I’ve Got the Peace That Passeth Understanding . . .

I am fine, in good health. I need to tell you that so you can hear the story about how I found out I was in good health because I’m afraid that if I don’t tell you in advance that everything turned out fine, you won’t hear the story I am about to tell you because you’ll be worried about the outcome. So, just to reiterate, I am fine, better than I was before, actually.

But, there was a time during my sabbatical in October that I was not doing well. I was having difficulty swallowing. I figured it was allergies and just tried to ignore the problem. But then one afternoon the problem became un-ignorable when I was home alone with Nathan eating grapes. Something became lodged in my throat. I could still breathe, but not well, probably because of the panic I felt when the food just wouldn’t “go down.” It was worse than any other not-being-able-to-swallow episode I had had. I contemplated calling 911 but that seemed drastic. So I called Jesse’s office because you know, a chiropractor who is 22 miles away can do a lot to help you when you have something caught in your throat. The line was busy. I started jumping up and down, fighting the light-headedness, just trying to get those grapes out of my throat. Finally they went down, I could take a deep breath, and as soon as I did, I called my doctor. I was in her office the next day. She said she would send me for a throat scope to rule out something serious like polyps. By the time I got home that afternoon, I had a list of pulpit supply in my head to get you through until the polyps could be removed. Later that day I received a phone call from the throat-scoping place saying they had an order marked URGENT from my doctor and could I be there by 7 AM the day after what was then tomorrow. Well, by the time it was 7 AM the day after what was then tomorrow, I had my entire funeral planned because it was obvious I must have something fatal going on in my throat and I was scared.

The fear I felt made me a terrible person to be around. I was quiet, sullen, and very angry. Poor Jesse, I hardly spoke to him. Even though he tried to help, he must have felt he couldn’t do anything right in my eyes because indeed, nothing felt right for me in those few anxious days. Now I know my experience can’t begin to compare to some of the things some of you in this congregation have been through and I don’t pretend it does. But in those moments, the fear and anxiety consumed me. I could find no peace. It wasn’t until after the procedure when we learned that the problem was minimal and had been fixed and that none of the cells biopsied were malignant, that I began to relax and understand the impact the fear had on me. In the face of irrational fear I had lost a sense of reality, was regularly engaging in inflated thinking–i.e. planning my funeral–and had begun behaving in ways that are antithetical to how I want to be in this life.

And so it is that this year, this theme of peace takes on a new meaning for me this second Sunday of Advent. So often when I, or perhaps you, think of peace, we think of some global entity outside of ourselves. We wonder how we can work for world peace. And so maybe we write letters to government officials, or pray for world peace, or attend a protest. Those can be helpful ways to be a peace maker. But what my terrible behavior in the waiting room of Digestive Associates of Northern Michigan and the two days leading up to that appointment taught me is that without a sense of peace within ourselves, it’s very difficult to contribute to making peace in the world around us.

But how? How can we feel at peace? How can we feel at peace when we’re facing a health crisis? How can we feel at peace in the midst of grieving? How can we feel at peace when most of what we hear on the news is about division, violence, and crisis? When everything around us feels like it’s headed for disaster, how can we know peace?

I’m guessing the people living in ancient Palestine in the time of Jesus had similar anxieties. They lived in a violent culture, had a government ruled by Roman occupying forces, and many were subjected to the unjust practices of corrupt religious authorities. If you’re feeling distraught about the state of the world today, know you’re not alone and, just as importantly, know that we’re not the first to feel this way. Indeed, the earliest Christians, those who tried to follow in the ways of the Prince of Peace, had plenty of reasons to be fearful, they were the subject of persecution, hunted down like prey. Sometimes a price was put on their heads. They had good reason to fear. And what does the Apostle Paul write to them in the midst of their struggle?

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 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.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4:4-19)

Even in the midst of the chaos, Paul assures them that peace can be their’s when they turn their focus to what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. And the same is true for us. It reminds me of an old joke. A patient comes to a medical appointment and says, “Hey doc, it hurts when I raise my arm.” And the doctor replies, “Then don’t raise your arm.” If our focus is on what is wrong, we’re going to feel all wrong. If our focus is on what we fear, then we’re going to feel afraid. Now just as a person doesn’t just stop raising an arm because it hurts, we can’t totally insulate ourselves from what is wrong and scary in the world, to do so would be irresponsible. BUT, what we can do is to adjust the focus of our lens. You know those pictures where the subject is in perfect focus but the photographer has managed to make the background images slightly blurred so as to help the eye focus on the subject? The same is true for the lens through which we look at the world around us. If we focus on what is wrong, if we listen to the news 24/7, if the first thing we do in the day is read the paper instead of praying to God, if our dinner conversation at night is one in which we rehash what went wrong, if we go to bed worrying about tomorrow instead of giving thanks that we just survived another day, well, that kind of focus is not going to lend itself to us feeling any kind of inner peace and it’s certainly not going to help us to bring the light of peace into the shadowy places of fear and unknowing in our world.

This is an excellent time of year to adjust the focus of our lens on life from that which is to be feared to that which brings us peace. The stories of Advent and Christmas are full of messages of not being afraid . . . The FIRST thing the angel Gabriel says to Mary when he comes to tell her that she will bear is son is “Don’t be afraid, Mary.” The FIRST thing the angel charged with explaining the situation to Joseph said was “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid.” The FIRST thing the angels who delivered the news of the birth of the Christ child said to the shepherds was “Do not be afraid.” Indeed, as I have said before, and I’m guessing I will say again, within the pages of our holy scripture we are told “Do not be afraid” no less than three-hundred-sixty-five times. That’s once for every day of the year except for leap years and isn’t every February 29^th just a little bit scary because, well, it’s leap day. But the rest of the time, God is telling us through the holy words of scripture to not be afraid.

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of which to be afraid, there is. Of course there is. But, the idea here is that none of that, NONE of that, is bigger than God. None of that is larger than the miracle of Emmanuel-God with us-God with US-right here and right now and for always. There are the scary truths we deal with on a daily basis, that’s just a reality of life, and then there is this larger cosmic truth about God’s love and light that are at work even now and will, when all is said and done in our earthly lives, God’s love and light will be the only reality we have left. When we keep that truth as our central focus and allow the scary and corrupt things to blur a little bit in the background, we will have more peace.

And so when we talk about the peace that passes understanding, that’s what we’re talking about. When we hang these little “Everything is going to be okay” papers on our bathroom mirrors, that’s what we’re talking about. We don’t begin to think that nothing is ever going to go wrong or be awful but rather, as children of God, we can have peace always and everywhere, that peace that passes understanding, because we KNOW there is something greater than our fear, something greater than any and all of what we read in the paper and hear on the news. The Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, is God with us. God with us . . . in the waiting room of Digestive Health Associates of Northern Michigan, God with us when we wake up in the morning and when we go to bed at night, God with us as we walk into Hospice House, God with us when it feels like no one else is, God with us when the diagnosis is good and when it isn’t, God with us when the checkbook balance is in the red, God with us . . . always and everywhere. Ergo, the peace that passes understanding is ours. Thanks be to God.