“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  Today we come to peace.  When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, do you remember what the angels sang to the shepherds?  “Peace on earth, good will to men.”  God’s Son was born into the world so we might have peace.

          Peace is a good thing.  In Proverbs 17:1, we read this nugget of wisdom:  “Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.”  In other words, being very poor but having peace is much better than being wealthy and having discord. 

          I have a new favorite television program.  Super Nanny.  Have you seen it?  If not, I hope you will watch it.  It’s on Monday evenings at 9 pm. 

          Families who are having a really difficult time with their children ask for help, and Super Nanny comes to the rescue.  The program opens with scenes in the home.  The children are absolutely awful, and the parents seem to be at their wits ends trying to figure out how to handle them.  Then, Super Nanny, with her proper British accent, comes to the door.

          She spends a day observing the family, and we, the audience get to observe with her.  One of my favorite parts is when Super Nanny, observing the bedlam, quickly turns to the camera and raises her eyebrow as if to say, “Can you believe this?”

          The next day, Super Nanny comes back to the family and begins teaching the parents how to do things differently.  She starts by tacking a schedule on the wall that the family will follow.  She gives the parents techniques for dealing with their kids.  Then, as we watch, she coaches the parents through the day, helping them take a better approach.  It’s pretty amazing to see these kids, who have been in the habit of being absolutely wild and belligerent, kicking, screaming, hitting, sassing, and swearing, rather quickly respond to discipline, guidance, and rewards.

          By the time Super Nanny leaves, she has turned a house full of strife into a home with peace and quiet.  Of course, the family will need to keep working on it, but you feel they have been given a chance at much better family relationships.

          One of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is peace.  Now, Super Nanny may or may not be a Christian.  The peace she brings to these troubled households is not the peace of God.  But I believe the peace she brings to these families, which is the result of discipline and good techniques, is godly.  There are good things in our world that are not specifically Christian, but nevertheless are the good things of God.

          At the same time, there are people who have a relationship with God but who do not live at peace.  They are missing out on some of God’s good gifts.  There are a number of reasons for this.  They may have grown up in difficult homes where they just did not learn good common sense and discipline.  They might have learned very poor ways of dealing with conflict.  Many people have learned to thrive on conflict or chaos, so that if a measure of peace comes about in their lives, they will, without realizing what they are doing, do something to create havoc.

          The Bible speaks so often of peace that it is evident that God wants us to live lives of peace.  There are, of course, different kinds of peace.  There is personal peace, which has to do with the way a person feels inside.  There is interpersonal peace, which has to do with relationships we have with people around us.  There is peace—or the lack of peace—among people groups and nations.  There is peace with God.

          Let’s look at these different aspects of peace.  Personal peace is the way you feel inside.  If your stomach is tied in knots and you have headaches, you probably are not experiencing a great deal of personal peace.  Anyone who lives in the world today could certainly be forgiven for feeling a certain amount of anxiety.  Our world is absurdly complex and difficult. 

          If you walk by a magazine stand, you will see that there is lots of advice out there for finding peace or serenity.  You can do yoga, exercise more, drink herbal tea, learn strategies for dealing with conflict, put cucumber slices on your eyelids… the list is endless.  In fact, to me, the list is a bit exhausting and gives me stress!  I just don’t have time to lie around with cucumber slices on my eyelids!

          Many of those suggestions are good ideas, and if they work for you, that’s great.  But what all of that is really hoping to achieve is inner peace.  And the only way I know to truly have inner peace is to begin with peace with God.

          Peace with God is the peace the Holy Spirit wants to grow in us—it is fruit of the Spirit.  Peace with God is really quite simple.  It means we agree with God that we are sinners and we are unable to save ourselves.  It means we are willing to accept the fact that Jesus died for us, and he wants to forgive us and have a relationship with us.  The peace part comes when we stop trying to do everything in our own strength and simply allow God to take over our lives.

          It’s about letting go of my own compulsion to run my life and put myself in the center, and instead, giving myself to God.  When I am the center of my life, the result is anxiety.  When God is the center of my life, the result is peace.  And the brutal truth is that sometimes we truly think we can find peace more easily by putting cucumber slices on our eyelids!

          Now, let me repeat that we live in an extremely complex, stressful environment.  If cucumber slices on your eyelids help you, go for it!  A lot of the popular wisdom out there for reducing stress is very helpful, and there are good ideas that can help you deal with everyday stress.  Just be sure you start with God’s peace in your heart.  That’s the one non-negotiable starting point.

          Once we have made peace with God, we also need to make peace with the people around us.  The church ought to be—is, in fact, our workshop for learning how to get along with others.  The fact that we are Christians does not mean we will never have any conflict.

          Even though we have experienced salvation, we have not become perfect.  Becoming a Christian does not mean you are instantly transformed.  It does mean you are instantly and totally forgiven.  And as you allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life, you will be transformed.  But for most of us, there will be areas in which we continue to struggle for most of our lives.  Some of us, when we look at our lives and look for the fruit of the Spirit, are disappointed with the crop.  That’s not a reason to give up.  If you want to see more fruit in your life, ask the Holy Spirit to work in your life and help you become the person God created you to be. 

