The Gift of Peace
Sermon
THE SEVENFOLD PATH TO PEACE
SEVEN LENTEN SERMONS
At the drive-in window of the bank there is a pneumatic tube. The transaction slips, checks, and money are put in a capsule, which is dropped into the tube. As air is sucked out from in front of the capsule and pressured behind it, the container is pushed through the tube. I used the tube one day.
It came as no surprise to me, then that a pneumatic tube showed up in a dream, in which I was attempting to assemble a clear plastic tube. The problem in the dream was that, at one point, the tube divided into two parts like separating railroad tracks, which then had to be brought back together again further along, but didn't fit properly. Worse than that, I was conscious in the dream that I was being pressured through the tube and was going to have to go through the divided portion, while still being one person.
Not much interpretation was required. The previous day I had visited a grieving family in the morning, conducted a wedding service, and attended the reception in the afternoon, and then gone back to write a funeral service, while thinking about getting out of town for thirty-two hours of rest.
Life is sometimes like a pneumatic tube which pressures us along, divides our commitments and emotions, and forces us to find a way to make all the pieces fit, without being totally divided.
If the lives of others sometimes feel like mine in the dream, is it any wonder that personal peace and world peace are so hard to come by?
The Sevenfold Path to Peace which we have been pursuing during Lent is not a pneumatic tube pressuring us along, but there are compelling forces which clearly indicate that, if we fail to find the path to peace, our encapsulated spaceship earth is going to be propelled into the vacuum of oblivion by the sheer pressure of world armaments.
Richard Barnet, Director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., reports that in 1980 almost $1.5 billion a day was spent on armaments by the nations of the world, for a total of over $560 billion a year, in the name of peace!
Our Lenten path has sought to lead us, not in the high pressure of peace through armaments, but through the carefully measured steps of a personal inner search, an evaluation of our world environment, and the biblical imperatives for peace.
We have determined that peace is attainable, that because of the human need for justice, it is desirable, that peacemaking must be intentional, and that it is based on God's Shalom, love, which is reliable, disciplined, giving, and fulfilling.
Today we focus on the fifth step to peace: What must we do to get out of the pneumatic tube?
How are we able to receive the gift of peace?
Jesus said,
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)
If I don't have peace, the peace which Jesus gives, and if the world does not have Jesus' peace, then it must be due to the fact that we are doing something wrong. Our receptors are bad, like radio receivers tuned only to static.
The biblical material we have heard today gives us three clues as to how to get back on the path of peace, to receive what God is offering so we need not live in the pneumatic tube.
First, consider some of the words of Psalm 37 with which our service opened:
Vs. 1 "Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers."
Vs. 3 "Trust in the Lord, and do good so you will dwell in the land and enjoy security."
Vs. 37 "Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright, there is posterity for the man of peace."
If we are going to receive Christ's peace, then we are necessarily going to have to stop worrying, start trusting, start doing good, and make note of the people who make peace, because it is their descendants who will survive, and not the descendants of war makers.
That's all well and good, but the fact is that I do worry, I have a hard time trusting God; "do-gooders" don't enjoy any popularity and peace-makers can't ever win a political office which carries any clout. It is nearly impossible to live in the world on the terms of peace suggested by the Psalmist.
In Pennsylvania there is a retreat center known as Kirkridge, which for years has been a vital place of helping people become more contemplative and spiritually centered.
Robert Raines, a former Methodist bishop and director of the center said, in an interview about the role of Kirkridge in peace-making,
Obviously hostile people can't make a peaceful world. So we have got to work both the inward and outward dimensions. So, while some of our current emphasis is directed toward seeking a mutual nuclear arms freeze, nuclear disarmament, because that appears to be a growing urgency, we are also concerned for being a place on this mountainside where people can acknowledge their angers, their fears, their grief, and so become peaceable people.1
I hear Raines suggesting that the fundamental clue to receiving the peace which Jesus gives in a manner different from the world, is acknowledgment. Confession ... of our anger, our fear, our grief. It is these things which drive the pneumatic tube propelling us toward the loss of all future generations.
"God help me, I'm angry, fearful, grieving ..." This honest assessment of our innermost motivators is fundamental to clearing away the impediments to finding the Sevenfold Path to Peace. Until I admit there is something wrong in me, I do not allow God to make something right in me.
The second biblical clue is found in the 2 Chronicles 14 story of Asa, whose land was free from war and at peace for ten years. Listen:
He did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down pillars and hewed down the Asherim, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their Fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment.
Asa tore down the objects of worship which diverted attention from God, and he did what was right and good. Consequently he was able to say,
the land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought him, and he has given us peace on every side.
The god of modern society is like the Asherim, the cultic god; it is not the supreme God of all creation, not the God revealed in Jesus of Nazareth and the Holy Spirit. Our modern god is named "Security."
"Security" is the object of our worship, the worship of the nations - the foreign altars are aircraft carriers, the high places are spy satellites, the pillars are intercontinental ballistic missiles, the cultic gods, the modern Asherim are firearms which are coveted by a fearful society.
