The Lutheran Hour
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"The Perfect Peace"
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Text: Philippians 4:7
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The resurrection proclamation tells to the world that Jesus’ substitution for sinners has been successful; that death has been defeated. Today, by God’s grace, all who believe on the risen Savior are given the peace of God which transcends all understanding. Forgiven sinners have the peace of God which guards our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.
Today, as you may have guessed, we are talking about the peace of God. Having said that, I can almost hear the groans. I know the subject of peace is just about as boring and bland as cold oatmeal. Not many of you have been hanging around the library waiting for the latest book on peace to be placed on the shelf. It’s not the kind of hot topic that is going to appear on the front page of the Enquirer. Can you imagine the headlines: “Everything is OK.” Who’s going to buy it; who’s going to read it?
Well, we are going to talk about the peace of God that transcends all understanding, but let me try approaching the topic from a different perspective. Let’s begin with a story… a very old story which takes place in the city of Constantinople, which today is known as Istanbul. According to this ancient tale, a man was driving his cart to the city when an old woman asked him for a ride. Wanting some company, the man agreed and sat her down beside him. As they traveled, he managed to get a closer look at her… and found himself becoming uneasy. He didn’t know what was wrong, but something made him feel quite uncomfortable. He summoned up the courage to ask: “Just who are you?” The old lady replied, “I am cholera.” You don’t need to know all the symptoms of cholera… let me just say it’s a terrible disease that you don’t want to get. Understandably, the man ordered her off his cart. Also, understandably, he did so very politely. You do not want to get cholera angry at you. The lady objected, promising that if he allowed her to ride with him she would kill no more than five people in the city.
To show him that she was serious in her promise, she gave him a dagger, the only weapon which could kill her. Explaining, she said, “Meet me in two days. If I break my word, you may murder me.” They reached Constantinople and 120 people died in the next two days. Outraged, the man went looking for the disease disguised as an old lady. He had every intention of killing her. Indeed, when he found her, without a second thought he raised the dagger. That’s when she saw him and said, “Wait. I have kept my word. I have killed only five people in the city. All the others died of fear, worry, and hopelessness.”
Fear, worry, and hopelessness. In this sinful world those are the things that rob us of God’s powerful peace. Even as I am certain that most of you will live your entire lives without ever saying, “I sure would like some peace.” I am equally sure that most of you are beset by fear, worry, and hopelessness. These three are part of the human condition. From birth until death, fear is with us. It changes its face; it comes in different situations and circumstances, but it is always there, an unwanted, uninvited, unwelcomed, undesirable companion.
And worry… ahhhh, worry. Over the years I’ve heard many people say, “I’ve got enough to worry about without…” and there they fill in the blank with whatever concern happens to be waiting in the wings. Never once have I heard somebody say, “My life is so solid, so successful, so perfectly complete… I just wish I had something to worry about. I sure would like to worry about bills. I sure wish I had a few more aches and pains to make my day more interesting.” Nobody asks the Internal Revenue Service to audit them. Nobody prays for a flat tire, or someone to steal their credit cards. Nobody ever says anything like that. We don’t say it; we can’t say it, because we all have worries aplenty.
And then, of course, there is hopelessness. You may be an optimist, but that still doesn’t keep the wolves of hopelessness from your door. You can plan, you can provide; you can put into place policies for every possibility, but still, you know that somehow, someway, life is going to throw you a curve that will knock down every prop that you have set up. Around 500 B.C., there was an Italian town called Sybaris. Sybaris had a contingent of cavalry, which was so proficient, so perfect, so powerful that everyone in the entire town knew they were secure. No expense was spared in making sure that cavalry, their first and best line of defense, was always at a high state of readiness. So well trained were the horses of the mounted contingent that they could actually dance, when music was played. I guess you would call it prancing in place.
