Following Jesus: Pilgrims of God's Peace

Most of you will have heard of the tragic events that befell Tucson on Saturday evening. Brad and I were out in Phoenix for the day when we started receiving calls from friends and family asking if we were okay? For those of you who have missed it entirely, there was a mass shooting outside of a Safeway grocery store where Representative Giffords was holding an open town meeting. She was shot in the head and is currently in critical condition. 19 other victims were injured due to the semi-automatic weapon used, and 6 of those individuals (including a 9-year-old girl) were killed.

Faced with these tragic events and so many similar shootings in recent years, we ask many questions. "Why?" "How?" and "What can we do?" All terribly difficult questions to answer, but I would like to propose this morning that there may be something we can do before it comes to this. While we certainly should be praying and repairing the damage, we seldom think of how to prevent these occurrences. By being pilgrims of God's peace to everyone, in all we do and all we say... we could hope to plant seeds of peace in a violent world... to promote another way of living.

Although many won't believe me, I don't see this event as too awfully different from many of the 'civilian casualties of war' that are so far away across the seas. Perhaps only because it is closer to home, in our own neighborhoods does is seem more tragic. The time has come to follow Jesus, to follow His message of peace for the world- a peace that comes from God's love, a peace that is a peace that is given to all.

God's Love Grants Peace

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” ~Matthew 3:16-17

This Sunday at Shalom, quite fittingly, Pastor Bryce Miller talked about Jesus' baptism, mentioning how during this time of "repentance and warnings and condemnation, God brought an alternative message of love and acceptance." This message wasn't just implicit either. Listen to God's words upon the baptism of Jesus, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (v.17). As Bryce suggested, I also believe that while this message was special about his Son Jesus, it is also the message that is given to every one of us when we believe and accept Him as Savior and Lord. He calls to each one of us, "You are my child, who I love; with you I am well pleased." How little do we hear that message! How often we forget that our Father loves us with an undying love, and He is pleased with us! In fact, if everyone would really take to heart this message, I believe we would live in a radically different world.

I wonder whether this boy who decided to take out the semi-automatic weapon on Saturday had ever heard that message. Had anyone ever looked into his eyes and said, "You are God's child, who he loves; with you he is well pleased." I think that quite possibly in today's society, no one ever told him that. And it's quite possible that if someone told him that, they didn't really mean it. There may have been some part of them that thought. Well, generally God loves everyone, but you'll never accept Christ... you're a bad person. There's no hope for you. You'll never change. But that's where we are wrong. Everyone needs desperately to hear this message, but this is the message of hope and thereby the message of peace. What is peace, after all, except the complete assurance given by acceptance and security from an unchanging source... the Lord our God.

We all mess up, we're all weird. We all need to hear of God's no-matter-what love. And when we spread that message, we better believe it... deep down believe what we're saying... that God loves that boy... even now... even after he messed up. God loves all the victims and all the children. When we are incapable of extending compassion, God is capable. His mercy knows no end.

Extending God's Peace to All

⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

⁴⁶ “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

⁴⁹ Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” ~John 1:44-49

The Jesus we know is the Jesus who died on the cross and took the sins of the world upon Him. It is therefore very difficult to put ourselves in the position of people who lived during this time, like the disciples... including Nathanael. If we lived back then, our sentiments might've been the same as those of Nate. "Ha! Nazareth? He's from that boring little one traffic light town! There's nothing there! Not from a palace in some great thriving city? Come on! You don't know what you're talking about, Phil." Jesus was a very unlikely candidate for a king, but when people came to know Him, like Nathanael, they agreed upon who He was. Carlo Carretto in Letters from the Desert points out the unlikely circumstances of Jesus:

"Jesus was poor and a workman. Astonishing! The Son of God- who, more than anyone else, was free to choose what He would--chose not only a mother and a people, but also a social position. And he wanted to be a wage earner.

That Jesus had voluntarily lost himself in an obscure Middle Eastern village; annihilated himself in the daily monotony of thirty years' rough, miserable work; separated himself from that society that 'counts'; and died in total anonymity."

Jesus chose a social position. We are reminded in Isaiah and Luke that he came that way to "humble the proud". Perhaps God knew that if Jesus came as a prince, the upper class would've kept him quietly to themselves. By coming to the poor, He came to all of us. Before my plans changed, I was planning a unit on class and identity in my rhetorical analysis class, including an interesting essay by an English professor called "Is Class an Identity?" The author/teacher explains his students' resistance to the idea that they would marry someone in their own class, that today's society is classed. While we readily accept this of times past (Jesus' day and age) we forget it of now. We forget Jesus' message of acceptance and love... not only of the poor, but all the outcasts of society. Jesus refused to stay within the lines... to define His audience, to minister to one type of people. Rich and poor, male and female, healthy and unhealthy.

Yes, Jesus even ministered to those who were in poor mental health. And He calls us to follow Him. We are meant to love all those we meet, not just the popular ones, not just the ones who 'stand a chance', not just the ones who aren't atheists. After all, that would be losing hope... but the Lord is our hope. "With Him all things are possible!" Look around you- in your classes, in your neighborhood, in your home, even in your church. Is there a child who seems distraught, a co-worker who seems troubled, an adult who looks downhearted? We often bring love to these, because they seem like they 'deserve' our compassion. But Jesus challenges us not to only go to our friends, but to our enemies. Is there a student who is giving you trouble in class? Is there an instructor who is mean in all her interactions? Is there a neighbor who throws rocks at your home? In these types of interactions with these 'nasty, mean, unfriendly' people, we may be tempted to say, like Nathanael, "Nothing good can come from [Bobby, Sue, John, Judy]." But remember the good that came from Nazareth, the very unsuspecting lowly carpenter of that town turned out to be much more than a carpenter.

Take a moment to tell those who you doubt about that they are God's children; who He loves, with whom He is well pleased. In this way, we can spread the beauty of God's perfect peace to the most violent, troubled and terrified hearts. Be pilgrims of God's peace, extending peace to God's children everywhere.