Peace I leave you
It had a particular context, that of the healing and recovery that comes through the 12-Step program. The service is not just for those recovering from addictions but is a peaceful and health-ful shared space for prayer and the recognition of the need we all share for that deepest healing from those things which we do that take us away from well-being and wholeness. It's a shorter meditation/talk than I would normally do for a 'sermon' so rather than putting it on New Kid Deep Stuff, I thought I would post it here.
Tuesday of
Easter 5 – 12 Step thoughts
Peace
Peace, I don’t leave you the way
you’re used to being left – feeling abandoned, bereft.
Those words of Jesus, from the Message
translation of the Bible that we just heard are better known to me in the New Revised
Standard Version where they are translated “Peace I leave you, my own peace do
I give to you, not as the world gives you do I give you”
I’m not saying that one translation is
better than another, but that seeing something in an unfamiliar way can bring
new life to it. We often hear in
scripture mention of peace, “the peace that passes all understanding” for
instance; or “the Prince of Peace.” – one of the titles of the Messiah given by
the prophet Isaiah in the Hebrew Scriptures; or Jesus appearing to his friends
after the resurrection and saying “Peace be with you.”
But what is that peace? And how is it
different from the peace that we so often talk about? I mean, now I have children – one ten years
old and one very much a teenager at thirteen – I get what my mother used to say
when she would roll her eyes and tell us to go away because ‘I just want five
minutes peace.’ I get that feeling, just
a need to be away from the noise for a moment.
Just a bit of space without all the distractions and demands of everyday
life.
Then there’s the peace that we pray
for in the world, the absence of violence and hatred. That war may cease and nations will live at
peace with one another.
But Jesus doesn’t seem to be talking
about either of those kinds of peace.
He’s not talking about having a quiet life, or escaping the noise, or
the absence of war. This peace is a
different quality, something that isn’t just outside of us but within. A peace shared between those who seek to
follow and live with Christ, a peace given to each one of us – not something we
can strive for, but something we can open ourselves to.
This peace is more than just feeling
calm. It’s a deep and abiding sense of the presence of God, of (as it said in
our reading) wholeness and wellness.
It’s not a peace that we have to jump through hoops to get to, not a
peace that there is an action plan to achieve, not a peace that we have to
earn.
It’s a peace we do have to learn to
accept, though. It’s the peace that comes from letting go – recognising our own
inability to control everything in our lives, and the desire of God to bring us
wholeness and healing.
In the Hebrew Scriptures this peace is
called ‘shalom’. It’s more like wholeness and healing than
just ‘peace’ – it’s where everthing is as it should be, harmony between human
beings, harmony between us and God, where creation is all brought into God’s
wholeness.
It does take work – we all have a
calling to bring in this state of shalom in our own way, being people of peace
and love – but in the end the work is not ours. It is the work of God within
us, the peace of Christ that is rooted deep within our hearts.
And we don’t necessarily get it all at
once – it’s not a case of flicking a switch and it all happens. It’s more a case of opening ourselves to
allow God’s peace to flow, to ease into our hearts and minds.
That’s what we do here – we open
ourselves to that peace. We pray, we
come to this table, this place of peace and spiritual nourishment, acutely
aware of our need of God’s life and grace.
We come to seek and share Christ, as we recognise our part within this
process – the process of recovery, healing and the journey of wholeness. We
come to receive food for the journey of faith, the journey of peace, the
journey of hope, the journey of love.
We open ourselves to the deep deep
love of God; here together we share our need – of healing, of forgiveness, of
peace, of Shalom. May God feed us and
bring us nearer to one another and to Godself as we open ourselves to that
peace which Christ promises.
Comments