SERMON PREACHED BY

THE REV. PAUL MULLEN

AT

SCARBORO UNITED CHURCH, CALGARY

DECEMBER 9, 2007

    “Living The Holy Tension of Peace”

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Minister:I didn’t put the reading from Romans into the bulletin this morning, but I do want you to hear it. Listen to these words from Romans 15: 4-13, reading from the New Revised Standard Version:

(Minister (begins to read):

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”

John the Baptist (enters, facing congregation, interrupts, saying loudly): “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Minister (reading on, ignoring him):

“May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

John the Baptist (interrupts again, almost shouting): “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.”

Minister (to self):   “Okay. Take a deep breath, continue.“

(Reading): “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God...”

John the Baptist (still speaking to congregation): “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.“

Minister (to self):   “Who let this guy in? Especially on the Second Sunday of Advent! “

(Reading on, now eying him nervously): “…For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, ‘Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name;…”

John the Baptist (looking at Minister): “Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I  tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. (John paces back and forth nervously.)

Minister (resumes reading, more loudly, with false cheer and courage, looking around): and again he says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people"; and again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him"; and again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.”

John the Baptist: “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Minister: (Looking around the sanctuary.)

To self:   “I wish somebody would get this guy out of here.”   (continue reading) “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, … “.

John the Baptist: "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Exit John the Baptist

Minister (reading with resignation): “…so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

(He looks at door where John the Baptist has exited ,and then looks at congregation):  Now you know what it’s like to sit down with those two passages and try to write a sermon!

(Thanks to Christina Berry, a Presbyterian Minister in Minnesota, for writing that script and to Kevin Leitch, our John the Baptist.)

Turning on the TV today we might bridle at a preacher like John the Baptist and change the channel as quickly as we can find the remote. There are certain styles of preaching that no longer appeal to us.

In fact you may not find any TV preaching that appeals to you. It may well be that you prefer to hear your own minister in your own denomination, in your own church. And that is OK. I am fine with that!

Strangely and sometimes with concern, and even disturbingly, we find that this style does appeal to a significant number of people. Too often, I suspect, because they like to imagine that they are John the Baptist with pointing, wagging finger, giving “what fer” to all those sinners out there.

One way to enter into scripture and find deeper meaning is to do exactly that – imagine you are one of the characters in the story, John the Baptist for example, and really try to get into the role. What is he thinking, what is he feeling, what does he see and experience that moves him to act in the way he does? Try to find that aspect of yourself, small as it may be, and give it a moment in the spotlight.

This practice only helps, though, if you do the same thing with all the other characters in the story. Can you be the one with whom John is so severe? The Pharisees and Saducees? They were the fine, upstanding church people of John’s day. Can you find one of them lurking deep inside?

Can you hear him say —  How does that feel? What do you think? What are you moved to do?  Can you find inside you one of the people standing on the banks of the Jordan waiting to try on this new thing, this baptism John is promoting?

Or when you hear John say that you can’t count on being raised in the church or going to church every Sunday — that in God’s eyes that fine pedigree is not enough? You hear John say that just being born into the faith or doing all the right faith things is not enough. That if God wanted good church-goers, stones could be made to do that! (I have seen congregations like that! I know it is possible!)

What is that like, your thoughts and feelings? What does that move you to do?

How do we prepare a way of peace? A way of peace in our hearts? A way of peace in the world? A way of peace in the wilderness?

And then we turn to the letter of Paul. Paul seems to be celebrating peace, harmony and unified praise. Yet there is real tension between the Jewish people in Rome and the Gentile converts. Paul calls them to remember their own story, their prophets, what they have learned about Jesus and the way he taught.

Peace lives within tension. Peace is not the absence of tension. It is a balance, yet not a static balance. It is not a matter of finding the dead centre and camping there, fearing to move. It is a matter of finding the centre and moving around it in a gentle dance, a dance of peace.

This gentle skill is known more formally as Polarity Management. The idea being that most issues in life are not cut and dried, good and evil. Most issues that seem to be either/or are actually extremes or polarities on a continuum and we move between them, seeking balance. Actually the continuum itself looks like a straight line but it is not. It is like looking at a bicycle wheel.

When I am riding my bike and look over my handle-bars at the wheel, it looks like a straight line but it is truly a circle. Go far enough to one end and you will be coming back to the other.

When I learned about free trade in high school it was a liberal idea. By the time I was in college it had become a conservative idea. Conservation used to be what the conservatives were about. But concern for the environment was, for a long time and until recently, seen as being a left wing agenda. It still is in some circles.

Polarity Management has to do with moving along continuums, or continua, back and forth so that no one side dominates for too long.

The Bible does this in some interesting ways. There is tension throughout the Bible. No one made it go away. About half the Bible says that if you obey God’s rules you will become wealthy – God will bless you with good health, money and power. The other half of the books in the Bible point out very clearly that it doesn’t work that way. The righteous and obedient people have suffering in their lives too. It is full of contradictory advice. As someone once said of the Bible, if you don’t find the advice you want then keep reading. In many ways it seems to be saying on one hand . . . but on the other hand . . .

It is really a book about balancing the tensions of life. Retired Minister Ruth Dudley writes:

“Some years ago I did a ‘conversation tour’ with a Jesuit priest, a Spaniard who has lived in Japan for nearly 40 years. He introduced me to the Heiwa concept.  In his words: heiwa is the Japanese word for peace... a word made up (as are most Japanese words) of two characters, "hei" and "wa." Heiwa is not the flat peacefulness born of an absence of tensions but the dynamic result of endless contradictions —  peace, not in the sense of absence of tension but in the sense of harmonic tension, philharmonic tension. Not ‘either/or’ but ‘this and that.’ “

The story is told of a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for the peaceful towering mountains that  were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky with dark clouds, lashing rain and lightning. Down the side of the mountain was a raging waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the King looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest - perfect peace. The King chose the second picture and said: "Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace.”

When we experience the peace that being in Christ brings, it enables us to live with a certain calm in a world with so much hustle-bustle, unrest and fear. It means that we don't have to withdraw from the world or opt out from society to have peace. In some ways it means entering into and engaging society more fully, compassionately and fearlessly. Peter Abelard once wrote: "The storm may rage but I am unshaken, though the winds blow, they leave me unmoved; for the rock of my foundation stands firm."

May the rock of our foundation bring us peace this day and always.

Amen