The Peace of God?

Back in January, the day after the inauguration, the President attended a prayer service in the National Cathedral in Washington DC at which Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde preached.
This is the end of her sermon, Bishop Budde said,

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.

There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.

The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras and temples.

I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.

May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen”

She did not harangue nor criticize the president or his party. Yet he called her a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” and demanded an apology.  And she received death threats from his followers.
Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

Bishop Budde says, “Unity across diversity, and even intense polarization, doesn’t require us to agree on everything. But nor can true unity be built on coercion, misinformation, and contempt for those who differ. True unity is built on the foundations of honoring the human dignity of all people, honesty in both private and public speech; humility, because we all make mistakes and need one another’s perspective; and mercy, the capacity for empathy and genuine compassion.

Though I attempted to speak with humility and respect when addressing the president, my words had the effect of amplifying the divisions that the prayer service for unity sought to address…. Yet if I had only said what our leaders wanted to hear, would that not have been a shirking of my responsibility?”[1]

What do you think? Would she have been shirking her responsibility?

It’s a dilemma for the preacher.

Many of us want to come to church to be nourished and sustained, assured of God’s love and to get away from the conflict in the world. We don’t want to be reminded of the debates that are raging politically.

Yet those debates are where the rubber hits the road. They are where our baptismal vows really have traction, our vows to seek and serve Christ in all persons; to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

Although the gospel of Jesus is a gospel of reconciliation, of reconciliation between God and human and between human and human, it is not always an easy and peaceful path. The Prince of Peace does not always bring peace. In fact, our gospel is centered in an act of extreme violence. Jesus was lynched. He was beaten, hung on a tree and left to die.

Yet paradoxically, that act of hideous violence was turned by God’s love into the timeless symbol of peace and reconciliation.

Some of us have been reading The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr. One of the ideas that I find most challenging is that the spiritual life is not just resurrection, it is also death. I want it to be just resurrection. I want the Prince of Peace to always bring peace and joy. But Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

In this congregation we do not all agree on everything. Which is of course not surprising; we are strong and individual people. But how are we to deal with our disagreements? Sweeping them under the carpet because we are polite and pleasant folk can be dangerous. They can creep out and ambush us when we least expect it. They can turn into grumblings and gossip which is one of the quickest ways to kill a congregation.

I may be wrong, but I think that when Sid was here you mainly did what Sid suggested, though he always told me he did what y’all wanted. And maybe he did. But if St Peters is to grow and welcome new people there will be more disagreement, more change. New people bring new ideas. You will each need to think about how important something is to you.

For example, when we go back to using a common cup for communion, many of you prefer to intinct – that is, to dip your bread into the cup. Yet, I know it’s counterintuitive, but that actually introduces more germs into the cup than taking a sip. Intincture is not a practice that is ok in this part of the church.

The common cup is a sign that we are all participating together in the life of Christ, that we come to God as a community not as a collection of individuals. It is also a sign that it is in Christ that we find our unity. Most human groups and organizations find unity by defining who is in and who is not. We, the Body of Christ, find our unity in our love and loyalty for Christ who is the head of the body. And we symbolize that reality by sharing bread from the same loaf and sharing wine from the same cup.

We show our care for one another by wearing masks and by not participating in the common cup when we feel less than well. We show our care for one another by not putting our hand in the chalice, however carefully.

You can rest assured that the full benefits of the eucharist may be found in the bread alone. Christ is fully present there so you may choose not to participate in the common cup and still participate in the Body of Christ.

How you deal with the change back to the normal practice of The Episcopal Church will be up to you as individuals in your relationship with God. But it is also up to us as a manifestation of the Body of Christ in this place to treat one another with care and respect even when we disagree.

Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

I think there is a paradox here that I have not fully grasped but I wonder about. In our understanding, God chose the Jewish people and had them live in a narrow strip of land that has been contested throughout most of history. And God chose to incarnate in this land of perpetual conflict. Why? Why did God not incarnate in Rome, the center of the known world and take advantage of pax romana – one of the longest enduring periods of peace in human history?

Why did God choose a place of conflict? And why does the mystery of our life-giving faith revolve around the state-sanctified lynching of a man who preached mercy and compassion?

There’s some deep and important truth hidden here. The closest I can get to it is in the words of a hymn. Please turn with me to hymn 661. Read it through for a moment.

1 They cast their nets in Galilee
just off the hills of brown;
such happy, simple fisher-folk,
before the Lord came down.

2 Contented, peaceful fishermen,
before they ever knew
the peace of God that filled their hearts
brimful, and broke them too.

3 Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
homeless, in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
head-down was crucified.

4 The peace of God, it is no peace,
but strife closed in the sod.
Yet let us pray for but one thing-
the marvelous peace of God.

And now let’s stay seated as we sing it together, quietly, as a meditation.

the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall


[1] https://mariannbudde.substack.com/p/hello-im-bishop-mariann