Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
My name is Lindsay Parnell, and I'm the worship and spiritual formation pastor here at Westside.
And it is my honor to be with you again today as we explore the theme of Advent this week as we heard from our lovely family. It's peace.
Peace, the universal longing of every human heart.
A seeming rarity these days, and especially during this time of year. How ironic, because peace is a marker of the Christmas season. Yeah. Picture it. The quiet snow falling. Please, Lord, let it snow.
Come on.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Christmas, you know, Beautiful, quiet Christmas music. Silent night, Nat King Cole serenading us. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
I wrote that down and I was like, has anyone ever had a fire roasted chestnut? It sounds kind of gross. Is it good? They're really good.
They're really good. Okay, well, there you have it.
But we think of, you know, a picture perfect Christmas card this time of year. But in reality, let's talk about it. The day after Halloween, my inbox was flooded by companies I've never even heard of that somehow were aware of my existence. And it's just email after email discount code sale ends at midnight. Black Friday is now 90 days, not just one.
Get your stuff. Hurry. Come on.
It's too much. It's too much.
You have my to do list, which for every one thing I cross off this month, especially three more, pop on. Can anyone relate to this? How does that happen?
And then my precious, precious children who ask me multiple times a day, mom, can you ask Siri how many more days till Christmas? We ask Siri, how many more days for a lot of things. You guys. Birthdays in like 2027, they really want to know. But my answer to them is like, oh, the same as it was an hour ago, sweetheart. Yeah.
Doesn't change.
Doesn't change till tomorrow.
It's silly examples, right? It's not even touching headlines or current events that we are inundated with all day, every day that take a toll on our mind, on our body, on our souls.
But the piece we're talking about today, as our family shared with us this morning, it's not just a concept.
It's not just a nice idea. Or for those only with easy lives. It's not a picture perfect Christmas commercial, but those played during the Thanksgiving Day parade. It was all Christmas commercials. I cried at every single one. You guys.
Embarrassing. I had to hide it. This is too much.
Many of us are so used to this idea of peace, especially those of Us who have been in the church for a while, we talk about it, we sing about it, we preach about it, we pray for it, we follow the Prince of it. And yet many of us do not experience it.
What does peace mean for our very real lives, with our very real problems? When we are afraid, overcome with worry, carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders, how do we find peace?
How do we keep it?
My hope for today is to reframe peace for us from a fleeting emotional state to a consistent way of being.
Let's pray together.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Prince of Peace, we welcome you here this morning.
Teach us, God, how to be a people of peace in the midst of a chaotic world.
Amen.
Let's look at Philippians, chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. I think this is just our theme verse for the day because it was also in our Advent reading.
Read it quickly, together.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: It says, do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
First things first, we need to move away from this idea that peace is just a feeling. And understand that peace is a person.
Peace is a person.
About a month ago, I ordered a new pair of boots because tis the season. Am I right, ladies? It's so much fun. They got to my house. I was excited, tried them on, wah, wah. They didn't work. So I returned them about a month ago.
Earlier this week, I woke up. It was dark, it was early. And for some reason, the first thought that popped into my head was, I don't think I've got my refund yet.
So I get up. It's probably six in the morning. Get up, make my coffee. I go sit in our living room. We've got our tree up, our Christmas decorations. It's warm, glowy, picture perfect, very picturesque. I got the fire going. I even light a candle. And on an average morning, I would pray and read and write. But this morning, no, no, no. I chose the least peaceful path forward one could choose. And I decided to chat with customer service.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: The room was aglow. And there I am, sitting with my bright phone in my face, just like trying to get a hold of a human, which is difficult to do these days. And so finally get someone on the line with me and we're, you know, I'm chatting on the phone. I'm not calling. I'm not a psycho, guys. No, I'm not going to talk to a person chatting.
And for some reason this Person's responses are just. They're moving at a glacial pace. I am seeing the minutes tick by and my precious morning slipping through my fingertips. And finally we get to the point. Haven't gotten my refund. And they respond with, okay, all lowercase, no punctuation.
