What Makes for Peace?
Because of this weekend’s snow, Sunday was an odd Sunday. The roads were very unsafe, so we encouraged you NOT to come to the worship service…odd indeed! In fact, one of the songs we were going to sing was “O Come All Ye Faithful”, which I had us cancel – because we were encouraging all you faithful NOT to come on Sunday morning! Instead, we encouraged you to watch online – and hopefully you did (and you still/always can right here). But if you didn’t, here’s a recap of the message, continuing our series about peace on earth:
When a society recognizes and follows Jesus as Lord and King and God, it’s a recipe for peace on earth. When a society rejects Jesus as Lord and King and God, it’s a recipe for self-chosen calamity, collapse, crisis, chaos – catastrophe.
We see this with crystal clarity as Jesus approaches Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (wrong holiday, I know!) in Luke 19. Where some see it (rightly) as a celebration of the “King who comes in the name of the Lord” (Psalm 118), Jesus mourns over the city: he weeps as he approaches it. Why? Because they missed what was really happening.
They missed “what makes for peace”.
They missed God’s in-person arrival in Jesus.
They missed Jesus as the King who comes in the name of God, “the Lord”.
They missed what they were waiting for all their lives: God with us.
Specifically, the leaders of Jerusalem (the Pharisees) rejected Jesus as King and Lord and God, and as the leaders go, so goes the people – and so goes the city. Jesus predicts what would happen about 40 years later: the complete destruction of the city by the Roman army in 70AD.
Calamity. Collapse. Crisis. Chaos.
Complete Catastrophe.
The very stones that would shout out “Jesus is King” are the same stones that would collapse down on them, one on top of another in judgment. Devastating. But Psalm 118 – repeated by Jesus just one chapter later – saw it all happening like this too:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’
The stone is Jesus, who the “builders” (Pharisees / religious leaders) reject. And now, Jesus is the new cornerstone. But what is the old cornerstone?
I’m glad you asked.
Do you know what the name “Jerusalem” means? The ‘salem’ part is a simplified version of the Hebrew word “shalom”, which means “peace, wholeness, completeness”. The ‘Jeru’ part means “foundation”, or, “cornerstone”.
Jerusalem was the “cornerstone of peace”. It was meant to be the place on earth where God’s shalom (peace, wholeness) was to be found, the source where it flowed from, the foundation on which God’s shalom was to be built on earth, and, the meeting place of heaven and earth!
And it rejected its own God’s coming. Put differently,
The ‘cornerstone of peace’ rejected Jesus (the Prince of Peace – the stone) – which brought on its own catastrophe, and now, the stone that was rejected has become the new cornerstone of peace.
Jesus is the cornerstone – the foundation – of peace on earth.
Jesus is from where peace on earth flows.
Jesus is the meeting place of heaven and earth.
If a society wants peace,
it must be built on Jesus.
So whether the ‘society’ has 2 people, or 8.2 billion people, may we ‘build’ on Jesus as our foundation.
How? Something like this:
May we be kind and compassionate to one another.
May we forgive, as God in Christ has forgiven us.
May we love our neighbors as ourselves.
May we love our enemies, and pray for those who are against us.
May we seek God’s kingdom before our own.
May we remember that Jesus is King, and Caesar isn’t.
May we serve God, and not wealth.
May we value reconciliation above all else.
May we turn the other cheek and go the second mile.
May we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned.
May we care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant.
May we value most highly those who are lowest in our society.
May we remember that our real enemies are never flesh and blood.
May we deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus.
May we lay down our lives for others.
May we love another, as Jesus has loved us.
May we, in other words, become like Jesus.
That – is what it’d be like to build our society on the foundation of Jesus, our cornerstone of peace.
That – is ‘what makes for peace’ on earth
That – is our calling as a church.
So may we recognize and follow Jesus as King and Lord and God in every inch and area of life.
Amen.