Calvary United Methodist Church December 7, 2014 The Making of Peace Rev. Dr. S. Ronald Parks Children s Sermon Isaiah 54:7-10 A time for celebration. A time for all the Children of God to give thanks. We welcome the youngest among us to the front of this worship space to give thanks to God. Good to see everybody this morning! Happy Advent! It continues. This is the season of Advent in the life of the church and as we talked about last week, Advent is the season in which we expect something to arrive. We expect someone to show up. And that word Advent comes from a very old word that literally means to show up. So, Advent is the season when we get ready for God to show up on Christmas and whose birthday is Christmas? (Jesus) Exactly right, Jesus birthday. The Advent wreath over here helps us count up the four Sundays leading to Christmas. Who can remember the candle that we lit last week? Do you remember what it was? Go ahead (Hope). The candle of Hope, we illuminated last week. And this week we are going to illuminate the candle of (Peace) Peace, exactly right. So what I need is somebody who can be an illuminator, can you do that for me? Alright, so while you do that, while Zach takes care of that, we are going to have us all sing our new Advent wreath song and Mrs. B is going to play through it in order for us to remember how it goes. So, go ahead. Do the Hope candle first and then the Peace candle while the rest of us sing like Methodists, am I right?
You know we got these Advent candles at the novelty store, the trick Advent candles that don t light. That s exactly what is going on here. But we also talked last week, in addition to the Advent wreath as a device to help is count up to Christmas, we also mentioned Advent calendars. And this particular Advent calendar, which is a Lego Advent calendar. There are 24 doors on this Lego Advent calendar and last week we opened door number one and pulled out the little kit of pieces inside which happened to be a mailman delivering Christmas cards to everybody. And as we thought about what it meant to count or count up the days of Advent, we remembered that Advent calendars like the Advent wreath remind us of some pretty important truths about our faith, that there are new gifts to open every day. Each day has its own special gift, that you and I have to work hard to put them together in order for them to make something that glorifies God, and that every day brings us one day closer to God s showing up, both in the celebration of Christmas and in that final glorious return when we will meet the Lord. So, that was Sunday. On Monday, the second door was opened and it had in it this little mailbox. Now, I had to actually go on line and look up at the Lego Company what each of these things was because I am not a Lego guy, so you have to kind of use your imagination a little bit. On day three, which would have been Tuesday, this one, I understood. This is the snowman that I put together, pretty tough stuff, but I managed without any instructions whatsoever. On day four, now this one I wasn t sure about. This is a cake stand that has on it two goblets or two big cups and a pie. (I never say that) I never saw that before either, thank you very much. On day five, this was there. It was a fruit stand like you would find out on a market place, ok, and you can see it has even a little snow on the top of it.
On day 6, which was Friday, I opened up this particular kit which is looking through the window at a Christmas table all set with food and drink. Yesterday, however, something happened, day 7. This was what the kit was supposed to be. It was supposed to be a festive lady carrying a croissant. That s a croissant, ok? I m not even sure what I thought it was but when I took the pieces out of the bag, there was a problem. There was a piece missing. Can you look at that picture and see what is missing? The head was missing! There was a piece missing! So immediately, I do what every other male does, I tear the place apart. So I start looking everywhere I can think of that the piece that is supposed to be in that little kit might have been. I m looking in the car. I m looking in the freezer. I m looking behind every shelf in the office. I even asked Fender if he had any responsibility. He pleads innocent. I don t know.
