“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.”
– Jesus (John 14:27)
Afred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, invented dynamite. That is how he made all of the money that was used to establish the Nobel Prize foundation. He did not fund the prize to repent from his work making weaponry. In fact, he was determined that if he could just make a bomb destructive enough, it would deter governments from ever going to war out of fear of mutual destruction. He died in 1896 well before the invention of nuclear bombs, which would disprove his hypotheses about the peace-making capacity of world destruction. In fact, fear is pretty much the opposite of peace.
I don’t think this discounts the Nobel Peace Prize, but I do think it is a good illustration of just how complicated peace-making is in this world. Human beings, who want peace, have to struggle with things like greed, bigotry, and fear – both in the world and within ourselves. The church struggles with questions about how to create peace in the world and when it is just to make war. Too often we forget that God hasn’t left us to work this out on our own. The struggle is real, but God is in the struggle with us.
John chapters 13-17 are all one long lesson from Jesus called the Farewell Discourse. It is a long speech made by Jesus at the Last Supper. We read a chunk of it on Maundy Thursday, when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and told them to serve one another. He goes farther and says, “love one another as I have loved you.” To me, that is an even stronger statement than the golden rule. To love as Jesus loves is impossible for us without the love and guidance of Jesus Christ.
The disciples realized that living in the world without Jesus would make it difficult – maybe even impossible – to continue in his way. Judas asked him how they could continue and Jesus answered in 14:26, “…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
None of us have ever met Jesus Christ in the flesh. And all of us strive to follow his way. The key to peace according to Jesus is service to and love for others. Simple enough and hard as heck. In the realm of God, no war is just. In the realm of God, everyone has plenty of provisions. In the realm of God, all people are citizens.
God called all of creation good, but we have decided that some belong and some do not. We have decided that some deserve mansions and others to starve. We have decided to attack other nations that have not attacked us. Sometimes we do these things out of greed, but much more often we do them out of fear.
Jesus said that the peace he offers is to free our hearts from trouble and fear.
It is fine to pray for world peace and for leaders that are just. It is fine to pray for others to make better decisions. I hope that all of us do that on a regular basis. It is also important to give our own fears to God. The Holy Spirit (aka as our advocate) is always ready and waiting to take our fear and transform it into peace. If we get in the habit of telling God our fears, we will notice over time that we have more peace in our life regardless of the chaos brewing around us.
A prayer from the ELW:
O most loving Father, you want us to give thanks in all circumstances and to lay all our cares on you, knowing that you care for us. Grant that fears and anxieties in this mortal life may not hide from us the light of your immortal love shown to us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
