By Gary D. Stratman
If we have heard the New Testament lesson at all, our attention has been grasped.
"Do not be anxious." Can the speaker be serious? We live in what W.H. Auden, the poet, has characterized as the "Age of Anxiety." We live in an age of domestic violence, cancer, atomic threat. To say "don't be anxious" sounds like "don't breathe."
This same passage, however, promises us peace; how can we not be interested? We long for peace: being at home with ourselves, others and God. But is it possible?
Norman Cousins, former editor of
Saturday Review, said, "It is a squinting, sprinting, shoving age ... silence, already the nation's most critical shortage, is almost a nasty word." Even when outer turmoil does not press in on us, there is more than enough inner confusion.
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The Christian is not immune when it comes to a frenetic, at times frenzied, life style. We may call Jesus "Savior," "Prince of Peace," but this beautiful passage concerning "the peace of God" sounds like a foreign language far removed from our common experience.
Nonetheless, the Christian gospel could not be more clear in proclaiming that peace comes from God. Peace means being in right relationship within families, between nations, in ourselves, and with God. All are examples of God's shalom (wholeness, well-being).
Today, our focus is on the deep calm within the individual that is not blown away by all the squalls and tempests of life. It is faith tried by storm.
Vacationing for a week every year on the shores of Lake Michigan, I marvel at the suddenness and ferocity of summer storms. Yet, what is even more amazing is this deep calm within the lake that is not disturbed by the violence on the surface. That's the peace we want.
Not long ago, on another lake, I noticed a boat that was named "Tranquility." It sounded to me like a prayer. But where is it found? An even bigger, fancier boat in the same marina was named "Not Too Shabby" ... and it wasn't.
Is that where peace, tranquility, come from: from what we have? Or does it come from knowing that God loves us in Jesus Christ, forgives us and is with us until the end of the age?
This sounds good, but how does that peace flow into our anxious, fretful lives? Paul's answer to his beloved friends is prayer. The heart of any relationship is communication. Is it different in our relationship with God?
Thanking, asking, crying, listening; prayer is the soul's communication with God and through it travels the peace only God can give. Yet we feel so inadequate in prayer. Shakespeare's lines could have been spoken by most of us at one time or other:
Words fly up, my thoughts remain below,Words without thoughts never to heaven go.Realizing the truth expressed in such a confession, Paul speaks here of an important form of prayer which is often forgotten. He said, "Think on these things." (He is speaking of all that is worth contemplating: the just, the pure, the true, the lovely.) "Think on" means to meditate, to recognize in these things the peace that God has already given us.