For the last few weeks, we have been talking about God’s desire that we have inner peace.  We have explored three essential elements of our life with God to have inner peace.  We learned we must first talk to God, earnestly, genuinely, and unashamedly. We then learned that in our conversation with God we must trust him and give him our anxiousness so that he can fill us with peace.  Last week, we learned that we must be engaged in worship of God for in worship our spirit is transformed and strengthened, and we are better able to understand our part in God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.

          Today, I would like us to understand a fourth element of God’s desire to have inner peace.  And that element is service through the body of Christ.  I want to begin right away noting that there is a distinction between serving as an individual and serving through the body of Christ, meaning His church.  We can accomplish much serving on our own, but we do not acquire the full measure of peace God desires for us, until we serve through the church.  To understand this distinction, we will begin where most stories begin, at the beginning.

          We spoke a couple of weeks ago that God created earth and all its plants, creatures, and features to be in perfect harmony and peace.  God then created man to care for his creation.  And God saw all he had created and said it was “very good.” Then, sometime later, 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). In the goodness God created, God noted that being alone was not good.  And so God created woman, in the image of God.  God created man and woman in his image so that they could be companions to one another.  God made partners for us in life because we have a deep need for one another.

          This need for others is express all throughout the Old Testament as we see partnering and pairing of people.  Beyond Adam and Eve, we saw God’s story play out in the lives of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau, Moses and Aaron, David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, and the list goes on.  The story of God has been revealed to us in the Bible though God’s interaction with groupings of people.

          We see this pattern continuing as Jesus came into the world and began his public ministry.  Jesus began his ministry by calling disciples to his side: Andrew and his brother Peter, John and his brother James, along with Matthew and Thomas, as well Mary Magdalene, Martha, Joanna, and others.  Jesus made it clear he did not want his public ministry to be a “go it alone” journey.

          Jesus never performed miracles in secrecy.  Jesus ministered to people in the presence of his disciples and other witnesses.  When the time came for Jesus’ disciples to begin their work, Jesus paired them up and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go (Luke 10:1).  Those sent were sent as representing Jesus and they went as the body of Christ.  Importantly, Luke shared with us that when the disciples returned from serving, they did so with joy (Luke 10:17).

          Luke described for us here that the disciples served and in return from serving, the disciples were joyful.  I think it is important for us to remember that Luke did not witness the return of the disciples.  Luke put together a chronology of Jesus’ ministry we have in the Gospel of Luke some 30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Memories can dim over 30 years.  But here Luke reveals that the lasting memory of the participants and witnesses was that the disciples having served together in Jesus’ name returned in joy.

          Now, a couple of thousand years later, science and psychology seek to explain the phenomenon of service and joy.  Time Magazine reported that “Scientific research provides compelling data to support the anecdotal evidence that giving [serving] is a powerful pathway to personal growth and lasting happiness. Through MRI technology, we now know that giving [serving] activates the same parts of the brain that are stimulated by food and sex. Experiments show evidence that altruism [selfless concern for the welfare of others] is hardwired in the brain.”  Other recent medical studies suggest that helping others causes our bodies to release of hormones, specifically endorphins, that create a sense of euphoria, that they researchers named a “helper’s high.”

          MRI’s and endorphins are modern man’s attempt to rationalize, explain, and at times diminish, the testimony of faithful people both ancient and modern.  In the case of Jesus’ disciples, the singular emotion from the collective experience in serving in the name of Jesus expressed 30 years later was joy.

Luke’s account suggests that what the disciples experienced in serving together in Jesus’ name was far beyond a helper’s high brought about by a hormonal change.  I believe that the disciples, perhaps for the first time in their life, experienced an understanding of God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.  I believe the disciples came to understand what Jesus meant when he said they were the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

          In paraphrased terms, before sending out the disciples, Jesus said, “14-16 “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16 MSG). 

The disciples had experienced what it was like to become the light into the darkness not just by helping others through the difficulties of life but also because in serving as Christ’s hands and feet, they gave others the opportunity to be open to God and his goodness.

          To help someone and open them up to seeing God is the most wonderful and joyful thing we can do.  Why is that? This is true because God knew that men and women could experience his presence most powerfully, not through glimpses of heaven or mystical experiences but through a human form, someone with whom they could relate.  Therefore, God sent Jesus, in human form.

          The Apostle John understood God’s design for us when he wrote, “14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14) “17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).  God sent his fullness in the person of Jesus Christ because we would best experience God’s presence most powerfully through a human form.

          Understanding that God came in human form through Jesus was a powerful thought to John because he would later write, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete” (1 John 1:1-4). 

Here John linked God, Jesus, and the fellowship of believers, to complete joy.  John was saying here that understanding the presence of God was experienced through Jesus and was still experienced through the fellowship of believers.  The presence of God is still experienced best in human form now through the church.

          Why is it that God is best experienced through the church, the fellowship of believers?  First, that is the way God intended it to be.  Second, we humans cannot experience something except by acquaintance.  We cannot understand that which is completely unknown unless there is some connection to what we already know. 

Let me give you a simple illustration.  Suppose a person was blind from birth.  How would that person experience red as a color?  We could say red is primary color like yellow and blue and that person could recite those facts but they would not have experienced the color red because we related the color red to colors yellow and blue which are as unknown to them as the color red.  So how might we express to this blind person something about the way the color red could be imagined without ever seeing the color?  We could only do that by acquainting that person with something they already know or could know.  We might say that we acquaint red with the emotion of angry, as in “seeing red!”  Or that we acquaint red with something that was hot to the touch.  Or perhaps we would share with our blind friend that we acquaint red with danger or the need to stop whatever we are doing.  Our blind friend, though they could not see the color red, could begin to acquaint themselves with that unknown quality by its relationship, by the experience, of something they could or do know.

How does that illustration help us understand what John was saying?  It is this. John and others came to experience God through their living with Jesus Christ and experiencing Jesus’ character and acts of service, such as washing the feet of the disciples.  Now the members of John’s churches could experience Jesus Christ through his apostles and disciples, the church, if they imitated Jesus’ character and acts of service.  In experiencing Jesus through the fellowship of believers, then the joy of knowing God and experiencing Jesus is made complete in all who would follow. This same pattern of experiencing Jesus and thus knowing God has been continuing ever since.

And so when we as the church reach out to serve another person in Jesus name, those who are served can feel Jesus’ love, a love made incarnate, full and complete, in the caring people they see, touch, and hear, and then those being served are assured and acquainted with God’s presence even if they have not yet experienced God themselves. Those being served can begin to understand that God is caring, that he desires comfort for those afflicted, that God does not forget or abandoned people because they have seen that behavior in the people from the church.  When Christians love and care for those who are hurting, God’s character shines forth. Those served know it and those who serve experience God.

There is no greater joy and thus no greater peace for the believer than to experience God.  Those serving know immediately and profoundly that caring for another person is not a two-person relationship, it is a three person relationship.  There is the one being cared for, the believer doing the caring, and there is Christ. Knowing this is priceless. Knowing this is peace.

Aloneness and anxiousness are never so difficult as when someone is suffering.  One gift we can give as believers is to be present in someone else’s pain.  A learned pastor put it this way, “Your presence is worth much, much more than words. Your presence communicates to the other that he or she is valued, precious, beloved.  Your presence brings not only the gift of yourself into the relationship but also, in and through you, the gift of God” (Haugk, 51).

