May 9, 2010
The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C)
Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5;
John 14:23-29
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.“ (14:27a)
Its hard to think about peace these days. There is so little of it in the world in which we live. Though to be perfectly honest, I am not convinced there is less peace now than there ever was. I do not trust that life was tranquil and full of God’s peace at some other great point in history, a point we idealize but probably never lived in – if it ever existed! However, I think this passage calls us to think about the peace God does offer, to explore just what the peace means to us in 2010 and how we find it. We need to reflect on that peace that Jesus spoke of as he was about to depart from his friends and followers and how it compares to the peace the world offers. Jesus most certainly seems to make a distinction in this passage from John.
And I think it an appropriate thing to reflect upon as we are about to baptize young Graham into our fellowship of peace. What is it exactly we are hoping to bestow upon him by this bold act of baptism? – on Mother’s Day yet!
The peace which Jesus was speaking of, it seems to me, is unlike worldly peace that is based upon laws, order, arms, power, and the absence of or a halt to violence. The peace that Jesus offered never promised respite from the power hungry or violent, never offered law and order. Rather Jesus offered peace that broke down previously held understandings of law and order and certainly previously understood bases of power.
The peace which Jesus offered his followers that day, and to us by extension today in 2010, was not based on personal safety or well guarded “no combat zones.”
No, the peace that Jesus offered was based solely on the surrender of all these things. Letting go and trusting that God will lead you and your life where God wants you to go. And in that surrender you find the opportunity to begin embracing “the peace that passes understanding.” In that surrender you may never know personal safety, nor guarantee the fixing of your mortal woes, be they financial, health, or relationship. You may never know freedom from the power hungry or ever find political or territorial safety. But you will have the opportunity to truly live in all that chaos we all know, and, right there in the midst of it, experience an inner quietness and hopefulness that belies the values of the world and celebrates those things which cannot be purchased, armed, stolen, medicated, taken by storm, or even be bullied into surrendering.
The peace which Jesus offers can only be glimpsed by letting go of all such worldly held actions of great “success.” This peace that passes understanding is gained by practicing the very things that the world denies as being of value and hanging on for dear life to those things that Jesus taught us. Rather than clinging to that which the world around you is trying to entice you into thinking will bring peacefulness, or something the world values more than peace such as money, power, and success, cling to your community, your humility, dignity, servant heart, and love for your enemy.
Today we baptize Graham Bradford Raynolds Skinner and invite him into a journey that makes no promises of worldly success, but rather promises him a life time of deep and holy relationship with a God that is demanding, protective, loving, forgiving, humorous, mysterious, and demanding (among other things of course). And that journey that we invite him to be part of leads to that peace that Jesus was trying so desperately to get his disciples to understand before he left them permanently. The peace making tools that we promise to use with and for and around Graham, that we promise to teach to Graham, are the very actions we ascribe to in the baptismal covenant. These “Peace Making tools” include continuing in the apostles teaching, fellowship, sharing the Eucharist, and prayers. It means showing up and participating with others who are on the same journey (not showing up only when it is convenient or when things are really bad or really good) but showing up because it is a path upon which the way to peace and holiness is laid out. Yes, going to church matters to God. I don’t think, and this is likely heresy, that God cares one wit which church, or that one church is more right than another. But I think God does care that each one of us engages in a fellowship of what I would call “faithing,” or trying to live our faith while in community with others who strive for that peace Jesus promised. I believe that such “faithing” is essential to finding it.
The second thing we promise is that we will persevere in resisting evil and when we are seduced by it, that we will repent and return to following the ways of Jesus as soon as we realize our misdirection or even sinfulness – that unpopular word, sin! There is not a single person, alive, dead, or yet to come, except for Jesus, that has not been seduced by evil, that is “sinned,” on a regular basis. One of the reasons we stay in community and worship together, pray together, break bread together is so that we will have others around to help us discern if it is evil that we are following instead of Christ. Community calls us on it and helps us recognize sin, our own as individuals, and the sin in the multiple communities to which we belong, church, town, nation, world.
We promise to proclaim Christ by word, AND example. Oh, my goodness, this is hard! Sometimes it’s not hard to find the word to describe what we want to live and do and be, but it is nearly impossible to live those words. We often get sidetracked figuring out how others are not being the example we think they ought to be, instead of trying to figure out how we are failing in that regard. Again we need the community to help us make that kind of discernment.
We will promise to serve ALL persons; we promise to seek ALL persons and to love our neighbor as ourselves. ALL people? Can you imagine what the world would look like if we did this? That means we are to love our enemies. And if we love our enemies, we will have no enemies and the world suddenly knows the peacefulness of Christ, the deep peace of Christ that we “faithing” communities seek. We must at least begin here in this community to love each other, so there will be no enemies here, only a community committed to praying, serving, and being together. Again, the essential need of “community” to get us on the path toward that “peacefulness not of this world” is evident in what we promise Graham and each other each time we repeat the baptismal covenant.
And we will promise to strive for peace and justice. For there cannot be peace unless there is justice, and respecting the dignity of every human being to bring about that justice is not an easy task either. We not only have to love them, we must respect our enemies, and recognize they have a dignity! There are good reasons in our worldly hearts for there to be those we have “trouble loving.” Yet if we are to take this baptismal road map seriously, the price of peace is letting go of such reasons and embracing the forgiving, loving nature God made evident in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The justice Christ speaks of never resembled any of the “fair laws” we have used for centuries to organize ourselves into communities. The justice Jesus taught is based on giving the prodigal more, the last to arrive the same wages as the first, the female caught in adultery, freedom. It is the justice of compassion, love, and forgiveness that we are to practice on the path toward peace.
Communities can do this. You can do this. And I beg you to for Graham’s sake certainly but also for the sake of all those whom we have baptized over the years, for the sake of the long term health of this community, but most of all for the sake of the gospel and our call as followers, to make it manifest in our lives and beings.
Be the community that continues in the apostles’ fellowship, my friends, and the peace that comes, not from the powers and principalities of this world, but from the humility, mystery, and servitude of Jesus will be yours to pass on to such children as Graham.
May THAT peace surround you this day and always!
Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd