When Jesus spoke of those who cry, “Peace, peace” when there is no peace, He must have foreseen the pain of the present time. Never before in human history, I would suspect, have more people felt less peace than now. Everywhere you turn there is the evidence of a generation which is deeply troubled, and does not know how to find peace. And yet we keep trying to find peace, using all the wrong things, all the things that do not work.
Some of us are anxious about our financial future, and so we try a variety of things to secure ourselves. We invest or we divest; we save or we gamble; we go for the high-flyers or we go for the blue chips. We think we can cure our concern by counting our coin; but we discover that we are just as anxious at a million dollars as we were at a hundred.
Some of us are anxious about our jobs, and so we attempt any number of things to protect ourselves. We play office politics, we work long hours, we take on extra work, we tell ourselves we will do whatever it takes to succeed. We think we can ease our anxiety by running the rat race, but even if you win the rat race, you still feel you are just a rat!
Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Isn’t that our time? Even Bush and Kerry took their wives on Dr. Phil’s show to get a little probing done and to be more comfortable with themselves.
Where can peace be found? What is a true and dependable source of peace of mind? And if there is a source of peace, is there a price we have to pay to get it? What will it cost us, this elusive thing called peace? What is the price of peace?
My thesis today is that peace is fundamentally a spiritual issue, no matter what else it may look like. Peace is at its core a spiritual issue, and we will not find peace until we identify it that way. Yes, there is a price to be paid in order to have peace. Let’s examine this together.
I
Sometimes conflict – peacelessness – looks like it’s all interpersonal. Sometimes if you cannot find peace, it seems as though it’s “their” fault. You know, “they”, those people out there who are so bent on having their own way that they can’t see the truth, which is my way! Often conflict looks like it is the clash of different personalities, and if only you could get people to hear one another, it would all work out. Isn’t that our common sense?
A number of years ago I took a personality test called the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory. The Myers-Briggs is designed to analyze the way we take in information and make decisions. It is supposed to predict how people will work with one another. Well, I tested out as an INTJ – I won’t bother to unpack all that, but let’s just say it speaks of a person who is introverted, who operates on reason more than on instinct, and who makes up his mind about something and plows ahead. Not long after I found out what Myers-Briggs box I was in, a psychologist who was familiar with our congregation at Takoma Park told me that he suspected that four of the five pastors who had served there before me had been INTJ’s, and that he thought probably most of our people were as well. So we are all the same personality type, and that means we should all get along well together, right? All operating with the same style, so nothing but peace, right?
You are way ahead of me. Wrong! Among these quiet, introverted people, there have been numerous conflicts, numerous breaches of the peace. They are so quiet sometimes you can hardly even notice – introverts fight, they just fight quietly! But breaches of the peace nonetheless. Why?
Because conflict, peacelessness, is fundamentally a spiritual issue, not an interpersonal one. Because the way to peace is not just through ironing out interpersonal differences; the way to peace is to let the Living God direct us to what is truly important.
In this final chapter of the Philippian letter, Paul calls attention to two women, and summons them to “be of the same mind in the Lord”. How would you like to be Euodia or Syntyche?! Whatever quarrel they had got immortalized in the Scriptures, so that nearly two thousand years later we are reading about their conflict! But Paul urges Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind – how? In the Lord! In the Lord! And then goes on to ask the readers of his letter to help these ladies unsnarl their snit, because they both have struggled for the work of the gospel.
I hear the apostle saying that peace is not merely personality conflict papered over. I hear him telling us that if we can focus on our work for the gospel, if we can remember that our purpose in life is not to beat others down, but to advance the Kingdom, then we can give peace a chance.
Several years ago two members of my congregation at Takoma Park got into a real conflict with one another. They were supposed to be working together on the same event, but their cooperation soon degenerated into conflict. Each one wanted to make the final decision about certain aspects of that event. And naturally each one came to the pastor complaining about the other, wanting Pastor Solomon to cut the baby in half. All my urging them to work it out came to nothing, and their feud was beginning to affect the fellowship of our church, as people took sides. So I called the two of them together, sat them in a room, and went to work to force them to hear one another. It was a very long evening locked in that little room at our church. The key moment came when one of them turned to the other and said, “I see that what I have done has hurt you. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?” I thought, “Aha, I’ve done it. Superpastor strikes again!” But the other one responded, “Forgive, well, no, because I ...”.
Because “I”! That’s when I saw that the issue is not interpersonal but spiritual. That’s when I realized that peace does not come just from hashing out differences. Peace comes only when there is a commitment to a spiritual solution, grounded in the work of the gospel and not in I, I, I. If you want peace, you are going to have to pay a price. And the price is humility. The price is confession. The price is acknowledging the deep, pervasive nature of pride. Pay that price, submit your ego to the Lord and to the overriding priority of the Kingdom, and you will be on your way to peace. But stay focused on what you want, stay committed to winning for the sake of winning, and peace will elude you forever. Peace is not just an interpersonal issue, it’s fundamentally a spiritual issue.
II
But then isn’t it also true that sometimes our failure to have peace is not so much connected with interpersonal issues as it is with emotional stuff? Isn’t it true that all too often we breach our own peace just because we feel so full of emotion, so brimming over with complicated energies? Do you know people like that? Are you maybe like that – so full of jumbled-up feelings that you just cannot settle, you just cannot be satisfied, you just cannot find peace with anything?