Think for a moment what Jesus said to his disciples on the hillside one day.  Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).  When we, the body of Christ, bring peace to another person by our presence and our acts of charity, then we become known as the children of God.  Since that it is the truth, it would also be true that children of God have a profound inner peace because they know, they feel, they experience to their very core, that they are God’s children.

If we want inner peace, we must begin a continual conversation with God.  In that conversation, we must be willing to trust him and place into his hands our anxious thoughts and allow him to replace that anxiousness with calmness and assurance.  In our pursuit of peace, we must be willing to worship God and allow that experience to change us and fit us together with other believers.  In our togetherness with other believers, then we need to serve in the name of Jesus.  Serving others through the body of Christ allows the light of God within us to shine spreading the peace of God’s presence to those being served and allows peace to be returned to us.  We know that being at peace with ourselves, being at peace with one another, and being a peace with God was Jesus most urgent desire for his followers.  After Jesus was raised from the dead, Jesus sought out his disciples who were fearful and anxious behind locked doors.  Jesus entered that room and said to them, “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36).

Let us all walk and serve together in peace.  Amen and Amen.   

          We have been talking for a couple of weeks now about having inner peace.  For many people, inner peace is elusive. Their minds are consumed by turmoil coming from difficult family relationships, hostile work environments, grief from the death of loved ones or things loved and lost, or from uncertainty about the future.

          The anxiousness of life’s circumstances chokes our life and prevents us from flourishing.  To live life this way is not part of God’s design or desire.  We see God’s desire clearly expressed as God created the heavens and the earth and that his creation would be at peace with itself and at peace with Him.  But sin marred that peace and so God has sought to restore peace to us.

          We saw through Psalm 23 that the avenue for peace is a continual conversation with God amid all circumstances of life, whether gracious or challenging.  Last week, we saw that in our conversation and fellowship with God that we can exchange our anxiousness for peace by giving our burdens over to God.

Today, I thought we could focus on how we continually keep our spirit attuned to God so that we can have those conversations with God.  Today, I want us to explore how worship is integral to our inner peace and serve the purpose of engaging our spirit to be conversational with God.

          And so we begin with the question, what is worship? Many of us have been in church so long that we probably do not realize what worship is anymore or why worship is such a uniquely transformative experience.  If we stay in church long enough, we might think of worship as the one hour a week we spend in the church building.  For contemporary churches, some folks view worship as that portion of time in the church building in which they engage in singing praise songs.

What then is worship? Today, like many Sundays before, we opened our time together with a “Call to Worship.”  We followed that with a hymn, “I Love You Lord,” in which we together sang the words, “I love you, Lord.  And I lift my voice, to worship You, Oh, my soul, rejoice!”  We prayed words of invocation praising God and together saying, God’s name was hallowed, that God’s name is the most worthy name. 

We read from the New Testament in which the immediate reaction of the women who saw Jesus after his resurrection was to worship him.  We prayed words of comfort for one another sharing joys and concerns of life. Then we sang again the words of hymn, “Worthy of Worship.”  These we might say are elements of our worship service but are they worship?

          Familiarity and repetition of worship practices may have left us unaware that a transformation was occurring among us today.  As we began worship, we began a group experience that is taking individuals of different ages, occupations, states of marriage, race, ethnicity, gender, economic status, and education and creating a kernel of unity in the present from our pasts of diversity. 

Worship takes that embryo of unity and grows us into a maturing body in which all parts begin somehow to fit together.  We are a body made up of many parts in which as we engage in elements of worship we are accepting a different and greater identity.  Worship causes us to start thinking and seeking together without embarrassment.  We sing without embarrassment and share deep concerns about our life or to cry either tears of joy or tears of pain without concern. 

          But how does worship cause us to be so transformed? No one element of worship can cause the transformation of so many different individuals into one body. Instead, that transformation comes about through the person being worshipped.  We come to worship God.  Worship focuses our hearts, minds, strength, and soul on God who then transforms us into a single body. 

Worship and the transformation that happens to us is such a marvelous occurrence we may not even recognize what has happened and is happening to us.  Worship takes that body in which all are part and gives them equal dignity because we see in worship that we are all made in the image of God and therefore each part of the body is precious in God’s eyes.

In that one body, we begin to build a fellowship that has goals to invite others into worship, goals to support other members of the body, and goals of serving others who are or feel outside the body created by worship.  What has happened to us through worship of God is that we begin to understand God’s desires and we begin to want to fulfil those desires as a single entity.

          All these changes that we can see are occurring within each person, within each part of the body, every time we worship God, whether in groups of a few or many.  And yet, in worship there is more transformation occurring that cannot be seen with the eye but can be experienced by the spirit.

          Consider the example from our first reading today from the Gospel of Matthew.  Women who had followed Jesus in his public ministry made their way to Jesus’ tomb. When the women arrived at Jesus’ tomb, an angel appeared frightening the women and causing the guards at the tomb to shake and become like dead men.  “5 The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.’  8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them.  ‘Greetings,’ he said. They [the women] came to him [Jesus], clasped his feet, and worshiped him” (Matthew 28:1-9).

          The women who approached the tomb were devastated by the profound grief of Jesus’ death on the cross. Life was hollow.  No doubt the women had not slept well.  They had intrusive images of Jesus on the cross playing over in their minds.  They were restless, agitated, their muscles were tense, and all hope was gone.  There was no inner peace.  “No Jesus, No Peace.”

          Then suddenly, they received news that Jesus was not to be found in the tomb but would be found among the living.  The women ran from the tomb afraid and joyful.  What was Matthew trying to tell us here?  Joy and fear are competing emotions.  Joy opens our minds to the excitement of possibilities.  Joy pushes back against fear.  Fear closes are minds creates walls of doubt around joy, trying to contain it.  The women were highly conflicted consumed as it were simultaneously by fear and joy.

          As the women were running from the tomb, Jesus appeared and spoke to them.  In the presence of Christ, the women without embarrassment or hesitation acted in unison, acted as one body, and throwing themselves upon the ground, wrapping their arms around Jesus’ feet, and worshipped Him.

          This was the first time the followers of Jesus worshipped him, and the effect was an immediate transformation. In the act of worshipping Jesus, the women were transformed as joy fought back against fear, against anxiousness, against the walls of doubt, and created room within the spirit of these women for peace, real inner peace.  The women had come to that point of “Know Jesus, Know Peace.”  That combination of joy and peace would forever give these women endurance, character, and that moment of worship would give these women a hope that would never disappoint.

          The women, transformed by the worship of Jesus Christ, ran tell others.  “9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:9-11). 

The women who worshipped Jesus and became one body shared their transforming experiencing and were not believed.  Yet, the women remained as one body.  It was not important if others did not believe the transformative experience of worshipping the risen Christ.  The peace these women possessed was depended only on Christ.

          This same sense of relief from fear can be ours as we are transformed through worship of Jesus Christ the risen savior.  Our spirits, like the spirits of the women at the tomb, can be conflicted when we enter worship and can be at peace when we leave.  It is a marvelous gift of God.

          We see this transformation later in the evening of the same day as the women worshipped God, we find the eleven apostles together behind locked doors consumed with fear of the Jewish leaders.  No doubt the apostle’s conversations centered on an endless series of “What ifs.” 

The apostles were thinking of their own safety and ways to build better walls against the dangers of life they imagined.  They were becoming rigid, fragile, fearful, and lacking any sense of inner peace.  Though gathered and aware of the news of Jesus’ resurrection, there was no worship going on.  The body was beginning to separate into individual parts and, unless something happened, their situation would soon become an “everyman for himself,” response.

