California/Nevada United Methodist Women
Mission Education Weekend
Ramada Inn, Santa Nella, CA, September 15-17,
2006
Closing Communion Worship Sermon
Acts 2:16-18, John 14:24-27
“Peace I Leave with You”
I always get such great things from these
events! Last night I learned from four young beautiful sisters of India and
Mexico that the rich and poor can dance together – Amen! And will dance
together someday – Amen! So let’s dance this offering! Dance this communion
this morning! For in all things we know who is “Lord of the Dance” – don’t we?
Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the Dance, said he. And
I’ll lead you all wherever you may be, and I’ll lead you all in the dance, said
he.
From our inescapably efficacious and
effervescent sister Judy Newton, in mission with Japan, I learned that “the
center of peace” is dancing a day-to-day rising out of the depths of destruction
and despair. We hear these lines of bubbling peace from her poem “Response to
Hiroshima Revolution” –
What is the center of peace?
It seems to be a vacuum, an absence of power
or strength,
Not at all – rather, it’s a nub of beauty
and nonviolence,
A substance of such sturdiness that nothing
can break or dent it,
An intelligence that is subservient to the
heart,
A warmth toward others that strengthens
itself as it gives,
Multiple layers of moss-like support and
maternal-caring.
The center of peace is bubbling,
not with an angry froth,
but with a divine aroma and energy that
nourishes with its sound,
At the center of peace is the God of might
and love,
not controlling, but persuading,
not demanding, but cajoling.
Not demanding, but cajoling – Amen! I read
sometime ago that we preachers and others who presume to talk about “God” so
much had better not say anything we would not say directly to the victims and
survivors of the Holocaust and Hiroshima – among other unspeakable symptoms of
sin. Now it seems the passionately aging survivors of the world’s only (so far,
please God!) atomic bombings reach out to us with waning expenditures of
“selfless, amazingly tenacious love!” Amen.
And from a sister named Hazel at the earlier
school in Reno this summer, who spent 30 years in mission with Nepal, I heard,
after she saw “A Single Woman” (the story of Jeanette Rankin’s life and
witness), the story of Dan Richardson, a Tyndale Bible evangelist in Papua New
Guinea in the early 60s. He could not help to stop the warring and killing
between two tribes – until at last he was led to invite them to exchange an
infant “peace child” from either tribe – so each would have a stake in raising
the child of the other! And would want to see that child safe. Even as we say
God exchanges God’s child for the life of this world. Is that right? Amen.
Those examples are just some of the “peace” Jesus leaves with me from this
weekend and this summer – to carry on his life, his work, in his name. What
“peace” has Jesus left with you? What precious gifts do you, do we, carry on
from here?
Each one of us is left with and leaves with a
“piece” of the “peace” – and the pieces are coming together! We may not see it,
but God does – and God is, the pieces coming together. Julie’s mother lived her
last years with us. Our kids were still fairly young. Gertrude would often say
to them, “I love you to pieces!” One day our daughter cried out, “Grandma! I
don’t want you to love me to pieces. I want you to love me to one piece!” Our
pieces are for the “re-membering” of Jesus – as in every breaking of bread as
his body, every pouring of cup as his blood, he asks that we do this
“remembering me.” Remembering is the Spirit’s gift, the Spirit’s work, of
forgiveness!
To forgive, says Carter Heyward, is not to
forget but remember – restore, reconcile, bring back and put back together – as
much and as far back as we can of that which has been dis-membered – broken,
fragmented, torn and kept apart. “Remembering Jesus” is bringing him back to
life – in us! Making him whole again – in us! Re-minding ourselves with his
mind, his heart, his body and soul. Remembering Jesus is not just the personal
act of cognitive recall. It is also the political action of communal
reconnection and reconstruction! The bread is always rising. The grapes are
always fermenting. The pieces of peace are always coming together and making us
whole.
Is that not the peace Jesus leaves us? A peace
in and for this world – though never defined or confined by this world? And
even as he leaves us, does Jesus not promise never to leave us alone? Dr. King
used to quote the great hymn whenever he felt misrepresented, misunderstood,
afraid and even alone –
I’ve seen the lightning flashing, and heard
the thunder roll,
I’ve felt sin’s breakers dashing, trying to
conquer my soul;
I’ve heard the voice of Jesus, telling me
still to fight on,
He promised never to leave me, never to
leave me alone.
No, never alone – no, never alone,
He promised never to leave me, never to
leave me alone.
Jesus’ closest friends and followers that night
of his betrayal, arrest, detention, conviction, torture, ands finally death,
needed to know – as we need to know – there is a “peace” for us to survive and
endure in difficult faithfulness.
The author of our text Shalom, Salaam, Peace
pays many tributes to difficult faithfulness. One is to Nelson Mandela
emerging from 27 years (10,000 days) incarceration and saying, Friends,
comrades and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace,
democracy and freedom for all! I stand here before you not as a prophet but as
a humble servant of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have
made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years
of my life in your hands. Is that not the peace Jesus leaves us this
morning? Placing, entrusting the precious remainder of his gracious life right
in our very hands?
And again, a tribute to a Women’s Interfaith
Holocaust tour – proceeding on the shared promise “we will enter Auschwitz as
sisters” – to covenant with one another –
We will be together in these places.
We will watch out for each other.
We will listen to whatever needs to be said.
We will not be fearful or anxious or
prodding when it seems that silence is the only possible response.
We will wait for the slowest.
