Peace

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, TX.

---

The part of Peter’s second letter we read today holds a special place for me – this was the passage I was given for my first sermon in preaching class in seminary. As I spent an inordinate amount of time pondering Peter’s words I remember thinking, “why don’t I remember this passage from my childhood?” Peter’s words are in direct opposition to what I was told about Jesus’ ‘second coming’ and it made me wonder why, when given the choice, anyone would prefer to emphasize being set ablaze and dissolved by fire rather than God’s patience and holiness and righteousness and peace? Why would anyone choose to proclaim fear instead of love? How is that Good News for anyone?

Sometimes it seems that our world prefers war to peace, coercion rather than patience, hatred rather than holiness. Proclaiming fear gives the proclaimer power over those who buy into the fear-driven way. God chose to come to us as a human, born and raised in this world to show us what it looks like to choose peace and holiness. Jesus shows in us flesh and blood that we have a choice of how we live in the here and now. If you were here a few weeks ago, you might remember that we talked about eternity not being sometime in the future – Jesus didn’t come to offer us salvation for “some day” – but that eternity has no beginning and no end. Our eternal life is now and we have the choice of living God’s way or not.

We have the choice, as Peter puts it, to strive to be found by him at peace. But just what does that mean?

The Hebrew word shalom and Greek word eirene are often translated as peace but in our English language we tend to define peace simply as an absence of conflict. A better understanding of how both the old and New Testament writers were using the word is ‘complete’ or ‘whole’ – something complex that is in a state of completeness. It has to do with our collective wellbeing. To bring shalom means to make complete or restore to wholeness. To reconcile a relationship is to bring shalom. It is more than just not fighting or arguing but actively and intentionally working toward the wellbeing of each other.

The phrase translated in our New Revised Standard translation as “without spot or blemish” doesn’t mean ‘physically perfect’ but morally without reproach. And just how do we come to be without spot or blemish? By accepting our need to be forgiven for the ways we’ve worked at building our own kingdom on earth rather than God’s; the big and small ways we’ve chosen conflict instead of peace, coercion instead of patience, hatred instead of holiness. Admitting we have relied on our way of doing things rather than God’s Way prepares our hearts and minds to receive the Good News that we are loved and that God’s Kingdom is right here among us.

We prepare the way of the Lord by living the way of the Lord, living the Way of Love. This is what John the Baptizer calls us to when he proclaims repentance. John was a bit of an unconventional priest for his time. But Baptizing people wasn’t the most radical thing he did. Converts to Judaism were baptized as a ritual cleansing of their former ways. What made John’s proclamation radical was that he wanted Jews to be baptized. What did they need to repent from – weren’t they already keeping God’s laws? And there in lies the difference: keeping rather than living. John is calling God’s people out of a transactional way of living into God’s relational way of life.

As we’ve talked about before, the word we translate as repentance means to changes one’s heart and mind. It has no intonation of self-loathing or punishment but it does require self-awareness and understanding. When John proclaims repentance he was talking about seeing a better way and changing our hearts and minds to live God’s way here and now.

The temple priests taught about keeping the law – exchanging sacrifices for forgiveness; John spoke of changed hearts and minds. The temple priests had the reputation of seeking power and prestige; John chose to live in the wilderness without luxuries or comforts. When people sought John, he pointed them toward Jesus, not seeking his own glory but God’s.

Jesus tells us that he came not to condemn us but to show us what it is in flesh and blood to fulfill God’s law, not just keep it but to actually be who and Whose we are created to be, to live in the Way of Love, centering our hearts on God, following Jesus, and staying focused on tending to each other, neither denying or elevating our own needs but trusting that as we tend to each other, all of our needs are satisfied. Love as Jesus shows us how to love is always other-focused with the awareness that everything we think, say, and do has an impact, either good or bad, on others. This God shaped love is knowing we are most complete when we are all living into our gifts for the good of God’s Kingdom, collectively not individualistically. And the more love we share, the more we hasten the day of God.

God isn’t sitting on a cloud somewhere watching and waiting for us to mess up so he can press the divine smite button and do us all in. God is patently waiting for us to all to come to the awareness that our job isn’t to save the world or anyone in it, including ourselves! This is what repentance is – realizing it isn’t our job to fix the world or anyone in it so we are free to discover our purpose as the image bearers we are created to be, honoring each other as fellow image bearers and together “leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for AND hastening the day of God!”

This is our salvation – that God has already forgiven us and adopted us. We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to be good enough. We don’t have to do everything or save the world or anyone in it. We are created and called to participate with God in bringing about the kingdom on earth as in heaven, living in such a way that honors and points to God’s gracious gift of loving forgiveness.

This is our peace, our completeness, our wholeness – trusting that we will all thrive as we live God’s way, even in the midst of our struggles and grief, just as Jesus shows us, tending to each other, actively and equally seeking each other’s wellbeing.

We simply have to be who God created us to be.

Does it bring you comfort and peace to know that you are not responsible for saving the world? Does it bring you comfort and peace to know that it is God’s greatest desire that all human beings – even you and, yes, even that person you don’t think deserves it – enter into the now-and-not-yet kingdom on earth as in heaven? Does is bring you comfort and peace to know that God sees all people the same, as beloved children?

Someday, God will bring about the new heaven and new earth and righteousness will be at home. In the mean time, we wait patiently and actively, awake and alert to God’s presence among us, honoring the image of God in all people, letting our hearts and minds be shaped by God’s love so that we can proclaim love to the world. Amen.