Proper 9, Year A                                                                                  Zechariah 9:9-12
July 3, 2005                                                                                          Psalm 145:8-14
St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church                                           Romans 7:21-8:6
The Rev. Linda McCloud, Pastor                                                          Mathew 11:25-30

Peace to the nations

Let us pray:

“O God of peace, you have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength:  By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” 

            Over the last several years, I have discovered that one of the best things I can do for myself is to go on retreats.  It’s a peaceful thing to do.  The Bishop strongly encourages his clergy to take periodic retreats.  These become a time for reflection and gaining perspective on our lives.  Some of my favorite places to go on retreat are those musty old monasteries.  My friends used to kid me about actually paying to go to those places – and yet, those are places where I have found peace. 

Have you ever visited a monastery?  It would appear on the surface that time stands still in such places.  Monasteries appear at first to be artificial environments – not connected to the real world.  After all, the first bells of the day ring at 3:45 a.m.  The monks (and the guests who can stand it) get up and go to the church for 4:00 a.m. prayers. 

No one is in full voice at that hour.  The Psalms are chanted in a near whisper, which adds to the mystery of the dark and cavernous church.  Then there is a half-hour of silent prayer, more prayers and meditations, a short break, and Holy Eucharist at 7:00 a.m.  

After that the monks get breakfast and go about their physical labor – pitching hay, milking cows, making stained glass, or whatever it is that monks do.  Then throughout the day, bells toll and they stop for prayers – mid-morning, noon, mid-afternoon.  Prayer and work.  Work and prayer.  They converge. They merge.  Is prayer work, or is work prayer?  Before supper they gather in the church for vespers and chant more Psalms and prayers.  By this time the singing is vigorous and hardy. 

Finally, at 8:00 p.m. they chant their last Psalms and prayers for the day – by heart -- without any lights on in the dark and cavernous church. Then the abbot gives them a blessing and they go to bed.  Tomorrow, they will get up at 3:45 and do it all again.   

Although monks seem very distant from the rest of the world, if you read their writings you will learn that they feel very connected to the world.  They are not anti-world.  They pray for the world.  And they also serve another purpose.  They define the world for us.  Their definition might be something like this:  “the world” consists of those individuals who have not chosen to make God’s story their own story. 

The monks attempt to show the rest of us what it is like to be God’s good creation, and to place our own story firmly in the middle of God’s story.  They believe this will give us inner peace.

All the emotions that the rest of us don’t take time to deal with are dealt with by the monks.  Their biggest job is to know their own weakness and their own neediness before God.  They work hard at resting in God’s love and peace. And even in their apparent peacefulness, some of them are not at peace.  They are, after all, human beings who are trying to live in a peaceable kingdom. 

The best thing for me in going to a monastery for retreat is that I take the peace of that place back out into my work and world.  It lasts for a while, and then I have to go back for another dose of peace.

We live in a world of war.  A world at war.  The latest blockbuster movie is entitled “War of the Worlds.”   It’s supposed to be a real thriller.  Something to make us think.  Peace doesn’t make the news very much.  How long has it been since you saw a headline that said, “Peace breaks out” or “Congress declares peace.” 

So what are all these wars about?  For some, it’s the struggle for freedom, or the struggle for the basic necessities of life, such as food and water.  For others the struggle is over oil or other sources of wealth.  Would peace be the absence of war?  God would love for all nations to be at peace. 

In our Epistle for today, St. Paul talks about another kind of warfare.  He tells the church at Rome:  “For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind . . .”   Paul could relate to that great theologian and cartoon character from the Okefenokee Swamp, Pogo the Possum.  Pogo Possum is famous for saying, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” 

Paul could not master his own tendencies to sin and fall away from God’s love.  Sin was always lurking at his door.  But fortunately for him and for us, Paul knew Christ who had defeated sin by his death and resurrection.  Paul knew that his reliance on Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit would win.  Love would prevail.  Paul’s trust in God would keep him aware of his Christian duty to love everyone –including himself. 

What if you could face every day of your life with calmness - a confidence that all shall be very well?  What if you could cultivate habits of the heart that would bring peace to your soul?  Do you have a devotional time set aside each day to read scriptures and prayers, or to intercede for the needs of others?  That is a good way to cultivate peace.

 Would it help to know that the love of God sets you free to love other people, and thereby live at peace with yourself and with others?  There is a reason why our worship service is structured the way it is.  Before we come to this altar for communion, we greet each other in the peace of the Lord.  We come to God’s table in peace.  And then at the end of the service we “go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” 

And yet, we acknowledge that the Episcopal Church at large has within it those who are not at peace with each other.  May God give us the grace to love each other in the midst of our differing opinions. 

Would it help to know that God loves us all equally?  Our Gospel lesson today has an interesting turn of phrase that I would like us to think about during the coming week.  This is the wonderful invitation from Jesus, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 

Yoke.  What kind of image does that bring up in our minds?  Maybe you have seen in person or on TV an agricultural setting where two beasts of burden were working side by side with a piece of wood laid across their necks.  That piece of wood is a yoke.  It looks miserable to me – as if it would chafe and irritate.  So to take better care of the animals, some attempt is made to carve the yoke into a shape that fits well.  Jesus says his yoke is “easy.”  His yoke fits well. 

Another image of “yoke” is a pair of balance scales.  Picture if you will the idea of people carrying two buckets of water attached to a beam across their shoulders.  If the buckets do not have about the same amount of water, they are unwieldy and off balance.  Very hard to carry.  The love of God is balanced, and free, and fits us easily.  Our understanding of this makes it that much easier to share the love and generosity of God with others.  That would help bring peace to the world.

God’s language in this place is peace.  One of the workers who was here recently to install new windows said, “Wow.  It’s really peaceful in here.”

What would be peaceful to you? 

If you go swimming for the Fourth of July, you might want to try this:  Imagine that the water you dive into is the grace and love of God.  But go beyond that.  God’s love, grace and invitation to us is a boundless ocean.  There is no place we can go to get away from that.  If we experience God’s love, maybe we can also take that peace with us during the days ahead.  I hope you will take a few moments this weekend to be still and know that God is God, and to dive into the boundless ocean of his peace.