23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my
Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you
hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
25 “I have said
these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 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. 28
You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If
you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the
Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it
occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.
Our
second reading talks about one vision, John’s vision, of what that place that
Jesus speaks of may look like. However you
interpret Revelation, one thing is certain, in the end time, when God brings
all things back into God’s self, everything will be right, everything will be
just, everything will be healed, everything will be glorious. What we need to remember is that while this
time has not yet come, that does not mean that there are not ways and moments
in which this glory is able to be felt in our world today. It might not be in the way that we want, but
it is a reminder that God is with us.
The scripture reads this way.
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
10 And in the
spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.
22 I saw no
temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of
God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk
by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25
Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26
People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27
But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination
or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
22 Then the
angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from
the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street
of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve
kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are
for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found
there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his
servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name
will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night; they
need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they
will reign forever and ever.
The disciples appear to be on quite an up and
down emotional ride, not only in the passage that we have heard, but most
definitely in the proceeding verses that I mentioned earlier, prior to the
reading from John.
Think about how this whole conversation
begins: it starts with Judas walking out the room and the Jesus saying quietly
to Peter, “this is the one who will betray me.”
Things had been going so well, people had been following, believing and
even though there had been problems, things had been going in a positive direction
and now the group that has been there with Jesus from the beginning is starting
to splinter. And then to top it all off,
Jesus declares in their presence that his time among them is drawing to a
close.
The disciples’ questions reflect their doubt,
their concern, their worry over the fact that the motion is now, seemingly,
headed in a negative direction. Think of
the questions: “Lord, where are you going?”, “how can we know the way [to where
you are going]?”, and “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and
not to the world?”. The disciples are
seeing all of the good that had taken place in the last three years slip
through the cracks of life’s “circumstances”.
What they get in order to mollify them and to
allow them to know that everything is going to be alright is a statement like,
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be
troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” is great when things are going
well. When everything is going right and
nothing is going wrong, it is real easy to trust in the peace of God. The problem lies when things begin to fall
apart if not in the world, then in our lives.
How many of you felt a sense of peace when
you heard and saw the reports of the massive flooding in and around Nashville,
or the tornadoes that ripped through the south a week earlier, or the mine
explosion that happened just prior to that in West Virginia? How many of you felt at peace when the town
of High Bridge went into lockdown because there was a man walking around with a
shotgun? How many of you felt at peace
as you watched the oil spread throughout the Gulf of Mexico, or the riots that
are taking place in Greece? Regardless
of where you may reside on the political spectrum, how many of you felt at peace?
How many of you feel at peace when the fire alarm goes off across the street,
or you hear the police and ambulance sirens from down the road? How many of you felt the peace of God then?
It’s real easy to believe in the peace of God
when things are going well according to the way the world works. It’s next to impossible to do that when
life’s circumstances are anything but good.
This is the pill that the disciples are trying to figure out how to
swallow. “Peace? What peace?
All that has been worked for is beginning to go right out the
window. How can you talk about peace
when all of this negative has been occurring?”
In many ways, they’ve already seen the vision of the new heaven and the
new earth. They’ve seen the glory and
what they’re looking at now, is anything but glorious.
However, there is another part to that
statement that, when included, forces us to realize that the peace of God is
not simply happiness or, on the flipside, the absence of testing and
conflict. The added statement that needs
to be remembered, especially in times of doubt, especially in times of trial,
is, “I do not give to you as the world gives.”
In this integral part of Jesus statements of peace, and to not be
afraid, we are reminded that the peace of God is not contingent upon the
emotions of the day. It does not
disappear like the sandcastle we have built on the shore when the tide makes
its way back in. The peace of God is
something that is with us always. Yes,
there are days when we have to dig under a world full of sin and brokenness to
find it, but the peace of God is there, the peace of God is here.
Heading to Westchester Medical Center on a
weekly basis for the last 3 ½ years has brought both expected and unexpected
results and consequences. For one, we
got to know the Taconic state Parkway like the back of our hand (287 and then
the approach to the Tappen Zee Bridge is rapidly falling into the category as
our route has obviously changed).
Another thing is that Austin now walks into that building like he owns
the place.
However, something that has happened, which
I’m not sure if we ever expected, are the depth of the relationships that have
been developed, not only with the nurses and doctors, but also with other
patients, and absolutely their parents.
To begin with, none of the parents who are
there with their children want to be there: they want their kids to be healthy,
playing at home, going to school, doing all the things that we typically think
of as kid things. Being in the hospital
because your child is ill from some sort of life threatening disease, does not
fit the stereotype. And because your
child is ill, in so many ways, it is as if peace as we have liked to define it,
has become something akin to those dreams you have just prior to waking up: you
have shadows of the memory, but cannot completely recall it.
Jen (and to a lesser extent myself) have met
and seen so many mom’s (because by and large, it is the moms whom we have
experienced in that role), who are exhausted, drained, and, at the very least
frustrated. I’m sure that there have
been days when we fit into that category as well. Peace as the way the world defines it, is
next to impossible to find.
However, time after time, story after story,
mom after mom we have been blessed to hear how peace, God’s peace, is able to
be there, even in the most unexpected of places. The peace, many times, is not found in their
child’s disease being put into remission, let alone being healed.
Where it is found is in the comforting
presence of one of the nurses who cares for the mom and the child in ways that
are so much greater then just making sure the med is being administered
correctly; in a quiet conversation with another parent reassuring that mom that
they are not alone; in the willingness of a social worker or another mom to
say, “I’ll hold your child so that you can rest”; in the ability of a doctor to
answer ever question with a sense of calm that belies the fact that they need
to go see the rest of their patients; in the fact that that mom knows that
their child is being prayed for by people they don’t even know, all around
their community, their state, the nation, and sometimes even the world. The peace of God is there, with all of these
children, with all of these parents, with all of these moms. It may not have been in the way that we
wanted (we want the physical healing) but God’s healing peace is undeniably
there.
Where are you in your journey? What is leaning upon you? Do you feel like peace is an impossibility or
at the very least only for someone else?
We’ve all been there. If we’re
willing to be honest, we’ve all been there.
So listen again to the Word of the Lord and know that these words are
for you.
“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.”
Even as we twitch under the weight of the brokenness of a sinful world,
remember these words and remember that we have been promised that the peace of
God is with us. Hold tightly to this
promise. It doing so, we will be able to
navigate even the rockiest and most treacherous of life’s shorelines.
After Sermon Prayer
O holy God, there is so much brokenness, so
much hatred, so much sinfulness in the world.
If we are not careful, the weight of these realities can drag us into a
mire that we feel that we cannot be extricated from. God, in these days when doubt and worry seem
to be the norm, help us to remember the words of Jesus as he told us “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.” Help us to remember that Your peace was not
contingent upon us and the world that we create, but instead upon the
steadfastness of Your love for each of us, for all of the creation. Lord, help us to remember that Your peace is
with us always. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.