EASTER 06
May 09, 2010
the Rev. Ken Kroohs
(Acts 16:9-15; Ps. 67; Revelation 21:10 & 21-22.5; John 14:23-29)
THE PEACE OF GOD
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, High Point, NC
MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN
What will you mean when, in a few minutes, you turn to people around you and say: “The peace of the Lord be with you”?
My suspicion is it usually has as much meaning as “Have a nice day” — that is, a polite statement expected in this social situation. .... Certainly at times that is all it means to me but it SHOULD mean a lot more.
We place it at the end of the confession because one aspect of it is the completion of the confession. We have told God we have not loved our neighbor — NOT acted well towards people around us, and now we complete that confession by turning to the person next to us and wishing them God’s peace. .... Sometimes the person we have mis-treated is the person sitting next to us but usually it is not so the person next to us fills the symbolic role of accepting our offer of God’s peace.
That is important and central ... but the phrase “the peace of the Lord be with you” goes WAY beyond that. Confession and reconciliation certainly is a segment but the entire concept is so much bigger we cannot really understand. Clearly the disciples did not understand. And Jesus knew that. His comment that the Holy Spirit will teach you everything is Jesus’ admission that the disciples – that we – do not understand what He said.
God’s peace is both extremely complicated and very simple. No human analogy is perfect, or even close, but picture an orchestra — the individual members might not like each other, they may disagree on how the piece should be played but at those times when it works properly their individual efforts blend together into a greater and wonderful whole.
Similar thing with sports teams. You frequently hear about the ‘chemistry’ on the team – whether they like each other. But the real ‘chemistry’ is each person’s willingness to subsume themselves to the greater needs of the team — and when they do, wonder happens.
Now imagine a world .... a society of human beings in which it is understood that the greater good is to do God’s will. The greater good is to keep Jesus’ words — His instructions. Imagine a world in which whether or not we like each other is of no consequence because we are working toward the same goal.
Most conflicts arise out of the disagreement over goals ... what we are trying to accomplish. I may have my personal goal of going to a movie and you might have a personal goal of using that money to buy some plants. Until we agree on a greater goal we will not agree. A POOR goal is to avoid conflict by just giving in. That leaves resentment. A better goal is to seek to understand each person’s desires. The best goal is to seek to know God’s desire.
Your elected Vestry tried to explain the overarching goal with the mission statement that we, all of us, are to accept, love and serve you – all other people – with God’s grace and help through loving and caring ministries in the name of Jesus.
Obviously that is not the total of Jesus’ teachings! But let’s use it as an example.
Whenever we are faced with a decision the question should be, how well does this fit into that mission statement? Notice I did not say “does it fit into” because it is hard to find an example that would NOT fit in for SOMEBODY.
A person who believes visual beauty is a sign of God’s love might suggest putting diamond chips in the driveway so a certain patten is visible from Eastchester Drive! ..... OK, pretty extreme – deliberately extreme! But the point is that person may feel that expense is serving God whereas other people would not.
So, the issue is one of trade-offs. Unfortunately to accurately evaluate trade-offs you must have accurate information about costs, and goals. When the orchestra or sports team needs to work together they generally have a pretty clear understanding of the overall goal. The orchestra especially has a fairly specific set of instructions.
Notice again our gospel reading. In effect Jesus says, “I did not give you a specific enough set of instructions.” — Rather, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit – The Advocate - the sustainer - the consoler - the nurturer will “teach all things”.
Couple points about that. First, the only reason the Holy Spirit needs to teach all things can be because we do not yet understand all things. I do NOT believe that means the Holy Spirit will ADD to what Jesus said. Rather I believe that means the Holy Spirit will help us understand what we have already been told.
I suspect we have all had the experience where someone is trying to explain something but we are utterly confused. Then another person comes by, uses slightly different words, and suddenly it is clear. The teaching has not changed. Our understanding has changed and the Holy Spirit is to help us understand.
Second, notice that the attributes of consoler, nurturer, sustainer are somewhat feminine. Certainly that is a gross generalization! But if instead it said “builder”, “constructor” we probably would picture a male. Well in both Greek and Hebrew the word used for ‘spirit’ is feminine. That does not mean much except to help us understand that God, the Three in One, has characteristics we would frequently describe as male, and characteristics we would frequently describe as female.
AND, before people start throwing things — if we think back to the time in which this was written the male/female roles were much more defined. We have tended to blend those roles in this society — I think a good thing — but then having the Holy Spirit described as feminine was very important.
Some people, rather than using “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” for the Trinity use “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer”. Nothing wrong with that. I tend not to because they are not specifically scriptural but they certainly are accurate descriptions.
As Jesus explains here the Holy Spirit’s role is to be with us, to support and teach us.
And God’s spirit is most important to us when it leads, supports, and teaches us how to make the trade-offs I mentioned earlier. How to decide one course of action more closely follows Jesus words than another course of action.
We all could give more money away. We all could spend more on ourselves. Where is the balance that demonstrates how we are following Jesus’ instructions?
We all could work more for the poor and needy, or for the church. No one is here 24/7! We all could do more for ourselves rather than the poor and needy, or the church. Where is the balance?
OK, here I am going off the deep end a bit. .... For me anyway, the peace of God is NOT when I know I am doing everything right, or even that I know I am TRYING to do everything right.
Rather, for me, God’s peace comes when I know that despite it all I am focusing on God. Not to the exclusion of everything else but to the INCLUSION of everything else. Does not happen often I should mention!
It is not that I am doing things perfectly. I am still failing, goofing up, goofing off, and generally not doing well some of the time. But somehow ... through God’s grace ... I know it is OK because God is still the focus.
Makes no sense! .... It would a little like if I knew I could play the wrong note but the orchestra’s piece would still be fine.
Today I invite you to turn to the people around you and SINCERELY wish them the peace of God. Include in that the completion of your confession. Include in that desire to blend your efforts together to create the more perfect whole.
And also include the wish, the prayer that they will know the peace that passes all understanding ... the peace that can only come when in true communion with God. There is no more wonderful and powerful prayer you could pray.
AMEN
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CLICK HERE TO RESPOND: I would enjoy reading your comments about this sermon. Please feel free to discuss content or presentation. (If you wish to use another email system send your comments to: ken@st-christopher.com)