I was bothered.
It did not inspire confidence. I was like, oh, you are not invested, perfect person and me getting my money back. And so I wait, nothing. I'm just staring at that lowercase okay.
And so I'm like, okay, I'm going to ask a question. I'm going to bump my awareness back into their existence. Ask a question. Still nothing. Minutes are going by. My irritation is turning into frustration and anger.
So finally I just say, hello.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Nothing. They ghosted me. They ghosted me, you guys. And so I'm angry at this point. I can feel my blood is getting hotter. I'm starting to get really angry. The fruit of the Holy Spirit not there with me that day? Nope. And do you know what thought popped into my head at that moment?
This would make a great sermon illustration for Sunday.
It's true. It's literally the thought in my head. It's so silly, I know, but it paints a picture for us, right? Our surroundings can be calm, peaceful and idyllic even.
And our interior worlds can be chaotic, anxious, depressed, worried, in turmoil.
So what do we do?
I think we look at the Incarnation.
That first Christmas, the day that Jesus was born, was the inauguration of the kingdom of God breaking into our world and giving humanity access to the very presence of God and everything that comes with it, including, but not limited to peace.
The Incarnation accomplishes everything humanity could never do on its own. God becomes knowable.
God joined our suffering to redeem it. God's spirit can now dwell within us and peace becomes personal and attainable.
Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 14, says, for he Himself, Jesus is our peace.
Jesus is our peace. The Incarnation has given us access to Jesus, which means we have access to peace. I believe this wholeheartedly. But if we're honest today, and I hope we always are, I will be the first to admit that there have been seasons in my life, tough seasons, as with all of us, where the presence of God was seemingly nowhere to be found or simply, seemingly not enough.
What do we do with these times? What do we do with devastating financial hardship, the loss of a loved one, or, God forbid, a child, a diagnosis that changes the entire trajectory of our lives? For me to stand here and say, but God is with you and God is our peace. While it is true and I believe can seem trite and it can feel like not enough.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: It definitely doesn't always put food on the table.
So how do we reconcile this?
I've got two thoughts, and I hope they help.
The first is something Pastor Ben touched on last week when he preached on hope in the midst of waiting. He talked about the now and the not yet, how we are kind of in this waiting time. We can access, you know, the things of God and all that Jesus has promised us. But in this waiting time, there's suffering.
The human experience is fraught with hardship. We have all experienced, experienced it in one way or another. Jesus did not come to give us easy lives.
Such an uplifting message, you guys.
He said so in John chapter 16. In this world, you will have trouble.
The day Jesus was born, all wars did not cease. The Roman Empire didn't stop overtaxing and oppressing.
The world was still a very broken place.
Jesus came, he died and was resurrected to begin the reconciliation of all things that started on the day he was born. It continues here with us today at this moment. And it will continue until the day that Revelation 21 says he will wipe every tear from our eyes.
There will be no more pain or death or crying or mourning. And that is a very real day that we will experience.
Praise God.
But for now, we wait.
And because of Jesus, because of the incarnation, we have hope. And hope gives way to peace.
The second thought I have is that if at times the presence of God does not seem enough for me, I would propose that maybe I don't have a big enough or an accurate understanding of just how incredible the presence of God is.
Maybe it's me that's missing something and not God.
Perhaps God is better than we could ever dream.
Perhaps we have only scraped the surface of how magnificent and sufficient his presence in our lives actually is.
And so I propose today that we need a starting point. We need a foundational truth, an anchor that we can come back to again and again, whether we feel it or not. This is not a quick fix. This isn't 10 Steps to a Peaceful Life.
But it is an anchor for our faith and for our souls. A great place to start. An anchor is who Jesus actually is.
CS Lewis has a famous quote. Maybe you've heard it. It's from his book Mere Christianity.
He wrote, a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell.
You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse.
Yikes. That's harsh, Mr. Lewis.
Those are some strong words, but I find it oddly reassuring.
