Peace Possible?

John 14:23-29  Peace---Possible?

“ Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:not as the world giveth , give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

   Do peace and patience go together?

Prayer for Patience …

“Lord, teach me to be patient – with life, with people,and with myself. I sometimes try to hurry things along too much, and I push for answers before the time is right. Teach me to trust Your sense of timing rather than my ownand to surrender my will to Your greater and wiser plan. Help me let life unfold slowly, like the small rosebud whose petals unravel bit by bit, and remind me that in hurrying the bloom along, I destroy the bud and much of the beauty therein.

Instead, let me wait for all to unfold in its own time. Each moment and state of growth contains a loveliness. Teach me to slow down enough to appreciate life and all it holds. Amen. Prayer Source: Unknown”

Here is the question.  Do we experience peace when we are impatient?  No .  Not at all.  So patience and peace do go together in our Christian lives.

Again we should re-look the prayer that ReinholdNiehbur wrote,” The Serenity Prayer” God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

You'll find many references online to some not being sure who really wrote the above prayer, some claiming that Reinhold Niebuhr , 1892-1971 was not actually the author. Many have researched it, including trying to find out if it even goes back to 500 A.D. Despite all the research, though, it still goes back to Niebuhr being the author.

I read somewhere this week as well that people will always disappoint us in some way , fashion , or conception that we have.  Here again we are looking for peace of the world which is not a peace at all for it is unstable.  When Jesus says ,” Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” we can trust that.  We can trust that we should not let our hearts be troubled when the winds of our lives blow us in directions we did not ask for or have on our “dream sheet”.  There are things we do not ask for yet they happen to us anyway under God’s providence and love.  WE can truly believe that if we believe anything that God will always work out His purposes even when we “ see in a mirror darkly”.  One day we will see face to face and know He did what was right even using the wrong choices we or others may make for His glory and our good.  Last week I quoted from one of my favorite titles by Lloyd Ogilive called, “ 12 Steps to Living Without Fear” .  In the adult Sunday School we read again what he had to say about Romans 8:28 .  Here is what we said based on that lesson from scripture, “ I will give up the vague idea that given time things will work out .  Instead I will boldly face the future unafraid as God is working out all things for my good and His glory.”

If Christians did not believe in an Almighty God who is working out His purposes in this world then what kind of faith would we have?  It would be a weak faith founded on a God who cannot really do anything.  But that is not the case  .  Our response is that we should not let our heart be troubled and neither should we be afraid.  Even when the darkest moments come into our lives when we do not see a way forward we know that God’s light can penetrate even that darkest place we are in.  Christians go through things but God works out all things.  This does not mean we minimize the reality of life and its hardships especially as we see others who are persecuted for their faith overseas and in this country.  We do not want to minimize that people have problems.  We do not have a blind eye that says , “ everything is great and happy.” No----that is not true Christian realism .  Niebuhr lived through WW II and it formed his view of man .  Men and women can be terrible and sinful to themselves and others .  The Christian looks at that and says , “ we already knew that and we are not surprised.”  We are not surprised when we find ourselves in dark places but we see hope.

Our lives are formed by the long thread of God’s rule and patience in our lives and not our own.  If we were to depend on our abilities and talents then we would see again and again that we fail.  But God uses even the despair and hopelessness that we feel to bring His light into the darkest situations that are in us and around us .  That is our trust as Christians.  Our trust is in what Jesus said, “ Peace I give unto you.”  So we all yearn for that not just theologically and intellectually but personally and spiritually.  If our faith cannot form our feelings now in some way, shape or fashion then we have not laid hold upon these wonderful words of our Lord.

Today as we leave this place may the peace that passes all understanding guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus despite what we know and see all around us.  That is our refuge.  That is our hope for now and in the life to come that begins when we leave this earth and go to our final resting place as we read about today in the Revelation of ST John----a revelation of Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory now and forever and in His Church. Amen.