Not A Stupid Peace

Warning: Long Post Ahead!

I've been listening off and on to a sermon series by Tim Keller for the past couple of months. There so much in these sermons that I listen to each of them at least three times, mostly as I drive back and forth to work. The series is about the difference between a supernaturally changed heart and a morally changed heart. The sermon I'm on now is about supernatural peace. It's been on my mind to share this with my bloggy friends for a few days now.

To begin with, what is supernatural peace? Keller looks at Colossians 3 and Philippians 4 to get started:

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

He also brings in this dialogue from Pride and Prejudice between the two sisters Jane and Lizzy:

"I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!" cried Jane.
"Oh! Lizzy, why am I thus singled from my family, and blessed above them all! If
I could but see you as happy! If there were but such another man for you!"

"If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so happy as you.
Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your
happiness." (Lizzy)

Here, Keller says, Lizzie gets it. She doesn't give the traditional response of the time: "Oh, yes, a man will make me complete and happy!" Or the now traditional feminist response, "Are you crazy? I don't need a man to make me happy!" Instead she gets to the truth: without the right disposition of her heart, she will never be happy. Happiness is not a matter of circumstances, but a matter of the heart. Circumstances are not the cause of unhappiness, but they can bring it out if your heart is so disposed.

Three things to know about supernatural peace:

1. Peace is not a general condition, but a living power that comes into your life. It's active, it's alive. The word guard in Colossians means to march around the ramparts of your heart like a guard warding off attacks. The word rule literally means umpire (yes, they had umpires back then!) Umpires rule with an iron fist to keep peace. They throw out the troublemakers. Supernatural peace is a power that comes into your life and acts.

2. The peace of Christ rules. It is not ruled by circumstances. Think of a mirror. It can only be illumined if it's circumstances (the world it is being exposed to) are illuminated. If there's light shining in the room with the mirror, then it will have light. If you flip the light switch off, then the mirror is dark. So it can be with our hearts. If we depend on our circumstances to have peace, then if they are 'good', we will be at peace. If they are 'bad', we won't. The true peace of Christ rules from the inside despite circumstances.

3. It is the peace of Christ. It comes as a result of union with Him.

Keller goes on to talk about three strategies to cultivate this supernatural peace in our lives: thinking out, digging down, and looking up. This first one is really what I wanted to share.

Look back at Colossians chapter 3. Paul says,

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Paul is telling us simply to THINK! If all this is true, then think out what this means for your life and LIVE THAT WAY. Boy, there's a lot in that!

Think about the secular approach to peace. Think about all the secular self-help articles out in magazines this month for the beginning of a new year...all the strategies to have less stress, a better life. None of them will start with thinking. They all start with doing, don't they? Strategies, plans to make, actions to take.

Why? Because if a person with a secular, materialistic, humanistic worldview really thinks about what they believe (or say they believe), their lives are totally and completely hopeless and tragic. One secularist who actually thought these things out, Oliver Wendell Holmes, said:

"I see no reason for attributing to man a significance different in kind from that which belongs to a baboon or a grain of sand."

This is where secularists land if they truly think through their beliefs. We are no more significant than a grain of sand.

What do you believe? Think. Do you believe that the world was created by a God who desires us and, like a great hound of Heaven, chases after us? Think. Do you believe that although we are sinners and live in a fallen world, He sent His son to dive down into our mess and rescue us? Think. Do you believe one day you will appear with Christ in glory? Think.

Think out the implications of your belief. Most secularists says, albeit unconsciously, "I'm not going to think to get peace in my life. I'm expressly not going to think. I'm going to figure out what to do.

But a Christian must think. Ours is a smart peace, not a stupid peace. Contrary to popular belief, Christianity is not escapism.

Do you agree with Shakespeare's Macbeth:

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Or is do you see history as the story of God finding His people, saving His people, loving His people? There's no intellectual shortcuts in Christianity. We can't get peace by allowing ourselves to be stupid...Christianity is not about closing your eyes and believing. No it's about exploring, studying, and thinking things out.

Think about what you believe...and then live like it! This is what Keller means by "thinking out." This has been a good word for me as I have listened to this sermon over the past few days. There's things on the horizon that bring me fear. There's reopening of old wounds that bring me great sadness and a huge feeling of injustice all over again.

But, if I truly believe what I say I do, then the peace of Christ will still reign in my heart. That doesn't mean I won't worry. Or that I won't be sad. Or I won't be angry. Christ was concerned. Christ cried. Christ showed anger. But it does mean I won't be paralyzed by fear. I won't become bitter with my anger. I won't become totally despondent in my sadness.

If you're still with me after this very long post....I pray that we may all have smart peace today.

Tim Keller's sermon can be purchased here. (More to come on 'digging down' and 'looking up' to come...)

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Walking and Listening

I just went for a short walk on the trails behind my daughter's school (and our church) before I had to pick her up. I was so very tempted to just stay in the truck and listen to 30 more minutes of the audio book I picked up last week at the library or, better yet, lay the seat back and take a nap. But....I held up against the temptations, pulled myself out of the truck, and trudged off through the woods to the trail.

It was a great walk for a couple of reasons. One - once my arms started moving and I lost myself to the rhythm of walking I had a wonderful feeling of well-being and peace. Two - I had brought along my iPod and listened to a sermon by Tim Keller of Reedemer Church in Manhattan titled Exclusivity: How can there be just one true religion? It's part of a series Keller has on The Reason for God. He recently wrote a book by the same title as the series.

Keller's sermon made such an impact on me that I wanted to write some of it down...to share with anyone out there who might come across my blog, but also because writing about something better cements it in my head, and therefore in my heart, too. And these are things worth keeping in my heart.

The scripture reference was 1 John 4:1-10:

1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Keller made a lot of great points in this sermon, but there were three that really stuck with me: the three things that make Christianity different from other beliefs.

First, notice in verse 2 where John says, "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." John doesn't say to check that the spirit acknowledges that Jesus was born but that Jesus has come. It's a subtle difference, but important. Has come implies that He came from somewhere...that He was somewhere before coming to earth...that He simply was. John is telling us that Jesus Christ is indeed God. He is not just a great teacher or a moral man. He...is...God....incarnate.

Second, in the same verse, John says "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh". Flesh is the key word here. Some religions (Eastern primarily) believe the flesh is bad and heaven will provide us with an escape from it eventually. Other religions (Western primarily) believe that the flesh is bad and that we must tame it by following rules and regulations so we can eventually get to heaven. But here, John is telling us that the flesh isn't bad - the God of the universe wrapped Himself in flesh and came to our Earth. Christianity tells us that ultimate reality is not that we will escape from our flesh, from the Earth and all that is in it, but that the material world will all one day be redeemed.

Third, skipping down to verses 9 & 10, we are told what true love is: "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." True love, the love that God showed us through Jesus Christ, is sacrifical. It is love that is given to those who are not lovely, to those who don't first love us, to those who may mock us, hate us, kill us. Jesus didn't love us because we were good, because we followed rules, because we loved Him first - No, He loved us in spite of all our sins, all our faults, all our ugliness. He loved us so much, even as we were His enemies, and died for us.

So - this Jesus I believe in...who is He? He is God who pulled on a suit of flesh, made Himself a man while still being God, and expressed true love to His creatures by living the life we couldn't live and dying the death we couldn't die. And what am I to do? I am to live humbly before Him and all men, loving in the same way He first loved me: sacrifically. I am to appreciate this flesh I have been given, this material world I live in, because God has declared that His creatures and His creation are worth redeeming.

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