Reading, Sermon and Prayers for 22 May 2022

READING: John Ch 14 v 23 – 29

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

SERMON: “Peace I Give You”

Today’s gospel reading is set at the time of the Last Supper, the night before Jesus gives himself over to death upon the cross.

Jesus tells his disciples that they should not grieve over his going from them, for he would not only bestow the Holy Spirit upon them to teach and comfort them, but he would leave them his peace.

Hear his words again: My peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

What a wonderful set of words, a wonderful promise a promise of peace. Yet there is a strangeness to them as well, a strangeness found in the last phrase, the phrase that says: “I do not give to you as the world gives.”

What do they mean for us? For us who greet one another during the service with the words – the Peace of Christ be with you? What is this peace that Christ gives and that we pray upon one another? The peace that he gives, which is not like that which the world gives?

There is a story told about peace that may help answer that question.

An artist was commissioned by a wealthy man to paint something that would depict peace. After a great deal of thought, the artist painted a beautiful country scene. There were green fields with cows standing in them, birds were flying in the blue sky and a lovely little village lay in a distant valley. The artist presented the picture, but there was a look of disappointment on the wealthy man’s face. The man said to the artist, “This isn’t a picture of true peace. It isn’t right. Go back and try again.

The artist went back to his studio, thought for several hours about peace, then went to his canvas and began to paint. When he was finished, there on the canvas was a beautiful picture of a mother, smiling lovingly at the sleeping baby in her arms, He thought, surely, this is true peace, and hurried to give the picture to the wealthy man. But again, the wealthy man refused the painting and asked the painter to try again.

The artist returned again to his studio. He was discouraged, tired and disappointed. Anger swelled inside him, he felt the rejection of this wealthy man. Again, he thought; he even prayed for inspiration to paint a picture of true peace. Then, all of a sudden an idea came, he rushed to the canvas and began to paint as he had never painted before. When he finished, he hurried to the wealthy man.

He gave the painting to the man. He studied it carefully for several minutes. The artist held his breath. Then the wealthy man said, “Now this is a picture of true peace.” He accepted the painting, paid the artist and everyone was happy.

But what was this picture of true peace?? The picture showed a stormy sea pounding against a cliff. The artist had captured the furry of the wind whipped sea, black rain clouds which were laced with streaks of lightening. The sea was roaring in turmoil, waves churning, the dark sky filled with the power of a furious thunderstorm. And in the middle of the picture, under a cliff, the artist had painted a small bird, safe and dry in her nest snuggled safely in the rocks. The bird was at peace midst the storm that raged about her.”

This seems to be portion of the picture of peace that Jesus gives, not a worldly kind of peace, nor the peace of a spot in nature – beautiful and serene, nor in the peace of a mother and child- tender and gentle. Neither is it the peace of an absence of conflict – where there are no storms or violent waves, but rather it is a peace of knowing that in the midst of turmoil there is a rock which can shelter us and a power of peace that can spread its wings over us and keep us safe.

So many of us look for peace in this world. We look for the safe places where there is nothing that can disturb us. We look for the quiet of our hearts disturbed so often by fear. We look for assurance, for hope, for joy and this is a good thing to do – for God does not want us to suffer needlessly.

Many of us pray too about peace, about peace not only for us, and our families. We pray also for peace in the world, for an end to armed conflicts, and end to war and terrorism, an end for the violence that nations and individuals do to one another and this also is a good thing to do, this praying for peace.

But often I think we look for peace in a way that is not helpful, and even perhaps pray for peace in a way that is not helpful. We look for peace, we seek peace thinking of it as an end to those things that disturb us, as an absence of fear as an absence of conflict as an absence of turmoil and forget, I believe, that the lack of peace in our hearts and in our world is a consequence of other factors – rather than the actual problem we are facing.

In Hebrew – peace or rather ‘Shalom’ is much more than the absence of things that disturb us. Peace is rather linked to the concept of wholeness, of being “at one” with God and with our neighbours – and ourselves, of having not only an absence of war but of having the causes and diseases of war – greed, hate, fear, injustice, intolerance, and prejudices – eliminated.