Once again, however, my thesis remains the same: peace is not simply an interpersonal issue, nor is it simply an emotional issue. Peace is a spiritual issue. Peace is not merely a function of how I feel in the tummy; peace is part and parcel of my relationship to God. When I ask you whether you have peace, I am not asking an emotional question. I am asking you a basically spiritual question. I am asking you about the security of your relationship with God.
You see, insecure people do lots of things that disturb their own peace. Just one example: insecure people bully others, steamroll people into compliance, because they know their case is weak, but know also that if they intimidate they can get their way. I think of one person I know at a church which shall not be named, lest the member of that church tell others back there what I said – I think of one person who, no matter what you suggest, as soon as you open your mouth, she starts shaking her head vigorously, “No, no, no”. She will shout you down in a hot minute. In fact, she will even pray you down! Let me tell you, you have not been intimidated until someone stands up in the middle of a meeting and implores the Lord to set you straight! But here’s what I want you to see – that is not just an emotional issue. That is a fundamentally spiritual issue. That’s about how secure your relationship with God really is. My friend at that nameless church, despite all the noise she makes, is profoundly unsure of her security in the Lord.
And so here is Paul, speaking to us in this passage about a peace that passes understanding. “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. How do you get that? What price must you pay for that peace? What does he say? “The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
How do you gain peace when you are full of anxiety about yourself? How do you obtain peace when you are insecure? You turn to the One who will always hear you. You turn to the One who always affirms you. You turn to the One who, when we pray, plants in our minds what we need to hear rather than what we want to hear. You pay the price of recognizing that it is not what you do or what you want or what you feel that matters, but that you can do all you need to do through the Christ who strengthens you. You pay the price of taking your hands off the control of your life and turning yourself over to the One whose love for you is infinite. “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
III
But now stay with me. And remember where we are going with this. I’ve been saying to you that peace is what we want, but peace is elusive. I’ve been arguing that peace is basically a spiritual issue – not simply an interpersonal one, and not merely an emotional one, but a spiritual issue. And I’ve insisted that there is a price to pay to have peace. I’ve said that you have to pay the price of giving up your desire to win in favor of advancing the gospel; and I’ve said that you have to pay the price of giving up control of your life in favor of letting God be all in all for you.
But now I want to get very realistic and admit that neither one of those things may give you immediate peace. You may not get immediate results. Humility is not learned overnight; you might be like the fellow who was awarded a medal for being humble, but when he wore it the next day they took it away from him! Humility is not learned overnight. That price may be paid over the long haul. And giving control over to the Lord in prayer is not a quick fix, either. Prayer is not a poison pill to kill anxiety instantly. Sometimes you and I just have to live with conflict and dissatisfaction. What do you do then? What price do you pay then for peace?
Paul teaches us now to keep on keeping on. To do the right thing. To stay on the positive. To keep focused on hope. Paul teaches us that no matter what we may feel, no matter what others may think of us, still we have to keep on diligently doing the right thing, and out of that, in God’s own time, God will give us peace.
“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned ... and the God of peace will be with you.”
Keep on keeping on with what you know to be true and right. We are so tempted sometimes to cut corners when we get anxious. But persistence pays off in the end.
During my last months at Takoma Park I got involved with the church accounting system. Don’t get me started on how that happened ... it just did. I moved the church over from bookkeeping by hand to bookkeeping by computer. Well, the monthly bank statement would come, and that would have to be reconciled before we could do a financial report. Do you know the first time I tried to do that reconciliation on the computer, using QuickBooks, I tried and tried and tried again, but it would not come out right. Every time I tried to reconcile, there would be something wrong. And so every time I tried to use the numbers from the bank to make up our church financial report, of course that wouldn’t balance either. Well, if you know Quicken or QuickBooks, you know that when bank statements will not reconcile, the software offers you the option to just to enter a fudge factor and let it go. I must tell you, I was so tempted to do that – just to declare reconciled what was not really reconciled, and go with it. But when I tried that, it made the church’s report even more out of balance! It had been way off; now, with a fudge factor in it, it was out of sight off. And so I went back, I went over my procedures, I kept on doing what I knew to be the right thing, until at last I found my error and got it right.
It’s like that with the Lord. Sometimes the skies seem leaden and our prayers seem unheard. We are tempted to give up and just go on. But I am here today to assure you that our God is faithful and will make things right. I am here today to proclaim the love of God that is inexhaustible and the steadfastness that is unshakable. I am here today to urge you to keep on doing what you know to be right and true and honest, and in God’s own time, in God’s own way, there will be peace. There will be reconciliation. There will be a new day.
For, brothers and sisters, in the end it is God Himself who pays the price of peace. In the end it is not that you or I can work our way to peace by much praying or much doing. In the end, Christ Himself is our peace. For on that cruel cross He flung Himself, the victim of people who couldn’t get along – but remember, the issue was not interpersonal but spiritual; and nailed there by those who felt so anxious about themselves they only wanted to wash their hands of Him – but remember, the issue of peace was not merely emotional but spiritual. On that cruel cross our Christ flung Himself, paying the price that we should be paying, so that we can be reconciled, reconciled to ourselves, reconciled to others, but most of all, reconciled to our God.
The price of peace is paid by the Prince of Peace. Be thankful! And be at peace in Him!
