PEACE
Address 1
Last week I had an e mail, and I don’t know if any of you have had a similar thing, but at the bottom of it, after the message had finished, there was a quotation. In the past I’ve had a couple which are quite bizarre, others a little bit too soppy or overly flowery, but at the bottom of this one it said, ‘Remember, no matter where you go in life, there you are.’
‘Remember no matter where you go in life, there you are’. A very obvious statement but it got me thinking. It says a great deal about realising the reality of a particular situation, the particular situation in which you find yourself, and accepting that situation. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to change that situation, but before being able to change it, you must recognise where you are. There’s no point in panicking, no point in thinking there’s nothing you can do, and no point in giving up. Wherever you find yourself in life, God is there with you… Once we recognise that fact, we discover real peace…
Throughout the gospels Jesus tries to make it clear to his listeners, and to us as readers, where to find this peace – this sort of contentment that allows us to accept where we are and feel relaxed about it. And so this afternoon I wanted to think about peace.
It’s a hugely challenging word, meaning so many different things, and I will think about World peace, inner peace and God’s peace briefly. But I’ll begin with the account of Jesus’ birth taken from the gospel of Luke (2:1-20).
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!’
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Those words will be very well known to you all, and actually to many people who hardly ever come to Church at all. They are often heard at Christmas Carol Concerts, and there are many cards, even some of a fairly secular sort of nature, that include the words, ‘Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill towards men.’
Because it is peace in every form that most people desire from life… If you could receive any gift right now, what would you want ?? If you are sick, it might be good health; if you’re having a difficult time financially, then it may be money; Maybe you’re just tired and need a holiday. Whether it’s any of these things or something totally different really doesn’t matter too much because ultimately in the loose context of the word, all are covered by that word peace.
However you will all know that sometimes your wishes don’t come true ! There are people who are sick, who don’t get better, there are people for whom money will never resolve their problems, and people for whom a holiday will only touch the surface of a greater need.
But the angel of God pronounced this bold saying, ‘glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.’ And from this statement we are reminded that God doesn’t restrict his concerns, and his compassion to those who profess to follow him.
Goodwill towards men, obviously doesn’t mean just to men – it means to any child of God, and any child of God, male or female, means any person regardless of colour, background, age or belief…
And so the first challenge of peace is the challenge of world peace. As we look around at the world today it can look a fairly depressing place – we hear of the prominent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the internal strife of places such as Darfur, the suffering of hungry and poverty stricken people in parts of Africa and Central America.
True world peace is an ideal of no war, no poverty, no injustice, no hunger, no stress, no addiction… in fact nothing that is harmful to individuals or to creation.
It’s an ideal which I guess we will never manage to create in a world filled with imperfect people, but nevertheless it is an ideal that as Christians we must always seek because it is the ideal that the angel announced that Jesus had come to bring.
World peace is something that doesn’t last – just as wealth and fame don’t last, but it is to be desired and worked for because God’s plan is that all people should enjoy fullness of life. I don’t know how much any of you do for world peace, and in what way you do it, but I’m sure I don’t do enough.
The challenge of bringing peace into a broken and imperfect world is beyond any one of us, but that can never be used as an excuse for us not trying. Recently in a sermon I quoted something that I quite enjoyed when I heard it – ‘If you think you’re too small to make a difference, then you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.’
To be a Christian means to uphold the values of God and bear witness to his truth in the wider community and the world. The Church which is inward looking is not a Church of God at all, because his eyes, as ours must be, are focused on the world as a whole. To be a Christian means to look beyond ourselves, our own needs, our own borders, and recognise that we have a worldly role.
The peace of God on a world stage takes root when prisoners are visited, when the hungry are fed, the thirsty given drink, the sick are cared for and the stranger welcomed, because then these people can begin to hear news not of desperation or misery, but the good news of Jesus. The news of love, joy, hope and peace.
So in the next few minutes we’ll sit in silence and reflect about the questions that you’ll find on your service sheets, and pray for God to give us a greater understanding of our role in his vision of peace throughout the world.
(In what ways do we, as individuals, seek to bring peace to others, locally and further afield ?
In what ways, as a Church, do we seek to share the peace of God outside of our own fellowship? )
SILENCE
Hymn – Brother sister let me serve you (88)
Address 2
The second talk that I want to give is about inner peace… I must confess that whenever I hear something about a person finding or trying to find their inner peace I usually just think they’re a bit strange, and that they really must be spending too long thinking and not spending enough time living.
