Our Peaceful Day

 

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Micah 6:1-8

 

Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

 

“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,

what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

 

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

 

 

Micah, Gustave Dore

Matthew 5:1-12

 

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Sermon on the Mount, Rosselli

 

 

Today is going to be my peaceful day… 

How many of you have heard this saying recently? Perhaps you’ve heard about the Walk for Peace, a group twenty Buddhist monks who are walking from Texas to Washington, D.C. They will be passing through Richmond on Monday.

 

I’ve been following the monks on social media as they journey, and each time they stop for lunch or for the night, they are respected and welcomed by everyone. They’ve been fed and housed in civic centers, schools, Buddhist temples, and Christian churches all along the way. As they walk single file down the road, the people line up along the side of the road and bow to them, handing them flowers and small gifts. Everyone is quiet and reverent. The monks return the gestures of kindness with smiles, waves, flowers, and blessing cords (bracelets), sometimes stopping to chant blessings over someone who is sick or in need. It is a beautiful sight.

 

Most evenings one of the monks gives a peace talk to the local people gathered around their lodging. These talks are about forty-five minutes long, and you can hear a pin drop because the crowd is listening with great intent, even in the unbearable cold weather. The monks teach about finding inner peace using very human examples and often humor. For these monks, mindfulness is the way to find inner peace, which then flows out into the world. They remind the listeners at each stop to begin each day by saying, “Today is going to be my peaceful day.” 

 

Bhikkhu Pannakara, the spiritual leader for these monks says, "We walk not to protest, but to awaken the peace that already lives within each of us. Our walking is a simple yet meaningful reminder that unity and kindness begin within each of us and can radiate outward to families, communities, and society as a whole." The Walk for Peace invites all people regardless of faith, culture or background to come together in the spirit of peace, lovingkindness and compassion. 

 

When we hear today’s scriptures, can we connect what these Buddhist monks are doing with what the Prophet Micah was declaring to the people of his day, and with what Jesus was teaching to the people gathered around him? Can we hear the similarities?

 

The world is made up of people of many faiths, and the various faiths have their own requirements. At the core of almost every faith tradition there is a longing for peace, and a hope that we can live with justice, kindness, and humility. We are imperfect human beings though, and out of fear we try to make rules and requirements to protect ourselves and our interests.

 

Requirements are everywhere. What is required to become a member of the club? How much reading is required for that college course? What kind of down payment is required to purchase that car or that house? What are the requirements to serve on vestry? What is required to be confirmed by the Bishop and become a member of the Church? 

 

We want to know about requirements in our spiritual lives as well. How long must we pray each day, how much scripture do we need to read, how many Sundays a month is considered regular attendance in church? 

 

Am I required to love that neighbor? Must I give away everything to follow Jesus? What is the cost of a ticket to heaven, and what is the baggage limit? I suspect we want to know what is required so that we can do some accounting, to be sure we have enough, even if it’s at the expense of those who do not. 

 

In our natural instinct for survival, we are prone to these kinds of questions, to this sort of behavior, to fear and worry. We also assume, more often than not, that life is a zero-sum game. If I have less, then someone else has more and in order for me to have enough, others must necessarily have less. Here’s what Hebrew scholar and theologian Walter Brueggemann says about this.

 

“Mostly the world believes that all the assets are frozen, and things will stay the way they are. You know … you had better scramble and get it all, because that’s all there is and all there is going to be. If you are homeless, you will be that way forever. If you are number one, you had better have lots and lots of power, because that’s the way to keep it the way it is. Everything is arranged and settled and fixed and closed; you cannot cross any of these lines, and we work hard to keep the boundaries secure.” (Brueggeman, The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann, p 54) Walter does not mince words.

The Prophet Micah, James Tissot

 

Sometimes we can be easily swayed by these worldly assumptions. Things were no different in the eighth century before the birth of Christ. God, through the prophets, again and again called us to return, to repent from worldly ways. The prophet Micah lived in a time of Assyrian oppression and major socio-economic change in Judah, including an increasing gap between rich and poor. Micah, on God’s behalf, was especially concerned with injustice, and in particular, with corruption among the religious and political powers of his day. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

 

Things were much the same for Galilean peasants in the first century, which we hear in today’s Gospel. Jesus was very familiar with the prophet Micah. Jesus says that life is not a zero-sum game. In fact, Jesus turns everyone’s assumptions upside down, promising that God will reward those who are poor, mourning, hungry, or persecuted. Jesus says that those who appear to be losers of the zero-sum game are blessed, that they will receive all the things everyone is striving for in this world, and that the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

 

In a world where everyone is striving for something, where peace seems just about impossible to find right now, perhaps we can be guided by an ancient prophet to focus on justice, lovingkindness, and humility. Perhaps we can learn something from Jesus’ teachings which all seem to flow from the idea of peacemaking. And perhaps as children of God, we might learn something from the Buddhist monks about the necessity of finding peace within ourselves so that we can then share it with everyone else.

 

As Christians we can spend time in scripture and prayer, which will help us find inner peace and also make us more mindful of the needs of others. We probably won’t be walking for 2,300 miles like the Buddhist monks, but we can walk in the way of Jesus, practicing his teachings in our daily lives. 

 

Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Today is going to be our peaceful day.