Fruit of the Spirit - Part 5 PEACE

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Monday, May 27, 2019

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Galatians 5:22-23

A story is told of a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but was very frustrated.  The world seemed to be falling apart.  She would read the papers and get depressed.

One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random.  She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter.  She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she'd seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. 

She finally got up her nerve and asked, Excuse me, are you Jesus?  I am. 

Do you work here?  No, I own the store.

Oh, what do you sell here?  Just about everything, Jesus said.  Feel free to walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want and then come back, and we'll see what we can do for you.

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles.  There was [for sale] peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources.  She wrote her list furiously.  By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list.  Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled.  No problem.  And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up and laid out the packets. 

She asked:  What are these?  Seed packets, Jesus said.  This is a catalog store.

She said:  You mean I don't get the finished product?

No, this is a place of dreams.  You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds.  You plant the seeds.  You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.

Oh, she said.  And she left the store without buying anything.^[2]

Sometimes it is easier to dwell on having personal peace than on the peace which compels us to go into all the world with the good news. 

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  That was the eighth day…a whole week later than the first time Jesus said “peace” to them.  This time he came back when Thomas was there.  Thomas may have felt pretty much a second-class-citizen as a disciple.  But Jesus came back and spoke the same wonderful word to him…. “Peace”!

We all come to Jesus at different times and in different walks – but his peace is still his peace.  Symbiosis is:  a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship between two people or groups.^[3]  To be “symbiotically-peaceful” is to get along with each other in the kind of love God planned for us.  It is symbiotic peace that conjoins us and holds us together in a bond of brotherhood and the selfless love of God.  This is the whole point of Easter.  It is what Paul meant when he told us that God was in Christ to reconcile the whole world to himself^[4] – and has given us that very same mission. 

Peace is the work of reconciliation – first I am reconciled to God with his saving peace, having been rescued from my sins.  Then I take part in rescuing others because of his sending peace.  And I am taught to live in symbiotic God-love, the peace that passes all understanding.  It is a matter of living in God’s peace. 

So…Pass the Peace brothers and sisters….take a moment and pass the peace; take this lifetime and pass the peace!

For You Today

Let the peace of Christ dwell in you today. 

For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Romans 14:17

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

[2]Migan McKenna in Parables, cited in Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 359.

[3] Encarta dictionary

[4] 2 Corinthians 5:19

After Easter Series: #1. PEACE

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“Peace be with you,” he said.   John 20:19b^(NLT)

I‘m definitely a Thomas kind of guy.  Thomas didn’t want to believe what seemed too good to believe until he had seen Jesus like the other disciples had seen Jesus.  It’s not that he didn’t have faith; Thomas had stronger faith than the other disciples before Jesus was arrested.  The Pharisees had threatened to stone Jesus to death, and Jesus announced he was going to Jerusalem to confront them.  The other disciples protested loudly that it was too dangerous.  But Thomas just said, well, let’s go and die with him.^[2]  That’s faith!

Thomas was no doubter, but he also had no sense of timing.  When Jesus appeared to the disciples on the evening of resurrection day Thomas was the only one of the bunch to miss church. 

I’ve often wondered just why Thomas missed meeting with the group on that evening.  My best guess is that he was pretty resigned to the fact that it was game-over.  The Pharisees had won, Jesus was dead, and there was nothing left to do but start figuring-out a life beyond following Jesus, because there was no more Jesus to follow.

And then there’s the other wonderment – why did Thomas come back to the group a week later.  It had to be that some of the other disciples went and got Thomas…brought him back into the fold.  They had seen the resurrected Lord, and they shared the good news with him.  Thomas’ faith had flickered, and his friends brought him back. 

Somewhere in that there’s a sermon for any church with as many inactive members as active ones!

Today is the eighth-day – resurrection plus one week!  We are waiting like the disciples, door shut, Thomas, the backslider has been reclaimed, and we’re remembering the last time we saw Jesus enter the room.  We recall his first words, “Peace be with you”.  Jesus said those words three times in our text, and each time they brought a different kind of peace…

Saving Peace

There is a peace that rescues.  The disciples had shut the doors for fear that what had happened to Jesus would happen to them.  When suddenly Jesus was present with them, that fear vanished with the realization of victory. 

My family watched the movie “The Passion” with its two grueling and graphic hours depicting the arrest, beating, trial and crucifixion of Jesus.  Afterwards, when Jesus appeared to the disciples, he had the marks of his suffering, but it was obvious those marks didn’t have him anymore. 

