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Sermon peview for SUNDAY May 16,
2004
PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!
May 16, 2004
Acts 15:1-2,22-29; Psalms 67:2-3,5-6,8; Revelations 21:10-14,22-23;
John 14:23-29
"A peace the world cannot give, this is My gift to you"
(John 14:27).
A wife had provided a tombstone
for her husband's grave. On it she had inscribed two sentences:
"Rest In Peace" ... "Until We Meet Again."
Individually, those are two good statements, but together they
don't come out quite right. That's the problem with our using
the word "peace" in the limited sense that we do so
often. We say "peace," meaning "the cessation
of hostilities" (until we meet again, perhaps).
In Scripture, the word for the
peace of Christ is "shalom." The peace of Christ is
not just the absence of discord. It is the presence of harmony
and wholeness. This is what Jesus means when He comes into the
midst of the disciples, saying, "Peace be with you."
Jesus is not just resolving the disharmony in their lives.
He is bringing them the gift of wholeness of life. Deep inside,
we crave to become the full and complete person God created us
to be. Deep inside, we want shalom!
The world is filled with noise
and confusion and uncertainty. It's about time we took a break
from all the turmoil and trouble. It's about time we took a
break for a little peace and quiet. Better still, it's about
time we took a break from it all in order to enrich our lives
with the gift of peace being offered to us by the Lord Jesus
Christ -- the peace the world cannot give.
In today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus
says to His disciples,
" ... the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in My Name, will teach you everything, and
remind you of all I have said to you. Peace, I bequeath to you,
My own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give. This
is My gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid"
(Jn. 14:26-27).
In the Book of Acts, Luke reveals
how wonderfully well Jesus has prepared the disciples to receive
peace of soul and the inner-power to carry out their Christian
ministry to the world:
"They sold their goods and
possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according
to what each one needed ... They shared their food gladly and
generously. They praised God and were looked up to by everyone"
(Acts 2:45-47).
The blessed peace of the Risen
Christ and the Gift of the Holy Spirit of God, having permeated
their souls, they lived accordingly.
It takes more than an external
show of piety or a robotic "I believe" to reveal the
true Presence of the Holy Spirit of God within us. There is
a necessary ingredient called "commitment."
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to
reinforce, strengthen and enlighten our commitment to His ministry
and to His way of life.
"You are the salt of the
earth," Jesus says to His true disciples. The true followers
of Jesus are commissioned to enliven the human condition with
a certain flavor. That is the Christian commitment. But when
the commitment is weak, Christians are no longer different.
When the blessed inner-peace of the Risen Christ is missing in
their lives, the salt loses its flavor.
The Apostle Paul has written,
"Far from relying on any
power of my own, I came among you in great 'fear and trembling'
and, in my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none
of the arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration
of the Power of the Spirit" (I Cor. 2:3-4).
It is not enough for us Christians
to say . . .
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