Psalm 91; John 14: 23-31
Sometimes my lovely cat brings me great joy and comfort, and sometimes she is an unholy terrorist robbing every bit of peace that I can find in life. Here’s an example. She despises riding in the car, and will often get carsick. To fix that I play cat calming music, and put her where she is very stable. One time, while returning from a vet visit, she somehow got the door open on the cat carrier and escaped into the car.
I was worried this might enhance her fear and displeasure at a trip in the car, costing both of us our peace. But instead, she quietly sat next to me, looking out the window. What I didn’t know…is that she had poo-ed between the passenger seat and center console. I came back out several hours later to go on an errand, in the summer heat of Macon, and when I got in the car, I had zero peace left for the next 3 days that it took for the smell to go away. Peace can be very elusive. It’s here in our lives one minute then gone the next. But God’s peace is different from what we think of.
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus talks about the fear and despair the disciples are feeling. He has just told them he must leave and return home. They are worried because this means to them no more Christ, no more peace, no more love. They expect everything to go back like it was before Jesus made his presence known in their lives. But Jesus tells them he leaves them with a gift. It’s actually a two-fold gift. They will receive the Advocate—God’s Spirit within them, and as he says in verse 27, they will have peace of mind and heart.
We often talk about God’s Word, or the Bible, or the texts herein as the “good news.” Televangelist Peter Popoff used to say in his broadcasts, “I have some real good news for you today.” Here, Jesus tells the disciples what that good news is. It is God’s love and abiding presence with us even when life’s circumstances indicate otherwise. When we suffer and struggle, it often feels like God is gone or not with us. But the same God who brings happiness and blessings with us in the rain and the storm as well.
When we think of peace, we often thing of relaxation. It’s easy to get the two mixed up. A friend of mine says that his absolute moment of peace is a nice, sunny afternoon, reclined back in his favorite chair watching a movie while drinking what he calls “water blessed by Jesus.” That, for him, is what we’ve often called “going to your happy place.” But being relaxed and at rest is different from being at peace.
Remember in our Gospel that the disciples are uncertain, worried, anticipating terrible things, and hearing Jesus say that he’s leaving. They are feeling alone, vulnerable, perhaps a bit like they gave everything up for this guy who’s about to leave them. And in the midst of all this, Jesus tells them about peace. My friends, peace is not found in complacency, nor does peace bring you complacency and ease. Peace is a very active engagement.
A friend of mine from back in Kentucky is very ill. His illness is terminal. I’ve been writing letters and texts back and forth with him. In one he says something to the effect of this being the point where the rubber meets the road. He’s learned, studied, and practiced faith for an entire, very blessed life. Now it’s time for him to keep the faith and rely on God even if the answers aren’t what he wants, and the blessings he gets isn’t the specific one he’s seeking.
Peace is often an “in spite of” journey. We hear this in the Psalm for today. There are several theories on the origins of this Psalm. Some say it was an entrance chant when the priest went into the temple. Some say it was part of the purity chant during the worship. But most agree that that this is a song of hope and peace to a God who has sheltered a weary one. It references both being sheltered from the enemies and dangers as well as sheltered from the pain of illness and hurt.
The grand irony is that it is easy for evil intentions to twist something beautiful and holy. These words of hope and reassurance are the very same ones quoted by the devil when he comes to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. At the height of Jesus’s struggle in the wilderness, he also has to endure the devil taking a beautiful passage of reassurance and peace and twisting it for evil intentions. My friends, we can’t let the tempter do that to us as well. When we are most vulnerable, our peace will be disturbed by thoughts that twist scripture, challenge our foundation, and attempt to knock us off the pathway of following Jesus and knowing peace.
When you are having a rough time in life, don’t also let temptations knock you off the strong foundations of your faith. The Psalm tells us not to dread, not to fear. The Psalm tells us that all the intent of evil, wickedness, and general wrong-headedness in this life will not win. God may not deliver you in the way that you want in this life. But God will most certainly be present with you in the storm and will deliver you eternally. The outcome is absolutely worth the process, even when the process gets kind of hard and messy in our lives.
The answer is that we must entrust our whole self to God. The Psalm talks about God as both a safe place and a safety on the journey. The Gospel references this same idea. With Jesus, the disciples feel this safe place. Under the shelter of God’s wings, the Psalmist finds a safe place. But life doesn’t allow us to stay in one place. God also gives us safety for the journey. The Psalm says, “For [God] will order [the] angels to protect you wherever you go.” The Gospel tells us that when Jesus’s journey being present with the disciples is over, he will leave them the gift of the Advocate to guide them on the rest of the journey.
When we entrust our whole self to God, God will give us a place of refuge in that holy presence, and God will give us safety for the journey. That’s not exactly a journey of ease, but it is the gift of peace in whatever we encounter on the journey. Perhaps I shouldn’t say it this way: God is there to give us strength when life drops a big one right under the driver’s seat on life’s journey. Our deliverance, our help, our strength is found in our relationship with God and forged in the love and grace of Jesus giving us wisdom and examples along the way.
The strength of life, the help we need when troubles come is found in relationships. Are relationships perfect and easy? No. But it is a relationship with God that is the foundation and cornerstone to us being able to find safe journey in this life and a safe place to reside in the storms of life. It is also our relationships with others, friend or family, who offer us help, cook us food, lift us up, help us clean cat dookie out of the car, and strengthen us when we need it the most. Good relationships make for strong faith, and we will be reminded that life is not a lonely endeavor, and pain or struggle are temporary. Peace, however, is eternal.
Life will hit us at the most vulnerable and inopportune time. I thought all was at peace while driving home from the vet. Little did I know that another mess was getting ready to happen. I told Lilly about the sermon, and she hawked up a hairball on my bed last night at 4 in the morning, so it tracks. Life may get hard. Relationships may get a bit messy. But God will always be a safe place for us, and God will always provide us a safe journey even if that is to our eternal promise. The bonus is that we also are gifted relationships here on earth to help us when we need, whether it’s a furry friend, or a compassionate loved one who reminds us of God’s presence when they are there for us. Our hope, our peace is found in our relationship with God, and our life is blessed by our relationships with one another.
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