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TEACHINGS TO VALLEY VIEW COMMUNITY CHURCH

Living Inside Out

10/28/2007 - Peaceful Love, Galatians 5:22

When I was in college I read a book that really made an impact on me and strengthened my faith in the power of Christ. It was called Peace Child and it was written by a missionary named Don Richardson. And in the book he tells the true story of his long and difficult struggle to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Sawi Indians a cannibalistic, headhunting tribe of people living in the jungles of Irian Jaya, Indonesia.

In 1962, he and his wife, Carol, sailed halfway around the world to share the message of Christ with this group of Stone Age people who couldn't read or write and believed that treachery was the highest virtue and that the best feast was to eat your enemies. Not a group you want to go out to dinner with! And I can remember being struck by the courage and faith of this couple to do such a thing.

Not long after they arrived on the scene an enemy tribe up river befriended a warrior from the Sawi tribe where Don and Carol lived. And they convinced this warrior that he could be the peacemaker between the two tribes. So they gave him gifts, treated him with great respect, listened to his every word and made him feel like a hero.

And the warrior loved it. He relished his special status as the mediator between these two tribes. Until one day the enemy tribe held a feast for the warrior, which he thought was great until he discovered that he was the main entrée. And so while they were talking and laughing together they turned on him, killed him, and ate him because like the Sawi tribe they too believed that treachery was the highest virtue.

And in the midst of that culture of deception and brutality the Richardson's tried to share the peaceful love of God. They worked hard to learn the language and the customs and to just love the people, but they were frustrated every time they tried to share the message of Jesus because it just didn't seem to get through.

The tribe loved the story of the crucifixion, especially the part about Judas. When Richardson talked about how Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss they would go nuts, shouting and laughing and clapping for Judas. He was the hero in the story for them because he embodied their highest value of treachery and deceit. And when the Richardson's finally realized that they didn't know what to do. They were ready to pack up and go home because the tribe had the whole story upside down.

But to their credit they stayed at it. They prayed that God would show them some way to communicate the love of Christ for these people in a way that they could understand. And God answered their prayer in a way they could have never anticipated.

After the enemy tribe up river had killed that "peace making" warrior they decided to attack the Sawi tribe. And so for weeks they fought and killed each other. Until one day Don Richardson said, "Listen. We can't take this anymore. If you don't stop fighting we're out of here. We're going to have to leave your tribe." And that was a serious threat because they didn't want the missionaries to leave. They had brought medical care and tools and had increased their quality of life and so the chief decided that he had to pay the price for peace.

So one day the Richardson's watched as the warriors of the two tribes lined up opposite of each other. And the chief of the Sawi tribe took his newborn son out of the arms of his wife, who was sobbing uncontrollably, and went down the line of his warriors as each one of them put their hands on the head of his little first born son.

He then walked across the open space between the two hostile tribes and stood face to face with the enemy chief and placed his son into his enemy's arms. And then the chief of that tribe walked down the line of his warriors and each one placed his hand on the baby's head. And then they turned and disappeared into the bush taking the infant with them. The baby was gone, never again to be returned to his parents.

The Richardson's watched all of this and wondered what in the world the ceremony meant. And then one day the chief told them. He said, "I offered my son as the peace child for our tribes. And as long as my son lives there will be peace between our tribes. If he dies, the war will resume. But anyone who kills a peace child will himself be killed."

And at that moment, Don and Carol Richardson realized that God had answered their prayers. Don gathered the elders of the tribe together and told them the story of God's peace child. He told them of the war that rages between the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God. And then he shared how God, our heavenly father, the chief, sent his one and only son, Jesus, to this earth to be his peace child to make peace between God and us. And just as the warriors had placed their hands on the chief's little son as a sign that they accepted this little boy as their peace child, so we by faith accept Jesus as our peace child. The difference is that God's peace child will never die. He lives forever.

Peace with God, he told the Sawis, is not something we earn through good deeds, it is a gift we receive freely through faith. The apostle Paul puts it like this in Romans 5:1, Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace with God is available to all of us through faith in Jesus. And when he used that redemptive analogy taken right out of their own culture, the lights went on. And in a miraculous movement of the Spirit of God a spiritual and social revolution was took place in that tribe and 1,000's of Sawi people came to Christ and are still living in peace today because God's peace child will never die.

This morning we continue the series called Living Inside Out with a teaching called Peaceful Love. We've been saying all along that the life of Christ pulsates inside of each one of his followers and we want to live that life out. That's what we call living inside out. That's how we make a difference in this world.

