through the power of God.
Peace: we seek first the realm of God, we find Peace through dying, and this Peace is about us changing thanks to God in us and between us.
Amen.