SPECIAL DAYS: Transfiguration Sunday

February 10, 2002 - Lesson: Matthew 5.1-2, 9

Sermon Title: War and Peace

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INTRODUCTION:

Richard Cardinal Cushing writes about the kind of people who could start a revolution if only they would return God's call:

If all the sleeping folks will wake up,
and all the lukewarm folks will fire up,
and all the dishonest folks will confess up,
and all the disgruntled folks will sweeten up,
and all the discouraged folks will cheer up,
and all the depressed folks will look up,
and all the estranged folks will make up,
and all the gossipers will shut up,
and all the dry bones will shake up,
and all the true soldiers will stand up,
and all the church members will pray up -
and the Savior for all is lifted up -
then...
You can have the world's greatest renewal.

  1. You could also have world peace.
  2. What a challenge this is.
  3. We are called to be peacemakers.

MAIN BODY:

  1. To be a peacemaker means that you have to be at peace with yourself.
    1. We are so often at war with ourselves.
      1. The reason we are at war with ourselves is because:
        1. We are untrained.
        2. We are unrestrained.
        3. We are untamed.
      2. This may appear to be a bland and uninviting.

A couple was in marriage counseling.

Every time they met with the counselor, they were loud, yelling at one another, throwing accusations like snowflakes in a winter storm.

The counselor sought to get them to work on the need for a calm and measured response to one another and the problems that had been revealed.

The couple walked out of the counselor's office in a huff. They complained that he was attempting to take the passion out of their relationship.

    1. Passion has a place, but unrestrained passion is dangerous.

I have what I call my Junior Gladwell Syndrome.

Junior and I fought at two different schools in two different states.

The fighting was the result of uncontrolled passion.

When I begin to get angry with a situation, I try and remember Junior Gladwell.

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  1. The question now becomes how can we maintain the passion and at the same time become trained, restrained, and tamed?
    1. The first part of our answer us to contemplate the Prince of Peace.
      1. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the way of peace and the provider of peace.
        1. It was prophesied about him.

I6For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NRSVA)

        1. He was declared to be the bearer of peace by angels.

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

        1. He offers peace to those who will accept it.

33I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!" John 16:33 (NRSVA)

27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. John 14:27 (NRSVA)

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      1. To contemplate is to concentrate on him and not on the other faulty and non-productive alternatives.

I recently read that

"One of the reasons why our souls are on ice rather than on fire, one of the reasons why we were born in the image of God but become progressively something less, something smaller, something narrower, is we pattern ourselves after other images."

John Maxwell, quoted in Men of Integrity says:

I heard a silversmith talk about refining silver. He said, I must sit with my eyes steadily fixed on the furnace; for if the time necessary for refining be exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured. I never take my eye off the silver in the furnace. If I take it out too early, it won't be purified. If I leave it in too late, it will be injured. When the silver is in the fire, I focus. I don't let anything distract me. I watch that silver, carefully waiting for the right moment to take it out.

When is the right moment? He asked.

He said, I know the silver is pure when I can see my face reflected there. (1)

      1. This is the encouragement that Paul is offering

18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NRSVA)

        1. To be changed is not instant.
        2. It is progressive from one degree of glory to another.
        3. Glory can be understood as:

The glorious moral attributes, the infinite perfections of God (Isa. 40:5; Acts 7:2; Rom. 1:23; 9:23; Eph. 1:12). Jesus is the "brightness of the Father's glory" (Heb. 1:3; John 1:14; 2:11).

    1. So we have to stay close to the source of the power for change.
    2. Distance creates myopia and unhealthy substitutions

A man was hired to paint lines on a newly resurfaced portion of interstate highway. The first day he painted 109 miles, and his supervisor, impressed by such an effort, told him he would recommend a promotion and raise in pay if he kept up that pace.

But the next day he was able to paint only five miles.

On the following day he did only one mile and when he reported in at quitting time he was fired.

It isn't my fault, he muttered as he walked away shaking his head. I kept getting farther away from the can. (2)

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  1. It is not only the becoming but the application of peacemaking that is vital not only to our own health, but to the health of our relationships and communities.
    1. Contemplate what might happen if there were peace in a marriage.

I heard Dr. James Dobson speaking on this very point about his own marriage to his wife, Shirley.

He said the reason why his marriage survived and thrived was because she did not criticize him, nag him, scold him, or put him down.

He admitted that he did not bring the exact same qualities to his marriage.

She helped him to be transformed by doing what she did.

    1. Contemplate what might happen if there were peace in a community

Hal Brady, Dallas, Texas, in "Making Order out of Chaos." relates a troy of peacemaking by the late Dr. Wallace Hamilton, novelist and playwright, who liked to tell of an Indian sheep farmer who had a big problem.

His neighbor's dogs were killing his sheep. It got so bad, he had to do something.

So he examined his options. First, he could have brought a lawsuit and taken his neighbor to court. Second, he could have built stronger fences so the dogs couldn't get in.

But he had a better idea. He gave some lambs to his neighbor's children. When these lambs began to multiply and their little flocks began to develop, the neighbor tied up the dogs and his problems were over.

As someone has said: "It is hard to contemplate the cross of Christ when the adrenalin is flowing, the pulse throbbing, the blood surging, the ears ringing with the jarring sounds of home and work.

The American Quaker, John Greenleaf Whittier, complained of a similar problem a century ago when he penned a poem, containing the following lines.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee,
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.

CONCLUSION:

  1. What is the reward of Peacemaking?
    1. To be called children of God.
    2. In the words of popular commercial, "That say's it all."
    3. I cannot think or dream of anything better than that.

1. John Maxwell, quoted in Men of Integrity, March-April 2000, www.christianitytoday.com

2. (We are indebted to J. Walter Cross of Bradenton, Florida, for this story).

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