John
14:23-29
Have you ever
seen the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes? Calvin is a boy with a big imagination.
And Hobbes is his beloved stuffed tiger who takes on a life of his own in the
mind of Calvin. As a pair they find adventure in almost any situation. Like the
time we see Calvin and Hobbes march into the family living room. It’s early
morning. Calvin’s mother is seated in her favorite chair sipping coffee. She
looks up at young Calvin amused and amazed at how he is dressed. Space helmet
on his head, a long cape tied around his neck, one hand he holding a
flashlight, the other a baseball bat. “What’s up today?” asks his mom. “Nothing
so far,” replies Calvin. “So far?” she questions. “Well. You never know.
Something could happen today,” he explains and then adds as he marches off,
“And if anything does happen, by golly, I’m going to be ready for it!” Thinking
out loud Calvin’s mom reflects, “I need a suit like that.”
Don’t we all?
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to put something on every morning and know that
whatever the day brought, even the unexpected or the unwanted, that no matter
what, by golly, we’d be ready for it? Well I don’t have any suits to give out
this morning, but in our gospel reading today you may have heard that Jesus is
giving us something else, even better than a suit, that is, his peace.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Whenever I hear Scripture like that I always want
to pause, take a deep breath, and hear those words again. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Jesus gives us his
peace. I have no doubt of that. Yet I still have questions. Like why is it then
that I don’t feel so peaceful all the time? And why do I see others tied up in
worry or anxiety as well?
Perhaps it’s
because we get confused about what God’s peace looks like in our lives. It
seems that’s what Jesus thinks. Notice that when he gives us his peace he
specifically says that we are not to confuse it with the world’s peace. I do not give to you as the world gives, he
explains. That’s because the peace the world gives is a peace that comes when
things on the outside of us are going well. When all the stars are aligned -
relationships are smooth, the tasks at hand are successful, and beauty abounds.
When it feels as if everything is going our way it’s a wonderful and peaceful
thing indeed. But the old adage is true, whatever it is that any of us are
experiencing right now, whether this is a time of bliss or bane, guaranteed, this too shall pass. Relationships will
change, successes come and go. We are vulnerable to so much and in a moment’s
notice – poof! – the world’s peace can evaporate and replaced by angst and
turmoil in its wake.
That’s not the
peace that Jesus gives. For Jesus’ peace is not tied to circumstances. It
doesn’t come and go with the joys and sorrows of life. The peace that Jesus
gives always is, always exists, is always accessible to us no matter what is
going on in the world. Now, I’m not saying that what goes on in our lives isn’t
irrelevant or doesn’t impact us. That’s just not true. They do. But what I am
saying is that the core of who we are and how we exist in this world is greater
and more solid than the circumstances of our lives. Jesus demonstrates this
very fact as he gives us his peace in the midst of the most stressful time of
his life. Up until this point, while things have been relatively smooth with
Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the 5,000 - he’s rocking the world - and there’s been
no has been no mention of peace. It’s only now, on this most distressing of
nights where one of his disciples is selling him out for a pocket full of
change, another will soon swear up and down that he doesn’t know Jesus at all,
and the rest, except for one, abandons him in the hour of his greatest need. It
is on this night, the eve of his suffering and crucifixion that Jesus not only
speaks of peace, but gives his peace to his disciples and to us.
So, another
question, how then do we receive this gift of peace? Well as far as I know
there are no three easy steps. But it’s probably no coincidence that
immediately before Jesus gives us his peace he talks about two things. The
first is the keeping of his word. Those
who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come
to them and make our home with them. When we seek to keep Jesus’ word, the
word of love, the command to love God and love our neighbor what often happens
is that we have a shift of focus. Our problems, our fears, our anxieties don’t
disappear, but when we pay attention to keeping Jesus’ word the hold they have
on us can loosen making more room for God to be at work in us, to make a home
in us, as Jesus says, and to dwell more
fully in our deepest being.
The second thing
Jesus speaks of is the coming of the Holy Spirit. Among other things, the Holy
Spirit’s role is to remind us of all that Jesus said, of all that is true. And
we need such reminders especially when we find ourselves in stressful
situations. Consider the disciples. Jesus gives them his peace before his death
yet when he appears to them after his resurrection he reminds them and offers
it again and again. We who live in a post-resurrection and post-ascension world
also need that kind of support. And so the Holy Spirit reminds us in many and
various ways that what was true then is just as true now. Jesus gives us his
peace. A peace that is not like the world’s. A peace that has nothing to do
with circumstances, that’s not tied to the ups and downs of life. Rather a
peace, as the book of Philippians puts it, that passes all understanding. Our
call, our invitation, our joy is to live more fully into the truth of what
already has been given. Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you. Receive the gift of peace.
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