June 1, 2003
A Rehearsal for Armageddon
The Rev. Dr. Riley E. Jensen

There is a piece of survival wisdom that is often passed to younger ministers as they are trying to figure out this lofty profession to which they have been called. Imagine that you are playing Monopoly and you have been given a limited number of “get-out-of-jail” cards.  When those cards are used up, then you are out of the game.  As applied to the church, every new minister is given just so many free passes to get out of trouble so we are advised to use them carefully and wisely.

Now that may sound like a rather fatalistic way in which to approach this high calling to which we have been called.  Nevertheless, the wise minister needs to be careful about how many times she tramples upon the good will and forbearance of even the most loving congregation.  Now you and I could have an interesting discussion about how many free passes I have used and how many I have left.  But I know that I used one of them early on which you are reminded of every week during worship, particularly if it is not your favorite part of the liturgy.

What I refer to, of course, is the ritual of the passing of the peace which occurs early in our worship experience every Sunday.  When I arrived on the scene here almost five years ago and attended my first Worship Committee meeting, consideration of including the passing of the peace in worship had already been a matter of discussion and debate for some time.  Like Daniel walking into the lion’s den, the rather innocent question was asked of me, “Riley, what do you think?”  Of course, I had no idea how much emotional freight had been laid upon that simple question.

But since I have seldom been part of a church where the passing of the peace was not a regular part of worship, I responded without guile that I was in favor of it.  While I didn’t realize it at the time I was clearly using one of my free passes.  Everyone smiled, a few looked nervously around the circle, and we quickly developed a plan for introducing it into our regular pattern of worship.  In fact it quickly became part of our worship without a lot of debate or dissension.  And it wasn’t until months and even years have passed that I have come to realize that this is the least favorite part of worship for many of you.

Now why is this so, and why was I willing to risk one of my “get-out-of-jail” cards on it.  The fact is that the practice of the passing of the peace is as old as the church itself.  The Apostle Paul encouraged Christians to greet one another with the kiss of peace.  Certainly our latent Puritanism could never handle that because many of us still get uptight during this moment of semi-spontaneity as we are asked to move out of our space to connect physically and spiritually with each other.

Why is it then that these simple words of peace come hard to our lips?  Why is it then that we tend to tighten up when that part of the worship service approaches (certainly some more than others but we haven’t earned our nickname “the frozen chosen” for nothing)?  I am under no illusions this morning that I can offer a pastoral explanation that will relieve your discomfort.  But it is important to try to understand what we do in light of our faith and tradition.

I.                  It is a Greeting That Recognizes Your Presence

First of all when we say, “peace be with you”, we are voicing a greeting that recognizes the presence of another.  We know that the standard greeting in the Middle Eastern world then and now was “Shalom” in Hebrew and “Salaam” in Arabic.  Both carry the meaning of peace, that kind of peace that expresses a desire for one’s total well-being.  Shalom translates across to the Greek as eirene` and we know people who carry that name eirene` -- the Goddess of Peace, Irene.

Now if we stopped right there, we would have nothing more than a ritual of welcome, and of course that is the way in which many of us approach this time, as a chance to greet friends and neighbors or even to introduce ourselves to strangers.  There is nothing wrong with that but what we have here is an act of worship rather than a time to high-five a friend.

Notice where the passing of the peace is placed in our order of worship.  We didn’t just stick it there because we thought it would be a chance for a mini-break to stretch your legs.  It is actually the conclusion of our time of confession.  This is what separates Christian worship from a motivational rally.  Yes, we do come to worship to be motivated, inspired, strengthened, and energized.  But when Christians gather for worship, they don’t start out by reminding themselves how great they are, but rather how broken they are and how much help they need from beyond themselves.

So when we get to the passing of the peace, we have made our corporate confession of sin which recognizes that while we may not be personally responsible for all the ills of the world we are participants in a larger system that can be destructive and contrary to God’s will.  Then we have our time for silent confession to name before God those areas of our lives where we need forgiveness.  We hear the reassuring words of the Gospel that God does love us and forgive us.  Then we close our time of confession with the passing of the peace.

