Peace
Peace
For Easter we learned an ancient word with great power, the word Hallelujah. Today we learn a word with equally great power, but one that is perhaps so overused, that it has lost some of its meaning.
Peace
is perhaps one of the most overused cliché’s of all time, and yet we are instructed as Biblical Christians to pray for peace, to work for peace, to be peaceful and to share the peace because God wants peace.
When God proclaims peace, there is nothing cliché about it; rather, there is wholeness, health, and complete meaning to life. And it’s this reason why I sign my letters “Peace in Christ”, because without Christ there is no peace.
Before Easter, before Good Friday and Palm Sunday, Jesus had prepared his disciples to pursue peace even as he went up to die violently. Jesus proclaimed peace not as a cliché, but as a way of life. In John chapter 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
Perhaps you’ll remember with me a song from some 20 years ago that came out “Don’t Worry, be Happy”. In the Bible however, happiness isn’t the ideal, but rather peacefulness. We might change the words to “Don’t Worry, Be Peaceful”
When Jesus shows up in the upper room in today’s gospel, they are afraid; exactly the opposite of what Jesus had taught them, but what are you going to do? “When the disciples let you down, don’t worry, be peaceful…” Jesus says it three times in a row.
During our worship of God, one of the central actions we do is we share the peace. But what does this mean, what does ‘peace be with you’ mean anyway? As it’s recorded in Greek, Jesus says, “Eirene humin”. “Peace be with you.” This Greek word appears in every NT author except 1 John and in its various forms about 100 times in total.
If there’s one thing, one bit of take home teaching that Jesus wants you to learn today, it is peace, “Peace be with you.” Jesus says “Peace be with you” three times in today’s text alone.
The Anchor Bible Dictionary, perhaps the most authoritative in the world, explains that, “The root of the word is found in many ancient languages. The Akkadian salāmū comes closest to the core meaning of the root, “to be whole, complete.” In one form or another, the notions of wholeness, health, and completeness inform all the variants of the word. Peace is not, then, simply a negative, the absence of war. Peace is a positive notion.”
The New Testament word that Jesus is recorded as saying, eirene, has these deep roots not only into the Old Testament understanding of Shalom, peace, wholesomeness, and interpersonal justice, but also in the Greek understanding of peace as a sense of well-being.
For example, Luke, especially uses the term, peace- eirēnē, to describe the sense of security when peace reigns, for example, a sense of peace because of no theft (11:21), averting war (14:32; Acts 12:20), the sense of peace after a release from persecution (Acts 9:31), and peace as a reconciliation after an altercation between two people (Acts 7:26), or peace as the end of a
disagreement within the Church (Acts 15:33).
When we use the phrase Peace of the Lord, we use a loaded phrase, one which has the depth of thousands of years of meaning to share our hopes for the best and wholeness in each other and all of God’s creation. We are invited to pray for peace, especially the rest and safety one can feel in God’s loving forgiveness.
“There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them.
One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.
But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest – in perfect peace.
Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture. Do you know why?
“Because,” explained the king, “peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace.”
The disciples were instructed to seek peace in a violent world, where Jesus had just been killed.
They were instructed to live the way of peace with one another, finding meaning and wholeness of Spirit. We are instructed just the same.. Peace be with You. Amen.
