Now I don’t share all that to cause panic or get us more anxious, and I don’t bring up toilet paper to make light of the situation. I share it because we are facing challenging times. The reality of sickness in our community, whether it is the flu, pneumonia, or the potential of the coronavirus, is something we need to take seriously. We need to think about how to minimize the risk of exposure and spreading the disease. Here at the church we don’t want to stop meeting and worshipping God as a community so we have made some changes: no hand shaking, no passing items through the pews, and no helping ourselves to coffee and snacks, we can do this. There may be more changes to come, and the day may come when we won’t be able to gather together, but we can do this.
We have also put together a small group of church leaders that will continue to monitor the situation around us and help us figure out how to continue to meet as a community and keep ministry going. And I hope we will all take seriously the call to stay home if we are sick or have underlying health issues that might cause us to get sick, and above all - please wash your hands! These are things we should be doing all the time. What’s challenging at the moment, for all of us, is to find any sense of peace in the midst of the storm.
And yet… as followers of Jesus, our lives are to be filled with peace. Jesus said to his disciples, Peace I give you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives, so do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid.
Jesus didn’t say this to the world, he said it to his disciples, those who walked with him. Not that God’s peace isn’t available to all, but Jesus specifically wanted those who walked with him and trusted him to experience God’s peace. And I love how Jesus said he didn’t give as the world gives. This means Jesus doesn’t give and then take back. He doesn’t give in part but in full. There is an enduring and abiding peace that we can experience in the midst of this storm.
During this Lenten season we have been talking about who we are when we walk with Jesus. How does our faith shape us? How does being close to Jesus, listening to him, following his example, loving him, and sharing his love with others make us different? If Jesus gives us peace, then we need to be people who don’t panic when things get crazy, get angry when things become chaotic, give up in the face of uncertainty, and give in to hopelessness when things get hard. We are not people of fear but faith, so we need to learn how to be people who walk in, experience, and share God’s peace at all times, but especially at this time and in times like this.
So what is peace? Peace is not the absence of war, which means that peace is not the absence of problems. Peace is knowing that we have strength and hope and power in the midst of the problems. Peace is trusting that God is with us and that God is with us to help us. Peace is looking around at all the uncertainty and knowing that God has a certain plan for us all. It’s looking around and being frustrated and afraid but moving forward because there is a purpose for us in this moment.
When Jesus said he was giving his disciples the gift of peace it wasn’t in a moment of calm, but a moment of uncertainty. Jesus' words came right before he was arrested, beaten, and crucified. Life for the disciples was going to radically change forever. There would be doubt and fear and turmoil. They weren’t going to understand their world for months to come. It was going to get difficult and Jesus knew that, which is exactly why he gave them this gift of peace. This moment was not unknown to God. This moment and many others in history, and many more to come, is exactly why Jesus, peace I give, my peace I give to you.
Peace is still a gift that God gives us and we are able to receive and experience the fullness of tist gift as we walk with Jesus. In fact, the more we walk with him, the more connected we are to him, the more peace we will experience. In Galatians 5:22, Paul says that when we are connected to God and walk with Jesus we will experience the fruit of God’s spirit, which is: love, joy, PEACE, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
So peace is a gift God gives us when we walk with Jesus, and it is a gift we can nurture, pursue, and develop in our lives. And peace is most powerfully developed not when things are calm, but when things are rough, in the midst of a storm, and things have been rough. There’s a storm blowing around us today. A storm of fear, uncertainty, frustration, disappointment, and anger, but we don’t have to be overcome by the storm, in the midst of it all we can find and experience and develop peace.
Today let’s talk about how we can specifically become people who walk in peace. Here are 5 specific things we can do to be people who experience peace and therefore will be able to share it.
P.E.A.C.E.
Pause
Earnestly Pray & Praise
Accept the Day
Connect to Jesus
Enjoy Life & Enter the Church
PAUSE. To experience the gift of peace we first need to pause. Stop. Take a deep breath and please - please - pause the remote. Better yet, turn off the TV. While it is important to get up to date and accurate information so we can make smart decisions and remain healthy, too much information can become overwhelming. When moment by moment we watch the stock market numbers go lower, hear about schools shutting down, games being cancelled, and watch footage of empty shelves in local stores - it makes us anxious. It can feed our fear. Sometimes it makes us laugh, other times we cry, but it doesn’t lead to peace. So please, pause the remote. Turn off the news for a while. Don’t check social media every hour. Pause.