To turn to one another to say, “May the Peace of Christ be with you” is both a powerful and awkward moment.  But to say, “Hey, what’s happenin’ man!” doesn’t quite cut it.  This is a moment of healing.  This is a moment of recognizing that we can only move on in worship and in our Christian lives when we are at peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  It reminds us that when we gather for worship, it has meaning only as we are connected with the body of Christ.  Furthermore, to pass the peace to one another is to say at least implicitly, “Because God loves you, I love you; because God forgives you, I forgive you.”

II.              It is to Commit Ourselves to the Work of Salvation

Now, in fact, the concept of shalom is larger and stronger and broader than even this.  For to wrap ourselves in the peace of Christ is to commit ourselves to the work of God’s salvation.  And this is so much deeper than “God bless me and mine, us four, and no more!”  Shalom, peace is so all-encompassing that it is the wish for the total well-being of all of God’s creation.

This is what separates out the Judaeo-Christian faith from those who believe that the custody of the earth is somebody else’s problem.  The Peace of Christ that we wish for one another has to do with a concern for the total well-being and health of both the person and the planet -- a concern that ultimately all of  God’s creation will be in harmony.

Every year many churches around the world lift the concept of an environmental Sabbath.  Frankly, we have not always done that as faithfully as we should and that is my personal confession for the morning.  But thanks to the faithful efforts of one of our own, Vicky Parker, Presbyterians in West Michigan are regularly reminded that we are not a church that limits our work for Shalom to a narrow spiritual sphere.  Rather, our work for peace is concerned about the well-being of the planet entrusted to our care.

If this sounds like one of those social justice themes that well-meaning do-gooders like myself get themselves involved in from time-to-time, one need only look to the most recent Statement of Faith of our Church to hear this mandate as urgent and far-reaching and at the heart of our faith.  In that Confession (the brief Statement of Faith of 1990) we confess our involvement in the “exploitation of nature, and threatening death to the planet entrusted to our care.”

Chief Seattle, the namesake of my hometown, spoke with the vision of a prophet when he said in the year 1855, “Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother.  Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the children of the earth.  If we spit upon the ground, we spit upon ourselves.  This we know -- the earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth.  One thing we know (which the white man may one day discover), our God is the same God.  You may think you own him as you wish to own our land, but you cannot.  This God of all people has a compassion that is equal for all.  This earth is precious to God and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator, so love it as we have loved it.  Care for it as we have cared for it.  And with all your mind and with all your heart, preserve it for your children, and love as God loves us all.”

Now while Shalom certainly embraces a concern for the total environment, Paul’s immediate concern with the Church at Thessalonica was much more mundane.  Discipline had been breaking down; everyone was going off in their own direction.  Paul’s concern in Verse 12 that they are “to respect those who labor among them and over them in the Lord” indicates that there was little respect for the different gifts that were present in the church and which must be recognized as contributing to the church’s overall well-being.

The people Paul is addressing here were independently minded folk who had their own opinions, could be a bit stubborn, and who sometimes went off on their own because they knew they were right.  I know that imagining such a situation for the present company might be a bit of a reach but work with me here!  Their stubbornness was undermining the peace and unity of the church so Paul is encouraging them to seek peace by encouraging the fainthearted, by helping the weak, and by having patience with each other.  It is in the context that Paul encourages them to share the Peace of Christ and be reconciled to one another.

I know it is only a ritual but words and symbols have power.  The essence of the communion that we are about to share is that through Christ all barriers which divide have been removed.  When we pass the peace, we are passing the peace of Christ.  It is the peace of Christ that we find at this Table of Grace and Salvation.  Here is where we celebrate what it means to be human as we take this first step of translating the vertical action of the Christ who suffered for us on the cross into the horizontal action of showing our love and concern for those around us.

A few months ago one of our children felt that she was being excluded as the adults all around her were turning to each other and passing the peace.  So she reached up and tugged at her father and said, “Can I have a piece of Christ?”

Come to the Table and may you find the Peace of Christ so that you can share the Peace of Christ.