It was then that Jesus entered the room and bid the apostles “Peace.” In that peace, the transformation of the apostles occur and they became a united body worshipping Jesus.

          Later in time, the Apostle Paul would seek to explain the transformative nature of worship.  In a letter to the church at Rome, Paul wrote, “Brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). 

Paul was setting the stage that worship is not just brothers and sisters gathering to create something between them, a self and other relationship. Those sorts of self and other relationships exist throughout society from family gatherings to local bars. What Paul was suggesting here is that we recognize that worship creates a self, other, and God relationship.

          Paul said that when we are combined as brothers and sisters in worship of God then we are engaged in transforming our mind into one that can act in a way that is in accord with God’s desire.  “2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2). 

Worship transforms our outlook and our understanding as to the goodness that God created for humanity and has preserved from the effects of sin. Worship helps us see the reality of peace and worship allows us the opportunity to share the inexpressible feelings that being a peace gives us.  This means that worship of God creates inner peace for the worshipper and gives the worshipper a place and way to express that inner peace. 

Finally, Paul said that worship transforms us into one body, “4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:4-5).

          We are transformed by the worship of God through Jesus Christ.  The transformation changes our minds, our hearts, it gives us strength, and gives us a spirit that controls our body.  The transformative experience of worship brings us inner peace.

          For me, and I suspect for many of you, one of the most transformative and peace-giving acts of worship we can do is to participate in the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus inaugurated this spiritual meal moments before fear, anxiousness, betrayal, denial, and turmoil would cause his apostles to scatter in different directions into the night. 

The apostles needed something to remind themselves that even if they could not see Jesus, he was still there.  We can worship God through that supper and receive a sense of peace and through that same worship express the inner peace we feel.

          And so, as one body united in worship being at peace with ourselves, being at peace with our fellow worshippers, and being at peace with God, let us come to the Lord’s Table.  As we do, let us “Know Jesus and Know Peace.”  Amen.

          Last week we began exploring God’s desire that we be at peace.  We looked at peace expressed through Psalm 23 and discovered that peace requires that we be talking with God through all circumstances of life, whether those circumstances are gracious living or difficult challenges. The psalmist showed us that God desires our fellowship and conversation.

          God has always desired that we have fellowship with him.  We see God expressing his desire for fellowship and conversation in the earliest pages of the Bible.  In Chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, we would find that the Lord God entered the garden he created.  God was seeking the man and woman he created and whom he placed in the garden to care for it.  When the man and woman did not come to God to speak with him, God called out and said, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:8-9)

          God has seeking fellowship with men and women since the time of creation.  Why would God want to do such a thing?  The answer is fairly simple.  God desired fellowship with us because it was part of what God saw as being very good.

          God was the first being to describe something as “very good.”  We heard God speak those words earlier this morning when we read from Genesis, Chapter 1. God had created man and woman in his image and then blessed them.  “29 Then God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so.  31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:29-31a).

          When God had completed creating, he said everything was “very good.”  The beauty of the earth, the animals, birds, fish, plants, wind, rain, and humanity all working together was very good, meaning it had the quality of being excellent. The relationships between man and woman was very good.  The relationship between the first couple was complete, compatible, and excellent. Finally, God’s relationship with the woman and God’s relationship with the man were equal and excellent.  It was the moment in which nature, humanity, and God were at peace.

          Peace in the original context was expressed through the Hebrew word, shalom, שָׁלוֹם, shaw-lome'.  The word shalom carries with the meaning of completeness, safety, soundness, welfare, health, prosperity, quiet, tranquility, contentment, friendship of human relationships, and friendship with God.  Things were right and, in that rightness, God sought to be in fellowship and conversation with the man and woman because that too would be very good for them.

          And so, we have a picture, a mental image of peace, that God created and sustained. Well, we know the story.  That peace, that sense of shalom, would become marred by sin.  The man and woman had sinned and rather than seeking fellowship with God, they hid from God. Why?  Because they became afraid and filled with anxiety.

          Anxiety has at its root the sense of choking and squeezing people with an unending series of “What if” questions that drain the goodness out of life.  So powerful is anxiety that it alone has the capacity to keep us from fellowship with God, as we mentioned in Genesis, and in even appreciating God’s Word.

          Let me give you an illustration as to that latter point.  One day, Jesus told a parable about a farmer sowing seed.  He said some of that seed fell among the thorns. The thorns grew up and choked the plants.  When Jesus explained the parable, he said the seed sown by the farmer was the Word of God and the “thorns referred to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22).  Anxiety is a powerful choking force that strangles the goodness of life and is even strong enough for us not to hear God’s own words.

          In our country, the number of people who are anxious continues to increase.  One study I read examined anxiousness among us from the period 2008 to 2018.  The report from that study stated, “Overall, our results are consistent with and extend prior findings that mental health has worsened in the US by showing that anxiety, too, has broadly increased among adults in the US over the past decade. Anxiety appears most common among young adults and has increased more rapidly among 18 to 25-year-olds than among any other age group. Anxiety also increased more rapidly among those never married versus married and among those with a high school diploma or some college versus those who did not complete high school. Anxiety increased consistently across racial/ethnic, gender and income subgroups” (Trends in anxiety among adults in the United States, 2008–2018: Rapid increases among young adults).

          Another report having similar findings made this conclusion, “Unfortunately, no one seems to have an exact answer as to why anxiety is so common” (https://www.banyanmentalhealth.com/2019/03/11/why-is-anxiety-so-common).

          One final study I want to mention, evaluated the work of 32 other studies, a study of studies.  That inquiry looked to see if there was any linkage between human anxiousness and religion.  The investigators reported, “This review showed, in almost every study, that religion in general, religious training, spirituality, faith, prayer, religious community and worship were associated with reduced anxiety (stress). These effects were observed in both healthy individuals and in various [anxiety] patient populations” (https://clinmedjournals.org/articles/ijda/international-journal-of-depression-and-anxiety-ijda-2-016.php?jid=ijda).

          I find it interesting that medical studies show that our sense of peace is restored and sustained the more we commit ourselves to worship, to fellowship, to prayer, to faith, and understanding the Word of God.

          It is fascinating those medical studies have concluded what the Apostle Paul shared with in his letter to the church at Philippi some 2,000 years ago.  Paul said, “6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).  Let Paul’s words fall on your ears for a moment.

          Paul’s words are exceptional and as many people realize it. Consider this point, Amazon has sold tens of millions of Kindles, electronic readers.  One of thing those Kindle readers allow users to do is to highlight sentences in the books for later reference.  Amazon tracks what gets highlighted.  The most highlighted book across all Kindles is the Bible.  The most highlighted passage of the Bible is Philippians 4:6-7.  Paul’s passage on exchanging anxiousness for peace.

          Paul point, noted by millions, was that anxiousness will come to us from the world and from living in this world.  The antidote for anxiousness though is to talk to God and give that anxiousness to him.  In fellowship and conversation with God, our anxiousness, that choking sense of worry, is replaced with peace.  Paul was revealing here that God is continually seeking to restore peace, to bring us back to the garden where everything was very good.  For it was in that garden, described in Genesis, that a peace that transcends all our understanding of today existed.

          Eugene Peterson, author of The Message translation of the Bible put Paul’s thoughts this way, “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life” (Philippians 4:6-7, MSG).

          I like what Peterson’s words, “It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry.”  You see it is not enough for us to simply “stop worrying,” as some would counsel us to do.  Even if we could stop worrying on our own, eliminating worry would leave a void in our life.  Something else would fill the void.

