Peace on Earth - a sermon for fourth advent

Peace on Earth

Sermon for the Advent of Peace

Rev. Alison Longstaff, Dec 14, 2014

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Isaiah 9:2, 6-7; Luke 2: 8-14; Heavenly Secrets 8455

Heavenly Secrets 8455

Peace has within it confidence in the Lord, that He is in charge of everything, and is taking care of everything, and that He is leading to a good outcome.  Those who practice this confidence experience this peace; they fear nothing, and no worry about the future disturbs them.  So far as you and I grow in love to the Lord, so far do we experience this state of peace.

The angels proclaimed to the shepherds, "Peace on earth and good will toward all human kind." Some translations render this, "Peace to all whom God favors," but this implies a sort of "gonna find out who's naughty and nice," God—a God who has favorites and who leaves coal in the stockings of the rest of us. That doesn't align with a God of radical grace and love.

It is we humans who expect God to exclude some of us from His love. It is we humans who like to think that some of us are more worthy of God's favor than others. But worthy/unworthy doesn't apply to God's immense and all-encompassing love. God's love is available always and without condition, the way the sunlight shines unceasingly in the heavens. It is barriers inside and around us that make it seem as though God's favor is inconstant. Things in our life can block our ability to feel God's love just the way the clouds sometimes block the sunlight; still God's love shines perpetually and without ceasing, just waiting for our clouds to dissipate once again.

So I believe God desires "Peace on earth, and good will for all human kind," not just a few lucky ones.

But unfortunately current events show that peace and good will toward all human kind is far from the status quo in our world. Indeed it is even far from the status quo in our nation. Would you say that peace and good will exist in this state? In this town? This congregation? How about in your home? What about inside your very heart?

Because they are all connected.

When I think about the decided lack of "peace and good will toward all human kind" on earth, I can get very discouraged. Listening to the news and the choices being made by some of the world's leaders, I can get impatient and frustrated and angry. I want to shout at the idiots who are making the choices that create all the strife and cause so much harm.... Surely we know better by now! Surely we should have learned from our past mistakes and stopped doing such idiotic things to our planet and each other?

But one fact of human kind is that the more anxious we get, the less "mindful" or enlightened we behave. The more threatened we feel, the more the rational mind shuts down, and our less evolved coping strategies take over. It doesn't matter what I may know "with my whole head;" all wisdom will go out the window the minute I am under duress unless I have made an intentional practice of mindfulness and peace-keeping. Peace requires deep trust in the Lord, deep compassion for the neighbor, and intentional peace-keeping behaviors.

So as much as I might enjoy blaming the idiots "out there" for their choices, this probably isn't my most helpful response. It serves the purpose of giving vent to the hurting I feel inside over the human suffering and injustice, but it probably also just contributes to the problem. To quote loosely a Canadian radio comedy, "Tom, Tom, Tom. Do you really think you're going to get greedy, short-sighted, and arrogant people to amend their ways by calling them 'greedy, short-sighted, and arrogant'?" (Dead Dog Cafe) In other words, accusations and name-calling rarely evokes the response we desire. Shouting indignant accusations is often our most immediate response to injustice, but it just makes people defensive, and defensive people are not good listeners.

Now, before I proceed further, I want to talk about true peace and fake peace. True peace comes from a heart at rest—one without malice, that trusts completely in God's providence. There is a reason we call peace "resting in the Lord."

Smiling and saying things are fine when they are not is not true peace. Not allowing dissenting voices does not allow true peace. Covering up unhappiness and silencing complaints creates only a false peace.

True peace requires that all sides have the courage to address the conflict. True peace can be found when all sides probe with compassion the deep sources of the pain and then work to resolve them. True peace can only be found when we become willing to see our own part in the conflict and to make the necessary changes in our response. It requires that we be trustworthy, even when we are not sure the other parties will also be trustworthy.

I am sure we have all had encounters with the person who smiles to our face and then complains to everyone else behind our backs. Perhaps we have even been this person?

It is the default human response to discuss our outrage with anybody but the offender, to lick our wounds and bolster support. It feels much safer to do this. But it is a problem. It takes real courage to address the issue with the one who offended us and try to work it out before we start recruiting others to fortify our side. Taking our problem to a third party and recruiting them against the other "side" is called "triangulation," in counseling circles. This behavior is common, but it is rather unenlightened. Triangulation is by definition a conflict-escalating behavior because it reinforces the impression of opposition. It asks for loyalty to one's own story against the other side's story sometimes before the other party even knows there is a problem.