But because ome piece was missing, I couldn t do the job. I couldn t put it together. And because of that the whole rest of the day yesterday, I was just irritated. There was no peace within me because something was not right. There was something missing. And even though it was a small little thing, it really just kind of stuck in my mind and went around and around and around. And you know, the idea of peace is a lot like that. When something is missing and you can t let it go, you have no sense of peace. Peace happens when we put all the pieces of our life together according to God s design. When we are able to put together things like work and friendship and responsibilities and schedules and obligations and the need to care for ourselves and to have some free time, when you are able to put all that together in God s design, it is a glorious thing. How many of you are able to accomplish all that on a regular basis? Exactly. It is a hard thing to do, but Jesus came to show us how to do it. He showed us how to balance our responsibilities with one another with our relationship with God, all the obligations that we have. Now, he didn t tell us how exactly to do it, but what he did was to show us what it means to live in peace and to give ourselves appropriately to one another. And that s why he is called the Prince of Peace. He puts all the pieces together and helps us to find peace in our lives. Isaiah knew all about that and Isaiah was a person who lived many, many years before Jesus and said that there was one who was coming who would help us do that. His prophecy is this: I ll be there very soon! Until then, here s my promise to you: No matter what may happen, my love for you will never wear out. There will be no more anger. No more judgment. No more punishment. In fact, even when everything is in pieces all around you, I ll help you put them back together again. My peace will live within you. That s my word to you and you can count on it! So, putting the pieces of life together to experience peace, as I said, is not an easy thing to do, especially if something is missing. And it s ok for us to ask for help from God, especially if there is something weighing on our minds, something really making us upset or angry or con-
fused or disturbed, it is okay to ask for help from God and it is also okay to ask for help from others. It just so happened yesterday, after I went through my fit of rooting through my office, during the bazaar I walked out into the square and I ran into Braden Benedict. Now, I know Braden is a Lego nut, a nut, I m telling you. This is his kitchen table on the average day. He breaks out his huge box of Legos and he builds all sorts of things. And it occurred to me that Braden might have something that could help me. What was I missing from the little figure? (head) I was missing her head. Well, this is just a sampling of all the different Lego figures that Braden has, literally hundreds of them. So, yesterday evening when his mom had to come back to church, he brought me a selection of three heads to put on the little figurine. They were all ladies heads and by the way, he even emailed me and said Hey, what color is the head supposed to be because I ve got eight different colors of Lego heads for ladies. Now this is a kid who digs Legos, right? So, he brought me three heads and I was able to reassemble my little girl, my little festive lady with her huge croissant in her hand. And I was really happy about that, because for me there was a sense in which things weren t ready until I got that all worked out.
I know it is a tiny little thing, but it is really a symbol of all the things in our lives. Peace happens, we can relax, we can sense God s peace when we put all the pieces of life together according to God s design. Jesus came to show us how it is done and that s why we call him the Prince of Peace, but that s also why you and I, we are peacemakers in his name. Thanks for sharing in our time this morning. Sermon John 14:25-29 Glory to God. Peace on earth. Three weeks ago I went to the last place in the world I would have expected to experience peace. This is Muncy State Correctional Institution, a prison for women in the state of Pennsylvania. And many of the individuals who reside there are lifers, people who have been sent there with no hope of ever experiencing life as you and I know it again. I went there at the invitation of a member of our congregation, Tina Brosius. This is Tina on the right with one of her best friends, MeLisa McManus. She had invited myself and another member of Calvary to attend at TED talk along with her parents. If you are not familiar with the TED organization, if you go on Utube and you type in TED talks, you ll see literally dozens of videos of people on the cutting edge of virtually every aspect of human endeavor from sciences to medicine to the arts, people who have, as TED likes to say Ideas worth sharing. And there have been a series of TED-X events, independent events organized by different groups in order to promote the ideas that are worth sharing. It was, in effect, at Muncy that day, a talent show. It
was an opportunity for a number of individuals and groups to give voice to their experience living in that place of incarceration. In the afternoon, Tina and MeLisa had an opportunity to do their dialog. What they had written was an introduction of one another and they took turns sharing things about their friend, the different things that they had come of know about each other over time. It was very well done. They had obviously spent a lot of time both writing and rehearsing it and it was part of what was a very moving and glorious experience. What they did on the stage that was filmed for TED, which by the way will be available for you to view in the next week or so, it was impressive. But it wasn t what touched me. When we were at the lunch break before she and MeLisa had a chance to do their presentation, they brought all the participants into the room where the rest of us were eating for them to get their meal. It was one of the very few times that these inmates have a chance really to socialize. From across the room Tina saw me and her parents and the look on her face, the joy of having somebody care enough about what she had worked on to actually show up and watch it, was so precious, so moving that I almost burst into tears on the spot. She rushed across the room, she hugged me and her parents