          Jesus said, “Do not worry about your life. (25)  Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (31) But seek first his (God’s) kingdom” (33a) (Matthew 6:25, 31, 33).  Jesus said hand over your worries and replace the void they leave in our life with God.

I have experienced this exchange of anxiousness for peace on several notable occasions in my life.  In my twenties, anxiousness about the future was consuming my thoughts until I gave them over to God who filled my thoughts with reassuring peace.  When our first-born grandson was to undergo major surgery at just one month old, worry and anxiousness was choking us, until we prayed the words of Psalm 139. Our hearts calmed and the awareness of God’s presence became evident.

Not that long ago, nearly everyone sought the kingdom of God first.  Nearly everyone read the Bible and engaged in public and private prayer, as well as family prayer, and great numbers heard, once each week, sermons that expounded the gospel.  Once a week there was a day that reminded all people of a dimension of their lives other than those of the surface.  Now most of this is gone.  Instead, of being settled in all circumstances, people are anxious even in the best of circumstances.

So what are we to do? We then need to return to fellowship with God through Jesus Christ.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-29 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” 

Whenever we face anxiousness, as we feel it begin to well up within us to make its way to choke our life, we should immediately fellowship with God.  We should say, “Lord,- I cannot bear worry and anxiousness alone.  I pray that you give me the strength - not strength to endure - but strength to let go - to turn over my burdens and my fears to you.  Let me do so - and find rest."  And you know what - it does take strength to let go - to give your burdens to Jesus.  It is part of trusting God’s word.  Now here is some good news - it works.  There is in that act or instance of sharing - that communion with Jesus - an easing of the anxiousness.  We are reminded that whatever we are going through – we are not going through it alone, and that no matter how things turn out, we will remain in God’s kingdom.

“You know that Jesus did not come to earth to tell us merely what we ought to do; He came to do something for us.  He came not merely to exhort but to help.  He did not come to give us good advice.  Advice is cheap, but what Christ offered us was infinitely costly.  It was the power of God unto salvation” (Baille, Invitation to Pilgrimage (51)).  It is this power that breaks the anxious thoughts that invade our life.  It is knowing that God is at work constantly and continually sustaining us into eternal life with him that brings peace.

Consider for a moment, the thief on the cross next to Jesus.  The thief had only one thought left.  “42 He said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ 43 Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23:43). In that moment, the thief would be restored to the inexpressible sense of peace God had first created and preserved in paradise,

Consider Paul. He was likely speaking about himself, when he said a man “4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:4). Paul had a taste of the inexpressible sense of peace God had preserved.

Jesus said, “7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God’ (Revelation 2:7).

Knowing our ultimate destiny in life as the kingdom with God, shrinks our worries and anxieties of the present and gives us the strength to put those worries into hollow of Jesus’ hand.

To have the ability to know our destiny and trust Jesus, we need to be part of corporate, in-person, worship, frequently.  We did to read the word of God daily and hear God’s Word talked about and preached every week.  We need to pray daily to remind ourselves that God is working all the time to get goodness restored to us.

The psalmist practiced these spiritual disciples and discovered, “When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy” (Psalm 94:18-19).  We can have that some peace and joy in the present because it is guaranteed to us for eternity.

          And now, as we are in fellowship with God, let us pray for ourselves and for one another that we would have the strength to give to God what makes us anxious so that God may restore to us the joy and peace He first created and has preserved for us.  Amen.

          I want to begin today’s message by expressing my gratitude to this church for including in the covenant between the pastor and the congregation a provision for the pastor to take one week a year for personal study or retreat.  Having a week to spend on a topic is greatly beneficial to me and hopeful to the church. 

The week before last, I took that week and spent my time beginning a study on inner peace with God.  I selected the topic of inner peace because increasingly I am encountering people, Christians and non-Christians, who are in turmoil from stressful situations found at home, with politics, from ill health, from grief, or from difficult relationships at work, within the family, or even in the church.  

I wanted to begin work on broadening my understanding of Christian concepts, authors, and Biblical studies that might help others redirect the suffering that anxiousness brings toward acquiring some peace of mind and restoration of joy.  I hope over the next few weeks to share my some of my initial understandings of inner peace.

One of my readings during the week came from a Quaker theologian and philosopher, Elton Trueblood. In one of his books, Trueblood made a passing reference to a feature he noted in the Psalm 23.  Trueblood did not expound upon the feature to any great length, but his observation intrigued me and caused me to think more deeply about having that sense of peace within us that in these “stress filled” times can seem so elusive.  I want to share Trueblood’s observation and the implications I believe can begin to set the foundation for our conversations on inner peace.

Trueblood’s observation came from Psalm 23.  I am certain that most of us have heard the words of Psalm 23 and, I suspect, some of you could recite the words of the psalm from memory.  Let’s hear the words of the Psalm together.  This version is from the King James translation of the Bible.

A Psalm of David

Psalm 23

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

          Beautiful words that have been spoken on occasions grand and small, public and private, in joy and in sadness.  The feature that Trueblood noted was that at about the midpoint of the psalm, the writer changed his focus from speaking about God to speaking withGod.  The writer began the psalm speaking about God using the word “He,” and then changed to speaking with God using the word, “Thou.”

In our modern language Trueblood noted that the writer speaks about God with the word, “He” in verses 1 through 3 and then “You,” beginning in the second half of verse 4 through the end.  Trueblood ends his observation at that point and leaves it to others to make meaning of it. 

So, what then can we come to understand about Trueblood’s observation and its relationship to peace in our life?  I believe it is this.  We are comfortable talking about God when things in our life are going well. When life is good, we are able and comfortable saying, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”

It is in times of gracious living that we talk about God and his ample provision for our lives.  We acknowledge in gracious living that because of God we are not in want, we are nourished, we do not thirst, and we can follow his commands with confidence. This is what we find in verses one through three.  When things are good and settled in our life, we have inner peace simply because things are good and settled.  Our relationship with God and our reliance on God is less personal.

Then, amid the gracious living, something happens in our lives. It may be a death, a serious illness, a conflict in the family, at work, or in the political body.  Something dark, undesired, or unsettling occurs in our life and it does not go away.  We begin walking through the valley of shadows and our good and settled life seems to be a memory. 

We are beginning to discover that our sense of inner peace was built on the pleasantry of our circumstances.  Though in the past, others shared the gracious living with us, in the valley of dark thoughts and shadows we feel very much alone.  The valley of conflict, illness, and grief is a lonely place, and we realize that we cannot be circumvented that valley.  We cannot go around the valley, or over it, or under it. The only path available to us in the valley is through it.

I believe it is in this valley that many people lose their sense of inner peace.  The valley is a lonely and difficult place to be.  It is an anxious place where the nights are long and uncertain.  In the valley of shadows, God can seem so far away or may not be felt at all.  When we are in the valley, our thoughts are both disjointed and repetitive.  Over and again, we wonder, “If only I had done this or that, then the outcome would be different.  I would not be here in this valley.”  “Why is this happening to me?”  Then, we begin to ask, “God, are you there?”

Some of you are in that valley even now.  Peace seems elusive.  Rest is difficult.  Confidence is occasional and fleeting.  How then do we acquire peace even amid the valley?

The psalmist gives us some much-needed insight.  Instead of talking about God, the psalmist realized that he must begin talking with God.  The psalmist got personal with God and sought the attributes of God that were most urgently needed.  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).  The psalmist realized that fear and anxiousness were consuming his thought and he needed relief.  In talking to God and acknowledging the presence of God, the psalmist began to place trust and reliance in God for his specific and most urgent needs.

