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"THE BOND OF PEACE"
EPISTLE SCRIPTURE TEXT: EPHESIANS 4:1-6
A MEDITATION FOR WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 4, 2009

SCRIPTURE TEXT: 1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called- 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you are the Prince of Peace. Help me to represent you well in the message to follow. Amen.

MESSAGE: As we prepare to receive Holy Communion this morning on what is termed "World Communion Sunday" I want to ask you to focus your thoughts upon what may be, for at least some of us, and unpopular subject. That subject is peace.

I trust you noticed that I said peace might be, for at least some of us, an unpopular subject. And it's not only because we live in Los Alamos, New Mexico that I say this.

Peace. Forty-five years ago the word "peace," formerly an unquestionably positive concept, began to take on mixed meanings in our society. "Peace" was adopted as the motto of radical, left-wing, sometimes violent groups. In that same era, the late 1960's and early 1970's, I was working at Los Alamos' sister facility in Albuquerque, Sandia National Labs. As most of us realize, a primary mission of both these national facilities is to preserve world peace - through nuclear deterrence.

I was a Christian, but I found my church increasingly identifying with naïve, left-leaning, peace-at-any-price thinking. My concept of peace was labeled un-Christian. I was a "warmonger," and unless I quit my job at Sandia and joined the so-called "peace movement," my commitment to Christ would be considered, at best, partial and deficient.

Fortunately, that era of American life ran its course. Our society at large now has a much more balanced, pluralistic view of the complexity of the task of peace making in the modern world. But the mainline churches of this country, of which United Methodism is the largest representative, have remained largely fixated in that skewed concept of peace which has, over and over again, proved itself bankrupt when confronting real-world issues.

What an irony that a denomination which prides itself in being broad-based and wide-open should be so narrow at the point of such an important issue for Christians - the struggle for peace. That's why I began this sermon by saying I thought some of you might be uncomfortable with what I, or any, Methodist preacher might have to say on the subject of peace. It's A. D. 2009, but so much worn-out 1960's and '70's rhetoric is still coming from church leaders that a lot of laity, throughout our nation, are simply turned off on the entire subject. But please give me a hearing today; I just might have some significant thoughts to offer, from God's Word, regarding peace.

Virtually all humans hope for - and maybe even pray for - peace. It's like apple pie and motherhood in that regard. In the abstract, everyone is for peace. When our world's political leaders negotiate toward defusing tensions in a global trouble spot, or an arms reduction agreement in Geneva, we are - in general - hopeful that these efforts will succeed. Even when our religious leaders speak out in favor of worldwide nuclear arms abolition, we certainly don't disagree, in principle, with those sentiments. When the United Nations calls on North Korea to cease its foolish dallying with atomic weapons, it's obviously a positive step by that world forum.

But as Christians none of these kinds of actions really satisfy us. Why? Because as Christians we readily recognize that they do not address the roots of world conflict. God's Spirit within us disquiets us. And God's Word clearly tells us that all such approaches deal only with the symptoms of the problem, not with the disease itself.

Our scripture text this morning is, to me, a key to understanding the true meaning of peace from a Christian point of view. Paul, the apostle who wrote this letter to the early Ephesian congregation, does not address the issue of peace by speaking about nations, or economic systems, or politics, or even about whole churches. Instead, he opens the subject with the individual Christian: "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." This is personal in focus. If Paul had intended this to be a "group" talk, he would have said, "I urge you all to live lives worthy…" But Paul, Christ's appointed apostle to the nations, begins to talk about peace by addressing the individual Christian.

If there is ever to be peace, true peace, in the world, it must begin with the individual man or woman. Jesus Christ did not enter the halls of government, either in Jerusalem or Rome, and attempt to talk peace with Herod or Caesar. Instead, he spoke to ordinary humans concerning attitudes that make for peace in the heart. Certainly, neither Jesus nor Paul was unaware of the massive, systemic empires of the world of their day - economic, social, religious and political megastructures which made for conflicts of global proportion even back then. They weren't naïve about those mammoths. But both Jesus and Paul chose to advance the cause of peace by addressing the basic source of all worldly conflict - the individual fallen, sinful human heart.

What are the attitudes which will make for peace in a human heart and, ultimately, for peace in the world at large? Paul describes them: "Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love."

Wow! Those are great ideas; attitudes which probably would make for a lot of peace. But they aren't my natural inclinations, and they likely aren't yours. Of course not - else we would already have peace, in our hearts and in our world.

So Paul continues on to say this: "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Without examining the full implications of that statement, as our time is limited, it is overtly clear that our human attitudes and efforts must be supplemented -- augmented by the work of God's Holy Spirit in our hearts. If there is to be peace in my life, I must open myself to a spirit of unity which only God's Holy Spirit can stir in my otherwise conflicted, warped human heart. God's Spirit will forge a bond of peace between me and my fellow Christians, the world over. And together, we will spread the good news of Jesus Christ - until every fallen, conflict-ridden, sinful human heart is restored to right relationship with the Spirit of its Creator. Then and only then peace - lasting peace - will become reality in our world.

Jesus Christ, our teacher, example, and redeemer, was and is the Prince of Peace. As we prepare to commune with him on this World Communion Sunday, let us recall those attitudes which can and will create peace in our hearts and, ultimately, in our world: "Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Amen.

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