Any mere hint of suggestion that the nations start reversing the arms race results in clear evidence of where their commitment lies and what god is worshiped. That is the way the world gives peace, or what the world calls peace.
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you," said Jesus. If we Christians are to be agents of that peace, then we must convince the Asas of the world, the leaders of the world, to tear down the accouterments, the trappings, the symbols of worship of a false god, the god "Security," as appealing as that god may seem to be.
Thirdly, we have heard in Ephesians these words:
For (Jesus) is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the divinding wall of hostility ... He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God ... (Ephesians 2:14-19)
If we are going to be recipients of the gift of peace, then our world view must change.
A man asked me whether or not our church was going to provide refuge for El Salvadorians, as churches in Tucson are doing in defiance of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. During the ensuing discussion, I told him that fundamental to the position of the Tucson group, is the concept of world community.
In Christendom there are no political boundaries, no racial barriers, no foreign language, no opposing economies. Christianity sees a world community, and lives as if world community is the reality. Christianity believes that God's realm is the only and ultimate reality. From God's point of view the dividing walls of hostility are broken down through Jesus Christ.
That is the peace which Jesus gives. It is not a kind of peace the world gives, but we could receive it if we confess our anger, fear, and grief.
We could receive it if we stopped worshiping the false god named "Security."
We could receive the gift of peace if we began to see the world as God sees it,
the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Receive the gift of peace, and together we will be ready to take the next step on the Sevenfold Path to Peace.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we are so eager to receive your peace, peace which is far different from our worldly understanding of peace ... peace which is made, not defensively, but creatively, lovingly, intentionally, and justly.
I admit that there is anger in me which is something more than righteous indignation, an anger which inflicts its hurt on others. And there is fear which aggressively attacks, lest the source of that fear gets the upper hand. And there is grief which blames and accuses because it knows not how to bear the pain to seek solace.
Forgive me, Lord, for the misguided results of my anger, fear, and grief.
Almighty God, by whose authority and permission alone, the rulers of the earth maintain their offices of responsibility, we implore you to inspire them to tear down the worldly temples of worship to the false god, Security, and all the decorations of those temples, replacing them with the symbols of creativity, love, and justice.
Spirit of the living God, who dwells both beyond and in our very being, help us now to rise above our world and see it as you see, one world community governed by your authority alone ... and, in the seeing, help us to realize that you are our forgiveness, our security, and our everlasting source of peace, through Jesus Christ. Amen
1. From Catalyst Tape Talk, by Robert Raines (Vol. 13, Number 6, 1980, used by permission of Word Books, Publisher, Waco, TX 76796.)
It came as no surprise to me, then that a pneumatic tube showed up in a dream, in which I was attempting to assemble a clear plastic tube. The problem in the dream was that, at one point, the tube divided into two parts like separating railroad tracks, which then had to be brought back together again further along, but didn't fit properly. Worse than that, I was conscious in the dream that I was being pressured through the tube and was going to have to go through the divided portion, while still being one person.
Not much interpretation was required. The previous day I had visited a grieving family in the morning, conducted a wedding service, and attended the reception in the afternoon, and then gone back to write a funeral service, while thinking about getting out of town for thirty-two hours of rest.
Life is sometimes like a pneumatic tube which pressures us along, divides our commitments and emotions, and forces us to find a way to make all the pieces fit, without being totally divided.
If the lives of others sometimes feel like mine in the dream, is it any wonder that personal peace and world peace are so hard to come by?
The Sevenfold Path to Peace which we have been pursuing during Lent is not a pneumatic tube pressuring us along, but there are compelling forces which clearly indicate that, if we fail to find the path to peace, our encapsulated spaceship earth is going to be propelled into the vacuum of oblivion by the sheer pressure of world armaments.
Richard Barnet, Director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., reports that in 1980 almost $1.5 billion a day was spent on armaments by the nations of the world, for a total of over $560 billion a year, in the name of peace!
Our Lenten path has sought to lead us, not in the high pressure of peace through armaments, but through the carefully measured steps of a personal inner search, an evaluation of our world environment, and the biblical imperatives for peace.
We have determined that peace is attainable, that because of the human need for justice, it is desirable, that peacemaking must be intentional, and that it is based on God's Shalom, love, which is reliable, disciplined, giving, and fulfilling.
Today we focus on the fifth step to peace: What must we do to get out of the pneumatic tube?
How are we able to receive the gift of peace?
Jesus said,
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)
If I don't have peace, the peace which Jesus gives, and if the world does not have Jesus' peace, then it must be due to the fact that we are doing something wrong. Our receptors are bad, like radio receivers tuned only to static.
The biblical material we have heard today gives us three clues as to how to get back on the path of peace, to receive what God is offering so we need not live in the pneumatic tube.
First, consider some of the words of Psalm 37 with which our service opened:
Vs. 1 "Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers."
