PEACE TO THIS HOUSE

‘Peace to this house!’

Bang in the middle of the uncertainty and toil of Jesus’ mission there is a promise of peace. It is clearly an account (Luke 10) that reflects the trials but also the intense joy of the early church discovering how people received the gospel. It is coupled with a vivid reading from the “Book of Consolation” about Jerusalem being a mother and her children being “suckled and savouring with delight her glorious breasts.” Such experiences and such readings stop us in our tracks and open to us for a moment the life that lies beyond our normal experiences.

Those who have TVs and, what is more, access to international channels can watch the best of sport and this week there are millions glued to an eighth of an acre of grass in South London. The thrill of Wimbledon is to see men and women reach beyond themselves and they carry us with them. It is just for a moment but it is enough to give us a glimpse of the stretch we are capable of.

It is all about peace. The word is used and reused. It is used in greetings and often said lightly and sometimes meant deeply. There is not much point in praying for it, in our own country or anywhere else, unless we combine our prayer with a stretching beyond ourselves to achieve it. It comes upon us suddenly like a gift but only if we have been reaching for it deep within us. It cannot be forced or imposed any more than you can force water to boil. You have to create the conditions and then wait.

How do we connect all these beautiful readings in the scriptures and our own experience? It is awesome to watch Wimbledon, or any sport, but it is also awesome to watch what is being enacted in Cairo. Passions have been coming to the boil for decades and now people in one country but with opposing views have come face to face. Now one side seems to have the upper hand, now another.  To the distant observer it looks like a nonviolent, on the whole, struggle being waged between two ways of thinking. The next stage in the struggle will be to go deep within and search out what they hold in common and how they can satisfy each other’s longings. It will be wonderful if they can do that. That is a far better prize than one side imposing its will on the other through force.

This prize is the peace Jesus promised. It cannot be simply mouthed. It has to grow from deep within. It has to overcome set ways of thinking; the barriers within me which prevent me moving out of moulds set in concrete. It can be done and this is the promise that set the 72 disciples alight. 72 was the traditional number of all the nations of the earth. So we can think of all the countries of the world today from A to Z, which is where we come in.

7 July 2013           Sunday 14 C

Is 66:10-14           Gal 6:14-18          Lk 10:1-12