Paul describes that life using the image of fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5:22-23 he puts it this way, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

It's not by living under law or rules and regulations that we produce this life. It's not about trying to rehab the sinful, "me first" nature that we all have. The life of God can only be produced by the Spirit of God as we allow his life to be lived out through us.

The word "fruit" is singular because I believe the real fruit of the Spirit is love. But that fruit gets expressed in different ways. Sometimes it appears as joy or peace or patience or kindness or one of the rest of these virtues that Paul lists. Sometimes love appears as others that didn't make the list like humility and compassion, mercy and justice, confession and forgiveness, generosity. There are many expressions of love, but the expression we want to look at today is peace, peaceful love.

Let me start by saying that our God is a God of peace. All through Scripture we see God referred to that way. Romans 15:33, The God of peace be with you all. 1 Corinthians 14:33, For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

At the center of the universe is this peaceful God who lives in perfect harmony between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's a happy home where there is no conflict, just love expressing itself in peace.

The Hebrew word for peace is the word "shalom." It's the way Jewish people have greeted each other for millennia, "shalom, peace." But it's more than just a greeting like "Hi" or "Yo, how you doin'?"

The word "shalom" is pregnant with meaning. It means good health and prosperity, safety and wholeness, contentment and tranquility. The word looks forward to the coming of the great shalom, the day when all those things will be true worldwide, the day when our peaceful God comes down and dwells on a peace filled earth. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's the great shalom and the dream of God is all wrapped up in it. And as reps of God's kingdom we have the privilege of bringing some of that shalom to this world right now.

I love that quote by Shane Claiborne in his book The Irresistible Revolution where he says, "What the world needs is people who believe so much in another world that they cannot help but begin enacting it now." That's what we have the power to do when we live inside out.

Jesus put it this way in his great Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Notice Jesus doesn't say, "Blessed are the peace lovers." Instead, he says, "Blessed are the peacemakers." Everybody loves the idea of peace. You're not going to find too many people that aren't for peace. But not everybody is willing to make peace especially if it costs us something like a chunk out of our pride.

But now that we're at peace with God through faith in Christ and what he did for us on the cross, God wants us to be at peace with ourselves, and at peace with each other. He wants us to be agents of peace in this troubled, conflicted world.

But if you're like me that peace can get robbed so easily. It seems like there's always something in my life that threatens to rob my peace. Call it stress, call it worry, call it whatever you want, but it takes all kinds of forms. This fall I've noticed two things that have created anxiety in my spirit. There have been other things as well but these two come floating to the surface. The first was saying goodbye to our oldest daughter as she went away to college. And I thought, "Where did the time go?" I can remember the first day we put her on the bus to go to elementary school and then we jumped in our car and drove to the school like maniacs to watch her get off the bus and of course she was totally mortified. But that day seems like yesterday.

And as we drove away from dropping her off at college I felt all kinds of emotions and anxiety was one of them. And there have times in these first two months when that anxiety will well up inside me and rob my peace. But what I've noticed is that that peace will return when I bring my fears out into the open and talk about them with my wife or with friends I trust and when I bring them to the Lord in prayer because my daughter's safety and well being are completely out of my control, but he is with her when I am not.

The second source of anxiety has been this whole Sunnyside Project. First there was the deadline of getting out of the YMCA and then the deadline of moving over here which caused a good bit of stress this summer and robbed my sense of peace. And now that we're here and the project is nearing completion there's the stress of how we're going to pay for it. For fourteen years we've been very careful with our resources and have never incurred any debt for the church. But that's changed. Now there is a significant loan that we need to pay off and yet we want to remain a generous church sensitive to the needs of others both inside and outside our community.

And when I feel that anxiety welling up inside I need to do the same two things: I need to bring it out of the darkness and into the light with others and I need to bring those anxious feelings to the Lord in prayer. Because I really do believe that God gave us this property to use for his glory and that we had no alternative but to move out of the Y and over here to Sunnyside. And I do believe that he will provide the resources we need as we all seek him together to do our part.

Stress is part of life and it comes when things get beyond our control. Someone I read this week said, "It is astounding to contemplate how many things that form and shape our world are truly and completely beyond our control. It begins before we are born. We have no control who our parents are or when or where we are born. Our parents pass on to us a set of genes that determines what we look like. Will we be male or female, tall or short? Will our skin and hair be that of the majority or that of a persecuted minority? Will we be born physically or mentally handicapped? Will we be born in a free land with many opportunities for education and wealth or will we have to endure a harsh, rock-scrabble existence? All of us are dealt a hand at birth, and God expects us to play that hand to the best of our ability.

