Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
December 7, 2003

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Today is the second Sunday of Advent, and the theme of the day is peace. A few minutes ago we lit the second Advent candle, the candle of peace. It burns among us now, bring us the light of Christ’s peace. Peace, of course, is a very good thing. We use the word a lot in church. We exchange Christ’s peace with one another every Sunday. Even politicians, of every ilk, even those who are quite prepared to use violence as a policy tool with little or no provocation, pay lip service to peace as their goal. And yet I wonder if we really know what peace is. Is it simply the absence of war? Is it the absence of conflict of any sort? Or is it in essence something else, something of a different nature altogether?

The answer to that question I think is yes; and I get that answer not so much from our own Christian tradition (although you can certainly find it there, and there is nothing un-Christian about it) but from the wisdom of Asia and from Buddhism in particular. The title of this meditation, "Peace Is Every Step," is the title of a book by a Buddhist monk named Thich Nhat Hanh, whose writings have become quite popular in this country. The answer to the question "what is peace" that I take from such writings is this: Peace is ultimately not something external to us. Rather, it is an inner attitude, an approach to life, that is calm, serene, in short, peaceful. The Buddhists call it "detachment." Christians call it the peace of Christ. Peace is the quieting of the mind, of the passions. It is above all the transcending, or the releasing, of anger and fear. It is the putting aside of hatred and envy. It is the attitude of inner stillness in all that comes our way. Asian wisdom teaches that all peace-including world peace-begins with such an inner attitude and is unattainable without it. Authors like Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama tell us: If you want world peace, begin by quieting your mind, your spirit. That, they say, will change the world. We would do well to heed their advice.

But, of course, the question arises, as it did last week about hope: How is such an attitude possible? Buddhism teaches that the way to inner peace is the way of meditation, of intentionally practicing the quieting of the mind until a quiet spirit becomes a constant and natural reality for us. There is much wisdom there, and there are spiritual traditions within Christianity that are not significantly different from the Asian practice of meditation. I find such meditation very difficult, but I have done it enough to know that it can work. It is a valuable spiritual discipline.

Our Christian tradition, however, adds something to the mix. It adds God. Buddhism is fundamentally atheistic. Now, that’s kind of a loaded word, but all it means here is that ultimate reality in Buddhism is not thought of in any kind of personal terms, as we think of God. Rather, Buddhists conceptualize ultimate reality as a kind of ultimate nothingness and salvation as release from the limits, constraints, and trials of personal existence. Christianity sees it differently. Although we know that the true nature of God remains ultimately a mystery, we also know that God, while not a person, relates to us in personal, indeed in profoundly intimate ways. We see God in Jesus, who definitely was a person just as we are persons. And out personal experience of a personal God has a ot to do with how we can find and experience that inner peace that is the source and beginning of all peace. For us, that peace comes not from ourselves but from God. It is God’s gift to us. It comes from knowing that God is present in our lives. It comes from knowing that in the final analysis we are safe no matter what happens because no matter what happens we are with God and God is with us. This is true in anything that comes our way in this lifetime, and it is true even in death. We can be at peace because we belong to God, and we know with St. Paul that nothing, absolutely nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God brings us peace, and in this Advent season we anticipate the coming of that peace into the world once again in the person of Jesus. So my friends, be at peace. Last week I said: Practice hope. Today I say Practice peace. Practice that inner calm that is the peace of Christ. Do it by meditation if that works for you. Do it through prayer. Do it through reading scripture. As you take Communion this morning, do it by letting the peace that the presence of Christ brings flow through your body and into your heart. Above all, do it by holding onto Jesus Christ as your rock and your salvation, for that is what he is. In him, you will find that peace that passes all understanding. Amen.