It was probably
15 years ago, but sometimes things remain with you even that long. I was calling up a client of mine, I’ll call
him Jay, and before getting to the reason for my call, I intended to exchange
the usual pleasantries. So after he
answered the phone I’m sure I said something to the effect of “Hi Jay, it’s Ed
– How are you?” And here’s the part that
stayed with me – he answered “I am peaceful.”
Boy did that throw me for a loop –
not “I am fine,” “doing well,” or even “I’ m great” – but “I am peaceful.”
I suppose it stuck with me because,
truth be told, I’m not usually very peaceful.
And I really wish I were peaceful.
Actually it seems harder and harder to be peaceful in a world that often
seems like it’s heading to hell in a handbasket. I can’t read a newspaper of news on the
internet without losing my peace, without being outraged even.
But if stop to think about it, I
find half of me thinking that I really am supposed to be peaceful, at peace,
filled with joy even, and that any sign that I’m not at peace should be a
warning to me that something deep inside me isn’t quite right. That something inside me needs healing, or
straightening out, redeeming.
And I find half of me wondering if
my lack of peace isn’t because things aren’t the way they’re supposed to
be, and it’s my calling to do what I can to set things straight, filled with
holy anger even, like the prophet Isaiah said “For Jerusalem’s sake I will not
be quiet until her vindication shines forth like the dawn.”
This was the conflict inside me as I
prepared to preach this morning – am I really supposed to be at
peace? And the conclusion I reached is
the same message Our Lord makes clear in this Gospel - that the peace we seek is never going to
come from this world, that it’s only His peace He leaves to His
disciples, and that He calls down upon His disciples. A profound peace that endures all of life’s
tribulations, disappointments, tragedies, grief – a peace that allows us, His
disciples, to persevere in faith amid all of life’s hardships, as we read in
the first reading from Acts. A peace
secure in the belief that this world is not our ultimate home.
But - what of my righteous anger, my
lack of peace at the brokenness and disorder all around us? The answer to that, I would propose, is that
while we will never find our peace from this world, it’s our mission to bring
His peace into this world. In every
situation, in every troubled heart, in every fear and conflict and act of
violence, this world thirsts for that peace that only He can give. And we – you and I, the Church – filled with
His strength and peace ourselves – are called to be the instruments of that
peace.
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