PEACE Sermon - Michael Harbour

Here is a sample PEACE sermon by Michael Harbour. Critiques? Observations?

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Cultivating Peace – A Sewing ProjectSunday, September 25, 2005 Southeast

Integrity.
Integrated.
It means to have all the parts working together as they should work.
It means to be whole.

To lose your integrity.
Disintegrated.
It is to come undone. (Makes me think of the Guess Who – It’s too late, she’s gone too far, she’s lost the sun. She’s come undone.)

And I think we know some about coming undone.
We have relationships that come undone.
What happens to you when you lose your job? Or when the financial crisis wave sweeps over you? What happens when you get a diagnoses that changes the direction of your life, or somehow has the capacity the change your identity?
Disintegration. We are so tempted to come undone. Do we have a choice?

The work of God is the harmony of creation.
Everything working together, as it is designed.
It seems to me that if God is interested in having things knit together in a harmonious way, then we do in fact have a choice.

We are thinking today about peace.
What does peace mean?
We often think in terms of the absence of conflict. If you are not fighting, you have peace. The Bible, however, has a more positive idea of peace. The word that would characterize biblical peace would be wholeness. Probably, this is also what it means to be saved (being made whole, or even being healed).

The Hebrews called it shalom. Shalom (or eirene in the New Testament - Irene) is well-being, wholeness and harmony that pours out from you and is the character of your relationships. It is the ability to be non-anxious. It is a relationship intensive idea. This is not just being non-anxious in you. It is to be okay with God and with people because you are integrated- together.

Peace is not a state of mind (or only a state of mind), but is intended to be a way of life.
How common is peace, in your experience? How might we come to have peace?

James 3:16-18 (NRSV) 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Envy and selfish ambition are integrity issues. They speak that inner voice language, that whispers in your ear that says, “What I have and who I am, is not enough.”

And I think this comes out of the story that we tell ourselves about the nature of life.
We think that the story is about establishing ourselves.
What is the life-story about? Is it about getting fed?
I am going to perform at work so that I can get fed.
I am not going to rock the boat, because if I do, I won’t get fed.
Or: I am going to rock the boat, because if I don’t, I won’t get fed.

Sometimes I think that the story that we live by is one of power and privilege.
When we are not worried about survival, we are spending our time and energy doing what we want.

We rub up against other folks who have other interests, other ideas, other opinions.
We put those interests, ideas and opinions out there as a contest.
This is the culture war.
It is hard to be integrated with folks who have strongly held, dogmatic opinions. I grew up a Democrat. My grandfather was so adamant that he once said that he would not vote for Jesus, if he was registered as a Republican. When I was a restaurant manager, I was a Republican. Now I describe myself as something different.

Labels are hard…but I think I could see myself as a Christian Anarchist. Anarchy sounds horrible. It means that no one is above. When modified by Christ, however, I think we could find a very peaceable place. We have a king, but it is not Caesar, not earthly. Our allegiance is not, finally, to the flag. Not to one nation, under God. Our allegiance is to God.
God still has the rule in place….that knowledge of good and evil.
God is still the One who knows and determines what is right and wrong.

We are one in Christ, where there is neither Jew nor Greek (cultural divide), male or female (gender divide), slave or free (class divide). The rich are not above the poor. Skin color, or language has no clout, or credit, or demerit. Weak and strong, we spoke of when thinking about love. The strong yield. We are one. At least that is what we say. That is the ideal. We fall short.

Paul says to the Christians in Rome…and to you and me…

Romans 14:15-19 (NRSV) 15 If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. 19 Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Peace.

How can you cultivate peace among you? We will have to plow up some fallow ground, some untilled soil.
We cultivate through…

1. An Enriched Understanding Of Our Baptism. In baptism, we are all called to die.

• Baptism is not just for individuals. We are being incorporated into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Gal 2:20). We are dying to self-interest and proclaiming Jesus as Lord.
• Parts of the body are not more important than the body. Parts exist to facilitate the well-being of the whole. “You are not your own” (1 Cor 6:19). A finger has no utility without a body! A finger does not have unmitigated access to the head.
• As a central and abiding practice of the church, baptism is a public and political act that announces to the world our change of allegiance and proclaims to our fellow members our interdependence as members of the one body of Christ.
• If you have not been baptized….you need to be…to live a different kind of story for your life….the Jesus story.

2. Build One Another Up – our freedom is not our personal private possession.

• Why should Christians not have lawsuits among them? (1 Cor 6:7) Self interest is not central to the Jesus story.
• Use your words and actions for edification (Eph 4: 29). Our primary mission in life is not to guard our own well-being.

3. Admonish One Another. If community wholeness was a mutually held interest, we could be bold to speak to one another in a way that was challenging without people running away. Jesus did not come to bring cheap peace (lack of conflict), but to bring shalom.

4. Forgiving One Another…we can have no wholeness unless we are willing to be received back into community…and to receive others back into the fabric of our lives. We fall short. Until we learn to have our hearts and arms open, knowing that it can be painful to do so, we will not know peace.

Integrity.
Being knit together into an amazing fabric, our lives being whole, and your communities being whole.
That is what we are seeking.


Shepherd’s BLESSING: 2 Thessalonians 3:16 (NRSV) 16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with all of you.