Sermon Archive
Find peace within yourself
Sermon preached by Donald Reid at Holy Communion on 6 August 2006, broadcast as part of Sunday Worship on BBC Radio 4 on 13 August.
"Find peace within yourself" said St Seraphim, the great Russian spiritual leader, "and thousands around you will be saved."
The problem is that for many - if not most - of us, the task of finding peace within ourselves is the task of a lifetime. And as we struggle with this quest it's often our fear and insecurity rather than our self-possession that defines us. And this leads to conflict, within ourselves, certainly, and in our closest relationships, but played out also on the wider stage between cultures and between nations.
'Who am I?' is an insistent question whether it's asked in the more personal context of our sexuality or our family life, or on the global level of race, culture, religion and nationality. We long to know who we are and that longing is satisfied by the discovery that our identity depends on belonging to something greater than ourselves; and, more than this, that if we are able to be ourselves without cost to others we may be able to allow others to be who THEY are - and to relate to them in ways which are life-giving and enriching rather than predatory or defensive.
In taking identity as its theme this year, therefore, the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, is not concerned with self-awareness for its own sake, but as a way of finding a peace within that allows others too to have peace.
As Kahlil Gibran says in 'THE PROPHET' two people can relate to one another most creatively when they are like two strong trees standing side by side, each sturdy, drawing nourishment from its own roots - and therefore each able to relate to the other without threat or feeling of being threatened. Each person able to see and enjoy the other, because his eyes are not shrouded by his own anxious neediness.
This is the good soil in which the seed which is the message of peace can grow.
True peace is a holy thing, a reflection of the holiness of God and of God's will for us. One of the offerings during the festival is great music, celebrating that holiness - especially religious works like this Sanctus by Kodaly which will be sung today by St John's Choir.
Choir - Sanctus: Kodaly Missa Brevis
So the point of spirituality is to know yourself, and the point of knowing yourself is to be able to relate WELL to others: me being me in such a way as to enable you to be you. Doing to you as I would have you do to me (as all the great religious traditions teach).
But sometimes we prefer not to acknowledge aspects of our lives. Perhaps we are ashamed of ourselves, perhaps others make us ashamed of ourselves, so we hide, like the woman in this reading [from the Gospel of Mark]
Reading Mark 5.25-34
Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, 'If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.' Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my clothes?' And his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, "Who touched me?" ' He looked all round to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.'
Think of that woman, who had a problem with bleeding for many years, struggling through the crowds just to touch the hem of Christ's cloak, believing she would be made whole.
But then, horror of horrors, this woman, who had made an art of being invisible in a society which regarded her as unclean and therefore not worthy of public view, has the spotlight turned on her by Jesus. In front of the religious worthies, in the full glare of the crowd's attention, it is she who is commended for her faith and she is made whole. She is healed physically; but the equally important healing is that her value as a person is acknowledged in the sight of the community.
Is this not what Jesus did typically? He made invisible people VISIBLE. And it seems to me that this is what creative artists do too - painters, poets, playwrights, journalists...storytellers ... preachers and prophets. This is what they do! They make invisible people VISIBLE. Not to God, who already sees them. But to the rest of us, who choose not to.
The historian John Boswell describes the tendency of our societies to have insider groups and outsider groups. Some of the outsider groups have been groups such as women or people of other races. How clever we are to see these people but not see them! To make them invisible. How the scales need to fall from our eyes!
But Boswell also speaks of outsider groups in society who suffer a double disadvantage - because unlike these others, they are not even physically visible. So unlike women or black people, we can even deny they exist, or should exist. Boswell principally means gay people, but we could also think of people who have difficulties with mental health; or disabilities such as deafness.
As a society we are only on the bottom rung of the ladder towards understanding the complexities of human identity and the graciousness of God. But perhaps at festival time we can allow ourselves to celebrate the fact that we've begun to see there's a ladder to climb - to allow this eruption of creative energy to begin to make the invisible, visible.
So let's allow our hearts to be lifted as the choir sings a song of joy - John Sanders' setting of 'Jubilate' - Rejoice!
Choir - Sanders: Jubilate
A story, it matters not from which tradition, as you'll hear:
God has a much loved son for whom he decides to make the most perfect diamond in the world. Later he thinks, 'I have another child whom I also love. I should make him a jewel as well.' So he makes him a perfect copy of the first.
Later his two children discover that God has given these gifts. But each claims that he has the original and that his is more beautiful that the other's. As they fight the diamonds get mixed up. Neither son is able to recognize his own so eventually they go to God and ask him to tell them which diamond is the original one.
God takes the jewels, looks at them for a long time and then says, 'I cannot tell them apart.'
God hands them back, one to each son, and says, 'Perhaps, my children, since each is as perfect as the other, it is more important to enjoy the beauty of your own diamond than to argue about which one is the best.'
Sermon (continued)
Our Festival of Spirituality and Peace seeks to affirm that the world's great religious traditions and civilisations have nourished their people with wisdom and that these traditions are cherished and enjoyed like the diamonds in that story.
But we also dare to share our treasures; to allow their light to illuminate the mysteries of life and faith from different directions - like seeing a beautiful portrait made more beautiful by subtle side-lighting which softens the shadow and makes a figure more three dimensional. We seek to gather wisdom from wherever it may be found, to help each of us deepen our roots in our own identities, to make us strong so that we can stand together in friendship.
I've noticed, over the years, that when we belong to a group that is feeling insecure we tend to make unfavourable comparisons between ourselves and others. Often it's unconscious. But we tend to compare the BEST in ourselves with the WORST in others; or sometimes, if we feel particularly down on ourselves, it's the other way around - we compare the worst in ourselves with the best in others. But the point is we do not compare LIKE with LIKE. This is true of religious groups too.
So, for example, we see that group as fanatical and violent and ours as peace-loving and harmless. Forgetting that we have our fanatics too. And worse, not seeing that others want peace too, as much as we do. I have never met a person of another creed or colour who does not want peace. ?
Which brings us back to where we started. If we can find peace within ourselves, through acknowledging - though not being driven by - the shadows within us, then peace becomes possible for others too. Then, indeed, the world can be saved because we can relate to one another in truth… and in truth discover peace, that holy peace which God wants - Shalom - Salaam.
This peace does not require us to agree about everything, but it does ask us to respect our differences, to compare like for like and to allow the spirit of God to lead us into a deeper understanding and love for each other. May God bless us.
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