The person going through the valley sought to speak directly and personally with God.  In speaking to God, the fear, the anxiousness, and worry about the dangers and uncertainties hidden among the shadows in that valley began to ebb.  Why? Because the sojourner came to realize that God was present even if God could not always be felt.  The fear ebbed because she or he knew that God was equipped and would use his shepherd’s rod, an offensive weapon, to defend him against those dangers.  The staff that led them to the green pastures and quiet waters remained present as a promise that God’s provision of the past and the assurance that provision would not be taken away taken away.

Now we do not know much about shepherds and sheep.  So, how else may we see visual passage?  Perhaps on this day of Father’s Day we might see this passage this way.  Think of the setting of a child who find themselves outside in the dark and a long way from home.  The child begins to make her way, but everything looks different.  There are unfamiliar noises among the shadows. She wonders, “Am I on the right path?” “How much longer before I am home?” The child is afraid and begins running. First in one direction and then another. Suddenly, a figure appears ahead of her. It takes her a moment to realize that it is her father.  She begins talking to him excitedly, explaining all her fears and anxious thoughts about the darkness and that she does not know which is the right path home. Her father says, “Take hold my hand and walk with me.  You do not need to know the way because I do.”  All she needs to do is hold onto her father’s hand.  The fears of dangers, imagined or real, begin to recede from her mind.  She is comforted and the turmoil in her body is replaced by peace.  This is the scene the psalmist wants us to understand. 

 Whether a sojourning psalmist, a child, or an adult in trouble, each comes to realize that faith, true faith, is born in the times of testing and is displayed by holding onto the hand of God and talking to him.

Many people forgo this peace. They are frozen in place by their memories of the green valleys and quiet waters.  Or they are frantically attacking every noise and every shadow to chase away the darkness and dangers therein.  Whether frozen in time or frantic with activity, both soon become exhausted spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  There is no peace.

So, we might think, do our troubles end just because we start walking with God and talking with God? The answer is “No, they do not.”  What we do have though is inner peace amid the troubles of life.

Look at what the psalmist discovered in traveling through the valley of the shadows with God and talking with God. The psalmist wrote, “5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over” (Psalm 23:5).  The psalmist made it clear that he still had enemies in life.  Those enemies may be people, or illness, or painful memories from the past but the psalmist still had trouble.  But the good news is that the one whose hand we hold onto in the valley chooses to bless the psalmist with inner peace and to make his enemies know that he was blessed.

The psalmist described the peace he had in God as the equivalent of having a massive banquet held in our honor with all our enemies having to stand and watch us enjoy that banquet knowing they can have no part of it.

The psalmist then described that feeling of peace as though having had his fill from that banquet, God called the psalmist to stand in front of everyone, especially his enemies, and watch God pour oil on the psalmist’s head as a sign, a symbol, that he was God’s child and that it would be a life of woe to anyone who would touch even one hair on psalmist’s head.

Finally, after the banquet and the adoption ceremony before his enemies, the psalmist described peace as God continually filling to overflowing our cup.  God was giving grace in his life and for all time and in such quantity that he cannot drink it all in.  God was giving the psalmist extravagant grace.

Because of this close and personal relationship with God brought about by talking with God, the psalmist had inner peace even though he walked through the valley of shadows and even though his enemies surrounded him.  We too can have such inner peace.

We can have that peace by beginning to talk with God and by realizing that the grace in the cup from which we can never exhaust comes in the form of the person of Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who took the cup and gave thanks and said to his disciples, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27b-28).  God, through Jesus, makes our cup run over with grace. Through Christ we have forgiveness and peace.

The Apostle Paul saw it this way, “15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:15-19).

What then might we say as we conclude today?  The key take away is that God wants you and me to be at peace.  There are no exceptions.  Peace is God’s crowning desire.  We can certainly experience God’s peace in the times of tranquility in our life and we talk about God.  But our greatest sense of peace comes not in talking about God.  Instead, our peace comes when we talk with God. 

To make it easier for us to talk to Him, God sent himself to earth in human form as Jesus Christ.  God became real.  Jesus was someone people could see, hear, eat with, and even smell. We can read what Jesus said and we can speak with him but we should not wait to do so until our moments of distress. We should begin talking with God through Jesus now, regardless of our sense or lack of inner peace.

          How do we know Jesus will hear us?  Jesus came as the light of the world not to shine in the places that were already well lit but to shine light into the darkness of the world and say to those who lived in fear, “27 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” (John 14:27).

          I want to encourage you to begin this day the habit of talking with God daily, even multiple times per day.  Tell him what is bothering you and ask him to do just one thing, give you peace.  Over and again, pray for the exchange of turmoil for peace. 

I believe if you do this, very soon, you will have a sense that God is holding your hand like a good father, and he will lead you through the valleys of life that dark.  Peace is within reach, not for lack of problems, but because of the presence of God.  Just reach out and talk to him and do not let go of his hand.  Amen.

          For the past few weeks, we have been talking about the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Apostles and in our own lives.  We have come to understand that having the power of the Holy Spirit evidences and sustains our faith journey with Jesus. The presence of the Holy Spirit comforts us and provides us with an understanding of the blessings we have in received. 

As we discussed last week, the Holy Spirit also equips us to be salt and light in the world.  As the salt, we are to bring a touch of God, a bit of heaven, wherever we go.  As light, we are to shine before others so that people will know that our works, or deeds, are from God.

          This week, I would like us to focus on a final element of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and that is the harvest.

The days of harvest, in Jesus’ time of public ministry, was understood by everyone.  It was understood because failure to bring in the harvest, for whatever reason, could mean starvation and death.  When crops reached their fullness and ripeness, there was a limited amount of time to gather those precious crops and get them safely into use or storage.  There was an urgency to bringing in the food before it spoiled or was eaten by insects or scavenging animals.

          Jesus spoke about the harvest in our New Testament reading today.  In the Gospel of Matthew, we read, “35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.  36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (Matthew 9:35-38).

          At this moment, Jesus was in Galilee walking from town to town sharing the gospel message among the Jews. Jesus was attracting a significant following of people as he preached and healed everyone who came to him. Jesus’ behavior was a teaching behavior for his apostles.  The first behavior mentioned was that Jesus preached the good news to those who had a desire to know God.  Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom to people in the synagogues. 

In writing, especially ancient writing, the most important person, or the most important thing is mentioned first.  The first thing mentioned was proclaiming the word of God to those seeking God.

          The second behavior cited was that Jesus healed those who were ill.  Healing was an act of mercy and was used to authenticate the messenger and the message of the kingdom.  Matthew placed healing the body as second to proclaiming the good news.

          The third behavior cited was that Jesus had compassion on the crowd.  The sense of compassion here expressed a deep feeling in the heart that stirred affection.  What caused Jesus to be so affected?  Matthew said it was because Jesus saw the people as harassed and helpless.  Jesus felt deeply for these people because they were seeking the genuine God of peace and only found a religion that heaped upon them unbearable guilt and the weight of man-made rules so large as to make them faint trying to carry them. 

Out of compassion, Jesus would later say, “28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).  Being with God was not supposed to result in the fatigue of the seeker.

          Jesus’ behaviors served as a testimony and teaching for his apostles in the conduct of the mission. First and foremost, proclaim the good news.  Second, offer healing consistent with gifts given to you.  And third, have compassion on those seeking God.  Keep the focus on leading them toward God and not toward religious enslavement.

