Peace and forgiveness...

Today there’s an awful lot in the readings about right and wrong, about sin and forgiveness – and ultimately about the grace and mercy of God – and I just want to pick out some thoughts from the gospel reading from Luke (7:36-8:3), as we think during this season of Trinity about our spiritual growth – we think about our need to get ever closer to God day by day…
As we look through the reading, we think very obviously of forgiveness – a forgiveness which is unconditional – all God asks is that we approach him and say sorry… the forgiveness of God is about love and acceptance – it is about creating a sense that we are at peace, and at the end of chapter 7 of that gospel reading Jesus said to the woman who had anointed his feet, ‘your faith has saved you – go in peace…’
And that peace, along with the love of God, is perhaps the most important gift of God that we can ever receive.
Somebody once said that ‘safety consists not in the absence of danger but in the presence of God’. It is a peace that many of the early followers found as they went about preaching the gospel message, risking and giving everything in worldly terms, but doing so with a peace which gave them the confidence and strength to go on knowing that nothing could ever separate them from the love of God.
It is a peace that allowed St Paul to become a great missionary for the gospel – allowing God to totally transform his life with an overwhelming sense of peace… It is a peace which Paul recognised was nothing to do with him, but was inspired and provided by God…
The lesson we learn from the reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians that we heard is that all are welcome into God’s kingdom, bringing, not their achievements to be rewarded, but their burdens and their lives to be laid down before God for him to transform….
Peace is a word that is perhaps over-used, and a word that rarely describes the fullness that God wants us to enjoy… We think of peace in the world – and look around and very often see a world shattered by conflict, by injustice and poverty, and we must honestly surely reflect that world peace will only be obtained when all are committed to caring for one another – when all are ready to live as a perfect family. Abraham Lincoln famously said, ‘My concern is not whether God is on my side, but whether I am on his, for God is always right.’
People such as the Pharisee who had invited Jesus for dinner were very confident of their beliefs and of them being right – and in the world today there are many people who seem to try and justify actions using the gospel, when those actions seem little to do with love – surely the over-riding message of the gospel ?
In the past people have used God to justify things such as slavery, inequality, and repression of women, amongst other things, because scripture says it’s right. Well their interpretation at that particular time may have said that, but many more people would surely look at the example of today’s gospel – a gospel where Jesus spent time with the sinner, with the woman who others wouldn’t touch or listen to.
It is a gospel of forgiveness, of second chances (time after time !) – a gospel of understanding and love. To offer people through our lives something of the peace of Christ we need to live and love as Jesus loves…
Another way we think of peace is ‘peace and quiet’. In a busy world where people often seem to rush about doing so much, peace and quiet is something to be cherished, something to be valued as we seek to recharge our batteries, and just experience the stillness of God and his creation…
We also use the word ‘Peace’ in our services of course. In some services and some Churches, people shake hands, or even, if they’re really friendly, kiss people ! Some people hate it, some don’t do it – but no one can doubt the need for us to truly embrace those words – ‘Peace be with you’ as we meet family, friends and neighbours and even strangers or people we find it difficult to like…
The truth is that peace is so much more than an end to conflict, more than peace and quiet through the day and much more than shaking hands with someone – someone else wrote the way to get inner peace is to ‘finish things you’ve started.’
He went on to write, ‘It is definitely working for me ! I am now making a point of always finishing what I start and I think I am well on my way to finding inner peace. Because I care for you, I’m passing this wisdom on to you. Here are the things that I have finished today: 2 bags of crisps, a strawberry cheesecake, a packet of biscuits, a bottle of coke, a small box of chocolates.’
But seriously real peace is found in a perfect relationship with God – it is about building up a relationship of trust and dependence – of devotion and commitment… Peace with God means to live with him as an essential part of everything we do – peace with God quite simply means to enjoy the kind of relationship with him that he wants us to enjoy…
And that word enjoy often seems so far from our thoughts as we think about God, and about our life in Church – but life is intended to be a celebration of fellowship and companionship – a celebration of hope, centred on the life and victory of Jesus…
Jesus endured so much in order to take much of our potential pain and worries in life away from us…
But I suppose as in anything that sounds good, we have to ask what we have to do to receive it… And that is to trust… There’s that great analogy of a submarine being tested which had to remain submerged for many hours. When it returned to the harbour, the captain was asked, "How did the terrible storm last night affect you?"
The officer looked at him in surprise and exclaimed, "Storm? We didn't even know there was one!" The submarine had been so far beneath the surface that it had reached the area known to sailors as "the cushion of the sea." Although the ocean may be whipped into huge waves by high winds, the deep waters below are never stirred.
That is the perfect analogy of where we need to be with God – we need to so immerse ourselves in him that nothing can ever truly hurt us… Because as we live with him, in such a close relationship we will know that he is there with us guiding us, supporting us, strengthening us and loving us every moment of every day…
The lady who anointed Jesus in our gospel reading knew that she couldn’t offer money to Jesus, she certainly couldn’t offer a perfect life lived never having done anything wrong… she couldn’t offer any gift apart from herself, and as she offered that, she knew the peace that comes only from knowing that Jesus had forgiven her anything she may have done….
We won’t live perfect lives either, however hard we might try, and some will get closer than others - but while God may want that, while God may keep hoping for that, he has settled instead on us offering our lives to him – accepting his gifts, recognising his sacrifice – and responding to his love…
Mother Theresa offered a way of living that can achieve the peace that God wants us to enjoy, the peace which Jesus died and rose again to achieve for all eternity – she said, ‘people are often unreasonable, illogical, and self centred; forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.’
Centring our lives on God, may we know the power of creation all around us, may we feel the love of Jesus and may we be inspired by the Holy Spirit to do God’s work and enjoy, TRULY ENJOY, his peace always. AMEN