May 28, 2017
True North | Peace
- John 14:15-27
- Rev. Scott Shelton
Welcome to ZPC again, glad you are here on this race day, this Memorial Day weekend.
We are continuing on in our True North study – God is our true north and we are learning beliefs, practices, and virtues to draw closer to him.
So today we are thankful on this Memorial Day weekend in our country, where we are thankful for those who gave their lives that we might have freedom.
We have freedom to worship God – and in worship today – we learn about PEACE. We can have peace, and be instruments of peace in our relationships.
So let’s look at John 14 and learn about peace from Jesus’ own words.
John 14:15-27 NRSV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 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.”
Sisters and brothers in Christ, this is the Word of the Lord – thanks be to God. Let us pray…May the meditations of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Peace is elusive. And peace can be hard to define.
Randy Frazee says that if you asked people about the definition of peace, they would more likely say “the absence of trouble than the presence of contentment.”
Again: “the absence of trouble than the presence of contentment.” Frazee goes on to say,
“In the Bible, peace is not really about the subtraction of anything but the addition of Jesus.”
How is in a world where we can feel anxiety, nations are in civil war or threatening war, and people of different backgrounds in our own country struggle? How can we have peace?
I think we can have peace in 3 ways, peace with God, peace with others – peace both local and global – so yes, we’re going to talk about world peace today – sort of!
We can have peace with God because God gives it in Jesus – and we can receive it. The problem with us – if we go back to basics for a moment – is that we are sinners and in need of a savior. That’s why we often feel anxiety, stress, even depression – is a lack of peace even within ourselves. Scripture says that in our sin, we were even enemies of God, yet through Christ, we can be friends – and have peace.
We don’t do life that well on our own – we need help. We are saved by God’s grace which comes merely by faith by our belief in acceptance of what God has done for us – through Jesus – so that we can then have abundant life here on earth and eternal life with God. Because of God’s grace – we receive it – we can be thankful. Out of our thankfulness, our gratitude, we can then respond with living a life which God calls us to live. Paul says that when we receive grace, then we can live in peace.
Jesus says he is the giver of peace in John 14 – he tells his closest friends that he’s going to leave soon – but sending his Spirit to be with them (and us!) and then Jesus says this - “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.”
Did you hear that – don’t be afraid, don’t let your hearts be troubled? Instead choose peace – because Jesus already gave it.
What does God’s peace look like? Jesus says that it means not being afraid and not having our hearts be troubled. It is trusting in God’s goodness, that God will provide. When things go wrong, still having faith in the bigger picture – God is in control, he gives me peace.
Recently we read here in worship from Philippians 4 where Paul says, we don’t have to be anxious, but instead pray with thanksgiving and bring your requests to God – and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding – will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
We have peace with God because we have peace from God. What do we do with that peace?
We share it with others. We can have peace in our relationships – both local and global.
Locally, this is where the rubber hits the road – each of us can be a person of peace. Rather than respond with harshness or rudeness or yelling – we can be patient, gentle, loving, and show peace.
We will have conflict in this life – and we need to make peace when there is conflict – especially with a family member, co-worker, or friend.
Sometimes when life is hard, we aren’t people of peace – I may not be peaceful. It may be easier to think like this:
I’m right. I have to be right. And my way is right. I’m going to win. I will not lose this argument, I will do what it takes to win.
I need to tell my point first. I will not listen until I talk. I will then be thinking about what I will say next while you are talking. Because I’m right and I want to win.
I might have to get angry, raise my voice, or act crazy to get my point across. And if I do get angry, because I’m right, I don’t need to apologize.
Ken Sande wrote a book called Peacemaker. It’s about being a peacemaker in times of conflict.
Here are a few of the key ideas from peacemaker. Feel free to do your own research to learn more from Ken Sande, and Peacemaker.
Sande says that peacemaking is much about resolving conflict and doing this by the Four G’s:
The biblical system for resolving conflict is captured by “The Four G’s”:
Glorify God, Get the log out of your own eye, Gently Restore, and Go and be reconciled.
First G - Glorify God – we ask “How can I honor God in this situation?” However good or bad it is, we can ask that, how can I honor or glorify God? With my words, choices, actions, can I glorify God?
