John 14:23-29
Right around the time that Jesus was born, there was a rebellion in Judea. The Roman general Varus was called in to quell it, which he did with efficient brutality: he crucified 2,000 Jews. That was not an extraordinary measure by Roman standards. After putting down the slave revolt led by Spartacus, the Romans crucified 6,000 slaves: crosses lined the Appian Way for 120 miles. When Titus laid siege to Jerusalem in the year 70, during another revolt, he crucified 500 Jews a day outside the city walls. He actually ran out of wood and had to import more in order to keep the slaughter going. It’s impossible to state with certainty how many people the Roman Empire crucified over the course of its history: estimates range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. But what we know for sure is that the Romans were good at killing. It was their primary means of asserting control, and also the centerpiece of their entertainment. The Colosseum and the Circus Maximus regularly featured gladiators fighting to the death or people being torn apart by wild animals. And many of those victims were slaves. Historians surmise that slaves made up between 10 and 20 percent of the Empire’s population, which in the first century amounted to anywhere from five to ten million people. It was an entire system based on oppression and violence. And yet that stretch of time from Augustus to the end of the second century is often called the Pax Romana, the “peace” of Rome. A grim example of the kind of peace which, all too often, the world gives.
We’ve recently experienced yet another racially-motivated massacre, this time in Buffalo. And we all know there is a terrible amount of hate speech in our society these days, much of it directed at people of color, immigrants, and sexual minorities. And our civil discourse is anything but civil, with political opponents often treated as outright enemies. But what is perhaps most distressing is that some people are willing to use violence to impose their vision of society on others. For some, the goal is to dominate, subjugate, and even eliminate those they are opposed to. If their aim is peace, then it is a very worldly idea of peace by conquest.
And in the midst of it all, we hear these words from Jesus today: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. As followers of the Prince of Peace, of course we need to stand against hatred and to reject any worldly notions of peace by conquest. But the Church of Jesus Christ cannot just be against things. We certainly don’t want to fall into the trap of hating the haters, which would just make us haters ourselves. But what positive contribution might Christ be calling us to?
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers. And there are many active ways we can make peace. On a macro level, we can promote public policies that enhance equality and justice for all people. Now, I realize, of course, that we have a wide variety of political opinions, but even within our various affiliations we can advocate for peace-making policies. And we can all encourage civil discourse which is respectful and non-violent. On an interpersonal level, we can all refuse to hold grudges but instead work to resolve conflicts in ways that are loving and caring. There are many good ways to work for peace, but today’s Gospel leads me to focus not on making peace but on being peace.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. In John’s Gospel, the emphasis is on receiving the peace of Christ. The focus here is not on going out and doing things that produce peace but rather embodying the peace that Christ gives to us. I think both approaches are important, but because we tend to be doers, we might easily highlight peace-making and ignore peace-being. But if we did, that would be a loss.
Like love, joy, and other wonderful qualities, the New Testament understands peace to be a gift of the Spirit. As we allow the Spirit of Christ to move more freely within us and through us, peace just happens naturally. As Paul tells the Galatians, to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to become more peaceful. It is not a question of having to go and create peace but rather letting peace dwell within us as a gift. And that peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but shalom, wholeness, a deep awareness of our unity with God, and with others, and with our true selves. So many people long for such peace, but it resides within each of us. We’re all growing in the Spirit, so none of us fully and completely realizes and embodies this peace, but as we mature in Christ, that peace does grow within us. And we can nurture it in our lives of prayer. Any form of contemplative or meditative prayer can do this. The Orthodox tradition calls such prayer hesychasm, which means “rest.” Whenever we practice centering prayer or just sit in prayerful silence, we are resting in God and giving more room for the Spirit to lead us into greater peace.
And that is crucial not only for our own well-being but for the well-being of the world. The ways of Rome are still with us; too many people seek to impose a false peace through domination and violence. The world desperately needs people to offer a better way, not just by being active peacemakers but by actually embodying peace in their own lives. And while peace-filled people may inspire others, they do more than that. We know based on our own theology of creation, we know based on our understanding of the Holy Spirit, we know based on the insights of depth psychology, quantum physics, and modern science, that we are deeply interconnected, all of creation is deeply interconnected. The way I am affects the way everything else is. When I change my consciousness, I change the world. When you change your consciousness, you change the world. When we embody the peace of Christ, we change the world. If we want a more peaceful world, then there’s much we can do, but above all we need to receive the gift of the Spirit and be more peaceful people.
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