Nov 28, 2021
If you’re a little kid, eating an ice cream cone, and the ice cream falls off on the sidewalk you might start bawling. It’s understandable! I cried a lot when I was a kid.
But if you’re an adult, and your ice cream falls and you start bawling, that’s unusual. Because usually we get some perspective over time: it’s not the end of the world. Nobody’s hurt. There will be plenty more ice cream cones in your life. You have learned to have perspective and peace when your scoop of ice cream falls.
You may not see many adults bawling when their ice cream falls. But there are plenty of things that disturb the peace of adults, like you lose a loved one. It makes you wonder, why did this happen? How can I ever be ok after this? Or maybe you have a medical scare. You think, “I never thought this would happen to me!” Or someone insults you. You wonder, how come they have friends? Why doesn’t everybody hate them? Life isn’t fair.
Life is uncertain. Problems arise, and our mind can go into overdrive, thinking over and over about an upsetting thing all the time. We wish we could have some peace and relief.
If a genie was ready to grant you one wish, what would you wish for? More wishes! But if the genie said, no, you only get one wish, what would you wish for?
You might say, I’d like a lot of money! That can be a good wish, you could help a lot of people with a lot of money. You can be generous and enjoy the options money gives. But we know money doesn’t buy happiness.
Maybe with your one wish you’d wish for happiness, or health or fame.
I think there is something more important than what we think we would wish for, something that means more to us.
We’re starting this sermon series: Missing Peace. It’s about the peace of God. We’re talking about having peace like a river, during both the triumphs and challenges of life. During advent, leading up to Christmas, we’re on a quest to experience is God’s peace. In the Christmas story, Luke 2:14, a great angel choir comes and sings to the Shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest! And peace on earth.” The angels proclaimed God’s peace had come to earth in Jesus.
When Jesus grew up and ministered, he would often say to people, “Peace be with you.” Or after something happened, maybe something unsettling, Jesus would say, “Go in peace.” Jesus wished peace for people, and sent them out with orders to go, be in peace, because he knew how important it is to experience God’s peace.
What so many people really want in life, and don’t even know they really want or need, is peace. They want real peace. A peace that the world wouldn’t even understand. A peace that only God can give. You can have money in the bank, but no peace in your heart. You can be successful on the outside, but empty on the inside. You can be married, but not have peace in your home. Don’t nod your head and agree with me if your spouse is sitting next to you! We want peace in your home!
Peace only comes from God. What’s the opposite of peace? Tension, fear, and anxiety. When you think about your relationship with friends and family, what do you want? You want peace. You want harmony and understanding. But so often we have the opposite. We have hurt feelings and bitterness.
I might have peace on a good day, when everything’s going great. Then another day, I have a need and pray to God. After praying, I feel better, I lifted it in prayer, I have confidence in God. But the next day, I say, “God why haven’t you done what I asked you to do? God, where are you?” I can feel joy and peace one moment, and the next moment I have fear and dread and anxiety.
Today we’re talking about living in God’s peace. Life is uncertain, you don’t know what’s next. But the troubles of life don’t have to destroy you. You can live in God’s peace.
In the gospel of Mark chapter 4:35-41, Jesus is in a boat on the sea with his disciples. Jesus is asleep, and a huge storm comes up. The waves crash against the boat, and there is water swamping it. Jesus is still asleep. The disciples are afraid for their lives, and they do what I would do, they freak out! They panic! Sometimes I used to tell my husband and kids when I thought they needed to get going quickly, I would say, “it’s time to panic!” It’s time to get going. They wouldn’t panic. They felt like doing the opposite of panicking.
Maybe Jesus was like that. “Aah, a nice storm, I’ll let it rock me to sleep and take a nap in the peace of God.”
People can have opposite reactions to the same event. One person screams, “We’re all gonna die!” And another person has a smile on their face, they know all is fine because “God is my rock!” The difference is, are you experiencing the peace of God?
There are two things going on when a storm arises: there’s trouble around us; for the disciples it was the wind, the waves and the water in the boat. And then there is there a trouble in our mind, we’re in a panic. Have we lost God’s peace?
And for me it’s the storm in my mind that is a lot harder to manage than the storm around me. I’m thinking, “God, don’t you care? I prayed, I’m exhausted, I don’t see you. You’re just taking a nap!”
When the disciples can’t take the storm around them anymore, and the storm in their mind has them wishing they had said their goodbyes to their family before this boat trip, they cry out: Jesus, don’t you even care? We’re gonna die!
And Jesus gets up, maybe he casually stretches, and with the power of God tells the storm, “Peace, be still!” The wind dies down and it is perfectly calm on the water. Jesus says to his disciples, “Why are you afraid? Don’t you have faith?”
How do we get greater faith, and greater peace? Peace comes from God, not from this world. God can renew our minds when we fix our thoughts on Jesus. The Bible contains many promises of peace, like: Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
I like to keep up on the news every day. But I don’t get peace from the news! Usually, I end up feeling a little more anxious. When I fill up on God, how do I feel? I feel the peace of God. I feel like everything’s alright. God’s got this! Peace isn’t the absence of problems, it’s the presence of God. There are still problems in the world and problems in my life. But filling up on God and God’s word, I experience God’s peace. But you know, you fill up on God once a day, and that peace might not last during the day, with all the stress that can come your way.
You start having negative thoughts, “I can’t believe I have to…” “that person was rude to me” “Today’s gonna be a hard day.” Do you think you should listen to your negative voice, or would it be better to listen to God? You look at those negative thoughts, like they’re a little devil on your shoulder talking to you. And you say to that little devil, “Peace, be still!” And you replace it with a promise of God: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!”
Still, anxiety and fear can creep in. So, you end the day with a thankful thought: where did you see God working today? Or what are you thankful for today?
My challenge for you this week is to lean into God for peace this week. When you have a negative thought, say to it, “Peace, be still!” Replace that negative thought with a promise of peace, like “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!”
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, Happy Advent! Christmas is coming! Let’s not look to the world for what we can only get from God: the peace of God, peace on earth, peace ruling our hearts. We want peace more than we realize. Next week we’ll talk about peace in our relationships with other people, the following week we’ll talk about peace when we’re impatient, and finally we’ll talk about peace when we’re disappointed. We can experience God’s peace every day, when we look not to this world, but to God for the missing peace in our hearts. Amen.
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