I mean to tell you the people of Sybaris popped their buttons when those horses came prancing down the street on special holidays. They had every hope in the world that everything would continue on the way it was. There was only one problem. The enemies of the city also knew about the horses that danced in placed. When Sybaris went to war against the army of Croton, a city about 60 miles to the south, the people of Croton started to play some pretty loud music… music that started the horses to dancing in place. And the people of Sybaris… well, their army was defeated, some of the people were killed and others were sold into slavery. Hopelessness comes when we realize the best we can do to keep ourselves safe is not going to do the job. Which is why, at least for most, of us peace seems to be something that is confined to stories that begin, “once upon a time.” Peace is something that can only be found in a land far away across some mystical sea.
Peace is something that somebody else has, isn’t it. You look around, and see this rich family living in a nice house, driving nice cars, owning nice everything. You think to yourself, they’ve got it made. And they may have it made financially… but talk to them. Ask them, “Do you have peace?” and they’ll say, “No. We’ve got money, but our health hasn’t been the best,” or “our marriage is having some trouble,” or… well, they’ll say any number of things. Left to ourselves, I don’t think anybody can make a claim to true and lasting peace of heart, soul, and mind.
And that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? When we’re left to ourselves, when we’re all on our own, we fail at finding peace. You may brush your teeth after every meal, not go swimming until an hour after you’ve eaten; you may have whole and term life insurance, car insurance, flood insurance, theft insurance and insurance on your valuables; you may see the doctor and dentist twice a year, keep yourself fit by working out for a minimum of 1/2 hour four times a week; you may monitor your cholesterol, your blood sugar, and watch your weight; you may change the oil in your car every 2,000 miles, get eight hours of sleep every night, avoid hydrogenated oils in your diet and eat four portions of vegetables and fruits every day.
You may have gone to the community college and monitored every self-help class they offer. You may know the six signs of a heart attack, and be able to identify, by shape, every road sign that can be put up. You may not jaywalk; go through yellow lights, or speak badly of others. Still, deep down you know that even though you have taken every precaution, even though you have made plans for every contingency, you know, and it gnaws at you, something is going to happen. You will be out jogging and somebody who has had too many drinks will plow you down. You may be feeling fit as a fiddle and then you get a warning sign that says you are having a heart attack… and that warning sign is… your heart stops beating. You may be doing a fine job at work and somebody who thinks he was fired unfairly five years ago will come in with guns blazing. You may be driving home and someone will get road rage; you may be riding a bus and some religious fanatic will show up wrapped in a dynamite overcoat. That’s life, isn’t it? It may not be fair, but that’s the way things are.
And that’s a really pessimistic position for a preacher, isn’t it? It is. I know it. The truth is: in life bad things, peace-robbing, sleep-stealing things happen to good people, and bad people, and the vast majority of the people in between. We can pretend that these things aren’t real; we can pretend that they will, if left to themselves, go away; we can sing, “Que sera, sera,” whatever will be, will be. But that just isn’t much comfort, is it? Rather than worrying about my problems in my brain, I will create acid about my difficulties my stomach. High blood pressure will be traded in for an ulcer, or maybe I’ll just keep them both. I don’t think that last thought has made me any less pessimistic, or fatalistic, has it?
It seems that I’ve painted myself into a corner, and I don’t know how to get out. Indeed, most of humanity has painted itself into a corner and doesn’t know how to escape. If we had the power; if we had the wisdom; if we had the hindsight, insight, foresight, we would have escaped centuries ago. We would have made ourselves a utopia of perfect peace. But we sinners, on our own, have none of those qualities, and our world remains one filled with fear, worry, and hopelessness.
So, is there an answer? There is. No, it’s not in worrying more. We’ve already decided that. Like the Bible says, you can’t by worrying, add one hair onto your head, or minute to your life. Science agrees. In fact, science would take that idea one step further. Science would say, by worrying you shorten your life, and make your hair fall out faster. So what’s the answer? There is one, isn’t there? Well, in truth, you don’t have to be a charter member of the psychic hotline to know that I believe there is. After all, there would have been no point in bringing you down this path if there wasn’t hope, if peace wasn’t a possibility.
No, that’s wrong. Peace isn’t a possibility; it isn’t a probability. Peace can be a reality. I’ve brought you down this path, partly because everybody likes to talk about their peace-robbing problems. From the toddler who says, “Mommy, look at my boo-boo!” to the senior who thinks, “I can’t remember stuff any more.” The lack of peace is almost universal. Although I appreciate a beautiful sunset and the first steps of a toddler as much as the next man, I also know, just like you know, that this world is one filled with sadness and sorrow, tears and terrors.