Vs. 3 "Trust in the Lord, and do good so you will dwell in the land and enjoy security."
Vs. 37 "Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright, there is posterity for the man of peace."
If we are going to receive Christ's peace, then we are necessarily going to have to stop worrying, start trusting, start doing good, and make note of the people who make peace, because it is their descendants who will survive, and not the descendants of war makers.
That's all well and good, but the fact is that I do worry, I have a hard time trusting God; "do-gooders" don't enjoy any popularity and peace-makers can't ever win a political office which carries any clout. It is nearly impossible to live in the world on the terms of peace suggested by the Psalmist.
In Pennsylvania there is a retreat center known as Kirkridge, which for years has been a vital place of helping people become more contemplative and spiritually centered.
Robert Raines, a former Methodist bishop and director of the center said, in an interview about the role of Kirkridge in peace-making,
Obviously hostile people can't make a peaceful world. So we have got to work both the inward and outward dimensions. So, while some of our current emphasis is directed toward seeking a mutual nuclear arms freeze, nuclear disarmament, because that appears to be a growing urgency, we are also concerned for being a place on this mountainside where people can acknowledge their angers, their fears, their grief, and so become peaceable people.1
I hear Raines suggesting that the fundamental clue to receiving the peace which Jesus gives in a manner different from the world, is acknowledgment. Confession ... of our anger, our fear, our grief. It is these things which drive the pneumatic tube propelling us toward the loss of all future generations.
"God help me, I'm angry, fearful, grieving ..." This honest assessment of our innermost motivators is fundamental to clearing away the impediments to finding the Sevenfold Path to Peace. Until I admit there is something wrong in me, I do not allow God to make something right in me.
The second biblical clue is found in the 2 Chronicles 14 story of Asa, whose land was free from war and at peace for ten years. Listen:
He did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down pillars and hewed down the Asherim, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their Fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment.
Asa tore down the objects of worship which diverted attention from God, and he did what was right and good. Consequently he was able to say,
the land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought him, and he has given us peace on every side.
The god of modern society is like the Asherim, the cultic god; it is not the supreme God of all creation, not the God revealed in Jesus of Nazareth and the Holy Spirit. Our modern god is named "Security."
"Security" is the object of our worship, the worship of the nations - the foreign altars are aircraft carriers, the high places are spy satellites, the pillars are intercontinental ballistic missiles, the cultic gods, the modern Asherim are firearms which are coveted by a fearful society.
Any mere hint of suggestion that the nations start reversing the arms race results in clear evidence of where their commitment lies and what god is worshiped. That is the way the world gives peace, or what the world calls peace.
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you," said Jesus. If we Christians are to be agents of that peace, then we must convince the Asas of the world, the leaders of the world, to tear down the accouterments, the trappings, the symbols of worship of a false god, the god "Security," as appealing as that god may seem to be.
Thirdly, we have heard in Ephesians these words:
For (Jesus) is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the divinding wall of hostility ... He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God ... (Ephesians 2:14-19)
If we are going to be recipients of the gift of peace, then our world view must change.
A man asked me whether or not our church was going to provide refuge for El Salvadorians, as churches in Tucson are doing in defiance of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. During the ensuing discussion, I told him that fundamental to the position of the Tucson group, is the concept of world community.
In Christendom there are no political boundaries, no racial barriers, no foreign language, no opposing economies. Christianity sees a world community, and lives as if world community is the reality. Christianity believes that God's realm is the only and ultimate reality. From God's point of view the dividing walls of hostility are broken down through Jesus Christ.
That is the peace which Jesus gives. It is not a kind of peace the world gives, but we could receive it if we confess our anger, fear, and grief.
We could receive it if we stopped worshiping the false god named "Security."
We could receive the gift of peace if we began to see the world as God sees it,
the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Receive the gift of peace, and together we will be ready to take the next step on the Sevenfold Path to Peace.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we are so eager to receive your peace, peace which is far different from our worldly understanding of peace ... peace which is made, not defensively, but creatively, lovingly, intentionally, and justly.
I admit that there is anger in me which is something more than righteous indignation, an anger which inflicts its hurt on others. And there is fear which aggressively attacks, lest the source of that fear gets the upper hand. And there is grief which blames and accuses because it knows not how to bear the pain to seek solace.
Forgive me, Lord, for the misguided results of my anger, fear, and grief.
Almighty God, by whose authority and permission alone, the rulers of the earth maintain their offices of responsibility, we implore you to inspire them to tear down the worldly temples of worship to the false god, Security, and all the decorations of those temples, replacing them with the symbols of creativity, love, and justice.
Spirit of the living God, who dwells both beyond and in our very being, help us now to rise above our world and see it as you see, one world community governed by your authority alone ... and, in the seeing, help us to realize that you are our forgiveness, our security, and our everlasting source of peace, through Jesus Christ. Amen
1. From Catalyst Tape Talk, by Robert Raines (Vol. 13, Number 6, 1980, used by permission of Word Books, Publisher, Waco, TX 76796.)