          All of us need to work at becoming more like Jesus Christ.  God doesn’t just zap us into goodness.  Don’t we wish?  That would be so easy!  God wants us to work at being people who live at peace with one another.

          When we work together with other Christians in the church, there are times when we disagree.  This is normal.  It can even be very healthy.  We’re not all the same.  We have different perspectives and different temperaments.  We don’t all think the same way.  But of course, sometimes that leads to conflict.

          Some Christians believe that if we are all in tune with the Holy Spirit, we will all agree on everything.  I think this is a dangerous concept.  The fact is, God created us with differences.  We’re not all the same, and we don’t all think the same.  In addition, we all have different cultural backgrounds.  When we come together, we bring those things with us.  So what happens if we think the Holy Spirit will make us all agree, but in fact we discover that we really don’t agree?  Generally what will happen is that the strongest leader will assume God has spoken to him or her, and those who have conflicting opinions must not be listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.  The reality, usually, is that not all viewpoints have been fairly heard and considered.  But the person whose viewpoint was not heard is made to feel spiritually inadequate.  That’s not a good thing.  Eventually it leads to a church culture where people are hesitant to express an opinion at all.

          Certainly when we come together and we need to make a decision, we would be wise to spend more time in prayer.  But I believe if we are truly listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit, we may hear the Spirit leading us to carefully listen to one another, and hear all sides of the argument. 

          What if we listen carefully to all sides and still can’t seem to come to an agreement?  There will be times when we must set aside our personal preferences for the good of the community.  In recent years, many churches have had worship wars.  There is something very tragic about fighting over how we worship God.  But in this particular time in history, there has been rapid change in music and styles of worship.  So one generation hates the music of another generation.  This has become a hurtful issue for churches.  One result is that new churches have sprung up that are only geared to young people.  It’s wonderful if young people want to worship together.  I am uncomfortable, however, with this fragmentation of the church.  We live in an era of extreme specialization.  I had coffee with someone recently who said they would be happy to go to Tully’s, but they refused to drink Starbucks.  I think that is just fine for coffee.  But I am concerned that the church has also become so fragmented.  I wish the church could be a place where people of different ages, races, ethnic and economic groups would worship together.  I would like the church to be a place where we are free to express our differences and listen to one another.  And I would like the church to have peace that comes from everyone yielding to one another for the good of the whole church.

          The third level of peace is between nations and people groups.  I believe God’s will for humanity is peace.  I think it is particularly troublesome when wars and conflicts are fought in the name of religion.  The lack of peace in the world today is frightening.  The Bible tells us to pray for peace.

          I was in college during the Vietnam War, when the huge marches for peace were taking place on University campuses across the nation.  So it’s hard for me to think about world peace without remembering those days of peace marches.  I was not a hippie, but sometimes it just amazes me to see how conservative the students at the UW look these days. We have a difficult war going on today, just as we did then.  Not many students seem to be protesting.  I still see signs of protest from time to time, but they are usually bumper stickers on ancient vehicles driven by gray haired people my age. I have a friend who still goes out and protests, and regularly gets hauled off to jail.  While I don’t quite agree with her politically, I admire her passion for what she believes.

          For Christians, the minute we start talking about peace as opposed to war, we come face to face with the reality that we live in a tainted world and it is impossible for any of us to escape the sin of war.      

          I don’t like war any more than anyone else does. But I realize that my personal freedoms have been fought for by others, some of whom gave their lives.   A few countries have made a concerted effort to remain neutral and refuse to go to war, but they are very few, indeed.  Even they have armies, and certain ways of protecting themselves.

          I believe it is possible for Christians who carefully examine their consciences to come to radically different positions on the subject of war.  There are many Christians in our military forces who have carefully considered their options and decided the best thing for them is to go to war.  Other Christians are opposed to war of any sort, and if required to serve, will become conscientious objectors. 

          Regardless of how you think issues of world politics should be addressed, I believe that every Christian can agree that peace is what we want.  We can all agree to pray for peace in the world.  We need to be people of peace, work for peace in our relationships, and pray for world peace.

          We are going to sing a wonderful hymn that speaks to the issue of peace:  “It is Well with My Soul.”  The story of the hymmwriter is an example of peace that is dependent on trusting God, not on our circumstances.  Horatio Spafford was a Chicago lawyer.  In 1873, his wife and four daughters traveled to Europe to visit relatives.  While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, their ship collided with another ship and sank.  Although Mrs. Spafford was rescued, all four of their daughters drowned.  Three years later, Horatio Spafford wrote the words to this song.  The tragic loss he and his wife suffered must have brought them immense sadness.  But the peace of God that ministered to Spafford’s soul continues to minister to us in the words of this song.

Prayer:

Gracious and loving God, we need your peace in our lives.  In our world, there is so very little peace.  The news is distressing and fear surrounds us.  Often, there’s not much more peace in our personal relationships.  God, we acknowledge that we need to begin by having peace with you.  We know the peace you give is the true beginning of all peace in our lives.  Holy Spirit, we open our hearts to you and invite you to bring peace to our souls.  May we be peacemakers in our homes, in our church, in our places of work, and in our world.

Amen