I think that reinforces our need for an anchor. Because if we believe that Jesus is who he says he is, then we believe that J is the Prince of Peace.
And we believe that we have access to that peace every hour of every day, whether we feel it or not. This is not based on our circumstances. Hallelujah. It's not something that only happens when all is calm and all is bright.
It is a way of living and being, and we can always come back to that anchor point in and that truth that Jesus is who he says he is.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: There's a famous story of Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus has been ministering to large crowds all day long and he needs a break. I would need a break, too. So he gets in a boat with his 12 friends and they sail away.
And they end up sailing right into a very fierce storm.
This storm was so Fierce that the 12 men on this boat, many of whom were professional fishermen, they were no strangers to boats. They were no strangers to water. They were not strangers even to storms. But these 12 men were afraid for their lives. That is how scary this storm was. Let's look at it. Mark, chapter four, starting in verse 37, says, but soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat and it began to fill with water.
Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. I love when Scripture adds little details like that. Jesus had a pillow. He's comfy. Don't worry about it.
The disciples woke him up, shouting, teacher, don't you care that we're going to drown?
When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, silence, Be still.
Suddenly the wind stopped and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?
[00:15:35] Speaker A: The takeaway that I've often heard from this passage is that Jesus calms our storms. Jesus calms our storms.
Yes, he does. Amen. But as we just discussed moments ago, he doesn't calm every storm.
Or maybe the teaching that you've heard is that Jesus will only calm your storms if you have enough faith.
Yuck.
Gross. We don't subscribe to that theology here. No, thank you. I think there's more to be gleaned from this story than just whether or not Jesus calms our storms. Although yes, yes he does.
What's most interesting to me is the fact that Jesus was sleeping.
Let's imagine the storm for a moment. Let's put our minds in the right place here. Imagine the deadliest catch. Has anyone seen that show?
Yeah, think that. Okay. Or the viral videos of the North Sea. Did anybody see those going around? Will you please raise your hand because last service nobody knew what I was talking about. Yes, girl, do we have. Okay. We're on the same side of TikTok, I think because I saw a lot of those videos and the North Sea is like the scariest place in the world, you guys. It is terrifying. You should look it up when you leave here.
Picture that, okay? Torrential downpour, rain so heavy, visibility is minimal. They probably can't see see very well.
Wind, howling wind. They probably can't hear very well either. They have to shout, I'm sure. Mark 4 says they shouted to Jesus. It's loud, roaring water. The waves are so big, water is coming into their boat. This was not a sturdy stable place to stand. If they wanted to get from A to B, they're probably crawling.
That's how bad things were. And where is Jesus? He's taking a nap with his head on a cushion.
That's insane.
I mean, not really, but kinda quite the non anxious presence that Jesus.
John, chapter 14, verse 27. This is Jesus speaking to us.
Peace, I leave with you, My peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Jesus doesn't give us just any old peace and he certainly doesn't give us the peace that the world gives, if you can even call that peace.
He gives us his peace.
The same peace that Jesus had on the boat sleeping in the storm. He has given to me and to you.
It's not something we manufacture or conjure. It's not something that happens when we reach some imaginary pinnacle of Christianity. It can't be earned.
This is not the default. For most of us that peace does not come naturally. If I were in that storm, I'd be losing my ever loving mind. I would be hysterical, a hopeless mess. I don't do well with most minor inconveniences in life, let alone life threatening storms.
For Ben, it's traffic. For me it's apparently chatting with customer service. It does not take much for me to lose my peace. Maybe you can relate. It doesn't come naturally to us. And yet Jesus says this peace is yours.
Accessing it during the storms of our Lives isn't our go to I propose to you today.
It takes effort, it takes training.
Doesn't sound fun, but it is fruitful.
Dallas Willard, one of my favorites, he wrote, and he talked a lot about earning versus effort. We cannot earn anything in the Christian life. It is all freely given to us in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. But it does take effort. Why?
Because we've all been formed from the day we were born. Everything in our lives has created us, formed us to be the people we are today, the families we've been born into, the set of beliefs we were taught or not taught, all the unique experiences we've had in our lives up until this point, they've made you who you are.
