Peace that passes all understanding

Peace that passes all understanding

What a premium we place on peace. We talk about achieving it, we expend large amounts of energy to possess it, and we cherish it when we have it, but how often do we really…have it?

I remember back when the “peace” was introduced to the Sunday service. Following the new 1979 BCP, the “peace” was inserted in the middle of the service and caused no small amount of confusion, tension, and anger. Imagine that: angry because peace was shared in the worship service. The interruption to the normal flow of the service resulted in a monumental distraction that overshadowed the entire service and debilitated parishioners. As one person was not-to-quietly overheard saying, “what’s the point in coming at all?!”

Many years have passed since this “innovation” was introduced (really it was a resurrected tradition from the earliest days of the church), and I have seen the mid-service “peace” grow and then lose meaning as a witness to the larger reality that is actually quite difficult to grasp: God’s Peace.

In relationships, especially marriages, we fool ourselves into believing that we have peace when there is no conflict, but this is a lie. Peace is not the absence of conflict—not in the Christian sense—peace is the actual presence of the Holy, the presence of God in our midst. You see, Jesus doesn’t promise us the peace we understand—that is the lie.  He promises us the peace beyond our understanding—that is the gift. When we substitute the peace of “mediocre acceptance” for the palpable peace of Christ, then we have settled for far less than we have been promised and live our lives disquieted and unsettled.

Sadly, over time, as we grow to accept the “the lack of conflict is peace” lie, the whole of our lives must compensate. Our acceptance of the lie results in a dumbing down of the words of Christ to the point at which they become meaningless. After all, He didn’t deliver on what he promised. The infection of distrust and disbelief that follows is so subtle that we nearly miss it. Without realizing it, we start saying to ourselves (and others) that the Gospel is metaphor or that it simply does not apply to our modern time.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus promised us miraculous gifts, and they are ours for the taking, but we must be able to recognize them in order to receive them. We must have eyes to see into our own souls and be willing and able to read the biblical directions to the fulfillment of life. We must follow in trust, not forge ahead on our own. The dumbing down of Jesus—His life and His words—must be fought with everything we have, and accepting His peace is a great place to make our stand.

To accept His peace, we must stop trying to dictate the manner in which we will receive it.  The truth is, we want it on our terms and in a manner that pleases us with as little effort as possible, but that is not how God has chosen to give His gifts. If we put as much effort into our life in Christ as we do into our avoidance techniques, if we expend as much energy in our search for greater depth in God as we do in suppressing our emotions during those periods of “lack of conflict,” then we would have all that we so desire—and more, more than we can understand.

The “Peace” is a little thing, really, just a minute to turn to one another and pray for them—pray that they have the Peace of Christ. This is a divine opportunity to witness out of love for Christ, His promise of true Peace. In those few moments, we are given the opportunity to embrace the reality of the Peace of Christ as beyond our comprehension, and we are to be bathed in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

C.S. Lewis was fond of saying that if we live a certain way, we will soon be the way we live. Perhaps, as we live the peace of Christ in the midst of our services, it will help us embrace the peace of Christ in the midst of our lives.  Once this true peace is known to us, the days of settling will be a part of the disquieted past, and the rest of His words, no longer regarded as metaphor, will ring with divine truth.

Peace be with you,

Fr. Bill+