“PEACING THE WORLD TOGETHER”
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“Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mt 5:9)
Today is the start of One
World Week -
this year’s theme is a play on words -
“Peacing the World Together” - in other words,
what we need is a world at peace, not a world in pieces”
Our world is broken and fractured in so many ways
with domestic and international violence and conflict -
in many ways it could be symbolised by a pile of jigsaw pieces.
A world in principle capable of cohering as a glorious whole,
but a world in practice fragmented at every turn.
Of course the first thing you do when start on a jigsaw
is look at the picture on the box - it may not give you all the detail
but it points you in the right direction
-
gives you the vision of what the
completed picture should be.
The Bible is forever showing us pictures of what the world
will be like
when all the pieces are finally in place -
what it will be like when God’s Kingdom of love, justice and peace arrives.
Jesus talks of the Kingdom of Heaven.
And the passage we read from the Book of Revelation,
written in the midst of Roman persecution of the early Church,
talks of the Heavenly City of God & the tree of life
bringing healing to the nations.
As
Christians, we need to catch and share the vision.
To repeat the quote from Antoine St Exupery
“If you
want to build a ship,
don't drum up the men to
gather wood,
divide the work & give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
Let’s never be satisfied with a broken sinful world -
nothing less than a healed and whole and glorious world will do!
Of
course, going to sea isn’t just about dreaming the dream -
you do still have to sit down and build
the boat!
When folk
arrived in the Chilean Desert and set up Camp Hope
that was a great act of faith and hope -
but it wouldn’t have got anyone very far without
the blood and sweat and toil of those working miracles
with the rescue shaft.
Jesus doesn’t say “Blessed are those who talk about peace”
-
he says “Blessed are those who make peace -
we are called to be the opposite of war mongers -
we are called to be peace mongers, peace makers.
It is sometimes assumed that those seeking peace just sit
and do nothing -
the way of peace is the way of non-violence,
but it certainly not the way of inaction.
You know the old campfire song:
What did we do when we wanted corn?
We ploughed and we sowed from the early morn.
For our hands were strong, our hearts were young
our dreams were a-dreaming ages long
What did we do when we needed a town
We hammered and we nailed till the sun went down
For our hands were strong, our hearts were young
our dreams were a-dreaming ages long
What shall we do when it’s peace we want?
Far more than a man can build or plant.
We shall gather our friends from the south and north
and we’ll plough and we’ll sow until peace comes forth
We shall plough and sow, we
shall hammer and nail
Through all night and all day till peace is real.
Aaron
Kramer
Blessed
are the peace makers - a challenge to dream and then work.
This week our military top brass
have been banging the drum
saying how much money we need to ensure our capability in war.
We might bang another drum and ask how much
we are prepared to invest
(as individuals, Churches and nations,
in financial and emotional and political terms)
in our capability for peace.
The President of Chile was asked about the cost of the mine rescue -
his answer - “It doesn’t matter, it was worth it”
So how much will we spend on the rescue plan,
not for 33 miners but for the whole earth?
Working for peace is a huge process and needs huge
investment -
If God did not promise to bless the project, we might well give up!.
Peacemaking is complex - we need to use the word
carefully.
When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia,
he asked the rest of the world to leave him in peace.
“When Martin Luther King was in prison because of
his work for civil rights, a group of white pastors
wrote to tell him to stop disturbing the peace.
He wrote back to say:
True peace is not merely the absence of tension:
it is the presence of justice
I was
acutely conscious during our meeting here
on the Middle East on Tuesday that some things were being said
that seemed to celebrate peace
at the expense of justice for the dispossessed.
God protect us from the false peace of an un-awakened
conscience -
a false peace that allows us to sleep well whilst others are in pain -
the disciple’s sleep in Gethsemane.
Being a Peacemaker
is also to be a Justice Maker -
Christianity
is not a comfortable rest cure
for those wishing to avoid the world -
it’s a revolutionary programme aimed at changing the world.
To quote Martin
Luther King again:
“The question is not whether we will be extremists,
but what kind of
extremists we will be.
Will we be extremists for hate or for love?
Will we
be extremists for the preservation of injustice
or the extension of justice?”
“Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Lets pick up the pieces of the world and starting
building the dream.
Of course
the 2000 piece jigsaw is not done in a minute -
and a broken world takes even more fixing.
·
How
do you eat an elephant? One mouthful at
a time.
·
How
do you do a jigsaw - one piece at a time -
·
How
do you bring peace on earth - one piece at a time.
Start where you are -
the bits of the jigsaw you understand and can fit together.
Jesus said take the beam out your own eye
before you deal with the speck in the other guy’s eye -
if we are going to be global
peacemakers,
we need to begin with peace in our own lives.
“Let
there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me”
We don’t expect to finish the job -
but we can start in our corner of the jigsaw puzzle.
In John’s
Gospel Jesus works a series of miracles
which John calls “signs” -
turning water to wine, raising Lazarus, etc -
These are wonderful in their own right -
but they are more than that -
they are signs of the Kingdom,
of how things can and will be.
There are signs of
the Kingdom in every age -
When those 33 men came out the mine this week,
having been lost, buried alive in the deep,
to see them emerge into the light and hug their families -
was like Lazarus rising from the dead,
the Prodigal who was lost found again, let the celebration begin!
Not just wonderful in its own right - it was a sign of the Kingdom -
And was
it the Chilean President who said -
“This is an evening when life defeated death, hope defeated anguish”
Yes - amen to that.
Of course that isn’t the end of death in the world,
any more than death and stopped with the raising of Lazarus -
it isn’t the end of anguish -
it isn’t even a guarantee that mining in Chile will be safe in the future -
But it is a sign, a symbol, of what can and will be in
God’s power.
Blessed are the Peacemakers.
We are called not merely to talk peace, not merely work for peace -
we are called (as individuals and as a Church Community)
to be signs of peace, of the coming
Kingdom of love peace & justice.
Martin Luther once said -
Even if I knew that tomorrow
the world would go to pieces,
I would still plant my apple tree.
In many ways, the world is already in pieces -
So let us
·
Plough and till and plant seeds of
hope
·
Not curse the dark but light a candle
·
Heal division and piece together the
broken fragments of our world
·
In our own lives be signs of peace
and justice
Then shall we be peacemakers
for the Lord
Then shall we - and the world
- know God’s blessing.
Order of Service
Sunday 17th October
2010
Start of One World Week
10.30 a.m. Service led by Rev Andrew Sails
Welcome
and notices
Hymn 86 “Tell out my soul” (see
screen)
Prayer
All Age Ministry: Lighting the Taybeh Peace Lamp
Hymn “Give me oil in my lamp” (see
screen) (Tune 492)
The Peace
Leader: Let us share the peace
Adults: The peace of the Lord be with you
Children: And also with you
Leader: Go in peace
[Young people leave for their own sessions]
Reading: Matthew 5: 3-10 (p.968)
Song (sit to
sing): “Put peace into each other’s hands” (see screen)
(Tune 469ii)
Reading: Revelation 22:1-5 (p.1250)
Hymn “Sent by the Lord am I” (see screen)
Sermon “Peacing the World Together”
Hymn: “Give Us a Vision of Peace, Lord, We Pray” (see
screen) (Tune 378)
(during this hymn the collection will be taken and received)
Collection
World Methodist
Council Social Affirmation
(see screen)
Prayers and Lord’s Prayer
(Lord’s Prayer inside the rear cover of the hymn book)
Hymn 255
“Crown him with many crowns” (see screen)
Blessing