And most likely it is not matching up perfectly with the life that Jesus says is ours in him. And so we have to be reflecting, we have to be transformed. And that takes effort.
Just like any professional athlete or musician, they train, they practice again and again and again. Why? So when the big game comes, when the performance, the recital comes, they're not thinking about what chord comes next. How did I shoot that three pointer? I guys, I don't know. I'm not a sports person. But they're not thinking about those things, right?
It's just muscle memory at that point. It is natural for them.
And so the peace that Jesus gives us can come naturally to us with a little bit of effort. And thankfully, we have the tools to do this.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: We're not flying blind. We're not in this alone. If we look at the passage I read at the beginning, Philippians 4, Paul gives us three tools in that scripture to help us train that we can practice so that that peace, sleeping in the storm kind of peace becomes our reflex.
The first tool I see is prayer.
This is enjoying the presence of God. For so long. I felt that prayer was a spiritual chore. I dreaded it, you guys, but I felt like I had to do it because I was a Christian. It was like a mark it off the spiritual to do list, to be more holy, I don't know. But it wasn't fun.
And so if we reframe prayer to be simply enjoying the presence of God, it becomes something that is actually enjoyable. It's not performing, searching for the perfect words. It doesn't have to look or sound or be a certain way. It is simply turning our attention towards God. Sometimes it is using our words and pouring out our heart before him. But sometimes it's just sitting with him in the truest truth. Truth that God is here with me now.
The Second tool I see is petition. This is just seeking the help of God.
It's saying, God, here's what I'm carrying and here's what I need. For me, this gets a little complainy and whiny, I'm not gonna lie. But I think that's okay.
I don't think God minds. I think if we can't be our truest, most authentic selves with God, then what is the point? He already knows anyway, right?
It is a holy transfer of weight, an admission of dependence that we cannot do this on our own and we need God's help. Petition lightens our interior world because it puts our burdens back where they belong.
The third tool I see is thanksgiving, just declaring the goodness of God. Gratitude reorients our hearts and it reminds us of who God has been so we can trust who he will be. It's remembering God, you have been faithful and you always will be.
As Paul says, when we practice these things or we train for these things, the peace of God is not gonna fix our lives and make everything better overnight, but it will what guard our hearts and our minds in Christ, Jesus and man. I could use so more of that. These practices don't create peace. They create space for the Prince of peace.
The second thing we need to understand today about peace is that peace is our calling.
It is what we are called to do. Matthew, chapter 5, verse 9. Jesus says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. What do the children of God do? They make peace.
In Scripture, we see a pattern again and again and again of people who have encountered Jesus. Their lives are transformed, and then they turn and become agents of transformation.
The woman at the well, in John chapter four, she has a conversation with Jesus, runs back to her village and brings everybody back so they can talk to him too.
The demoniac. In Mark, Chapter 5, he becomes delivered from his demonic possession and becomes what many consider the first missionary, Paul, maybe the most famous one. He's transformed from Saul to Paul after he encounters Christ on the road to Damascus. He then we see in almost or the majority, excuse me, of the Book of Acts. He plants many churches. He writes almost half the New Testament, encouraging both the early and us, the modern church.
This is our pattern. This is what we are to emulate. We who have received this incredible peace are now to go and become agents of peace in our world, because this is what transformed people do.
Peace was the work that started with the Incarnation, and it's the work that we are called to continue. However, there are Some distinctions that need to be made here. Peacemaking is not peacekeeping. Evan sent me this note after the last service and I love it so much. I'm going to say it here. Peacekeeping assumes that everything is as good as it's going to be.
It leaves no room for believing that Jesus has something better.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Peacemaking is not people pleasing.
Guilty.
Maybe you are, too.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: That's just fear disguised as virtue.
But neither is it pushy or argumentative. It's not browbeating or bullying people into agreeing with you. That's just control.
Peacemaking is not lack of conflict. Although I would say that that is definitely a part of peacemaking.
