Giving Peace
Lamentations 3:21-24 read responsively Luke 19:41-48
Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ November 1, 2009
All Saints Day – Celebration of Our Lord’s Supper
Unity Presbyterian Church ~ Terre Haute, Indiana
INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Lamentations 3:21-24 (read in unison) By now you know our Stewardship drive is “New Love: New Mercy.” As we consider our stewardship as giving peace, we are reminded by this passage that God is the source of all good including our desire for and our ability to give peace. Let us read this passage in unison.
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in God.’”
Luke 19:41-48
This passage is not in the lectionary text. It follows Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on what we celebrate as Palm Sunday and the confrontation with the religious leaders who tell Jesus to keep his disciples quiet. He replies: ‘If these were silent, the stones would cry out’ (19:40).
Jewish historian, Josephus was present in Jerusalem when the city was captured and the Temple was burnt. He described the aftermath of its destruction:
The countryside like the City was a pitiful sight; for where once there had been a lovely vista of woods and parks there was nothing but desert and stumps of trees. No one - not even a foreigner - who had seen the Old Judea and the glorious suburbs of the City, and now set eyes on her present desolation, could have helped sighing and groaning at so terrible a change.
Was it this future that brought our Lord to tears? By the time of Luke’s writing his Gospel this destruction would have already occurred. Sometimes the stones are all that remain to cry out. In some sense the remnants of the great temple which we now see as the western (or wailing) wall in old Jerusalem still do their crying. They also cry out from the floors of torture rooms, scenes of massacre known and unknown, across the world.
Luke has surrounded the wonderful pageant of Jesus’ ascent to Jerusalem with pain. It is hard to trivialize the scene with shallow triumphalism. The context invites us to the horror of Jerusalem and of all other habitations where human blood has been shed. The message is not the cheap comfort of blame, but the mourning for lost peace. This is, for Luke, no longer a populist throng, but disciples who discern why Jesus was born and why he will die. They are to cry out - and not leave it only to the stones and not be silenced by devout advisers.[1]
41As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” 45Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
SERMON
Today is All Saints day when we remember and give thanks for all the Saints who have gone before us and provided for own nurture in the faith. Who truly gave us Christ’s peace. Many were treasured friends or family members that took the time to tell us about Jesus and opened the meaning of scripture to us. Some taught us valuable lessons about righteousness and loving sacrificially. They shared their passion for mission. Today we remember there witness as we gather at the table of the Lord. But there are thousands of others who we will never know their names but yet they laid the foundations for our lives as disciples of Jesus. This year we were given a bequest from the estate of Elaine Falber. She had planned that a tithe (10%) of her estate would be given to her church. There were no restrictions on the gift. So your Session saved some and used some to meet the budget but 10% went as our tithe to PYOCA our church camp. Children, teenagers and adults will benefit from this gift but they will not know Elaine’s name or the session members who made that choice. This is what stewardship is all about. Giving away what is needed and trusting God to lead the use of resources. It is about giving peace.
Jesus gives peace – his peace – but we often will have none of it. The human response to Jesus’ life, then and now, was rejection and violence. But thankfully it’s not God’s response to us. God’s ways are not our ways. God justifies the one who was refused, rejected, and killed, and raises him up to show that nothing can undo the hard truth that time and time again God comes bringing peace, his peace. Christ’s peace is reconciliation, the bringing together of enemies (not their annihilation) in order for them to sit at the same table. In Jesus’ time, you would never sit at the same table with your enemies. Which is not much different today, we would rather eat alone that with people who frustrate and anger us. It is not natural or easy to eat with enemies or strangers, but it is possible. Our rejection of others alienates us from God, and God’s will, but it cannot deter God’s desire to unite us to him through Christ. There was a time when we were alienated from God, but God has the power to bring alienated parties together, to bring people together at one table. For Christ is our peace, who has made us one, and has broken down the wall of hostility, reconciling us to God and to one another. Through Christ, God is calling all people into a new community, longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens of the household of God. This household of God, this new community, this new way of living is Christ’s beloved church – we exist to witness to the world a different way, an alternative vision of human community. Unity – like churches around the world – is called to witness to this truth in our life together, called to witness Christ’s peace, the peace we have with God which informs how we treat one another and every person who comes through our doors to this Table. It’s our job to give peace so that people have the eyes to see the things that make for peace in the world.[2]
This chapter in Luke also contains the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector. Unlike the city of Jerusalem, he is transformed by his encounter with Jesus. He makes restitution to those he has defrauded. This is the power of the peace of Christ. Giving peace is about giving out of our transformed lives so that others will know the peace that passes all understanding. When we share the peace of Christ, we touch on another and/or give a blessing. We demonstrate in our contact with one another the welcome of Jesus. What are the things that make for peace? Welcome of the stranger, an attitude of joy, rest for the weary and hope for the lost. Every event, worship, study experience here at Unity and at any church is to be an instrument of giving peace out of our transformed lives in Christ Jesus. As we were once lost and now have a place in the family of God, may we remember and give the peace for those who have yet to receive Christ. This will require concrete actions on our parts. Some of us will provide food for welcome, others will visit those who are ill or in prison, some will provide financial resources to make our facilities welcoming and support the staff. But however you are called, may your giving be an instrument of peace that is poured out for generations to come, who may never know your name but your Lord Jesus always will! Amen.
[1] Adapted from "First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary: Palm Sunday," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
[2] Adapted from a sermon by Rev. Dr. Kenneth E. Kovacs Catonsville Presbyterian Church, Catonsville, Maryland “The Things That Make for Peace” World Communion Sunday/7th October 2007
