Got Peace?
6.25.06
3rd Sunday of Pentecost Year B
Mark 4:35-41
I’ve
been overseas two times in my life. I’d like to go to Ireland, or France sometime, but I always go to places that are experiencing a lot of violence. I was in Israel the summer of 1986 for one month; everyone my age had a machine gun and was wearing green. There were barbed wire fences everywhere, and the F-150s practiced exercises overhead while we worked on the archaeological dig.
I went to Colombia the spring of 2000 - soldiers were everywhere with machine guns -- the grocery store, the mall, the streets where we stayed.
It was so nice to come home to St. Paul where people don’t wear guns out in the open. We live in a land of peace. Except all though those conflicts are still happening, and we still send soldiers and money to fund peacekeeping efforts and wars around the world. And even if it isn’t on my doorstep, violence anywhere in the world affects me. Affects us.
Got peace?
Jesus said, “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.”
Like I said, it is nice to come home to Minnesota. To walk the streets and not see guns, to live in relative safety. Especially in Duluth.
And yet, even here violence happens…a man in West Duluth was beaten to death walking home a few weeks ago. Homeless people are beaten, innocent children are shot, and violence happens inside people’s houses that we never hear of.
Got peace?
Jesus said, “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.”
But we can draw the circle tighter, and look at just our lives. That is safer. We have more control that way. We can choose where to live, who to talk to, where to work. We can take care of ourselves and then we’ll be safe. We’ll have peace.
Except tragedies come into our lives. Our loved ones die, we get cancer, someone’s using drugs or alcohol too much, we get depression, we lose our job.
Got peace?
Jesus said, “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.”
Drawing the circle closer doesn’t work, drawing it wider doesn’t work. We have to go higher, and deeper, to find real peace.
Look at Jesus in today's story. Jesus was in the boat, sleeping, during a storm, with the disciples getting more and more frantic, and then they wake him up. "Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" "Jesus, you saved all those other people; are you going to let us die out here?" "Jesus, how can you sleep through this? We're going to drown?" Then he stands up and says (holding out his hand, we imagine), "Peace. Be still." He didn’t actually say, “Peace, be still,” though. He said, “Silence! Be muzzled." In ancient times people thought the water held terrible demons; we know the demons of water here in Northern Minnesota. Jesus was stilling the demons. And the water was still.
Jesus had peace, and it had nothing to do with the weather. In fact, it had nothing to do with Jesus situation at all. Jesus did not live in a peaceful world. His country was under military occupation. He did not live in a peaceful community. John the Baptist had his head cut off. Jesus did not live a peaceful life - Jesus was brutally murdered on the cross.
Yet the night before he died John tells us he said, “Jesus said, “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 knew another peace that has nothing to do with circumstances, nothing to do with health or wealth or safety or comfort. Jesus knew another peace, the peace that God gives, that peace that runs like an current underneath everything, that moves in the air we breathe, that lives in our bones. It is the peace of God, and it is always there for us, if only we can get still enough to find it. Amen.
I always really end my sermons at the benediction. So here is the blessing to go with this sermon:
I say that it doesn't matter what the circumstances of the world are. What I really mean is that we can connect to God's peace that is deeper than anything the world knows, and then we can go into the world to offer that peace to the world, to our communities, to our families. Go in peace. Amen.
3rd Sunday of Pentecost Year B
Mark 4:35-41
I’ve
been overseas two times in my life. I’d like to go to Ireland, or France sometime, but I always go to places that are experiencing a lot of violence. I was in Israel the summer of 1986 for one month; everyone my age had a machine gun and was wearing green. There were barbed wire fences everywhere, and the F-150s practiced exercises overhead while we worked on the archaeological dig.I went to Colombia the spring of 2000 - soldiers were everywhere with machine guns -- the grocery store, the mall, the streets where we stayed.
It was so nice to come home to St. Paul where people don’t wear guns out in the open. We live in a land of peace. Except all though those conflicts are still happening, and we still send soldiers and money to fund peacekeeping efforts and wars around the world. And even if it isn’t on my doorstep, violence anywhere in the world affects me. Affects us.
Got peace?
Jesus said, “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.”
Like I said, it is nice to come home to Minnesota. To walk the streets and not see guns, to live in relative safety. Especially in Duluth.
And yet, even here violence happens…a man in West Duluth was beaten to death walking home a few weeks ago. Homeless people are beaten, innocent children are shot, and violence happens inside people’s houses that we never hear of.
Got peace?
Jesus said, “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.”
But we can draw the circle tighter, and look at just our lives. That is safer. We have more control that way. We can choose where to live, who to talk to, where to work. We can take care of ourselves and then we’ll be safe. We’ll have peace.
Except tragedies come into our lives. Our loved ones die, we get cancer, someone’s using drugs or alcohol too much, we get depression, we lose our job.
Got peace?
Jesus said, “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.”
Drawing the circle closer doesn’t work, drawing it wider doesn’t work. We have to go higher, and deeper, to find real peace.
Look at Jesus in today's story. Jesus was in the boat, sleeping, during a storm, with the disciples getting more and more frantic, and then they wake him up. "Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" "Jesus, you saved all those other people; are you going to let us die out here?" "Jesus, how can you sleep through this? We're going to drown?" Then he stands up and says (holding out his hand, we imagine), "Peace. Be still." He didn’t actually say, “Peace, be still,” though. He said, “Silence! Be muzzled." In ancient times people thought the water held terrible demons; we know the demons of water here in Northern Minnesota. Jesus was stilling the demons. And the water was still.
Jesus had peace, and it had nothing to do with the weather. In fact, it had nothing to do with Jesus situation at all. Jesus did not live in a peaceful world. His country was under military occupation. He did not live in a peaceful community. John the Baptist had his head cut off. Jesus did not live a peaceful life - Jesus was brutally murdered on the cross.
Yet the night before he died John tells us he said, “Jesus said, “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 knew another peace that has nothing to do with circumstances, nothing to do with health or wealth or safety or comfort. Jesus knew another peace, the peace that God gives, that peace that runs like an current underneath everything, that moves in the air we breathe, that lives in our bones. It is the peace of God, and it is always there for us, if only we can get still enough to find it. Amen.
I always really end my sermons at the benediction. So here is the blessing to go with this sermon:
I say that it doesn't matter what the circumstances of the world are. What I really mean is that we can connect to God's peace that is deeper than anything the world knows, and then we can go into the world to offer that peace to the world, to our communities, to our families. Go in peace. Amen.
posted by Michelle at 11:59 AM
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