          Having demonstrated the way of the mission, Jesus saw the need to minister to the crowds growing ever hungrier for God’s word.  The time to act with urgency had arrived. “37 Then he [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’  Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness…5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons’” (Matthew 9:37-39; 10:1, 5-8a).

          When we read Matthew’s gospel without chapter breaks, we realize Jesus was inviting the apostles to begin a period of prayer and commissioning for the mission of building the kingdom of God.  Jesus could sense that harvest, the acceptance of a personal relationship with God, was ripe.  People were seeking and ready.  At that moment of readiness, there is urgency to act quickly.  To delay the action would likely result in the opportunity being spoiled or for some an enemy to snatch away the harvest. Time was of the essence.

          After the invitation to prayer, Jesus commissioned the apostles to begin their work among the people seeking God and gave them as the first order of business, proclaim the good news.  Jesus gave them a seven-word sermon: “The kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 10:7).

          Proclaim the good news.  There it is again.  The foremost responsibility of the Apostles was to share the good news.  The Apostles never forgot that teaching from Jesus. We read in the Book of Acts, Chapter 6, “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.  2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables” (Acts 6:1-2).  As important as it was to feed people, the Apostles knew it was second to proclaiming God’s Word.

          Since proclaiming the good news is given priority in the mission, it must be the essential task of the harvest but not the only task.  Having proclaimed the good news, Jesus gave his Apostles the authority to heal. The power to heal is the power to immediately restore to health all illnesses and disease.  This power was given to the Apostles to authentic the message and the messengers.  Jesus said you have received this power freely and therefore you are to give it freely.

          Proclaim the good news and authenticate that message with healing.  Those were the two behaviors Jesus practiced and the behaviors he taught his disciples to follow and to do so without becoming a burden to anyone.

          Finally, Jesus told the Apostles, “12 As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13 If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you” (Matthew 10:12-13).  Jesus was calling upon his Apostles to have compassion on those they met by granting peace to those who would receive them.  I can think of nothing more compassionate to offer another person than to help create for them a sense of inner peace. 

One of the most beautiful examples of inner peace is the 23rd Psalm.  At every step, whether a blessing or a challenge, the psalmist expresses an inner peace because God is present not as a distant demand but as a constant companion, a friend.  “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.  4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.  6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever” (Psalm 23-NKJV).

          This is the sense of God that Jesus desired out of compassion to share with the crowds and wanted his disciples to share with them as well.  It is a compassion that leads to peace.

We have seen in these passages what was going on, how God was being revealed, and how the people responded to the revelation of God through Jesus Christ.  When then are we to do with these passages? 

I think there are three things that shape our understanding and application of this Scripture.

First, Jesus’ did not come to call us into a religion.  If anything, Jesus came to call us from religion. Jesus preached that there can be only one ultimate loyalty and that the living God is the only worthy object of such loyalty.  Jesus’ call toward God was a sharp distinction. 

Think about the impact to your life of making this statement: “My first and ultimate loyalty is to God.”  Allow yourself a moment to take that statement in.  Yes, family is important as is work, my home, and my possessions, but eventually we will lose every one of those things.  There are no exceptions. 

Job said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart” (Job 1:21a).  When someone loses all those things and does not have God, then they have nothing but a total eternal emptiness and hopelessness. I think that is hell.

On the other hand, Jesus said, if you have God and his kingdom, you are always and eternally filled and hopeful.  Not only that, but as things like family, work, and possessions get added, life in this world only becomes sweeter.  And when we lose those things, yes, we grieve, but we have not lost eternity.  We are not empty because God remains. 

The Apostle Paul said, “38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).  Though everything may be lost, or will be lost, I have not been separated from God.

Jesus saw a harvest of people seeking something to end the emptiness and hopelessness of life that they could not fill with religion.  Jesus wanted them to know God and be filled. 

Look around you on any day and you will see countless people living full lives and yet feel empty.  They have placed their faith in themselves or in human idealism and they are beginning to discover that no matter how much they wish otherwise people will disappoint us.  In that discovery, they are finding that if they have nothing more fundamental upon which to depend than the goodness of their friends and family, they are bound to end in a mood of futility and emptiness.  The fields are ripe for the harvest.

The second thing we learn from our passage today is that there is an order, a sequence, to bringing people to know God.  There are three sequential steps to it: share the word, bring healing, and express compassion.  In our modern manifestation of church, we are more apt to express sympathy, demonstrate charity, and then if we ever get around to it, then express something about religion or church.

Now do not get me wrong.  We should do all we can to alleviate suffering by caring for those who have physical, emotional, or psychological needs that we can fill. Doing all those things is a vital way of displaying Jesus’ compassion but it cannot be all we do.  We must share the word of God, the goodness of God, the filling nature of God, and heal and express compassion. 

Our belief in God as our first and ultimate loyalty must compel us to see all life created in His image as sacred.  In that belief, we must be filled with a powerful love that likewise compels us to want to break the chains which bind others in emptiness and hopelessness by sharing God’s message of love, by healing what God equips us to heal, and to demonstrate Jesus’ compassion.

Third, we must be recognize that the mission of the church is a divine mission.  You and I are called by God to the mission of the harvest.  We should let that sink in as well. 

Jesus wrote a simple mission statement for the church.  He said, “7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matthew 10:7).  

To sustains us on this journey, Jesus gave us a reminder from the harvest.  Jesus took bread the byproduct of the grain harvest and wine a byproduct of the grape harvest and he used them to remind his disciples, including you and me, that he was part of this journey with us.  Jesus said take, eat, and drink in remembrance of Him. 

Remember that he invited us out of religion and into the purity of life with God.  Remember that he sent us into the world, that as we are going through life, share that the kingdom is near, heal where you can, and have compassion on those who have need.

Let us then prepare ourselves to come to that table of remembrance where we will share from the harvest and commit again our first and ultimate loyalty to God and remember to share, heal, and have compassion in Jesus Name. Amen.

          The Danish philosopher and theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, once observed, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”  This is a profoundly simple message.  The only way for us to make sense of the world and our place in it, is if we reflect upon the past. How we got to where we are today depends entirely on the past, that which has been lived.  However, life cannot go forward if we are constantly dwelling over things of a past that is no longer subject to our power.  So, Kierkegaard urges us to keep living for the future; after all, if we do not live forwards, we will have nothing to understand backwards.

          Looking backwards and living forwards is an important concept.  Recently, I looked back at one small reminder of my past.  It was my high school yearbook.  In our senior year of high school, we were asked to put down the dreams, goals, or ambitions of our future lives.   My life today bears little resemblance to what I had imagined it would be looking forward as an 18-year-old.  However, as I now look back on the arc, images, and experiences of my life, I understand from my past the contours of my life today.

          I think our reading today from the Gospel of Matthew is one of the moments Jesus’ apostles experienced as they walked forward with Jesus that they did not understood until they looked backwards. There would be many such moments with Jesus.  Jesus’ disciples certainly could not make sense of Jesus’ crucifixion until they looked back upon the cross from the day of Jesus’ resurrection and the empty tomb.

          Looking backwards to understand our life and then living forward with the confidence and faith is unique to humans.  One dog may learn many tricks, but that same dog cannot pass along its experience, wisdom, and knowledge to another dog not yet born.  We, on the other hand, have the capacity to learn from people separated from us by language, culture, and time.  We are so able because we were all created in the image of God who transcends all boundaries and limitations.

          Our Scripture passage today, transcends all limitations and is as much of the past of Jesus’ disciples as it is of our own past. What did Jesus share that day that was so important to his apostles and to you and me? 

