Weekly Bulletin

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know about you, but for me, the past several weeks in world affairs have felt like a wild rollercoaster ride of hope and despair.  Negotiations to end fighting have been promised, then abandoned.  Ceasefires have been announced one evening, only to be followed the next morning by reports of more bombs falling, more missiles striking, more people dying.  In one moment, the parties in conflict seem to be assessing their losses and looking for ways to stop them, but in the next moment they revert to thinking that inflicting even greater losses on their adversaries means they can “win.”  I have thought often during these conflicts of the prophet Jeremiah’s warning to the Judeans who were about to be overrun by an attacking Babylonian force.  He cried out against false prophets who were proclaiming in Jerusalem “peace, peace,” when there was no peace (Jeremiah 6:13-15; 8:11,12).  Jeremiah knew that true peace – the shalom of God — would never be possible until people’s hearts and motivations changed, and he knew that could not be accomplished with weapons of war.

 

The MOU     The news this past week was dominated by the build-up to the revelation and signing of the heralded MOU – a  Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran regarding steps to take in the next 60 days toward ending the conflict.  I had often heard of such documents but never actually looked into what they involve, so I looked it up.  According to various online sources, an MOU is a formal but nonbinding written description of an agreement between parties which outlines their shared goals regarding a specific issue, and lists each party’s responsibilities and commitments towards reaching those goals.  An MOU has no legal standing in a court of law, so it is not legally binding, and there is no enforcement mechanism for compelling the parties to honor their commitments (or for penalizing them if they violate them).  An MOU is a document of “good-faith cooperation,” meaning that the parties legally are equals and do not have the authority to coerce compliance from one another.  Compliance is a matter of trust and integrity.

 

Peace      As we often point out around here, true peace means far more than the absence of visible, violent conflict.  When Winchester’s food pantry board chose the name Shalom Center for its new facility thirteen years ago, they did so because it means “the peace and wholeness resulting from adequate provision for everyone’s true needs, making stealing and fighting both unnecessary and counterproductive.”  True peace means more than just the absence of the negatives of war and destructive conflict.  It means the presence of positive behaviors and attitudes – forgiveness and reconciliation, restitution, human dignity and respect, working for the common good of all, refusal to do harm to one’s neighbor, and treating others as we ourselves wish to be treated.  When people finally become weary of war, and the killing and destruction finally ends, the work of true peace is only beginning.

 

An Essential First Step – Be at Peace With God       After many years of observation, study, and experience, I am persuaded that it isn’t really possible to live an outward life of true peace if we inwardly are not truly at peace with the Lord.  The same principles described in the previous paragraph apply here, too.  Being at peace with God is more than just the avoidance of the behaviors and attitudes which we know separate us from him.  It also means welcoming the presence of Christ by his Spirit to live his life in all its fullness both in us and through us.  The evangelist Billy Graham many years ago published a small pamphlet Steps to Peace With God to be used in his crusades.  In it, he identified four necessary steps which must be taken to enter into that life-giving friendship with the Lord.  First, we must admit that we’ve lived in ways which prevented or broke that relationship, and that we need the Lord to forgive us and restore the friendship.  Second, Graham said that we must repent – turn around to stop living in ways which move us away from Christ’s Way, and start living in ways that move us towards and into his Way.  Third, we must believe that God is who he claims to be, and that in the person of Jesus Christ he died and then rose from death to prove he has the power and the desire to forgive sin and overcome spiritual death.  And fourth, we must actively, gratefully accept his gift of salvation by learning his Word, living by his principles, and joining with others who are truly following him.

Live the Peace of God       Another minister named Mark Furlong lists five similar steps towards living God’s peace every day. His first step is to believe Jesus meant what he said in John 14:1-2 as he prepared the disciples for his departure.  He told them to believe in him, just as they believed in God, and to believe his promise that soon they could be where he was.  Most people take that to mean heaven, but Jesus knew he and his peace soon would return to them as the Holy Spirit to be in them and with them everywhere, all the time.  God’s peaceable life is possible here and now.  We don’t have to wait.  Furlong’s second step is to accept Christ’s daily peace by honestly naming our anxieties and surrendering them to him (Philippians 4:6,7).  Third, Furlong says to pray with thanksgiving in advance that “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus” (4:7).  Furlong’s fourth step for living in God’s peace is to ponder that peace which protects us.  Paul’s instruction in Philippians 4:8 is to fill our thoughts with whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and/or praiseworthy, leaving no space for worries.  That might require turning off the TV and social media feeds, but it can be done.  Fifth, Furlong points to 4:9 to emphasize the importance of consistently practicing God’s peace in all our actions and interactions with others — “and the God of peace will be with you.” 

