The Sunday Sermon: September 18, 2022 – 15th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture: Isaiah 2:2-4
Make Peace: Taking a Step Back
Pray with me …
This month and the first week of next month, we are seeking to understand what in the world (I mean that literally) it will take to “Make Peace” in our lives and in our families, and in our communities. Not just a peace, small “p,” that is the absence of something negative, but the Peace, capital “P”, the Shalom of God, that includes the presence of something positive.
Last week we discovered – rediscovered, I hope – the Peace of Christ that is in us. We used the story, the parable, the teaching about Jesus asleep in the boat during the disciples “storm” to remind ourselves that we have the Peace we are looking for within us. The world as God crated it is inclined toward peace. God’s shalom is woven into the creation of the world. And we are part of God’s creation, created in God’s image, in fact. That means we are infused with the divine goodness, the Shalom of our God, and the Peace of this God’s Christ. We can know peace. It is in us. It’s “on our boat,” we just need to wake it up so it can rage back at the storm and the chaos, “Peace! … Be still.” Unfortunately- for ourselves and for the world – we most often just go below deck as the storm rages around us, and try to wait it out in relative safety and comfort, letting the chaos continue for others not so lucky as to have shelter from the storms that batter their lives.
So, having rediscovered that last Sunday, and spent some time last week, waking up the Peace of Christ within us, we’re ready to Make the Peace we seek, yes? No … To channel my inner Lee Corso: Not so fast my friend. I mean we could start making peace, and I suppose I hope we are to some small measure, at least, in our lives. But for the purpose of our journey with one another as a congregation this month, we’re not yet ready to fully engage. This week we’re taking a step back, actually, to ask some tough questions.
If the world as God created it is inclined toward peace; if God’s shalom is woven into the fabric of all creation, then why … why have things gotten so out of whack?
Listen to the scripture chosen for this morning … Read Isaiah 2:2-4. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
That’s the way the world was created to be! Why is it not the way the world is?! Why does Isaiah even have to begin with “In the days to come …”? Why is there little or none of the Shalom that Isaiah speaks us for so many, including us – those of us with a “below deck”, a place to hide, when storms rage? What has gone wrong to throw us out of alignment with God’s shalom? What systems or situations exist that are leading us toward violence, hunger, poverty, and war?
That’s what we have to consider this morning. If we don’t take a step back to wonder why things are the way they are, we will continue to treat the results of “non-Peace,” and never the causes of it. We cannot be peacemakers – the bless-ed peacemakers Jesus calls us to be – if we don’t’ understand, at least a little bit better the systems and structures that keep us from peace. And I’ll tell you right now so you’re not disappointed in me or yourselves later: we’re not going to figure it all out in the next ten minutes. It can be, and often is, overwhelming to consider how to make peace, and to determine what systems exist as a barrier to that Peace, in a desperate world. But, having rediscovered the Peace within us, having woken it up, we are going to prepare it – to prepare ourselves – to consider some of the forces of non-Peace in our lives and in the world.
Close your eyes and picture in your mind whatever you associate with these agents of “non-Peace”: Violence … poverty … racism … sexism … abuse … injustice … hunger .. conflict … misuse of power … war … imprisonment .. oppression … manipulation … greed … predatory practices … anger. Overwhelming already and these are but a few of the sins that mar God’s vision for the world. How do you cut through any of this, let alone all of this, these ethnic tensions, fears of “the other,” self-centered survival instincts, structural systems, and social barriers that subordinate and isolate so many people and so much of our world, leaving them – and ultimately us, too – frightened, afraid, and in harm’s way? (Open your eyes.)
Having taken a step back, lets’ consider two ways to begin, two things to help you begin to answer these questions and address the seemingly overwhelming task of making Peace on earth.
First: Ask questions, good and probing questions that bring your own character and your own values to light in the midst of the conflicts of your time. Ask yourself daily how you can bring your own character, your values and your deeds into greater harmony with Jesus’ teachings and the moral values you get from our scriptures. That sounds studious, I know, but it is essentially a more mature way of asking yourself “what would Jesus do” and “what does the bible say”. How do your thoughts align with Jesus’ thoughts. How do your actions align with Jesus’ actions. And be honest with yourself. You may not like what you discover, but Peace, with a capital “P” depends on it.
