“Jesus’ Gift of Peace”
Original sermon given May 22, 2022, written and delivered by Pastor David Brummer at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church
Watch the sermon live here
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. John 14:27
If the Roman Emperor knew that Jesus said this, he would be puzzled.
He might have thought or said something like this:
What kind of peace is he talking about? The Pax Romana is in effect.
What else could anyone else want? It doesn't get any better than this.
Frederick Niedner, theology professor at Valparaiso U.:
The world has it’s kind of peace, doing what those with power, money and weapons tell you to do. Often this amounts to silent fear or despair about being different.
We can and do pray for civil peace within and among nations.
But civil peace and the peace of Jesus are different.
Worldly peace is what we work for/achieve, at best an uneasy truce.
Jesus' peace is a gift of grace from God.
The first is a human endeavor. The latter is a divine gift offered to us.
(The first is limited to this life. The latter lasts to eternity.)
The words translated as peace are shalom O.T. and eirene N.T.
Shalom: health, harmony, wholeness, total well-being, security.
(The gift of salvation—the bounty and fullness of God’s blessings)
Eirene : to join, be united, be in harmony, rest, calm, quietness.
Civil peace takes hard work because we are often so contentious.
Spiritual peace is found only in those who are humble/receptive.
Spiritual peace is the result of God's reconciling work in Jesus Christ.
Our pride is a continuing barrier to full acceptance of God’s peace gift.
Paul reminds us how God's peace is accomplished. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of the cross.”
Colossians 1:19-20
The cross of Jesus is a paradoxical, strange instrument of peace.
Crucifixion was one of the most brutal means of execution.
Jesus was executed for being a danger to the Pax Romana.
Yet the shape of this cruel instrument teaches us about God's peace.
It's horizontal & vertical axes show connectedness/relationship.
Vertical--God's reaching down to us & Our upward reach to God.
Horizontal--Jesus' outspread arms to us & Our outward reach to others.
Receiving Jesus' peace is no guarantee of our acceptance by others.
Jesus says his followers will be scorned, rejected, abused for his sake.
If we are in a proper relationship with God through Jesus--
--we will come into conflict with the values of our society.
And that shouldn’t puzzle us or surprise us
Remember that Jesus ended up on a cross by those who opposed him!
Martin Luther, in a sermon on this Gospel text, put it this way:
“…this is what Christ wants to say with these words of farewell. "I depart from you and leave you in the jaws of the devil. He will be your enemy and will afflict you in every way. This you must expect if you cleave to me and derive your joy and peace from me.” Luther's Works 24:182
So Jesus' peace speaks to various kinds of fears we might have:
It reassures us that we will never be abandoned by God.
The strength/certainty it provides enables us to cope with difficulties.
The Holy Spirit implants Jesus' peace in our hearts and minds.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace….” Galatians 5:22
An art contest was held to award the best visual depiction of peace.
Entries included sunset over a lake--meadow with cattle/sheep grazing.
The winner? A bird on its nest, on a branch out over a huge waterfall.
With destructive power so near, the bird carried out her nurturing task.
Jesus' powerful peace was at work at Dietrich Bonhoeffer's execution.
Summoned for hanging after conducting his final Sunday service--
--he said to a cell mate: “This is the end. For me, the beginning of life.”
A doctor witnessed the 39 year old’s execution on 4/9/45, at age 39.
He noted that before he stepped up to the gallows, he knelt it prayer.
He said that he never saw anyone go to his death more calmly.
Jesus' peace is not a fantasy of life in a world of sweetness and light.
It is a source of security/strength in the midst life's destructive forces.
Our Lord’s peace also moves us to reach out to others graciously.
As God is toward us in Jesus Christ, so we are to be toward others.
THAT’S HOW OUR LORD’S PEACE WORKS!
God made peace with us in Christ, so we can share that with others.
I close with St. Francis' Prayer for Peace:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. +
(No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace.)