 

Jesus’ Way      Long before Billy Graham and Mark Furlong published their lists of steps to God’s peace, Jesus covered those same basic truths in his hierarchy of blessedness we know as the Beatitudes (Matthew 5).  The poor in spirit will find blessing in admitting their need for God and turning towards him.  Those who mourn sin’s destructive impact on their lives will receive the comfort of God’s forgiveness.  Those who meekly accept God’s Way as better than theirs will find more meaning and purpose in life than they could ever find doing their own thing.  Those who spend their life’s energy seeking what is right and consistent with the Creator’s intent will find eternal satisfaction which those chasing the world’s elusive treasures will never capture.  Jesus’ followers who extend mercy to others who haven’t yet found the Lord will discover themselves being forgiven and helped when they’ve messed up.  Those who make following Christ their main priority in life despite all the temptations and distractions in the world around them will discover his friendship becoming more real and life-giving all the time, and his Presence more obvious in unexpected places.  Those who are at peace with God and are committed to expressing his peace in their daily lives in an unpeaceful world will find their love for the Lord steadily deepening.  They also will find that many people oppose the way they live because it exposes the selfishness and shallowness of the world’s way, but they persist in doing what’s right and count it joy to be treated like Jesus was.  That life is a path to genuine peace, both on earth and in eternity.
 
A Father’s Day Illustration      In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus spoke a parable about a father and his two sons, the younger of whom decided one day to claim his share of the inheritance and go see the world.  He traveled to a distant country and soon “squandered his wealth in wild living” just as a severe famine hit the region.  He, a Hebrew, ended up having to work for a farmer who raised pigs (considered unclean by the Hebrew).  The scriptures say he got so hungry that he wanted to eat the pigs’ food, but no one offered him even that.  His condition became so dire that “he came to his senses.”  He decided to return in shame to his father’s estate where he knew the hired laborers at least had adequate food.  He practiced his speech of repentance and apology, and headed for home.  When he was still a long distance from his father’s house, his father saw and recognized him, was overwhelmed with compassion for him, and ran to him to welcome him home with a loving embrace.  The son started to give his apology speech but couldn’t finish it because the father started giving instructions to servants for a new robe, a ring, and sandals for the son to wear, and for a lavish feast to be served in celebration of his return. 
             When the older brother learned what was going on, he refused to join the celebration and called his father outside to complain to him.  The father pleaded with him to join the celebration, but he would not.  He was disgusted by his younger brother’s waste of his inheritance, and angry at his father for so freely lavishing resources on his disrespectful brother, while he as the firstborn son had gotten no such treatment.  The father reassured the older son of his status and privilege, but he expressed the reconciling love of a father’s heart.  The wayward son had chosen to return home, had expressed sorrow for his misdeeds, and was ready to accept a servant’s job.  Together, they can teach us the essentials of the path to peace with God, and the path of living the peace of God with others.

 

The Path to God’s Peace is Not a 60-Day MOU, It’s an Eternal Covenant of Love     Many people seem to think that finding the peace of God is a negotiation.  It’s not. We are not his equals.  “God’s MOU” is the Bible and his living Spirit to teach us its Truth. His peace is a gift to all who accept his identity, his authority, his reconciliation, and his guidance for living the meaningful, fulfilling life he intends for every one of us.  As demonstrated by world events, an awful lot of earth’s inhabitants don’t know about the gift of peace with God and with neighbors.  It’s up to those who do know to show them, tell them, and welcome them to begin living in God’s peace.  Let’s all be Friends who do that.

 

 Queries for Worship-Sharing and Reflection

 

1)  What differences do you see between “being at peace with God” and “living God’s peace”?

2)  What important lessons do you take from Jesus’ parable of the lost son?  From the Beatitudes’ emphasis on peace?

3)  What changes to people’s hearts and motivations would be necessary for genuine peace to break out in today’s world?

4)  How would today’s world look different if real shalom suddenly broke out?  What wouldn’t change if that happened?