Second G - Get the log out of your own eye – Sande says to ask: Have I had a critical, negative, or overly sensitive attitude that has led to unnecessary conflict? Then he teaches to confess your sin – and that we need to confess to God and to others with humility.
Third G - Gently Restore – Sande says that as Christians we can gently bring up serious offenses from others. This is to be done only after reflecting if they are serious enough to bring up and to do so with gentleness. By bringing it up, we can help someone understand how they participated in a conflict. Notice: This comes after getting the log out of our own eye and confessing your part!
Fourth G - Go and be reconciled – Ask God to help change your heart so that you can genuinely forgive someone and the relationship can go on. Not that you forgive and be done with them, but forgive and be restored. This is peacemaking.
At the end of these 4 G’s – Sande says get help from above. You can’t do this alone. Conflict is too hard and life is too hard to do it alone. Remember you have peace because God is a God of peace.
In John 14, Jesus says he will send the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth and a Counselor to be with his disciples. The Spirit is their helper in times of need. God’s Spirit is truth, and he lives in you through Christ. The Spirit is an Advocate, or Counselor, who can advise you, give you counsel. The Spirit reminds you of Jesus’ teaching – so you can follow it – obey it – and even have peace – which Jesus promises.
As people of peace, we need to be forgiving and show peace to others.
Corrie Ten Boom was a Christian writer who as a young woman, similar to Anne Frank, was arrested by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. She and her sister had a strong Christian faith and had shared Christ and read the Bible consistently to the women in their camp. In the camp though, her father died and her sister died. After the war, she was freed and went back to Holland and God was working on her to share her story of faith as she helped others who had been imprisoned by the Nazis. Once she was speaking in a church in Munich, Germany in 1947 about forgiveness, and saw in the crowd a guard from her concentration camp – he symbolized all that was evil to her.
These are Corrie Ten Boom’s own haunting words: “It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!
Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent.
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him.
“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.
“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”
And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.
And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.”
Corrie Ten Boom said she still struggled with forgiveness and reconciliation at times, but God had helped her to be a peacemaker in that moment in Germany in 1947.
Since it is Memorial Day, I thought of another great example of peace, during World War II. It is Private Desmond Doss – recently made famous by the movie “Hacksaw Ridge.” Doss enlisted to help America in its fight against Japan. He wanted to serve his country. But he was also, a conscientious objector – Desmond Doss said he wanted to save lives, not to take lives. To save lives, not to take lives. He wanted to be a peacemaker.
He wouldn’t carry a rifle or even lift a fist in anger, but went to the front lines in horrific battle in Okinawa, Japan. I looked at showing you a scene but all the ones I wanted to show were either too brutal in their depiction of war. So here is a picture of Doss.
After a horrible battle and retreat, Doss stayed with injured soldier and miraculously saved 75 men. Saying, “Lord let me get one more, just one more.”
As the movie goes on, you see the men around him change their minds, from thinking he was a coward because he wouldn’t fight to seeing him as a hero and a man of faith and peace. They respected more than anyone else and wanted him to pray before they went into battle.
Desmond Doss’ peace helped change minds of the men he served with. A person of peace can change harshness, or anger, into respect and kindness. For his service, Desmond Doss was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman in 1947.
Just earlier this month I had to think about peace in some new ways as I attended our Presbytery meeting with 4 of our current elders at Witherspoon Pres. Church on Michigan Road at 51st and Michigan Road, in Indy, just south of here. Witherspoon is a predominately black church, and that day graciously hosted our regional Presbytery meeting. Their members there were some of the most gracious and hospitable people I’ve met – they treated us well. But the main speaker and the panel discussion made me, and some of our elders, well, uncomfortable. The topic was race. Specifically, the topic was racism against African-Americans. The speakers shared was racism was like even here in Indianapolis. What is was like to feel discriminated against.
I didn’t agree with everything I heard, but I did appreciate it, and I learned. The most impactful statement I heard that day (and also to one of our elders) was when the speaker asked us a simple question. She said, “What do you see when you see a young, black male?”
Do you see a thug, a gangster, a criminal?
Or do you see a child of God? Again, a thug, gangster, criminal…or a child of God?
Do I judge others by labels, by stereotypes?
What does someone think of me when they see me? Do they see a rich, privileged white male?
Or do they see a child of God?
How do people look at you? How do you look at others?
So to be a people of peace, we can do at least two things. First, we can see people the way Jesus sees them – as children of God.
Jesus reached out to those who were sinners in need of a savior – who were hurting, lonely, sick, in need, in poverty. He treated rough fisherman, tax collectors, prostitutes and lepers with love and grace.
We can be peacemakers by seeing people first as children of God, loved by God, people made in his image. They may be broken, sinful, and hurting – but they are God’s children – just as I am.
Second, we can be peacemakers with people who are not like us – by walking side by side, hand in hand, not keeping a distance.
We all know that there has been much talk of Mexican-American relations the last year. Now, I love America, I can get choked up singing the national anthem, like I did on one of my kid’s 8th grade American Heritage trip as we sang the national anthem at Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, where the Star Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812. My son was asking me, “Why are you crying?” Me: “No, it’s just seasonal allergies!”
So I love America…but I also have a love for the people of Mexico – especially many of the poorest of the poor in Texas-Mexico border towns like Reynosa, Mexico. Is there some violence in Mexico border towns by drug cartels? Yes there is. Is there evil and sin there? Yes, there is.
But it’s not the people’s fault there in the colonias (the neighborhoods), they are not the makers of the violence, but the victims of the violence. Here is what Faith Ministry says about how to act when we go to Mexico:
“Travel with a spirit of humility and with a genuine desire to learn more about the people on your journey. Be sensitive to the feelings of other people. Cultivate the habit of listening and observing, rather than merely hearing and seeing. Acquaint yourselves with local customs; people will help you.”
So I’ve learned over the years, to watch them, learn from them – not only their customs but from how they approach their work.
When the Mexican workers get to show us how to lay block, and mix cement, I see a pride in them. We work side by side with Mexican teenage young men, and older women who work faster, harder and better than me. I’m good with that. They have pride in their work and teach me new skills. By working side by side, I can learn from them.
By us going to see them, they learn that they are not forgotten there crowded along the border, and that we stand with them, side by side, as sisters and brothers in Christ – and in peace.
When we left this year, I was hurrying to get everyone into the vans – and get going to cross the border on Thursday afternoon. I saw out the van window that Sammy came to say goodbye.
Sammy was about 17, and a nice young man – I didn’t talk that much to him during the week. I was already in the big 15 passenger van, getting ready to back out of the church compound. But he came over, stood up on his toes, reached into my van and gave me a hug. It was one of the highlights of the week – that said so much more than Spanish words or English words could say. I think both Sammy, a teenage boy living in this poor colonia in Reynosa, Mexico, and me a pastor from an upper middle class suburb in Indiana are both children of God. We were at peace, American and Mexican, in a beautiful brief hug, initiated by Sammy.
Speaking of peace, my favorite song there is “Unidos, Unidos”, we are united, united in Christ.
Translated here are lines from the chorus of that Spanish song:
United, United, in your Name, united.
For in this world, peace and love we will have.
United, always united, Holding hands,
We will go around the world singing to God.
The glory of Jesus will finally shine, And the world will fill with love and peace.
Let us pray.
O Lord, help us to have peace.
Peace because God gave us peace – the prince of peace.
We don’t earn it, but receive it. Give us the peace that passes all understanding is from Jesus – and helps us to push back against anger, impatience, frustration, worry.
Help us to share that peace with others and be peacemakers – by getting the log out of our own eye, and going to be reconciled with those with whom we have conflict, and to glorify you.
Help us to see people first as children of God, not by some stereotypes we might have. Help us to find ways to walk side by side with people that are different – to be instruments of peace. Help us O Lord, in Christ’ name, Amen.
BENEDICTION:
In some churches, instead of greeting each other at the beginning of the service, they pass the peace. We’re going to do that here in just a moment. We pass the peace because we need to share God’s peace with each other. Let this be a reminder for the week ahead. So with the help of God the Father, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit, May you find a way to pass the peace to someone else this week.
Let us pass the peace:
First person says:
The peace of Christ be with you.
Response:
And also with you.