This doesn’t mean we don’t tune in to get accurate information that is important. And it doesn’t mean we don’t read information from websites like the CDC, and the PA Department of Health, we should. But I am going to tell you that most of the information being shared right now about how to prevent the spread of this virus is what our mothers told us.
Wash your hands.
Don’t touch your face or cough into your hands.
Wash Your Hands.
Stay home if you are sick and have ongoing health issues. WASH YOUR HANDS!
Pause and take some time away. Take a walk, go for a drive (gas is $2.00 a gallon!), enjoy the spring weather, play a game with your children or friends. When we pause we get perspective. When we pause we take our eyes off the problems, the storm, and remember that God is with us and that God is with us to help us.
After we pause we need to EARNESTLY pray & praise God. Don’t just pray in the storm, earnestly pray. Earnestly means with sincere and intense conviction. Pray as if we knew God was actually listening. Pray as if our lives depended on it. Pray with intensity for God to speak and guide us and help us. Don’t panic and give into fear - pray and live by faith. Earnest prayer and praise (thanking God for who he is and what he has for us during difficult times) helps center our hearts and minds on the power of God. Earnest prayer reminds us that God is with us. Earnest prayer reminds us of the passion God has for us, that God loves us.
When the disciples were in the midst of a storm, they lacked peace because they didn’t pause and they didn’t earnestly pray, what they did was panic! Mark 4:35-41
When the storm came up, the disciples didn’t pause and look at their situation. They didn’t remember that they had a strong and secure boat that had weathered other storms. They didn’t remember their training as fishermen and how to survive in a storm. They just looked at the storm and panicked. They focused on the furious winds and waves and all the problems they were creating. They didn’t pause and they didn’t earnestly pray, actually they didn’t pray at all. Did you notice that? Jesus is right there with them, the picture of peace napping on a pillow, but they didn’t ask for help, they didn’t turn to him with sincerity or purpose, they just accused him of not caring.
While the disciples didn’t respond in faith, Jesus still gave them peace, which again shows us that peace is a gift. But think of how much better it might have been if the disciples had responded to the storm with faith? If they had said, look, we will be ok, we have been through this before and we can work through this. And this time we actually have Jesus who might be able to help us.
What if they had just paused for a moment to assess their situation and sincerely asked Jesus for help - their experience through the storm would have been so much better. If we will Pause and Earnestly pray - we will experience peace and be able to share that peace with others.
Peace also comes when we Accept the day. We need to accept what is going on today and know that God will see us through. Last week as we were thinking about changes we need to make in worship due to the virus, one of the things we thought about and a few of you mentioned was not passing the offering plates. I’ll be honest, I had a hard time accepting that. The offering as part of worship is important to me - not because of the money but because the offering is the most ancient part of worship. Before anyone sang, prayed, read scripture, or listened to a sermon, people gave an offering to God. It is the most ancient part of worship and so I pushed back on that a bit, until Amy Laubscher, a NP, said we should probably not be doing that right now. I heard her wisdom, listened to her guidance, and accepted that this is where we are right now. I accepted the day – and I began to experience peace.
Accepting the day doesn’t mean we ignore or minimize what we are going through, it means we do everything we can do, and work as hard as we can, and then release the rest. It is my goal that we work as hard as we can to keep our Sunday morning ministry going even if it means more work. For example, hospitality is big part of who we are, so providing coffee and cookies is important. You may not get coffee here, you may not get a cookie, but for some people this is important. This time of fellowship is one of the few times during the week that some people get to see and talk to friends. And kids run in each week with immense joy and head straight to the cookie tray where they are told they can have one.
When my Dad was an Army Chaplain and preached on Sundays, I remember that if I was good during worship, I got a piece of cake. It was a white cake with white icing and coconut. Being good meant not fidgeting during the sermon (no children’s church in those days and my dad was the preacher). I wanted that cake! I am cake motivated! That food was important and because of that cake I remember the joy of going to worship.