We all know people who are conflict avoidant. I may or may not be one of them. Don't love it.
My friend Gwen, I asked her if I could share this story because I found it so humorous. She is a coffee gal.
Most times when I see her, she's got a delicious cup of coffee in her hands. She cares about the quality of coffee. She's a connoisseur, so to speak. And one afternoon, she decided she was gonna work from a local coffee shop here in town this summer. She ordered a delicious iced latte. She's sitting down. Can't wait for my coffee. It's coming. They call her name. She goes. She gets it. Sits down, takes that first, first sip.
It wasn't a nice latte, you guys. It was maybe a mocha. She's not quite sure because it didn't taste good.
The syrups, all the things had separated, so everything was at the bottom. And her first taste was just like, yuck. Yucky. What does my sweet friend do, Guys? She drinks. She drinks it. She drinks it all.
She didn't want to ruffle any feathers. She is me.
Maybe she is you. I would. I'll just. I'll drink it. It's fine. I actually wanted this anyway. How'd you know it's really what my heart was craving? I didn't know that. Thank you.
Yeah. It's not that. Peacemaking is not conflict avoidance, right? The biblical definition we see comes from the Hebrew word shalom or the Greek word irene.
Both words mean the exact same thing. Wholeness, flourishing, restoration, harmony with God and others.
That is peace.
Peacemaking is that. If you're a visual learner, a good way to imagine this is a puzzle with no missing pieces. The complete picture. If you are a puzzler. I'm a novice puzzler, but I enjoy a puzzle every now and then. If you start one and you discover there are some missing pieces.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: Distress, utter. Distress, disappointment. Such a bummer. But on the flip side, that feeling of euphoria when you put that last piece in, there's nothing like it. You stand back, you admire the fruit of your labor, maybe you frame it. Not gonna judge. You hang that bad boy up. You worked hard on that.
It's the completion.
Nothing is missing. It is whole. It is exactly as how it is, exactly as it is supposed to be. That is Shalom.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Peacemaking is partnering with Christ and continuing the work of bringing wholeness, wholeness to all the spaces we find ourselves. It is putting the puzzle back together.
So how do we do this?
The theologian and Catholic priest Ronald Rolheiser has a theory that all Christians should be filters, that Jesus himself was the ultimate filter, and that we, as Christians, little Christs, should imitate Jesus in doing this as well.
He writes, he took in hatred. This is he's writing of Jesus. He took in hatred, held it, transformed it, and gave back love.
He took in bitterness, held it, transformed it, and gave back graciousness.
He took in curses, held them, transformed them, and gave back blessings. He took in murder, held it, transformed it, and gave back forgiveness.
Jesus resisted the instinct to give back in kind. Hatred for hatred, curses for curses, jealousy for jealousy.
Speaking metaphorically, we are invited to become this, the toxin absorbing sponge within all our various communities. And we all live in families, circles of friendship, workplaces, churches, and societies that are fraught with tension.
So our task as mature adults, as elders, as Christian disciples, and I would add, in peacemakers, is to be that place where the gossip, the negativity, the scapegoating, stop.
Because like water purifiers, we take it in, absorb it, transform it, and do not give it back in kind.
Now hear me when I say that Father Roleheiser is not condoning staying in or transforming toxic, abusive or violent relationships or situations.
Jesus had boundaries, and we should too.
What he is proposing is that we should not match the energy of others, but we should transform it.
This is the supernatural work of shalom.
And we do not do this on our own, in our own strength, our smarts or abilities, but as transformed people who have experienced the peace of God.
We now go with the help of God and make peace in every sphere of our lives.
And just like with prayer, petition and thanksgiving, this takes practice. It does not come naturally, I would say, even easily.
It's far too easy to live on the defensive.
It's far too easy to match the energy of others, to defend ourselves, our faith, our stance.
But the harder thing to do and the thing that I believe Christ is asking of us today is to transform, to be agents of transformation, partnering with Christ in this work of making peace wherever we go.
