Fruitful Living: Growing in Peace
Pentecost 6 (Summer Series)
July 20, 2014
Grace, Mankato, MN
John 14.25-31; Romans 14.13-23
Many of you know that I’m a second career pastor, which has presented many challenges for me along the way. One such challenge was going back to school at 38 years of age with a wife and two young girls. There was also some insecurity: could I hack graduate school? Even though I did okay, the insecurities continued to crop up. What about Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) in a nursing home, tending to older folks with whom I had no experience. Could I do an internship in a large congregation? How would my first call in a rural congregation go, and what about my second call joining with two other pastors who had been together for several years? Yet, when I came to Grace an amazing thing happened: there were no insecurities, at least not in the same way. Maybe it was a quiet confidence from years of experience, but I think it was more and possibly deeper than that.
Today we explore the third fruit of the Spirit, peace. We are rapidly discovering that each of these fruit not only defy simple explanations, but we are only able to nibble around the edges of them. The interesting thing about peace is that most people define it negatively, as the absence of conflict. In fact, some have said that the history of humanity is one war after another punctuated with occasional outbreaks of peace. That confirms the reality that we know but hate to admit, that even when there are cease fires and treaties signed, any peace that exists is an uneasy one and probably won’t last very long.
That’s why Jesus’ words in John are so important: “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.” His words are incredible on so many levels, not the least of which is the situation he speaks. It’s the Last Supper and Jesus is preparing his disciples one last time before he goes to his death. He knows that they will be lost and alone without him, that neither his life nor their lives will be anything but peaceful. Yet here he is promising them that peace will be present in their troubled hearts.
To understand the kind of peace that God gives through Jesus, we need to understand shalom. Shalom is the Old Testament word for peace, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of conflict. Shalom has more to do with our sense of well-being or wholeness. It means living into God’s intended future. Peace is, as Frederick Buechner says, everything we need to be wholly ourselves.
My colleague, Pr. Collette Broady, gave me an advanced copy of an article she wrote for the online WELCA journal, Café. In it she talks about how, in the midst of the crummy stuff of our lives, God is crafting a future we can’t imagine. God not only does this without our help but despite our hindering it.
The Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Rome wants us to know that this shalom and well-being is for us as a community, too. Yes, in Christ we have been set free from the requirements of the law; we are free. But he also wants us to know that with rights come responsibilities to others, for rights without responsibilities leads to fragmented community.
Peace is not the absence of something; it is the presence of the living God in the midst of our lives. Buechner again: Peace is not the absence of struggle, but the presence of love. Peace only makes sense when we don’t allow our difficulties to define us; we are not our struggles. We only get glimpses of the peace that God promises us in the end, something of down payment. I got a glimpse when I came to Grace and I get glimpses walking with you. I invite you to look for where God is bringing peace and well-being in the midst of the stuff of your lives this week, creating a future that you can’t possibly imagine. Amen.
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