When you or I are the one who is being whispered about, we may have no idea there has been a problem until a whole army shows up on our doorstep, so to speak. By that time the triangulator may have such an investment in being the injured party that it is often too late to defuse the misunderstanding or make easy amends. By that time we already have a sort of war on our hands whether we like it or not. Poorly chosen words have become a cherished wound, the defenses are up, and the injured party is taking no prisoners.

Does this dynamic sound familiar? Has this happened to you? I know I have experienced both sides of this dynamic. I have been the outraged triangulator (I hope I have learned since then!) and I have been the one who has had no idea there was a problem until it was far too late and the grudge was well and truly entrenched.

What versions of this scenario have you experienced? How did you like it? Were you the triangulating injured party or the oblivious offender? Or perhaps you have been sucked into the conflict of one triangulator against another triangulator and you didn't know how to get out of the middle. In any case, triangulation creates a mini war. It is different from big war only in scale. It is not the way of peace.

The hardest part of divorce on children is not the divorce itself, but the ways the parents can try to recruit the children against the other parent. This is deeply unfair to the children and creates a terrible inner conflict for them. In some cases, it is a form of abuse. Yet until we discipline ourselves into more enlightened behaviors, triangulation is our first go-to coping mechanism when we are hurt or threatened. We humans tend to "go to war" as a default, and in war innocents get killed. They are the first and worst casualty of every war whether global or personal.

Sometimes our wars are cold or silent. We may be so conflict-avoidant that we choose to dodge all interaction with the "problem" person. Perhaps we harbor resentment towards that person, holding arguments with them in our heads, though we would never actually attempt the imagined conversation in reality. Resentment feels like we are getting back at the other person, but it actually only harms us. "Resentment is like eating rat poison and expecting a rat to die," they say. It eats us up inside, not the one we are mad at.

Bearing a grudge, holding resentment, pretending everything is fine, and simply avoiding the problem all create a false peace, because the conflict remains inside us. There is a knot of unresolved negative energy that stays with us wherever we go, affecting us, and not the one with whom we are in conflict. And it will not go away until we change ourselves—not the other, ourselves. Passive aggression is still aggression. It is just pretending to be nice. It is fake peace.

To quote Jeremiah 6:14: "They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace."

So how do we change our default response of attack and defense to something entirely other—to something that transcends the war impulse and taps a deeper wisdom?

Today's reading from Swedenborg says that peace comes from trusting God. We must cultivate a deep confidence in God's all-powerful and benevolent providence that is so strong we cannot be shaken "though the earth be removed, and the mountains be swept into the midst of the sea" (Psalm 42:6). In fact, I believe today's verse from Luke is also showing us the way to peace. When it says, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to all humankind," I believe we can read it as when we "glorify" God in the highest (which is to adore and put our absolute trust in the most-powerful and most-high God) the result is peace in our natural lives ("on earth") which comes from a cessation of ill-will. When we deeply trust that God has everything under control, we realize we have nothing to fear. When our soul is at peace and we have nothing to fear, we truly do begin to wish well to all of God's created children, not just the ones who have pleased us. This is the Prince of Peace born in us indeed.

It is the nature of our earth-bound mind to be attached to temporal outcomes and worry about short-term goals. It can't help it. It can't help but think it is alone, and that every outcome is its responsibility. It is run most often by the ego. Resistance and struggle and "victim" are its default.

But according to the 'Borg, (Swedenborg) "Resistance is futile." We can fight the flow of Providence or relax into it. It will carry us toward the happiest outcome that we will allow, regardless.

When you go from this place today, I ask you to cultivate an attitude of peace. I ask you to work on an ever-deepening trust in providence, no matter how much the ego-mind scoffs.

Yes, this life may sometimes give us very scary situations. Trusting Providence does not mean this life will be easy. Rather, trusting in providence changes what we pay attention to. It shifts our attachments from earthly values to spiritual ones. It makes earthly disappointments much easier to bear, and opens our eyes to coming joys we never even imagined before. So, no matter what comes our way in this life, we are at ease, because we know that God is always turning everything into the best possible spiritual outcome, no matter how things look temporarily in this life.

To quote the mystic Julian of Norwich, "And all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. Trust in God, and all indeed will be well.

Let the Prince of Peace be born in your heart, and then you will find "peace on earth and good will toward all human kind." Amen.

The Readings

Isaiah 9:2, 6-7

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned

 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Luke 2: 8-14   Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward all humankind!”