But inner peace is something that I think we all long for though in the sense of being happy, contented, satisfied, secure, healthy, and so on. Some will perhaps seek or even find inner peace through wealth or through popularity, but these things will usually appear way down the list for people as they seek to find true happiness and peace.
In the gospel of Mark we find this account (Mark 10:17-22) :-
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
In this account you get the sense of a man who is searching. He had worldly wealth, he had knowledge, but he knew also that something was missing, maybe it was the love of family or good friendships, maybe it was just God… But whatever it was this is true for so many people today, who are unable to pinpoint that thing that is missing in their lives.
And so we think about inner peace… I wonder what you think makes for real inner peace, because it will probably be slightly different for each of you. As I’ve already said, and you will all know, money doesn’t buy happiness, and it doesn’t ensure love.
Going back to the question I asked earlier about ‘What you would have if you could have anything in the world ?’ Well, inner peace would surely come fairly high up the list. It is about finding a way of life which brings happiness and fulfilment. In almost every case inner peace is not something that you will find by constant isolation, but it is something that is developed through relationships with other people. It is finding that place where you feel relaxed and comfortable with whatever is happening in your life or around you.
A philosopher whom I can’t remember the name of once said, ‘We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.’ It is a great truth that people who are unhappy in their own lives are often the people who will do all that they can to make life unhappy for others !
It’s in everyone’s interest to make the world a better place, because by doing our bit, we are probably making life a little bit more pleasant for ourselves. The knock on effect of people enjoying their lives is huge. I’m not sure that I’ve ever quoted the Dalai Lama before in a sermon, but the 14th Dalai Lama said, ‘Peace starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share peace with neighbouring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.’
But however important it is, and I’m sure we can all agree that it is, happiness, a real deep down happiness, isn’t something that can just be created by magic. As I’ve suggested each one of us will have people or things that will help us to find that peace. And so in just a few minutes I’d like you to think of what really helps you find peace in your lives – is it in some quiet moments in the countryside, is it in Church, or is it perhaps even in a fairly unpeaceful sort of setting surrounded by family and/ or friends?
SILENCE
Address 3
I hope that some of you when you thought about that question will have thought of the peace you find in knowing God; God, who provides the sort of peace that is beyond all understanding. We thought earlier of the message of the angel announcing that Jesus had come to bring peace on earth, and later in his earthy life, following the resurrection, Jesus assured his disciples, that he would never leave them, ‘Peace I leave with you; not as the world gives; but my peace I leave with you.’
The peace of God is the most precious gift we can receive. St Paul knew the importance of it as he mentioned it in every letter he wrote, ‘Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ He says it to the Romans, the Philippians, the Galatians, the Colossians, the Thessalonians, to Timothy, Titus and Philemon.
The peace of God is the most important thing we can ever find in our lives, because any other peace that we can find is just temporary. We tend to think about peace as the end of something bad – when people are fighting wars and it ends, then we have peace. If we are suffering some sort of physical pain or illness, peace is when that pain or illness ends.
But whatever peace we have found one day it will fade away – there will be wars, people will get ill, people will suffer as a result of poverty…
God’s peace is different. It is not the end of something bad, but it is a sense of well being and comfort that doesn’t depend on the circumstances in which you find yourselves, and unlike any human form of peace, this peace lasts forever.
It is rooted in a relationship with him, and is a peace that we can feel even in the midst of sickness or rejection or worry or any other problem that life will throw at us. That peace even reaches beyond death. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, isn’t rich enough to buy this peace, but it is ours through faith. ‘Peace I leave with you; not as the world gives, my peace I give to you .’
As David found himself in the desert of Judah, he recognised the importance of God in his life, and he wrote Psalm 63 (Vs. 1-8)
O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
In a few moments of silence I’d like to think of what the peace of God means for us – perhaps you can reflect on the word ‘Emmanuel’ – a word often again associated with Christmas. It means ‘God with us’, and as we seek and feel his peace, we know God with us – God watching every moment of every day of our lives, God walking alongside us through pain and through joy, God being a constant guest in our homes, at our tables, God at the very heart of our lives….
(Immanuel – God with us : What does it mean to us on a daily basis ?)
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