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June 12, 2005
Peace with God
Romans 5:1-8
Peace with God. Peace in Iraq. Peace with our neighbors. Peace with ourselves. Are they all connected in some way? We see precious little of peace, anywhere. In the story of Abraham and Sarai, who are predicted, even in their old age, to have a baby, they are reassured with the rhetorical question: Is anything too hard for God? We see so little peace. Is peace too hard for God? Peace with God. What is it? Do we want it? How do we get it?
Peace with God comes of having things made right between God and us. Making things right between God and us is something God does. God makes the peace through Jesus Christ. It's something we believe first, then try to figure out how it could be. When we eat something good, we may not know all the ingredients and how they're put together, but we know they're good. We don't have to have the details to know that. But we like to know the details. God's made things right with us. We can know that's good without knowing all the details. We spend our whole lives seeking to understand God's making things right with us.
Believe it or not, God has made peace with us in Christ. It's better if we believe it. Only this past month two more Japanese soldiers, veterans of WW II, were discovered hidden away in the Philippines. Over the years since the war's end, Japanese soldiers have been found hiding, living in remote areas of the Philippines or Indonesia, either unaware that the War was over, or afraid to show themselves for fear of being punished as deserters. Most had to be persuaded that the war was really over before they would willing leave their hideaways. Whether they believed it or not, the war is over. Those who don't believe it stay in hiding. Those who do believe the war is really over are repatriated to their homeland, to take up life anew. God has made peace with us in Christ. Believe it!
Do we want this peace? It's not always plain we do. When people are constantly on a war footing it becomes a way of life. People who speak against the wartime way of life are likely to be criticized as disloyal, even called traitors. Those who embrace war as a way of life may say they'd like to have peace, but everything in our experience goes against our seeking or embracing it. Too many suspicions. Too many fears. Too much to give up. We settle for something else we call peace.
Peace of mind, not peace with God, is our game. Peace of mind is not the same as peace with God. Peace of mind is a kind of compromise we make with ourselves, a substitute for peace with God. Peace of mind is an adjustment we make to help us live with things the way they are, the troubles and dislocations of our lives. Peace of mind is the way we have of trying not to be troubled by all that's going on around us.
Peace with God is not the same as peace of mind. Indeed, peace with God may be most unsettling to our minds, and bring us anything but peace of mind. After talking about peace with God, Paul goes on to tell about the suffering of disciples. We may wonder: If we're at peace with God, then why the suffering? Paul's point: peace with God doesn't spare us from troubles. To the contrary: Once we're at peace with God we're less and less able to ignore what's going on around us, are more inclined to be troubled by it all.
Peace with God. How do we get it? One of the ways we Americans differ from British cousins is in our preference for the imperative when Brits prefer the indicative. I remember seeing in London warning signs that read: "Exiting from a moving bus may cause injury." In the States we would likely make a sign that said: "Don't exit the bus once it starts moving."
Long ago when the passage from Romans was being copied, perhaps while someone was reading it aloud, the copyist wrote what he heard. By the change of a single vowel, the verb translated "we have" may be either an indicative or an imperative when written. Spoken, the words sound very much the same; read, they give a dramatic change in meaning. One way, says: "we have peace with God;" the other comes out: "let us have peace with God." The first tells the way things are: we have peace with God; the second is a call to action: let us have peace with God. The first is about what God's done; the other is about something we must do.
We tend to prefer taking action ourselves. We like to think we're in control. We incline to believing that "peace with God" is something we must work out for ourselves. We also recognize that peace is not what we're best at. We have lots of experience with just the opposite. Paul's point: We have peace with God because of what God has done. It's that simple.
Getting it is simple. We believe what God has done: made peace with us through Christ. We believe God has made things right between us and God through Jesus Christ. Believing is simple. Just because it's simple doesn't' make it easy.
The pair of Japanese soldiers most recently discovered had heard that the war was over, but were afraid. They imagined that, after all these years, they'd be punished as deserters. The war's over. What made it good news was that they weren't going to be punished. They were going to get to start their lives afresh, even after all these years, even though they were both in their 80s. They saw signs that the war was over; that peace prevailed-at least in some places-and that the peace was good.
What are signs of our peace with God? Baptism. The Lord's Supper. These are the signs God has given that Christ is present with us. These are signs of what God has done among us to bring about our peace with God. These are the signs of our peace with God. Christ is our peace. Christ is the one by whom things are made right between God and us. We are at peace with God. It's a matter of trust. Believe it.
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First Presbyterian
Church of Cedar Rapids
310 Fifth Street SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
Phone: 319-364-6148
E-mail: church@fpccr.org
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