Peace in our Hearts

 "Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation."

wait... did I just hear what I think I heard?

the scriptures say, be at peace while waiting???

well, that is easier said than done.

If I think about all the waiting I have done in my life

I can say that much of it has not been the most peaceful.

Anticipatory excitement or anxiety usually get to me quickly.

The theme for the second Sunday of Advent is peace.

The word peace shows up in two different verses in our lectionary scriptures.

Once in the Epistle, 2 Peter 3:14-15a, as we heard

and also in the psalm, number 85, verse 8

"I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, * for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him."

There are so many conflicts going on in the world.

In the news a couple make the headlines in any week,

yet still hundreds of conflicts continue even when not in the news.

I have been praying for those doing the peace work,

the hard work of taking risks and talking to people when they don't know what the outcome will be.

I imagine some of them have been frustrated with the outcomes, though they keep hoping for peace no matter what the circumstances.

When I think about how what peace really means,

I imagine people like the Qatari negotiators in Doha working to bring about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas

and I almost can't even imagine what it is like to be in that situation.

Though, I am guess they probably feel both fulfilled in that a ceasefire happened and crushed that it didn't last longer.

This is how peace in conflict works.

Lots of messy conversations and risks and hoping against the odds.

In any kind of peace negotiation, the people involved have to maintain their own emotions throughout in order to make any headway.

They will have to know peace in their hearts in order to make people happen on the ground.

Jesus is complicated when it comes to the polarized categories of pacifism and war

he never resorted to violence, and he told his disciples to practice and work towards peace

however, he always stood up for the truth, even when that meant violence could be done to him.

Jesus regularly reminded the disciples to find peace within their hearts though

and to spread peace everywhere they went.

Which takes me back to the verse in the second letter of Peter about being found by God in peace.

Part of our work as followers of Jesus is learning how to be at peace with ourselves.

The author of the letter recognizes that waiting for Jesus' second coming

isn't a time for passive waiting and hanging out.

No, it is the time for active waiting.

A time of learning peace.

The people of the land of Israel had been waiting for the Messiah for centuries.

They were waiting, though they weren't always patient

There were rebellions and times of moving away from the promise

We as Christians find ourselves in the same situation much of the time

we are waiting for the second coming of Christ

and we are not always very patient.

While taking a meditation class in college,

we were asked to take every opportunity we were waiting in our lives

as a time to slow down and be peaceful.

It was a hard idea to put into practice.

I took every opportunity I saw as waiting

to think about what it meant to be peaceful in that moment

I would try to stand calmly at the grocery store line, not looking at anything in particular, watching and waiting

I would sit quietly at doctors offices and wait

I would stand at the gas pump and wait as it filled up, not something we do here in NJ, but in every other state I've lived in.

And yes, I had a smart phone. I could have been on my phone.

Instead I stopped and waited.

And what I learned from these moments was that waiting peacefully has nothing to do with what you are holding in your hands or what you are doing or where you are or how late you are already

waiting peacefully has everything to do what was is going on inside of you.

If there is a lot going on inside of you that is not peaceful

it doesn't really matter how much you work on standing or sitting still

there is no peace.

If we are to be found by Jesus waiting peacefully,

then we have a lot of inner work to do!

We are waiting for peace in the world

peace in our own hearts

We are called to be peace-makers and sometimes that means making peace in our own hearts before we can make any peace out in the world

How can we make, teach, proclaim peace

when we are not at peace with ourselves and our identity in God?

The short answer is, we can't.

Coming to terms with who we are right now, who we have been, and the continual striving to be who God is calling us to be

are so important

This leads to peace

there are many ways of going about this kind of internal work

meditation, prayer, therapy, spiritual direction, coaching,

or simply learning how to stand peacefully in line wherever you find yourself in line.

Only once we have established some peace in ourselves

between our hearts, minds, souls and bodies

where all are listened to and loved

then we can start truly creating peace in the world around us.

Then the results are remarkable.

The Psalmist says,

God speaks peace to the people

God speaks in many ways

we can be a part of God speaking peace in the world

only if we know what peace is

and truly know peace in our hearts.