That is what Jesus was about when he walked among us and what he is about through his Spirit and from his place next to the Father above, that heaven and earth are to be inherited by those who keep faith with him.

My 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.

Jesus was and is one who heals the aforementioned diseases rather than one who simply masks the symptoms. Jesus was and is one who builds a new world, a new heaven and a new earth rather than simply trying to fix the old one.

That’s what the book says. That’s what the spirit says and that’s what the heart of faith says. We have, my friends, a vision a vision to guide our walking and to provide assurance to us as we walk – we have a destination and a goal, a purpose and a plan.

But rather more than a destination that provides us direction, more than a vision that provides us hope, more than a goal that keeps us busy, we have a presence here and now. A presence that comforts us and helps us to known peace and to share peace, a presence that reminds us that the Word of God is effective and that it accomplishes what it sets out to do, and that what it does is work towards wholeness.

That presence is the presence of Christ himself the presence of the Spirit the presence of God.

That is part of what Jesus means when he says ‘My peace I leave with you my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives’.

He does not give as the world gives because what he gives is effective, what he gives is eternal, what he gives cannot and will not fail. He gives us peace with God through his love through his life and his death, and his resurrection, and he gives us a new world through his sharing with us the eternal plan of God.

And this goes beyond even the picture of the artist that I started with, the picture of the bird sitting safely on its nest in the midst of a violent storm.

We can sometimes find ourselves in captivity – a spiritual captivity – a spiritual captivity that tempts us to cling to the past and to complain about the present rather than to move into the future with confidence.

What would it be like if one person asked – if instead of complaining about things that are not felt to be perfect here in the church, at home or at work, we instead claimed the promises of God and praised God for all the good things that he is working on in our midst even now?

What about instead of getting agitated about how few people helped out when asked to help out, we got excited about how many people help out all the time -often without being asked?

What about instead of complaining about all the bad news that we can so easily complain about, we spoke of the good things that God is doing in lives all around us – all the time.

What it be like, what would our church be like – and eventually our whole community be like, if instead of complaining about all the little stuff that goes wrong, we really got hold of the promises of God, and looked to the light instead of the darkness, and began delighting in all the little stuff that goes right – as signs of God’s faithfulness towards us and towards the world he has made?

An intriguing set of questions isn’t it? A set of questions that reminds us that there are more enduring things than the pains we experience – more important things to do than simply moan about what is not good – things to do that decrease pain and increase wholeness – to the glory of God..

As Jesus said at the beginning of his ministry behold – the kingdom of God is at hand see – the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the prisoners are set free.

Peace is found in living a life of faith, Peace is found in walking according to the words of Christ, Peace is found in trusting in the living God and in his everlasting love and all we have to do is welcome and grasp that peace.

We have a vision. We have a goal and we have a God able to accomplish all that he purposes, a God who vanquishes death – and opens the way to eternal life to all, a God who serves where others would rule, and rules where no other force can rule.

The world is in a turmoil, there is a great storm raging round us. But look to the good that is also all around us, do the good as Jesus calls us to do in today’s gospel by keeping his word; do it knowing that his word will not return to us – nor to God – empty, but will accomplish all that it is meant to accomplish.

The peace of Christ is not simply a peace of huddling on the nest while the storm rages, it is a peace of knowing that when the storm is over, it is over forever, and all of creation will be at peace.

The words of Jesus concerning his peace are not easy words, his peace is not always peace to receive but it is a peace that lasts, a peace that triumphs, a peace that heals, and that is not something that the world can give us, it can only come to us from God. Amen

PRAYERS

In joy and hope, let us pray to the source of all life and the font of all hope, all blessings and all truth. Lord God, in your mercy hear our prayer

We pray, O Lord, that our risen Saviour may fill us with the joy of His holy and life-giving resurrection and that we may keep his word always…