“Seeking Peace in Challenging Times”
Mark 1: 1-8 & Psalm 45 ~ Northwood UC ~ December 3, 2023
Peace…who doesn’t need peace? Indeed, this Sunday’s shift to focusing upon ‘Peace’ is timely, as this aspect of God is truly something that so many are in desperate need of! Our prayer list grows with petitions for peace: we consider war in various parts of the world, and we pray for peace; we hold those navigating the grief journey and we pray for a settling peace; we lift up those facing the many uncertainties life throws at them and we pray for peace. This morning we consider our shared human nature of seeking peace in challenging times and we consider when God? When will this peace come? When?
A good question that might begin our inquiry, perhaps, is what kind of peace are we seeking? What does peace mean? We ask the question because peace comes in various forms. The expansion of the Roman Empire had brought a form of peace in Jesus’ time. Rome’s power and dominance had removed war. And, in fact, historical sources of the time note that the opening section of gospel reading contained the same expressions used to announce the birth of Emperor Augustus back in 9 BCE. There is a new king coming! Good news! Good news! Yet, I suspect that none of us would want a superpower like Rome to rule with an iron fist. Indeed, the kind of peace that we seek is an ‘other worldly peace’…a divine peace, a peace that is not of human creation. We seek a peace that God might birth into the pain and brokenness of the world, and our individual lives.
Perhaps this is what was drawing people to John the Baptist as an itinerant preacher in the wilderness. John was one who was beginning to teach of that kind of peace. Sometimes it is not the messenger who draws people; it is the message! And that would have been the case with John. He was dressed in crazy attire for the day. He lived in the wilderness; he was dressed in a camel’s hair cloak and ate bugs and wild honey. He was an odd character. And the message he brought was equally radical. An other-worldly kind of peace that God was ushering in. He offered a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. The word repentance means ‘turning around’. And John not only taught that “you have fallen short, and you have sinned”. He taught that “you can change that reality”. You can turn things around; you can point yourself, your situation, in the direction in the way of God’s peace. And that is good news!
Peace is not just putting a happy face on things. Peace begins with the opportunity, as John teaches, to turn things around. As I was pondering this reflection, several pastoral conversations that have occurred over the past few months came to mind. I was in conversation with a business person whose restaurant was among the many casualties of Covid. This person put everything into their business: their time, their resources, everything. Heartbroken with his present situation, he wanted someone to talk to and he ended up in tears at a church…afraid for what lay ahead. Another conversation I had was with a woman approaching retirement who was laid off due to automation. She was afraid, uncertain, scared for the future. As I talked further with the man, he had an ‘aha moment’. He said: “I have to admit that I had really come to despise my work. I was not enjoying it as I first did. I don’t know what I am going to do next. It was becoming like a weight around my neck dragging me down. Maybe there is a silver lining in this all.” Interestingly, the woman who was laid off from her job had a similar reflection as we talked further: “I think I was increasingly bored at the factory. It was very mundane. I don’t know what is ahead, but I know that I wasn’t happy or fulfilled.”
As we listen in to those conversations, we all know that peace is not, simply, putting a happy face on things. But I’m thinking that somewhere amidst the bad news life sends our way, perhaps we might begin to find some good news as well? Sometimes good news can begin with bad news: loss, heartbreak, pain and suffering. Yet, with God’s peace it’s processed in a very special way that transforms the bad into the good. John the Baptist was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. His message, essentially, was “get washed up; have your sins forgiven; get ready; the Messiah is coming!” Get ready…the Prince of Peace is coming! John was shining light on possibility for the future.
The beloved theologian CS Lewis famously said that “the Christian faith is a thing of great comfort.” But that was not the extent of Lewis’ observation. Lewis warned that the Christian faith does not begin in comfort; Lewis noted that our faith often begins in despair and grief. And there is no use in trying to get to comfort without first going through the despair and the grief; without going through the pains and the suffering. We can’t get to Easter without going through Good Friday. We are all, regularly, touched by the inevitability of despair and grief and God’s peace yearns to intervene to offer comfort. Faith is knowing that God is actively working to build peace into the future.
I wonder what pains and suffering might be occupying your heart right now? I wonder how we might be instructed by John the Baptist and make the ways straight; make way for God’s peace in the tomorrows ahead? As that candle was lit…might it kindle the faith that God’s peace is coming?
The word that Jesus used in teaching about peace, many know, was shalom. Scholars teach us that Jesus dialect was an Aramaic-Hebrew which would render shalom as the word he would have taught through the gospels. Jesus is recorded as using this word over 400 times (429 in KJV. It varies in other translations). “My shalom I leave with you, My shalom I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” Jesus is the Prince of Peace. His way is peace-making. The shalom Jesus taught about was powerful and profound. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness and delight. One cannot flourish when others are hurting. Shalom is a collective movement for God’s people. Shalom is a prayer for the blessing of all with peace. Shalom, then, becomes a state in which natural needs are satisfied and gifts fruitfully employed. It is the building of a peaceable kingdom where Creator opens doors in welcome to all God’s creatures. Shalom is the unfolding construction of the Kingdom of God.
Shalom is an enduring prayer. It is a prayer for God’s intercession in our daily lives. Interestingly, in Israel, shalom is used both as a greeting as well as a farewell, much like hello and goodbye are spoken in English. We greet another with a prayerful wish for their health and their peace: shalom to you. As we depart, we bless them with that same hope as they go on their journey: shalom to you. When I think of parallels to us in church, I wonder if this is akin to what we do here in ‘passing the peace’ during worship. For many of us, it was deeply saddening during the early stages of return from Covid not to be allowed to embrace this practice. Indeed, it was wise to refrain from this practice; however, our hearts deeply yearned for this time because it truly means something to people of faith. To bless another with “the peace of Christ” is a profoundly powerful exchange! ‘May the peace of Christ be with you’. To take it into the world as a way of living…can truly transform the world. Shalom-living is the active construction of peace into the world!
Yet, here we are in a world filled with so much conflict and war; in communities filled with so much brokenness; with many a heart that feels devoid of peace. I wanted to conclude with a story from the well-known evangelist Billy Graham that he shared in his book “Nearing Home”. Billy and his wife Ruth were travelling through the mountains of North Carolina. Through their journey, they encountered lengthy stretches of road construction. At times there one-lane traffic, detours. It had been a frustrating journey to say the least. When they came to the end of the construction, they saw a road sign. Ruth turned to her husband and said: “that is what I want etched on my tombstone”. The words on the road sign read: “End of construction. Thanks for your patience”.
God’s way is peace; God is actively working towards peace. May we live into the shalom way of God with patience, with strength, with faith that God’s peace will come.
Amen.