We call the overall context of Jesus’ words, “The Sermon on the Mount.”  The opening to that sermon was given the subtitle, “The Beatitudes.”  Why are they called “The Beatitudes?”  They are only called that because in Latin translation of the Bible, each of the proverbial sayings begin with the Latin word, beati, which translates to the English words of "happy", "rich", or "blessed." 

So, when we see titles and subtitles in the Bible, we need to remember those were added by the editors and publishers of the book we hold in our hands.  They were not part of what God inspired.  I do not like titles and subtitles very much.  I think they tend to diminish our understanding of what God wanted us to know rather than improve it.

What was it that God wanted us to know that day from Jesus on the hillside?  Let’s take a look at what Jesus said.

“1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.  He said: 3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.  8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 5:1-10).

Countless sermons and Bible studies have come from these words uttered by Jesus on that hillside.  Matthew wrote, “His [Jesus’] disciples came to him, 2 and he [Jesus] began to teach them [the disciples] (Matthew 5:1b-2). Others were present but the teaching was for the disciples whom Jesus had called to leave behind their pasts and to walk into the future with him.

In that teaching, Jesus told his disciples about the blessings of being part of God’s plan.  Nine times Jesus pronounced a blessing upon those part of God’s plan.  The first eight blessings were entry into the kingdom of heaven, being comforted, inheriting the earth, being filled, being shown mercy, seeing God, being called children of God, and Jesus concluded repeating the blessing of entry into the kingdom of heaven.

These eight blessings for being part of God’s plan were received because they chose to be born again, only this time by the Spirit of God. Through the spirit of God, those born again would be moved to make poor their own spirit and be made strong in the Spirit of God.  Those born again would have mourned over their sin and adopted a spirit of meekness. Those born again would be hungry and thirsting for right living before God and would have a desire to be merciful. Those born again would seek purity of their mind, thoughts, words, and actions while seeking peace in their own life and the lives of those they loved.

Jesus was teaching that those people who would accept God’s invitation to become part of God’s plan would be radically different from those of the world.  Jesus did not teach that those individuals would become wealthy, healthy, popular, or better looking.  These are all temporal blessings that can be lost.

After teaching about these blessings, Jesus shifted his language just slightly but in a significant manner as he continued to upfold the blessings. Jesus said, “11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 [You] Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). 

Jesus had shifted his language from the abstract to the personal. Jesus shifted from teaching that these blessings were possible to saying “you,” in the plural, “you disciples” have these blessings and you will be further blessed when people insult you, shun you, drive you away, harass you, and say false things about you because of your belief in Jesus.  You will be blessed because you will know that you are speaking the truth about God and the relationship you have with God.

All these blessings Jesus spoke about had been bestowed upon the disciples.  The disciples just did not realize the significance of the blessing in the moment but would come to understand them when they looked backwards onto their life. Jesus then said that in recognition of these blessings you will rejoice and be glad. 

The Apostle Paul, who was not present at this teaching, came to understand it as he reflected upon his changed life after accepting God’s invitation.  Paul said, “4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7).

Jesus, having taught his disciples how blessed they were because they had accepted God’s invitation, had one more key part of the plan to explain to his disciples.  Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13a).  We have all heard these words before but what do they mean. Jesus again said, “You,” in the plural. You, disciples, are right now, not someday, not might be, but you are the salt of the earth.  You, this little bedraggled fellowship of fishermen, tax collectors, and sinners are the plan.  You are the salt that will change the world just as salt changes anything it touches.

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot” (Matthew 5:13). 

You are the plan and that should you fail, there would be no change possible to the world.  I seriously doubt the disciples understood the significance of what Jesus was saying to them at this early juncture of his ministry.  I suspect the disciples only understood this teaching when they looked backwards through the lens of the resurrection and crucifixion and looked forward toward Jesus’ call to be his witnesses throughout the world.

“You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13) meant Christian faith was to be emphasized in simplicity and humility not grandeur.  Christian faith shown by this band of blessed people was to be expressed in worshipping together with expectancy and wonder.  Though they had differences and diversity, they had more in common that they started to think and seek together without embarrassment.  They did not establish a headquarters or form an army. Instead, they became uncompromising people inspired and rejoicing in the blessings given to them by God and they built their life into an intensive fellowship of affection, worship, and work.

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13) and these disciples came to believe it and act accordingly.  These people created fellowships that became infectious changing the cultural order. That is what salt does – it changes whatever it touches.  They were successful because they believed and acted with hope.

When these disciples looked backwards through their life and their times with Jesus that recalled that their experiences were not a fairytale, or a philosophy constructed by a brilliant mind in the privacy of a study.  What they remembered had occurred.  Because it occurred, they knew there was hope in the future, promise in the future, even if the next step was in the present was a bit uncertain as to the immediate outcome.  But they moved forward because they came to understand they had been blessed by God.

We, who have received Christ, are blessed.  Did you, as a group, know that?  Do you feel blessed to be part of this group?  Did you know that God considers us, as a group, His own children and because He does this group has a place in heaven?  Did you, this group know that God granted mercy and He gave His Holy Spirit to encourage and comfort this group?

We cannot know these truths unless we look backwards and see in the lives of Jesus’ apostles, all who came after them, and all that has occurred in our life the blessings of God.  And in looking back, we realize we are blessed, we have the confidence, the faith, to move forward, not on our own, but as Christ’s church.  We do not seek a fellowship of individuals, but a fellowship of families comprised of brothers and sisters. 

Eugene Peterson, the author of The Message translation of the Bible put Jesus words this way:

13 “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.  14-16 “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16, MSG).

          Let me tell you why you are here.  You are here because you are blessed.  God blessed this group to be salt and light in the world.  We are not called to save the world. But we are called to make a lasting difference. We cannot do everything. But we can do something. And what we can do, we ought to do. That's what being salt, and light is all about. That is God’s plan for us.  So look backwards on your life and then decide if you are willing to live forward as part of God’s plan?  Let us pray.

          We have been talking about our life guided by the Holy Spirit of God.  We are reminded that when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God to guide us, comfort us, and correct us.

          Last week, we read that Jesus’ apostle, John, shared the need for us to live our life in conformity with the will, the desire of the Holy Spirit. When we do so, then we are at peace in our hearts.  When we do not follow the Holy Spirit, we have a disquieted spirit about us.  In the briefest of terms, John was calling on the member so his community to obey the Holy Spirit of God. 

Oh, how we have come to dislike that word, obey. I worked in a government program that preached “verbatim compliance” with its rules and regulations.  At the same time, our leadership would only follow rules of outsiders imposed on them if they agreed with the rule.  The program demanded obedience within but rejected obedience to others.  That is a conflicted sort of obedience structure but not uncommon in the way of life in our culture.

A family father once noted he experienced a conflicted obedience structure in his own home.  He said, “Father’s Day is only day of the year when I get complete obedience from every member of my family.  I tell them not to spend a lot of money on me—and they don’t.”

                    We could, of course, speak almost endlessly about the downside of disobedience.  Afterall, sin, at its heart, is all about disobeying the boundaries and values established by God because for one reason or for no reason, we do not agree with that boundary or the value placed by God.

          But I think it might be more profitable if we spoke about the advantages of spiritual obedience.  I would like us to explore spiritual obedience through the life and testimony of Jonah.

          As we read earlier this morning, Jonah was a prophet from the Old Testament. Prophets were people selected by God to share God’s warnings and words in the present so that there could be a future. That was the role of a prophet.