There will be kids who will remember the cookies. Every week I see the joy of children coming to church and getting a cookie. Every week I see the 60+ year friendship being nurtured over coffee. Coffee and cookies are important so we aren’t going to do away them, we are going to find a way to make it happen. We will accept that things have to change, but we will work hard to keep the mission, ministry, and love going. If we can accept what is going on and release what we can’t change - we will experience peace.
Peace also comes when we Connect with Jesus. Once the disciples connected with Jesus, once they woke him up and told him they were in need, they began to experience peace. God says that he will keep us in perfect peace when our minds are steadfast and fixed on him. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, our hearts tuned to Jesus, our hands reaching out to Jesus, and our faith trusting in Jesus, will keep us from being afraid. Being connected to Jesus brings peace.
During these uncertain times, we need to remain steadfast in our devotions. Keep reading God’s word. Keep reading a chapter of the gospels every day. Our small groups won’t be meeting but we can email insights to one another to help one another keep our eyes on Jesus. Together let’s look at how Jesus helped people overcome obstacles, problems and storms. Jesus healed the sick. He restored sight to the blind. He fed the hungry. He forgave and loved the sinners. He welcomed the stranger. He offered peace to people in countless situations and as we stay connected to Jesus we stay connected to that source of peace. You have probably seen the saying: NO Jesus - No Peace / KNOW Jesus - KNOW Peace
It’s true. When we know Jesus, when we are in a relationship with him, connected to him, we know peace because he has given us this peace as a gift. So stay connected to Jesus.
And the last thing that can help us experience peace is to Enjoy Life and Enter the Church. Enjoy the day. Yes, things are pretty uncertain right now. Lots of things are gone and even some of the things that we enjoy in life, like wrestling, basketball, and bell choir festivals are cancelled, but many things are still right here. Enjoy life. Play games with your kids and grand kids. Go for a walk. Watch a movie. Read a book. Do some spring cleaning (ok maybe that is not fun for you). Do something fun. Enjoy life.
And then Enter the church. I don’t mean the building. I don’t mean come and gather for worship, I mean go out and be the church in the world. Share life and joy and peace with others. We will experience more peace if we find ways to share God’s peace with others.
As you may know, the nursing and personal care homes are shut off from visitors indefinitely. So let’s go be the church - we can’t visit but we can send a card, so send a card to everyone in the nursing homes. Make a phone call to those who are at home and won't be seeing people for a while. If you know someone is sick, don’t ignore them, offer to help them. You may not be able to go into their home but you could run an errand for them. And if you know someone who is out of toilet paper - offer them a roll. If you know someone who is sick and needs hand sanitizer and they can’t buy any right now - give them yours. That’s what Jesus would do, it’s what he calls us to do, and it is who we are when we walk with Jesus.
Who are we when we walk with Jesus? We aren’t people who panic but who live in peace. Pause, Earnestly pray, accept the day, connect to Jesus, and enjoy life. And let us enter the church, let us be the church in an uncertain and fearful world. And let us offer one another and all those around us God’s gift of peace.
Next Steps
The Walk - PEACE
Reflection
● Where in your life do you need to experience peace?
● What are the causes of your fear? Doubt? Anxiety?
● What is it about the situation with COVID-19 that has you most stressed and concerned?
● Identify past experiences where you felt peace in the midst of the storm. What helped you find that peace?
Read
● John 14:25-27
● Mark 4:35-41
● Isaiah 26:1-6
● Galatians 5:22-25
What do we learn about peace from these passages?
What examples can you think of where Jesus experienced peace in the midst of the storm?
Respond:
In the midst of our current health crisis, economic concerns, heightened anxiety, and daily uncertainty - find specific ways to walk in P.E.A.C.E.
● Pause - Take time away from news, social media, and the constant flow of information to breathe and rest.
● Earnestly Pray & Praise – Each day find two things to pray for and two things to give thanks for. Sincerely lift these to God in prayer.
● Accept the Day –More change will take place. Do all you can and release the rest. Who can help you accept the difficult changes?
● Connect to Jesus – Read a chapter of the gospels every day. Turn to Jesus for help and strength.
● Enjoy Life & Enter the Church – Do something fun this week for yourself and your family. Share God’s love and joy with others in need – be the church!