And because the world is this kind of place, we need God. Which is where some of you, who have been blaming God for all that’s bad in this world, rear back and say, “Wait a minute there, preacher. If you’re talking about a God who can give us peace, why doesn’t He take away the problems that steal our peace?” Good question. Here’s your answer. God wants you to have peace. He always has wanted you to have peace. When He created this world, it was perfect. When He made our first ancestors, peace was everywhere. There were no pains or problems, no doctors saying, “I’ve got bad news.” There was no pollution, no endangered species, no drug problem, alcoholism, or addictions. It was all, as He said it, “very good.” And when God says something is very good, you can be sure it is.
But we, and by the word “we” I mean humanity, didn’t want God’s perfect world. We thought we could come up with something better. We threw off God’s goodness, cast away His peace, and tried to go it on our own. What you see in the newspapers, what your see on TV, the ache you’ve got in your gut, the tension in your neck, the hurts and horrors that are all around you; they are all ripples in the pond of humankind’s disobedience. God didn’t want it. Not then; not now. You see, God loved His disobedient children, far more than they loved Him. He provided a way for them to get back His perfect and powerful peace. A partial peace in this world, a perfect peace in the next.
God’s perfect peace is there, has come to us in the birth, life, suffering, sacrifice, and resurrection of His Son. God said that He was not going to be a God that watched our suffering and enjoyed our pain from afar. He sent His Son to be one of us. What’s that? I’m sorry, did you say I haven’t answered your question… the one about “Why doesn’t God wipe away these problems?” Oh, I’m sorry. It is an easy answer. God doesn’t do that because He can’t do that. You see, God, along with being our Creator, is also our Judge. Judges cannot set aside the laws that are made, and God can’t do that either. When the world was created the law was laid down… “If you disobey, you will end up dying.” There is no way around that law. Somebody had to die. God found Himself between, what we might consider to be a rock and a hard place. He loved us and wanted to give us peace, and He had to punish us, or somebody, for our disobedience.
Well, in His unbelievable love… God did something we would not. God punished His Son for our sins. That’s right. God’s innocent Son was punished for His guilty children. The Perfect for the imperfect. Jesus became one of us and lived as one of us. Are you poor? He was poor, relying on the charity of others, not having a home to call His own. Do you feel alone? Jesus was alone. His best friends left Him, one of them betrayed Him, another denied knowing Him. Do you feel life has been unfair? Jesus understands. He never did anything wrong, but He carried the sins of all of us. He never made a mistake, and even though His judge was convinced of His innocence, he still allowed Jesus to be condemned to death. Have you suffered physically? Look at Jesus who was beaten, who was whipped, who was crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross to die. Yes, Jesus understands all of the things that rob you of peace. He understands, because He suffered those things Himself. He took your place. He died your death so that you might, once again, with Spirit-given faith in Him, be given God’s gift of a powerful peace.
To which I hear you say, “I know some Christians and they don’t seem to have this perfect peace. Some of them seem pretty miserable.” To which I reply, “Of course they do.” Look, Christians still have problems and pains. Because they believe in Jesus doesn’t make them suddenly immune to the nastiness of this world. But Christians have something that that other people do not have. They have the knowledge that they are not alone in their sufferings. They know Jesus who lived and died to take away their sins. They know the Savior who rose again from the dead to show them that nothing, not even death, can permanently hurt them. They know the Savior who helps them with the crosses of life that are laid upon them. The more they come to trust the Savior the more they believe in Him; that He will help them, that He will uphold them, that He will bring light to the unknown darkness that is ahead of them, the greater is the peace they are given.