          We read selected passage from the Book of Jonah giving us a glimpse into the life of this prophet and giving us a window into the character of God.  We read that, “1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’  3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord” (Jonah 1:1-3).

Jonah was spiritually attuned to God.  Jonah could hear God speak to him and differentiate God’s voice from all others including Jonah’s own voice.  And that voice from God told Jonah that Jonah must go to the city of Nineveh (modern day Iraq) and preach to the people that their wicked behaviors must end, or else God would judge them and cause them to stop.  What exactly would God do is left unstated.

By outward appearances, Jonah gave the impression he was going to follow the spiritual obedience he had toward God.  Jonah prepared for the journey.  He went to the port of Joppa to board a ship that would be a necessary part of taking him closer to his destination, some 500 miles to the east. But instead of paying for passage for a ship heading east, Jonah paid for passage for a ship heading 2,500 miles to the west, to the city of Tarshish (modern day Spain). 

Jonah had a total break in obedience with God.  It seems that Jonah left behind his home, his life, and his calling from God and headed as far from his ancestral and spiritual roots as he could get. Sadly, this type of spiritual break continues to happen even to this day.  People, unwilling to deal with the realities of their life, destroy the manifestation of life by moving as far away from family as possible, severing ties with their past, all in a hope of destroying the life they once lived.  To make such a radical change happens when that person first makes a spiritual break with God.  Jonah broke with God traveled westward in the hopes of escaping God and everything about his former life.

We know from the book of Jonah that God did not break with Jonah. Instead, God caused Jonah to be returned to Him and to his call.  Jonah was tossed into the sea and rescued by a large fish.  After three days in the belly of a large fish, Jonah was vomited onto the shore near the destination of Nineveh, “1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’  3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh” (Jonah 3:1-3). 

Jonah who had made a spiritual break with God, submitted himself in spiritual obedience to God.  Jonah accepted that God and not he was sovereign.  It was God who placed the call on Jonah’s life.  It was God who caused the storm to envelop Jonah’s ship as it headed westward.  It was God who saved Jonah from the storm using a large fish.  And it was God who caused that fish to go eastward toward Jonah’s destination.

Jonah understood he was a creature of God’s creation and in God’s creation.  God was not a creature of Jonah’s creation.  In that simple understanding to the relationship between God and humanity, we then come to understand that spiritual obedience to God instead of spiritual warfare with God is right and beneficial thing for us.  The words from Jeremiah, then make complete sense, “‘11 For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11).

In spiritual obedience to God, Jonah preached God’s call for repentance to the Ninevites.  “10 When God saw what they [the Ninevites] did and how they [the Ninevites] turned from their evil ways, he [God] relented and did not bring on them [the Ninevites] the destruction he [God] had threatened” (Jonah 3:10).  God, using the instrument of Jonah, had turned people from their wickedness and gave them a future.

“1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he [Jonah] became angry. 2 He [Jonah] prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live’” (Jonah 4:1-3).

Jonah, even though he had been spiritually obedient toward God in one thing, preaching repentance to the Ninevites, still fought with God over the outcome.  Jonah did not want God to be gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love toward those who Jonah deemed unworthy.  Jonah only wanted God to be so toward him and his people. 

God and Jonah then entered a period of dialogue with God asking Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about my graciousness, compassion, forgiveness, and love toward others?”  I want to conclude our discussion about the Old Testament story of Jonah on that question with a note that the key here is that in spiritual obedience we keep talking to God even when, or especially when, we are angry at God. The benefit of spiritual obedience is that God is never the one to break fellowship with us.  If you are struggling with God, keep on talking through the struggle.  Never quit and never forget that we are of and dependent upon God and not the other way around.

Now the story of Jonah and spiritual obedience came back in the New Testament through the life of Jesus.  One day, Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders.  Other people had begun to gather around Jesus and these leaders to listen in on their conversation.  The religious leaders had declared Jesus was able to drive out evil spirits from a possessed person because Jesus was evil himself. 

          As Jesus challenged the thinking of the religious leaders, a woman in in the crowd called out, “‘Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.’  28 He [Jesus] replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it’” (Luke 11:27b-28).  Jesus was turning the conversation to spiritual obedience and that a blessed life was to be found in obedience to God.

Jesus continued, “29 ‘This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah’” (Luke 11:29). The story of Jonah was now back into the conversation.  Jesus said, “30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man [Jesus] be to this generation.  The sign here that Jesus was speaking about had nothing to do with Jonah being in the belly of the fish for three days and the eventual condition in which Jesus was in the tomb for three days.  Jonah, as a sign to the Ninevites, was a call for the people to repent, to turn away from their ways and follow God’s way.  As a prophet, Jonah spoke in the present so that the people could be assured of a future.  Jesus was preaching to the people in the present so that they could be assured of the future.  I am speaking in the present so that we (you and I) can be assured of a future.  The sign, therefore, was and remains a call to repent, that is to turn toward God.

Jesus revealed this truth in verse 32.  Jesus said, “32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they [the Ninevites] repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here” (Luke 11:32).  The Ninevites repented because of one of God’s prophets, and yet the Jewish leaders would not repent even though the Son of God, Jesus, stood before them.  Truly, Jesus said the men of Ninevites would judge the Jewish leaders and say, “What on earth were you thinking about?”

Jesus offered the Jewish leaders another example to entice them to spiritual obedience.    Jesus said, “31 The Queen of the South (Queen Sheba) will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here.”  The point here again was that Queen Sheba, though she was a Gentile [a non-Jew], traveled a long distance to hear Solomon, and the treasures she brought showed her respect for Solomon and the wisdom he possessed. In contrast, the Jews of Jesus’ time were unwilling to travel any distance to hear the King of kings, Jesus, say anything.  The Queen of Sheba’s lavish respect for Solomon stood in stark contrast to Israel’s flat-out rejection of Christ.

Jesus’ point was that spiritual obedience carries with it a future.  Spiritual obedience carries with it heavenly wisdom. Spiritual obedience carries with it evidence and the experience of God’s graciousness, compassion, forgiveness, and love. 

Why on earth would we choose to reject spiritual obedience to God through Jesus Christ?  The Jewish leaders rejected Jesus because they believed in themselves more than in all they saw Jesus do or say.  The Jewish leaders, these learned and highly educated men, rejected Jesus because they thought he was in error.  They thought Jesus was wrong.

And yet, as Jesus debated the Jewish leaders, another group of people, men and women, saw what Jesus did and what he said, and thought he was the truth.  They though Jesus was not just right, but that Jesus was righteous, as one coming from God, that he was the truth.  Jesus was free of error. 

With this second group, Jesus formed a redemptive society.  They were a small fellowship of people who built their lives on spiritual obedience into an intensive fellowship of affection, worship, and work.  This second group of followers to Jesus were thrilled in seeing themselves as part of emerging movement with divine purpose.

This second group, with such people as Peter, Mary, James, Salome, John, and Martha engaged in spiritual obedience to God through Jesus.  Doing so did not make them wealthy, or popular, or give them a simple life but doing so enriched their lives immeasurably with the presence of God.  God working through this ragtag group of men and women turned the world upside down.

Jesus is still issuing a call to spiritual obedience.  Just as we have read in the Scriptures today, as his call goes out there will be only two groups formed.  One group will not be spiritually obedient and face judgment. The other group will be spiritually obedient and blessed with a future, wisdom, and God’s graciousness, compassion, forgiveness, and love.  Which group shall we be found in?  Let us pray.