We will sooner or later catch up with the
fastest.
We will dry the tears of those who are
weeping and know they will dry ours when that time comes.
We will let ourselves begin to feel the pain
– at least a little – of those we have considered our enemies, and we will let
ourselves feel the pain of being thought of as someone else’s enemy – not the
pain of hurt feelings or of being misunderstood, but the pain of acknowledging
all those strands of history that have put so many barriers between us
We said to each other:
We will not forget the joy of life.
We will not forget to be grateful.
We will do our best to stir in each other
the courage to act with love and justice in our own particular lives.
We said to each other:
We will be together in these places.
And we were.
Is that not the peace Jesus leaves us? Whether
we are his first followers seeking strength to re-enter the world that was
taking him violently from them? Or whether we are his followers of this weekend
seeking strength to re-enter our own (often violent) world -- including our
United Methodist Church and our congregations -- of so much change and challenge
and chaos and confusion?
Jesus here offers and promises to come again to
us as that Helper and Advocate – that one who gives voice to the voiceless,
vision to the visionless – that Comforter and that Counselor, which is to say,
that one in resistance with us who stands up with us and represents us – not of
but when we are hauled up before judges for Jesus’ example! The Spirit accounts
for the hope that is in us. The Spirit bears witness that God is freeing us and
fulfilling us even now – personally and as a world. We may not see it, but God
does – and God is, the pieces coming together.
Jesus here offers and promises – as we hear
from Peter on Pentecost quoting the prophet Joel – those fearsome “Last days”
now lie behind us! No matter the terrorizing rhetoric of “Left Behind” books in
our own time. In the “Last days” God’s Spirit is and already has been freely
and fully poured out in all the world – an equal opportunity deployer of all
gifts and graces! God’s Spirit is no respecter of persons, peoples, parties, or
nations. It blows like the wind where it will. It falls like the rain and the
sun on the just and unjust alike. Even then, even now, these are not “Last
Days” but “First Days” of the rest of our lives – and the rest of our life
together!
The death and even the resurrection of Jesus
are no ends in themselves. They are to be grasped again and again for the
ever-mysterious richness and depth each one provides. Yet and still, Jesus’
death and resurrection are only just the beginning, prelude and promise, to his
life as the Spirit – within us, around us, between us, among us! How tempting
it is to see our church liturgical year as ending with Easter – or with
Pentecost at best – while all the so-called “ordinary time” after Pentecost is
potentially thrilling and throbbing with the amazing works of the Spirit through
the body of Christ the church! Only half the church year is all about Jesus.
The other half is all about us! Though it’s really, as we learn from
globalization this weekend, not about “just us” – it’s about justice!!
We follow Jesus in this peace he offers and
promises to see us through, to sanctify and to sustain us through this world.
To follow him is to do the true work of Jesus – and even greater works than his
we are to do by the Spirit, he says! Wherever, whenever, however, and with
whomever we may be! This is not the peace of just saying “Lord, Lord,” as Jesus
puts it. It is the peace of doing “Lord, Lord” – through the word, the will,
the worship, the work of God in this world.
And what is the work of God in this world but
the love of God and of neighbor! In fact, the gospel of John is clear, there
can be no love of God without the love of neighbor – for that’s precisely who
(and what) the love of God is!
Jesus’ parable of globalization makes use of
the Samaritan, the robbers, the robbed, and those who pass by – not only to ask
us who our neighbor is, but to whom will we be as neighbor?! Who in our
consciousness, our awareness, needs our “piece of the peace” of Jesus? Who
needs the promise, the presence, the passion, the power of Jesus – right here
and right now? And who are we not to leave it with them? Even as Jesus leaves
peace – shalom, salaam, shanthi – with us?
We recall the saying “I can’t believe I ate the
whole thing!” One of my favorites, as you see. What Jesus offers us in this
meal is not so much “the whole thing” as “the wholeness thing.” Jesus offers
that which connects us – creates, constructs, completes us again. The peace of
Christ is freedom of love and fulfillment of life. “I have come that all may
have life, life in all its fullness” – life and love, in all their abundance.
The assumption of globalization – if
globalization is to mean and to offer more of relationship and community than of
mere transaction and market – especially for workers, for children of God whose
value is priceless! – the assumption must be of abundance, not scarcity. We
must assume, with God there is always plenty of all that is needed to go around
– even as there was in the Jubilee Pentecost Church. It is never a question of
God’s contribution, God’s provision of plenty for all. It is only a question of
our distribution, our sense of communion with all. God contributes, we
distributes – communion!!
When the Spirit of God fills the body of Christ
– That’ll be us! – everyone of us is freed and fulfilled. Each one with
something to see! Something to say! Something to receive! Something to give!
We know the old sayings, “God don’t make no junk!” And, “God is not done with
anyone yet!” The new saying I ask us to take with us today is, “What is my
piece of the peace Jesus leaves with me, with us this day?
Specifically, harking back to the Tyndale
evangelist, what “peace child” is born of me, of us, this day, this weekend?
What precious gift for me to carry on in Jesus’ name? For me to carry so
carefully with me now – as I come to receive, then go to give others the life
and the love of body and blood Jesus offers me here? In the concluding words to
the play, “A Single Woman” by Jeanmarie Simpson – She went in the direction
they were coming, that tiny baby’s mother did. And she put him in the arms of
the enemy. They held him and then they gave him back to his mother and they
left her. In peace. Isn’t that a story?
Amen.
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