Tag: Peace

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Peace Building – Ephesians 2:14-22

We live in an age when tearing down the walls of hostility seems impossible. Whether vast societal chasms or arguments with family members, the distances feel too wide to span. Likewise, the distance between us and God also often feels too wide as well. But Paul offers us hope in this passage.

God does not want barriers between Him and us – we see this when Jesus took a whip to the money changers and merchants the temple creating barriers between the Gentiles and the worship of God. In that instance, Jesus warned everyone that He would destroy the temple and raise it again in three days. He Himself would be that temple, and He Himself would be the new way in which all people access our Heavenly Father. He Himself becomes the intersection of eternity and our finite, fleshly realm.

The Church, then, as the Body of Christ, serves that same purpose – we are the intersection of Earth and eternity, we are the pathway between the people around us and the Creator God of the universe.

Here in Ephesians, Paul emphasizes how Christ’s work at the Cross creates this pathway and removes the barrier between God and Man. The breaking of the relationship described in Genesis is healed by the work of Jesus Christ.

But Paul then moves from the vertical relationship between God and His People, to the horizontal relationships between all His peoples, both groups and individuals. The focus here is on groups, specifically between the Jews and Gentiles, those set apart in the Old Testament and those grafted on by the Cross, fulfilling the promise of God to Abraham that all peoples would be blessed by his family.

Paul here writes that the two groups are coming together as one oikeios or household. In Rome, this was the fundamental social/political unit of the empire, the base layer of the hierarchy that went from the lowest infant and slave to the Emperor himself. But as in other places, Paul takes this term and subverts it. The household is not Cesar’s, but God’s, and we all live together within that single great oikeios.

But even though we know and believe this to be true, there persist chasms, deep chasms of culture, of politics, of ethnicity. All of them are ash and dust in comparison to the love of God and community of His people, and yet we grasp them so tightly.

This means the work of the church, as Christ’s Body, has the same mission as Christ Himself did when presented with worldly structures preventing people from coming to God. Peace cannot exist without that connection to God, and so the Peace Jesus brings often must come after the smashing of the structures that prevent the unity and peace that God calls us to. Sometimes in the work of peace, something has to die in order for something new to emerge.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, December 24, 2023

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The Divine Gift – Ezekiel 34:23-31

Every year, there is an annual conference of a summit of Nobel peace prize laureates. They discuss things that can be done to create a more peaceful world. It’s fascinating that this is not reported on more. They give out an award every year to an entertainer who has made an effort towards peace. It’s strange we don’t hear more about this, but the better news is that we know someone even more qualified to speak on the topic of peace.

Ezekiel here calls ahead to the peace brought by the Prince of Peace, the Christ. Ezekiel lays out three key principles regarding this peace.

First, God will appoint a shepherd. The image of shepherd was poignant and powerful to the people of Israel, with its roots in herding going back centuries. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David – all worked as shepherds. Beyond that, God Himself is spoken of as the shepherd of Israel all across the law and prophets, most notably perhaps in psalm 23. The import of the imagery here is difficult for us to grasp in our environment and culture. It may help to consider the more recent image of a cowboy – romanticized, rough and rugged out in the wild, but rough-edged and not always pleasant to be around.

But Ezekiel lays out here that God will appoint a shepherd, a king in the mold of David – the perfect leader who will care for his people. Peter later calls Jesus the “chief shepherd”.

Who we follow is important. We can follow others, follow ourselves, or follow Christ. Who do we go to first, who is our instinct to rely upon?

But God does not stop at supplying a leader – he also supplies abundance and security. No fear of wild animals, abundant crops, plenty of provision and rescue from their enemies. Abundance of security, of prosperity, of freedom. Stephen Covey coined the concepts of the Scarcity Mindset versus the Abundance Mindset – seeing life as a series of investments rather than costs. That is extra-true for us who follow the God of the universe, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. We have been given life – abundantly! It does not get smaller when we live some of it. When we do grace and righteousness and kindness they do not get smaller, but rather gets bigger.

If we don’t see that, it may be because we spend more time considering what we don’t have rather than what we do have. We should live in the abundance of grace and forgiveness and goodness we are given.

Finally, God restores His presence. “And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them.” This is the source of all of the other blessings. What does this presence look like? It looks like Immanuel, God come as the person of Jesus Christ to reconcile His people to Himself. He has made peace so we might be at peace with God.

The people of Israel understood that there was a cost to reconciliation, because they performed sacrifices that clearly painted the picture of the great sacrifice was to come. That cost was the death of the Son, but the result was the presence of God directly with us.

We should pause regularly to appreciate the presence of God. God is with us! God brings the wholeness of shalom – not merely the absence of conflict, but the fullness and goodness and well being we were originally made for.

We can be at this kind of peace because we live every day in the presence of God.

This Christmas, how do we refresh that presence and receive that peace?

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, December 19, 2021

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Bringing Shalom to Our City – Jeremiah 29:1-7

 

The nation of Israel has become corrupt. They take the outward signs of pious life, but in fact were just as bad as the pagans around them. Or worse, because as representatives of God, this behavior represented God to the world around them.

And so God uses Nebuchadnezzar to bring judgement on Jerusalem, bringing thousands of Jews to Babylon in exile. The land is taken, the temple is destroyed and the Law itself is upended.

So what does God say to do? Settle down, raise families, seek the peace of wherever you are. Prior to this, the concept of peace had been wrapped up in the direct rule of God over his chosen people in the Promised Land. But now the Law, the Temple and the land are gone, just as was promised in Deuteronomy would happen if they turned away.

But God doesn’t tell them to live separately or to isolate themselves from the culture around them. He tells them to plant gardens – the same word as “paradise”. They are called to bring a little piece of paradise into their new home. Babylon is also known for its gardens, so using this term rather than “vines” or “grain” implies an integration with the culture around them.

God also calls on them to, essentially, “be fruitful and multiply” – another callback to the Garden of Eden and the instruction given there. And again, it also appears to be an instruction toward intermarriage and integration, since the vast majority of the exiles were men.

He then instructs them to pray for Babylon, the city that just wiped them out. Not only that, but to seek the peace and prosperity of the city. The goal had changed from Israel being a hermetically sealed, isolated kingdom of peace that would eventually spread shalom to the gentiles. Their sin meant they had to spread out and seek to bring shalom into their neighborhoods and the city of their exile.

Then we come to Christ. The mission itself does not change – Jesus does not being back the earthly kingdom of Israel. Instead, he founds a new, spiritual kingdom, not based on rule following, but on a relationship with the rule-giver. Christ becomes the new law, the new temple and the new Kingdom.

Like Israel, we are in a moment of now-but-not-yet. We are, like Israel, spread among the world and called to bring peace to a broken world. God will eventually force the peace, but that will come with judgement. So in His mercy, God waits and uses us as His hands and feet to bring people to repentance.

We are called to bring the peace of God into the world around us drop by drop. We are called to citizenship, not to live in bunkers. We are called to fight against poverty and oppression, and to stand against abuse, especially when it comes from people who claim Christ.

We can look at early Christianity to see how this played out. The early church essentially invented the concept of charity. St. Basil invented the hospital in the 3rd century. During plagues, pagans would evacuate, while Christians would remain in the city and nurse the sick as best they could. These examples drew thousands to Christ.

Let us do the same. Let us spread this peace today, in our homes, neighborhoods, cities, countries and world.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

Jeremiah 29:1-7

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