Peace

Peace: the absence of chaos; the feeling of serenity; the freedom from fear, worry, stress

Peace: the pastor on renewal leave

It’s been about 6 weeks since I last did any “work.” Mind you, I was working on a special project during my renewal leave for our church leadership and I had some commitments that I had to meet. Otherwise, these last 6 weeks have been all about rest and renewal for me. If you’ve missed any of it, I encourage you to check out the earlier posts from October 2021 on this blog.

These last several weeks have been full of many God moments – moments of grace, peace, pride, love, and joy. From vacation renewal to remembering my roots at seminary to challenging myself to try new things and climb new heights, literally, I have been blessed beyond measure. Each day during November, I have recounted the blessings of the day on my personal facebook page. I really do feel at peace.

This weekend, 11/28/2021, I will be back in the pulpit at my church. We are beginning our Advent sermon series: In Pursuit of Peace. When I started planning this series back in September/October, I started with looking at fear. We are using the book, “Whom Shall I Fear?” as our Advent study. As I read through it, and prayed over the messages of this special season, I felt called to share a gospel message of peace; peace over fear; peace of heart and mind and soul.

Luke 2:14 is a gospel message that this holiday season is rooted in – “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” (CEB) Peace is part of the Advent wreath tradition in our church, where we light the candle of peace the second week of Advent. Peace needs to be more than just a 1 Sunday in December celebration.

Our world has been characterized these last 2 years by chaos – COVID, racism, gun violence, mental health crises… I could go on. Front line workers from the hospitals to the garbage collectors to the grocery store clerks have been facing anything but peace in their daily lives. (Pastors included.) What would it mean if we were to take peace, and make it a normal part of our lives? What would it mean if we sought the freedom of peace rather than the chains of chaos, fear, and injustice?

I think the candles of hope, peace, love and joy (that we light during Advent) would be lit every day of the year. Our lives would be dictated by the light of Christ – rather than the shiny glitz of worldly things. We would see embrace the joy in people’s lives rather than compare them to ourselves. We would care for the hurt rather than try to one-up their pain. We would chase after the good rather than hide in fear.

This Sunday I am preaching from Jeremiah 33:14-16 and Luke 21:25-36. Right now, before I put the pen to paper, I feel like has called me to a message here of hard work. Peace isn’t just something that we are handed on a silver platter. It isn’t just something that happens. Peace is almost like a covenant that we enter into with God, and each other. It is saying that we are not going to let the ways of the world guide our lives. Rather, we are going make a commitment to better our lives, to engage in spiritual disciplines, and to grow deeper in love with God. It takes work to nurture the fruit of hope in our hearts as we pursue peace.

This week, we are also holding a baptism and baptism remembrance for our congregation. Baptism is a sacrament in my tradition – an extraordinary means of grace where God does the work. It is an example of a beautiful peace – baptizing infants and experiencing the splashes of water remembering our own encounters with grace. With COVID, we cannot do a traditional baptism remembrance as I like to practice. I put this video together that will be our symbolic time.