Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Fifth Sunday After Pentecost (B) 2018

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: The Power of Peace
Theme: Mark 4:39

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

Exceptional circumstances can alter routine priorities. Occasionally something stops us in our tracks and demands that we stand up and take notice. Occasions like this this may even cause us to reflect on our core convictions. God may be intervening before we even recognize it causing us to see things from a new perspective. He seeks always to lead us from the darkness of our own fabricated worlds to the light of His kingdom, from the fiction of a self-constructed existence to the reality of His truth and presence. As the Bible says, “in Your light we see light.”1

Today the disciples experienced just such an arresting encounter. They were sailing across the Sea of Galilee when a furious squall came up. The situation was dangerous and desperate. Jesus was accused of apathy at the critical hour. When the storm arose, He was resting and appeared to the disciples to be unaware and unconcerned. They were frantic. He was calm. Perhaps you’ve had the same complaint against God at one time or another? Perhaps in your time of need all you received was silence? You might be angry or resentful that God stood aloof from the situation. The accusation of apathy against God brings one right to the critical juncture. Faith must see what the eyes cannot. So, we pray that the Holy Spirit would always grant us such faith.

All concerns that Jesus was apathetic were soon dispelled. “He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”2 Understandably, the disciples were stunned. They were in awe. Who was this man in the boat with them? How could He have such power? Earlier in the rite of baptism we said together in Apostles’ Creed. “I believe in God, the Father almighty maker of heaven and earth.” It’s a confession of ultimate and unqualified power. Nothing is beyond God’s ability to subdue, create, or resolve. The universe endures through His power

But the universe- and humanity in particular- also endures through His love. The disciples would spend the rest of their lives learning what it meant that He was bringing a much more profound peace than calming a stormy sea. The gospel is still their message to the world. All the stability we can acquire in this earthly life still means nothing if sin and death triumph at the end. If the tempest of sin is not subdued by the Prince of Peace we can have no peace of heart or mind. God is not aloof. The apostle says, “‘In the time of My favour I heard you, in the day of salvation I helped you.’” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.”3 The soul will remain restless until it rests in God.

Dear friends, this restlessness is evidenced in society as a whole also. The proclamation of the word of God in our culture is increasingly being received like water off a duck’s back. It doesn’t sink in. Maybe too many layers of bias have formed a nearly impenetrable barrier? There is growing consensus that our culture is becoming more like that of 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born into the world. But we’re not yet like the first century in at least two important ways: Firstly, the society in the first century was not generally antagonist towards religion. In fact, religious practice and custom were very prevalent in society, though they primarily involved the appeasement of pagan idols.

Secondly, the gospel was a new and unknown teaching then. Never before had the claim of God coming to earth to sacrifice Himself for the well-being of mortals been made. Jewish prophecy was not unknown, but the understanding that this would be the nature of the Messiah’s work was not widespread. Conversely, the gospel is not yet a new teaching for our culture. The collective memory of society still retains a basic caricature of what it deems Christianity to represent. This is a great obstacle. It means that the challenge at the cutting edge of the mission of the church is to first deconstruct stereotypes that have become entrenched in the psyche of the populace. In the end we trust that the Holy Spirit has His ways and is limited neither in power nor in compassion. St. Paul was the greatest persecutor of Christianity and he became its greatest defender.

The world is in desperate need of true peace but often seeks it in the wrong places. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”4 He gives a peace no one else can. It is a gift to us, but it was not free. Divine peace does not come without a cost. It came at an inestimable price in human terms. The scripture says that Christ reconciled us to God “by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.”5 That same blood is offered at His altar. God’s Son was hung upon a cross. He sacrificed His life that we might be forgiven. He rose victoriously from the grave so that all believers might share in His life.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the unmatched events in the history of the world that should cause people to stop and take notice. He does more than just tweak one’s perspective. He changes priorities and transforms one’s entire worldview. Left to our own devices we are like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. Self-centredness caused the older son to completely loose perspective. He was much more concerned with what was fair than what was merciful. But, he had actually missed out on none of the Father’s blessings. “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”6 God is not so limited in His resources that He must ‘Rob Peter to pay Paul. His grace is not so rare that it needs to be hoarded. His peace is not in short supply.

Today we were privileged to witness the baptism of Elsie Hoffmann. Babies aren’t baptized because some sort of superstitious magic is at play. Nor are they baptized as a sentimental way to publicly recognise their innocence. Infants are baptized because they are people. They are sinners that need to have the gospel offered to them too. They are precious souls in God’s sight. Who are we to doubt whether the Architect of the universe, the One who created this infant in the womb her mother, can speak peace into the heart of this child? To doubt that God can gift someone with spiritual life in this way is to doubt the power of God to grant life at all.

Only one kind of peace finally matters in the end. It’s not the peace brokered by world leaders, though such peace is something the church rightly prays for. It’s not the peace of being spared pain and contention in our relationships, though such certainly aligns with God’s will. It’s not the peace of mind that comes with good health, prosperity, and the knowledge of a secure future, though, again, these are great blessings from God’s hand. Yet, only one peace spans the threshold between the temporal and the eternal, only one bridges the dimension between earth and heaven, only one peace can make all the anxieties, fears, and hostilities of this life vanish in an instant. The heart that trusts it has been reconciled to God is the heart that has true peace.

He speaks “Shalom, peace!” into our hearts. He stills our agitated souls. He calms our troubled minds. And He promises a future peace we can now only grasp by faith. Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
24 June 2018
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 Psalm 36:9 2 Mark 4:39
3 2 Corinthians 6:2 4 John 14:27
5 Colossians 1:20 6 Luke 15:31-32