The Reverend Doctor Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, author of our conversation on Peace and a friend of ours (she has preached here from this pulpit a number of times in the last decade), Elizabeth shares the story of Le Chambon in France, a town that chose to wage peace over war and practice nonviolence in the face of the Nazi oppression of World War II. The Protestant congregation there, led by their pastors Andre and Magda Trocme and Edouard Theis, remained steadfast to Jesus’ teachings, preached with passion, and worked with one another to create safe houses for Jews at risk of deportation. The refused to believe that violence is the only logical response to conflict; they worked to cultivate peace within themselves so that they could share it with others and with the world. They “reflected daily on the circumstance in which they were living” to “bring their character and deeds into line with Jesus teachings” and the values they drew from their scripture.
So must we, in our time. Where does violence, poverty, hunger, anger exist in our lives? How do racism, sexism, oppression, or predatory practices manifest themselves in our world today, and what does Jesus’ teachings and our scriptures tell us to do about that? Our friend Elizabeth gives us a hint: the entire witness of Scripture is a call for transformation, a movement toward God’s shalom. In the Hebrew Scriptures, prophets like Isaiah are constantly calling the people of God back to the way of God, and in the Gospels, Jesus challenges the status quo with nearly everything he does! So, too, must we if and when the world’s status quo is diminishing or denying Peace on earth. We must ask good and probing questions that bring our own character and our own values to light in the midst of the conflicts of your time.
The second way you can begin engaging the task of making Peace on earth is to overcome your fear – your fear of others, your fear of reprisals, your fear of sacrificing what you have – all you have – for the sake of the Kin-dom of God. It’s kind of the heart of the Gospel message we have in Jesus Christ: Be not afraid. From the angels to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth all the way through Jesus to his disciples after his death: Be not afraid.
The first Jewish refugee arrived at Magda Trocme’s home at night and rang the doorbell of the manse in which she and her husband Andre were living. When Magna opened the door, the woman explained that she had traveled alone to France and was trying to escape Nazi persecution. At first, Magna felt afraid as she greeted a stranger at the front door. But, it happened to be snowing and cold outside that evening, and Magna noticed that the woman was wearing a pair of summer sandals. A small fire was going in the kitchen and, seeing the woman shivering in the cold enabled Magna to overcome her fear of the stranger. She resisted the impulse to turn the woman away. She invited her to sit by the fire. Later in an interview, Magna said that she welcomed the first refugee quite unexpectedly and didn’t really understand what the fuss was all about. For her, nonviolence was really the only antidote to violence. She also explained that, sometimes, refugees and people in need of safe haven arrived at her house at dinner time and were hungry. Sharing food is the only antidote to hunger, so she welcomed them also to the dinner table.
Magda overcame her fear of the stranger by remembering – unconsciously at first, perhaps – the heart of the Gospel of Christ: Be not afraid. So must we remember.
Why do we “turn so many people away” at our door? What are we afraid of? (Sigh … ) Everything, right? I’m afraid of … the other: Black, woman, transgendered, Muslim, refugee, the stranger. I’m afraid of … losing what I have: money, safety, security, friends, even church members. I’m afraid.
So are you … Take a step back and acknowledge this, admit it. So that we may then step forward, with a better understanding of what prevents us from opening ourselves up and a willingness to take greater risks in service to a peace that may pass our understanding but that is not beyond our grasp.
Spend this week asking those good and probing questions about how your own character and your own values are, or are not aligned with Jesus, in the midst of the conflicts of our time. And spend time this week being “not afraid.” Open your doors, open your lives, open your hearts to the strange and the strangers you fear. Next week we’ll seek to understand those “others” better so we may then take greater risks for the Peace we seek.
The days to come are here. “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.”
Amen.
Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor
Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church / September 18, 2022