“Where Peace Begins”

Exodus 12:1-14

Last week I shared a little bit about my dad’s story. I beg your indulgence this morning as I continue the family theme and share with you a story about my grandfather. I never knew my grandfather, as he was executed by the Japanese during their occupation of the then Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) because he was a Dutch government official. My grandfather, George Heins, was a man of profound faith, and I would like to share a story with you from very near the end of his life because I think that it shows that he had something that we need.

Japanese tanks rolled into the city where my family was in the spring of 1942. Under German occupation itself, the Netherlands was in no position to offer much resistance. The first thing they did was build barbed wire fences around my family’s house so that they couldn’t escape. My Grandfather was almost immediately taken away and imprisoned. The story that I would like to share with you happened during that time when he was a prisoner. As a government official, he was dragged through the streets of the city, chained by the wrists and ankles, paraded in what was intended, I am sure, to be humiliation. My father remembers, as my Opa passed by, that he said to him, “Son, these people, they can never, never touch us, because we are in Jesus’ hands.”

In the midst of the pain of that moment, my grandfather was able to hold on to peace. In John’s telling of Jesus’ life, as Jesus prepared to go to the cross, a seeming victim of the power of evil, he said to his disciples, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me;” (John 14:30) My Grandfather understood those words, for in the midst of his chaos, his darkness, his suffering, he was able to say that the powers of this world have no power over us, because “we are in Jesus’ hands.”

It is a miracle to me: this holding on to peace in the midst of chaos. I don’t know about you, but I want it. I want to discover this kind of peace that withstands the dark powers of this world. If my experience as a human being and as a pastor has convinced me of anything, it is that many of us, indeed all of us as part of the human family, urgently need a bit more of this peace, this shalom, in the midst of chaos.

Well, the mission committee of our little church family here in Logan, UT, with the blessing of session, has decided to focus on peace. As the committee reflected on God’s will for our mission outreach, it decided that peacemaking should be our vision, peacemaking in all of its forms: nurturing peace within individuals, cultivating peace in relationships, building peace in our communities and world. It is a vision at once broad and focused. So we are going to focus on peace over the next couple of months. In worship and in our mission, we are going to reach out for peace, so that we can grow not only in discovering it, but in making it.

This morning I would like to focus on where peace begins. Is that a good place to start? I believe that our story from the book of Exodus, the story of God’s delivering God’s people from bondage to freedom, gives us a few hints of where peace begins.

This morning we hear this curious story of a religious ritual. We hear the story of God telling Moses that this is how they will celebrate God’s deliverance. This is how they will remember God’s setting them free. They are to take a lamb, prepare it just so, and gather around the table together. No one is to be left out. And you enjoy it together. You mark your homes with it so that whatever happens on the outside does not touch you on the inside.

“This will be a memorial day for you; you will celebrate it as a festival to GOD down through the generations, a fixed festival celebration to be observed always. (vs. 14)” What is curious about this celebration is that the victory hasn’t happened yet! There they are, the Israelites, still in bondage, still having to labor at the end of the taskmaster’s whip, and God is telling them to have a little victory party.

It doesn’t make sense. And yet, this is where peace begins. God tells them to celebrate because God knows that true freedom, and the peace that comes from it, does not begin on the outside. It does not begin with our external circumstances. (This is the way the world tries to achieve peace, by trying to exert control over the external) I have known people under the most trying circumstances, under the most intense suffering imaginable, who were able to be at peace. I have also known people who have had it all, who have enjoyed every privilege and external blessing, and who have been in utter turmoil. The difference between the first and the second is that the first has known that peace begins on the inside. Other traditions highlight this truth as well. Many faiths recognize this because the spiritual part of who we are is the deepest part. To be at peace spiritually is to be at peace deeply. That peace seeps upward to the other parts of who we are.

This truth is why God tells them to celebrate before Pharaoh even knows what is happening. Through that celebration, through that little party, God is planting peace deep in their souls so that whatever happens on the outside they will be free on the inside. “Son, these people can never touch us, because we are in Jesus’ hands.”

This is what worship is about, my friends. This is what coming to church and being a community is all about, my brothers and sisters. It is about discovering the beginning of peace. This is why we gather around this table. This is how we remember God’s setting us free. We remember the Lamb of God, our savior Jesus who gave his life for us. We prepare the table just so. We gather around it together. No one is to be left out, and we enjoy it together. We are invited to mark our lives with it so that whatever happens on the outside does not touch us on the inside. This is where peace begins.

Do you hear the invitation? Come. You may be in turmoil, you may be in darkness. Many in the world may think that this is an empty ritual in light of the world’s turmoil, but it is not. God is making peace right where it needs to begin, deep in our spirits. Close your eyes for a moment. Breathe deeply. Sense the presence of your brothers and sisters who are with you around the table. It is here that we discover that we are in Jesus’ hands.

In the coming weeks, we will discover not only that peace begins right here, but also that it doesn’t end right here. It ends out there. It transforms. But that is another invitation for another day. For now, hear Jesus words, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)

One more Opa story. It was one of the last times that my father saw his father before he was executed. My father and he were sitting as a part of a group of prisoners. They were famished. They had not eaten for a long time. They were handed bundles of rice. As the prisoners were handed bundles of rice, they would tear them open and stuff the rice into their mouths as fast as possible. They were famished. That’s what I would do. But one of the last things that my father witnessed my grandfather doing was when he received his bundle of rice. When he received his little bundle of rice, the first thing he did was say a prayer, a prayer of thanks. He, you see, had a peace that his physical hunger could not touch. He had a peace that the world cannot touch. He had something that we need.

So God offers us, this morning, a peace that the world cannot touch. It begins right here, right now. Amen.

September 7, 2008

Rev. Paul Heins

First Presbyterian Church

Logan, Utah