The Fruit Of The Spirit: Peace

July 18, 2021 Sermon - The Fruit of the Spirit: Peace

Shalom. Has anyone ever said that to you? Any guesses at what that means? If you have an idea, please type it in the chat. In English we say “Hello” and “Goodbye”. The dictionary says it was Thomas Edison, the so-called inventor of the lightbulb, who put hello into common usage. He urged the people who used his phone to say "hello" when answering.

His rival, Alexander Graham Bell, thought the better word for answering the phone was "ahoy!" Whenever my dad, who was a professional artist, used to answer the phone when I was growing up he would say, loudly, “Parker here!” That always both scared me and impressed me. It left no doubt in the mind of the caller who they were talking to. It also impressed upon me and others in the house that there was no doubt who was the boss.

The word “Goodbye” is a mash up of 4 words that at one point were commonly said. Those 4 words were “God be with ye”, pronounced “Go BE Wi YE”. So that in itself is a blessing, giving your goodwill to the person who was leaving your presence. May God be with you - keeping you safe, keeping you in His will, keeping you on the receiving end of life’s blessings. Kinda nice.

Check chat - ideas on Shalom. Some folks have shared that they think shalom means...

So yeah, shalom is all about peace. It’s all about deep, rich, life-impacting peace. It’s not just the absence of war or misery or anxiety or suffering. It’s the presence of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Peace. True biblical shalom refers to an inward sense of completeness or wholeness. Although it can describe the absence of war, the majority of times it’s used point to an inner completeness and tranquility.

In Israel today, when you greet someone or say goodbye, you say, Shalom. You are literally saying, “may you be full of well-being” or, “may health and prosperity be upon you.”

Now in the John 14 passage that Lazio read, Jesus says “... the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 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

The greek word here is not shalom, but it’s a close relative. It’s Eirene pronounced “i-ray'-nay”. You may have heard the English word “irenic” which means “aiming or aimed at peace”. For sure you’ve heard the name “Irene” which means...peace.

In this passage, when Jesus refers to “leaving his peace“ with the disciples, again he uses the Greek word for irenic, and here it means…

security, safety, prosperity, felicity (intense happiness, because peace and harmony make and keep things safe and prosperous)

And Jesus says that he does not give his peace in the way that the world gives peace. What might He mean by that? What does peace look like in our world?

In the world, there are multiple forces influencing any sense of peace that there might be. But, sadly, there is really no stability in the peace that the world offers. There’s no war at the moment? Great. But, well. there’s a pandemic. The pandemic is nearly over. But, well, there’s a new variant, the Delta variant and now the Peru variant. So we will never locate peace on this planet. The peace the world has is fickle and short-lived.

According to Will and Ariel Durant, in their book “Lessons of History”, there have already been approximately 268 scattered years without war over the past 3,421 years.

That is in fact the nature of anything and everything that the world offers… It is not stable, it is fleeting, it is ultimately unsatisfying, and is very often just not what it appears to be.

But the peace that Jesus gives us, which again is an aspect of his character, his very own self, is a shalom or a sense of the irenic that burrows it’s way deep down into our lives.

It is the peace that comes through the most stable and trustworthy of relationships, your and my relationship with God.

When Jesus says: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. He’s really talking about something very profound. He is speaking of the salvation that His death and resurrection will achieve for his disciples—total well-being and inner rest of spirit, in fellowship with God.

All true peace is His gift, which the repetition emphasizes. I do not give . . . as the world gives. In its greetings of peace the world can only express a longing or wish. But Jesus’ peace is real and present, and available to all who know Him.