Peace, perfect peace

There’s an anonymous poem which reads,

‘Peace is not won by man’s eternal strife,

Peace is the power of God in human life.

It dwells with joy and love, is manifest in grace;

The star above his crib, the light that is his face.’

It’s very easy to forget sometimes the real peace that we can receive from a relationship with Christ… We continue to celebrate the Easter season in our Church calendar, and Easter really is the essence of what our faith is about, and how our peace has been won.

And for that reason Easter can never be celebrated just as a season from which we move on – in the same way, this is true of Christmas. Jesus was a child born to dominate all earthly empires – a child born to condemn poverty, intolerance, injustice, greed, not afraid to speak out whatever the cost, yet he was a child born to offer humanity another chance, a child not born with great military power and might but born to preach a message of peace and love, and show us a God of peace and love – ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’ (John 3:16).

Ultimately Jesus came to bring us Easter – the pain and suffering as evidence of his love, but also the joy of resurrection and the assurance of hope and peace for all time.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, part of which we have just heard, we are reminded of the great privileges that we have been given through Christ, ‘through God, you are no longer a slave, but a child, and if a child then also an heir…’

When God created the world he did so to enjoy fellowship with humanity. He did so by offering a world full of good things. Sadly the relationship between God and man broke down, as a result of that most precious gift he gave to us of freewill, and time and time again God offered a way back for us which we rejected, culminating in the chance we could not reject and the only chance we were actually capable of taking – Jesus. Jesus we’re told was sent ‘not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.’

And Jesus didn’t come bearing a whole new set of rules to add to the 1000’s of Jewish laws – he came to offer a simple message – ‘believe in me, trust in me, follow me and I will make you children of God.’ God doesn’t demand perfection from us fortunately – but he demands commitment, and it is those 3 words that I want to think about – believe, trust and follow.

So, Why believe ? This is probably a thousand sermons rolled into one very short passage ! Oddly enough in a world where people are supposedly turning away from the Church, many surveys suggest that belief in God is still very strong – and it’s not difficult to see why if we really think about it.

We live in an age of great scientific discovery, we live in an age of scepticism and doubt – yet nobody has come close to proving that the world was created by accident. The amazing world in which we live surely demands the work of a great engineer – a designer, an architect – a creator. We might plant a daffodil in the ground and a daffodil grows – from a tiny egg in a mothers womb there develops a child with all the intricate mechanisms of ears and eyes, mind, heart and so on, and perhaps most importantly of all, the ability to feel, the ability to love and be loved…

We can’t see wind or air, not even electricity or radio waves, but we can see their effect. We may not be able to see God here and now but all around us there is evidence of his work.

But if we believe in God – why our God ? And the answer to that must be Jesus. There is no serious doubt that he lived and he left no room for us to believe he was anything other than the Son of God. The author C S Lewis of course suggested that we either accept his claims or reject Jesus as evil or some kind of deluded madman.

And the evidence for that claim must come primarily from the resurrection. Jesus was dead there’s no doubt about that – the Romans were the most efficient executioners that have ever lived, and there is even the scientific evidence of the separation of water and blood – a clear sign of death.

Accepting he was dead perhaps the body was stolen – but nobody had anything to gain from that. His followers wouldn’t have bothered risking their lives for this – they were beaten and confused, and the authorities were quite happy with him dead !

And then there was the transformation of the followers – these beaten and confused people who had run away to hide, were suddenly out on the streets preaching and teaching, and sharing the news of the risen Christ with people. This transformation can surely only have come from a real encounter with the risen Christ.

And so that is belief, and then we think of trust. Again perhaps we should start at our own sceptical side. Each one of us, I’m sure, has times when we find it really difficult to trust in God completely, yet that is what we are told to do – Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’ (John 6:35-37)

The letter to the Hebrews says (11:1), ‘Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’ Someone once wrote that ‘Faith is the daring of the soul to go further than it can see.’

That is what trust is about – going further than we can see, but knowing that we are not alone as we do it. God never promised life would be easy – Jesus remember lived that life, and it certainly wasn’t easy for him – he took the pain, the insults, the loneliness, the suffering, the betrayal by friends, and so on.

We are called to trust God and it is only in so doing that we can really experience his power in our lives. Sometimes we may not understand his methods, we may not think it’s always fair, yet we rejoice because we know that God will deliver his promises – a better life, a life of no more mourning, no pain, no sorrow, no crying…

And so to the final word, ‘Follow’. In the Bible we have many examples of people following Jesus – in the past 2000 years there are many other accounts – some reluctantly, some not. Following is more than just paying lip service to a creed or belief. Jesus demands more than that – he demands that we try to be like him – he asks us to speak out about the things he spoke out about, and most of all he asks us to live as he lived – loving God and loving others…

A Ugandan Pastor was ambushed on an Easter Sunday some years ago as he returned home from taking a morning service. He was threatened with death by 5 potential killers. He began to shake, and later he said that he thought they wouldn’t need to kill him, because he would just fall down dead from fear, but then he heard a voice, and it was his own voice – ‘I do not need to plead my cause. I am a dead man already. My life is dead and hidden with Christ. It is your lives that are in danger; you are dead in your sins. I will pray to God that after you have killed me, he will spare you from eternal destruction…’ The killers stepped forward and one asked, ‘Will you pray for us now ?’

Words spoken from the Pastor’s mouth but words that came from God saved this man’s life, and led others to new life.

As adopted children of God we are special to him. He cares about our every move, and we are not travelling along a road of no hope, not towards decay or disintegration, not towards darkness – the book of Proverbs says, ‘The road the righteous travel is like the sunrise, getting brighter and brighter, until daylight has come.’

Through God’s grace, mercy and love we are the righteous… We are travelling along a road to peace, perfect peace…. Believe, trust, follow… AMEN