"Even long after birth, we still have no control over the majority of tranquility destroyers. We have no control over whether our nation goes to war or the stock market crashes. What can anyone do about weather that produces a drought or a sudden flood? Can we halt a terrifying, life-changing earthquake that can shatter the lives of thousands of people without even a rumble of warning? Think of the California fires this week.

"Even in the intimacy of personal relationships, our control over the attitudes and behavior of others is minimal. How many of us have actually been successful in getting someone to change or to quit an addiction? Our minds become troubled because we fear what is happening or may happen to us or a loved one. We worry that the consequences will be difficult to overcome, embarrassing, physically painful, damaging to our reputation or that we will be overwhelmed and suffer great loss."

Can you relate to any of that? I can. Yet in the midst of a life that's beyond our control we are called to peace. Isaiah 26:3 says, God will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trusting in God is what gives us peace.

Jesus put it this way in John 14:27, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Trust in God, trust also in me.

Trust in God is the key to peace, but what do we trust about God? We're trusting that he's with us and that he loves us and that he is in control. He is working out his plan to advance his kingdom in this world which is far more important than my plan for my little world. His will has priority over my will.

Let me tell you how I've seen this peaceful love lived inside out in just the last week or so. I saw it in the hospital room of man who knows that he's dying. The doctors have stopped treatment and sent him home where he is in hospice care. And when I was with him he said that he was in a "win/win" situation because if he went home he'd be with his kids and his grandchildren. But if he went to his heavenly home he'd be with his wife who passed away earlier this year. That's living inside out. That's the peace of God.

And so we read Philippians 4:4-9 together, Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

I saw it in a man who was about to get married recently. He came to know Christ this past year and just before he was ready to walk down the aisle to say "I do" we have a word of prayer together. And he said, "Bruce, a year ago I would have been a wreck right now. Oh, I would have looked cool on the outside, but inside I would have been a mess. This morning I woke up at four o'clock thinking about all the details of the day, so I just started praying. And I can't tell you the peace I have because of it!" That's living inside out.

A week or so ago I was talking to another man who reconciled a relationship with a family member. They had been at odds and in kind of a cold war when he decided that was enough. He wasn't going to wait until he felt loving, he was going to love. He was going to be a peacemaker. And so with humility he approached that person and confessed his pride that had gotten in the way of their relationship and took the first step to making things right. That's living inside out. That's what Jesus meant when he said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. That's acting like a child of the king.

On Tuesday this week Tim and I went down to Philadelphia to attend the viewing for the brother of the foreman who had supervised the job here at Sunnyside. He passed away suddenly at the age of 54. It was a complete shock to his family. We didn't know the man, but we knew his brother and so we wanted to go and be an encouragement to him. And in that situation we thought, "What does love look like here?" It doesn't look like joy. Instead, it looks like peace. How can we bring a little bit of peace into this troubled time?

We were just content to be there to show our love and support, but God gave us the opportunity to pray for our friend and Tim asked that God would give him peace, a peace that passes all understanding.

We are agents of peace in this world. We have peace with God. We can be at peace with ourselves. And we bring that peace into every relationship we have. But being a peacemaker goes even beyond that. We are called to be agents for global peace in this world because that's what God's kingdom is eventually going to be. It will be a peaceable kingdom.

So as a Christ follower how am I to view the war in Iraq or the global war on terror? What's my responsibility to the genocide that's taking place in Darfur? Those are things I'm doing a lot of thinking about right now. I'm starting to sign petitions and make my voice heard. I'm reading articles and rethinking some of my own political views in light of Jesus' call to be peacemakers.

This week I read an article by N. T. Wright called "Where is God in 'The War on Terror'"? And I'll close with this. He summarizes the article by saying, "Where then is God in the War on Terror. Grieving and groaning within the pain and horror of his battered but still beautiful world. Stirring in the hearts of human beings the desire for a more credible structure of global justice and mercy. Burning into the imagination of human beings a hope that peace and reconciliation might eventually win out over suspicion and hatred.

"It is the task of the followers of Jesus to remind those called to authority, in whatever sphere, that the God who made the world intends to put the world to rights at last, and to call the authorities to acts of justice and mercy which will anticipate, in the present time, God's final setting of all things right, God's wiping away of every tear from every eye.

"My friends, we in our generation - and especially those of you in your teens and twenties - face a new world, full of possibilities for great good and great ill. All of us in our different callings are summoned to this task of peacemaking, some of you, perhaps, to make it your life's work. Jesus is Lord. The Spirit is powerful. God is doing a new thing. Let's get out there and join in."

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.