I had a conversation earlier this week with a member of our church family. She expressed to me why she liked coming to church…especially as a new person, a newer member. It was interesting.
It gave her a sense of peacefulness, a sense of wholeness, and added a sense of completion to her work week.
It had become something that she actually looked forward to…
A respite, but so much more than a respite…
All of it was a new found feeling and one that she articulated quite well.
From time to time, you have told me that your week isn’t the same, if you are not here. That something is missing…
You need the connectivity.
And again, others of you, have talked about “feeling better, just being here” or being “out of pain” for an hour.
Or, it just makes you feel “good.” Or, of the need for fellowship… Or of the joy in receiving the sacrament… I marvel at and savor all of these comments…
Particularly now, maybe, even especially now.
Our lives are changing. We live in a new age. Shootings have become a daily common occurrence. It was not always so.
Terrorist organizations seem to be well funded and thriving…around the globe.
New diseases seem to be popping up like the Zika virus. (It actually goes back to the year 1947.)
Chemical weapons and who has them and who wants them, seems to be an ever on the table issue. Then add to that, nuclear armaments.
We have terrorists plotting and tornado’s and floods to clean up after… and we are probably not that far away from hearing about more tinder lands and devastating forest fires.
We have to worry about children in the crosshairs even when they are safely inside our homes…
And heroin is taking over our streets.
Then we have this whole unprecedented election year thing going on…with dissidents in the streets…
And various groups all protesting…
The Middle East is in complete disarray…and Sino-Soviet-US relations are far from good. And then there is the North Koreans.
Our world is swirling and spinning – seemingly out of control. It is scary.
Prayer time, quiet time is important time.
And we come to worship now, at the end of April/the beginning of May – and we get a lesson about Jesus on the night before his death.
Nice. But its timing is good.
His message is one of peace. His peace. God’s peace. Much needed and very desirable peace…Not the world’s peace.
Because I am not sure if the world has ever known peace, I mean “real peace.”
We are talking about the Hebrew word, Shalom. Did you know that the biblical concept of peace is always meant to be applicable to all our individual life circumstances?
Shalom can mean hello or good-bye, but it can also mean safe. It can mean peace, harmony, wholeness, tranquility, completeness, prosperity, happiness and welfare…and all of this can play an important role in whatever circumstances we might be facing…or going through.
Shalom has the meaning of being well or friendly and it can also refer to a treaty or a truce.
Shalom is the peace that comes from God, it is not peace, as the world knows it.
The Scripture boldly declares…boldly (I say again) that when you have peace with God, you have the peace of Christ that “transcends all human understanding.”
It is a peace that the world does not know. And, it is our mission to continue his mission and to take this kind of peace – to the ends of the earth. And into the chambers of every beating heart…because Lord, knows “we” need it. Lord knows “our world” needs it.
Even (if or when) the sun and the moon turn dark and the stars themselves are shaken from the sky…
We know who is in control. Jesus who commanded the winds and the waves with one little world – is Lord of the earth and the sky. Our God is the creator God.
There should be no wonder, no doubt why Jesus slept soundly in the midst of storms and chaos all around him and even before his impending torturous death…He knew who was in control.
It gave him a sense of peace.