There is a peace that is surreal when the darkness of disaster and defeat are replaced by the morning light of victory.  When Jesus said “peace be with you” he was saying, “I am with you – your victory, your peace…I am here to save.”  Even the name “Jesus” means “God saves”.  Saving Peace, and…

Sending Peace

“Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 

This second kind of peace Jesus brought with him is sending peace.  The Father sent Jesus into the world to seek and to save that which was lost – us!^[3]  He told the disciples, and he also tells us, that in the same way the Father sent him to the mission of reconciling all people to him, Jesus sends us to that same mission. 

A story is told of a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but was very frustrated.  The world seemed to be falling apart.  She would read the papers and get depressed.

One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random.  She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter.  She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she'd seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. 

She finally got up her nerve and asked, Excuse me, are you Jesus?

I am.  Do you work here?  No, I own the store.

Oh, what do you sell here?

Just about everything, Jesus said.  Feel free to walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want and then come back and we'll see what we can do for you.

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles.  There was [for sale] peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources.  She wrote furiously.  By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list.  Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled.  No problem.  And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up and laid out the packets. 

She asked:  What are these? 

Seed packets, Jesus said.  This is a catalog store.

She said:  You mean I don't get the finished product?

No, this is a place of dreams.  You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds.  You plant the seeds.  You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.

Oh, she said.  And she left the store without buying anything.^[4]

Sometimes it is easier to dwell on saving peace than on the peace which compels us to go into all the world with the good news. 

But he said “peace” to them once more…

Symbiotic Peace

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 

This was the eighth day…a whole week later than the first time Jesus said “peace” to them.  This time he came back when Thomas was there.  Thomas may have felt pretty second-class as a disciple.  But Jesus came back and spoke the same wonderful word to him…. “Peace”!

We all come to Jesus at different times and in different walks – but his peace is still his peace.  Symbiosis is:  a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship between two people or groups.^[5]  To be “symbiotically-peaceful” is to get along with each other in the kind of love God planned for us.

Three times Jesus said “peace” to his followers –

·       Saving peace that covers our sins and saves us from hell

·       Sending peace that commissions us to go bring people to the fold

·       Symbiotic peace that conjoins us and holds us together in a bond of brotherhood and the selfless love of God.

Together this saving, sending and symbiosis-making peace is the whole point of Easter.  It is what Paul meant when he told us that God was in Christ to reconcile the whole world to himself^[6] – and has given us that very same mission. 

Peace is the work of reconciliation – first I am reconciled to God with his saving peace, having been rescued from my sins.  Then I take part in rescuing others because of his sending peace.  And I am taught to live in symbiotic God-love, the peace that passes all understanding.

It is a matter of living in peace.  This is the sum total of what saving, sending and symbiotic peace means in the human family.

So…Pass the Peace brothers and sisters….take a moment and pass the peace; take this lifetime and pass the peace!

Let the church say Amen in the Name of the Father, Because of the Son, Cooperating with the Spirit…Amen!                                                   

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[1] Title Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] John 11:16

[3] Luke 19:10

[4]Migan McKenna in Parables, cited in Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 359.

[5] Encarta dictionary

[6] 2 Corinthians 5:19

Got Answers?

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All Saints Day, Wednesday, November 1, 2017

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.  They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.  And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”  And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings.  And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God.  They sang, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.”  Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white?  Where did they come from?”  And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.”  Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.  “That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple.  And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter.  They will never again be hungry or thirsty; they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun.  For the Lamb on the throne will be their Shepherd.  He will lead them to springs of life-giving water.  And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”  Revelation 7:9-17^(NLT)

Morgan Freeman may be one of the most recognizable humans on the planet.  His roles in modern drama, comedy, and even as Azeem, the scimitar-wielding Moorish warrior who befriends Kevin Costner in Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves, make Freeman a beloved institution in American theater.

I watched an episode last week of his new series The Story of Us[2], in which Freeman travels the globe looking for answers to life’s most perturbing questions.  This week’s question was:  Can love save the world?  Of course, being a Hollywood icon, Mr. Freeman had to begin with John Lennon and the Beatles’ All You Need is Love.  From there the episode explored various aspects of loving acts that, added together, could have the result of changing our culture to make earth a better place to live.

I wish they had allowed me to do the voice-over at the end of the show.  While the credits rolled on the screen, I would have simply said…uh…guys…by the way, your question was answered some time ago.  Love DID save the world.

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  1 John 4:8^(NLT)

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.  John 3:16-17^(NLT)

For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.  And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.  2 Corinthians 5:19^(NLT)

This is the message of the entire canon of Scripture – God is love, and it is God’s love that saves.

For You Today

On this All Saints day, when we celebrate the entire tribe of humanity and angels surrounding the throne in Heaven, we’ve already got the answer:

Yes, love can – and HAS – saved the world.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: By Reamronaldreagan, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] ^©The National Geographic Channel