And there is one more thing. Christians also know that the partial peace they are given in this world, will become God’s perfect peace in the next. Because of Jesus, who has forgiven their sins, paid the price that their disobedience demanded, they know they will, after they die, be given a new life, a perfect life, an eternal life where worry has no place. Worry. Did you know that word comes from an Old English word which means “to choke or strangle.” Well, Christians know that Jesus has broken the stranglehold of sin, death, and Satan. And that faith gives them peace. How did Saint Paul say it in the fourth chapter of Philippians: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Christians have God’s powerful peace now; His perfect peace in paradise. It’s God’s gift He wishes to share with you today. If you would like to know more about this gift, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for January 29, 2006
GUEST: DR. PAUL MAIERANNOUNCER: We’re talking with Dr. Paul Maier concerning recent archaeological discoveries in the Holy Land. Dr. Maier, in Megiddo the Israelis were getting ready to build a new prison and as they began the excavation work, they uncovered a mosaic tile floor and many believe that this represents one of the earliest Christian churches ever to be found in the Holy Land. Did I describe that correctly?
MAIER: Yes, you did. Now, at first when I heard about the ancient Christian church discovered, I wasn’t all that excited because there are a lot of early church finds in the Holy Land. But what’s interesting to me is that this one goes back a century even earlier than the Byzantine churches. In fact, two centuries earlier than the Byzantine churches that you find up and down Palestine, or the Holy Land, or Israel. In this case, this seems to date from the 200s A.D. or the third century, which is at a time when the Christian church was under heavy persecution. And so it’s amazing that on this mosaic floor there is a legend that says this: “In honor of Jesus Christ, the God.” And so, there it is in stone, you know, for any policeman coming by to notice that. So it was quite a heroic thing if it comes that early. And, furthermore, the fascinating thing is that that mosaic floor and/or the entire church meeting house was the gift of a Roman Gentile — Christian, evidently — or somebody interested in the faith which immediately forms, I think, a delightful parallel to the Galilean Gospel story of the centurion of Capernaum. You recall this was the case where Jesus was able to cure his servant at long-distance because He was so challenged by, indeed, the centurion of Capernaum. And the Jewish people who brought him along said, “Lord, please do this, because he has given money to build our synagogue.” So there you have kind of the second or the previous occasion when a Gentile provided something for God’s people.
ANNOUNCER: Let’s get back to that one inscription that was found talking about dedicating this building to the memory of the God, Jesus Christ. I’m recalling our last discussion we had regarding Dan Brown’s “DaVinci Code.” How does this put a different perspective on the claims that he makes?
MAIER: Well, this is 100 -150 years before Constantine supposedly edited the Bible — another falsehood among the many, many falsehoods in the second half of the book The DaVinci Code. And so it shows that certainly Jesus’ deity was not decided at the Council of Nicea, 325 A.D., but for goodness sake, we find it in the New Testament Gospels, we find it in the writings of the earliest church fathers, and then we find it in stone right here at Megiddo.
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Maier, it was noted that the only Christian symbol present on this floor was the icthus, the Christian fish symbol, rather than the cross. Is that significant?
MAIER: Well, there is no question but that the sign of the fish was one of the earliest Christian symbols. I would, however, hesitate at this point because the thing has not been completely excavated at all at Megiddo. Only 10% has been excavated. So, we may find the cross there as well. I think scholars sometimes make a mistake in saying the fish was the earliest Christian symbol and the cross wasn’t. Well, no, we have proof that the cross was there early on also by a discovery made at Herculaneum, you know, which was inundated by Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 A.D. And the second floor of a house near the downtown square you find in the wall the image of a cross that was originally metal and was taken out of its matrix. And so, the cross was there as of already 79 A.D.
ANNOUNCER: Join us next week for more of our discussion with Dr. Paul Maier concerning recent archaeological discoveries. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“You Will Keep in Perfect Peace” by Kenneth Kosche. From Behold the Lamb of God by the Jubilate Choir (© 2002 Immanuel Lutheran Church) Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“In dir ist Freude” by J.S. Bach. From Orgelbüchlein & More Works by J.S. Bach by Robert Clark and John David Peterson. (© 1997 Calcante Recordings, Ltd.)
“Toccata from Suite in C for Organ” by Charles Callahan. From Love Divine, All Loves Excelling by Charles Callahan (© 1993 Concordia Publishing House)