and the other member of Calvary who had gone along. Now, I ve maybe had a conversation with Tina Brosius one hour in the 15 years I ve been here except for three Fridays ago. We email and we write each other, but it is usually seasonal stuff, hope you have a great Christmas, blah, blah, blah. But the expression on her face when she saw that I had shown up, that in effect, you had shown up, I wish my own kids had that much enthusiasm about me rolling in. It was a beautiful thing. And in talking to her, in listening to her share some of what went into the preparation for this particular event, you know what I got the sense of? This woman is at peace in the worst place you would ever want to spend an hour, in the place that defines a life based on the worst moment of her earthly existence. In one moment, choices and decisions that she made had served now to shape out the rest of her earthly life. And this is not a sermon about justice and penal system and correction facilities, this is a sermon about someone somehow finding how to put the pieces of their life together in order to experience peace and I don t know how she did it, but I wish I could. Because the peace and sereni-
ty with which she lives her life in that place of incarceration is something that I sense almost all of us searching for. I sense all of us looking for a time to be content, to get the sense that we are somehow in the place that we need to be and for her it is not the place that she wants to be, but it is the place in which she found peace. And this was made clear to be in a letter I got this week from her friend MeLisa who, by the way, has no family. And MeLisa had to put myself and the other member of Calvary on her visitation list because only two people for each person was allowed to be a part of this. And MeLisa wrote me a letter sharing something about her relationship with Tina and I wanted to share it with you: Dear Reverend Parks, I wanted to write and thank you for coming and experiencing TED-X with us. Tina and I have been friends for over 19 years. In that time, I have lost my father and grandmother, but Tina and her family have been there for me. Her friendship is something I can t thank God enough for. This is an amazing woman, Tina, and I have been blessed to have her in my life. For her and I to have the opportunity to share a small piece of what we have become with the world means more to me than anything. I know that we both will be blessed one day and our prayers will be answered. Thank you for being such an amazing support for Tina. She is and she deserves the best. Thank you for coming to our event. It meant the world to both of us. Peace to you and peace to your congregation and Merry Christmas. MeLisa Glory to God. Peace on Earth. The only way you have one is with the other. The only way there is peace is if we see our lives fundamentally as the means by which we can give Glory to God. In John 14, on the last night of Jesus life, he shares these words: The Spirit will move within you. And everything will be revealed. The lessons I ve taught and the Word that I ve shared will become clear. I m giving my peace to you. This peace is unlike any gift the
world has ever known. You can t create it and no one can destroy it. So don t be afraid. Everything I ve done and said has been to show you the Father s live; to teach you how to make it real in the world. It s alive in me and it s alive in you. And what I saw three weeks ago was peace living in the place I would have least liked to expect to see it, in the place where, if I put myself there, I am filled with bitterness and rage and disappointment and frustration and yet somehow the gift of peace has been received and peace is being made. And peace making for you and I as well as for Tina is an act of admission. It is an admission of who I am. There is never one moment in Tina s life where she doesn t know and remember exactly what she did and who she is because of it. But she also knows not only what happened on that fateful day. She knows everything that has happened since then. And as time has passed, as MeLisa attests, as time has passed for the both of them, they have become someone different. They now know who they are as different people, and they now look back on what they have done as part of another life. Peace making is also an act of accountability. You know when you have accounts, you have to balance them. They have to make sense. They have to be in effect in concert. Peace making is what and whom do I owe? Who is it that I have wronged against? Who is it that I have offended? Who is it that I am indebted to? And what is owed by others to me? It is making a sense of accountability but not so that we can then hold it over other people s heads, but rather so that we can open it as a door way into new possibility.
Peace making is an act of acceptance, an acceptance which says, I am loved and forgiven. Can you imagine how long it takes to forgive yourself for some of the things that have happened in your life and have happened in Tina s life? But to say that I am loved and forgiven is the only way I am able to then say I can love and I can forgive and that s how peace gets made, to be loved and to be forgiven and then to take those gifts and to turn them outward into other lives. And peace making is an act of anticipation. It is not about what is; it is about what can be and what shall be. What gifts will the Grace of God grant me today? Do you know that Tina has taken college courses in the entire time that she has been there? She now has a greater skill set to do a lot of things that all of us wish we could do. She has literally taken technological training in so many fields, her hope is that at some point in time if she ever is able to be a contributing member to society that she will have such a wide range of skill sets that she can work almost anywhere for anyone. What gift can I give to someone by the Grace of God? What skills do I have? What talents are mine? What abilities do I have? What opportunities do I share? And what can I give to you today? See that is how glory is given to God, when we take who we are and what we are and what we have done and what we can do and we turn it outward in the celebration of God s Grace into the lives of others. That s how peace on earth gets started. There is a song which is 60 years old that is well known to all of us. It is a prayer and it is something that is close to Tina.