ÿþ <html> <head> <title>Welcome to First United Methodist Church, El Dorado, AR,  A Christian s Character; the Spirit s Fruit Part 3, Peace </title><!--- July 4, 2010 --> <meta name="description" content="First United Methodist church, El Dorado, AR, FUMC, F.U.M.C. First Church, First Methodist, Methodist John Wesley, Methodist, United Methodist Youth, United Methodist women" /> <meta name="keywords" content="First United Methodist church, El Dorado, AR, FUMC, F.U.M.C. 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That lovely week that comes along each year when we vow to take time away, to be with our family and friends and enjoy that sacred peace and quiet. We take time in the woods, at the beach, or even in a foreign country to remove ourselves from the chaos of our lives and place ourselves in moments of peace, moments when we can forget the hectic lives we leave behind and finally take time just to be. I wonder, however, how often these times away are actually peaceful. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> People, while we search for peace, while we yearn for peace it can be an elusive part of our lives. Perhaps, we find it so elusive because we search for it in all the wrong ways. I know that personally, I complain of a hectic life, of no time for reflection or study, of a lack of time to be still and know, that god is, well, God. Amidst these complaints I create for myself a world of chaos. I wake up in the morning and first thing turn on ESPN to hear the latest sports news. As soon as I am in the car to head to work I turn on NPR for the news or one of the local music stations. I enter my office and quickly turn on my Pandora station, an internet radio service, to listen to my music while I organize, write or study. And this continues in the car, during meals, and even while I am jogging as I listen to my podcasts I am constantly surrounded by noise and information. I don t think that I am alone in this craze, that while I complain of a lack of peace and quiet I create a world of chaos around myself. And today, I will not blame it on the culture that I live in, this culture of media overload and constant stimulation, and instead blame it on my fear of peace. A fear of what happens when the chaos subsides and I have time just to be, just to pray, just to think and contemplate the world that I live in and the God that is guiding me through it. My grandmother has a needle point hanging in the kitchen that reads,  Once the party is over and the dishes are done I am going to sit down and have myself a nice nervous breakdown , I think that this encapsulates my fear of peace, what kind of realities will I encounter if I allow myself just to risk being still and knowing that god is there. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> As most of you know, we are currently on a journey to discover how the fruits of the spirit manifest themselves in our lives on a daily basis. How we can recognize the way that the spirit of god is at work in us? We have covered, so far, the love and joy that become of part of lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. Today as we approach the fruit of peace that the spirit allows to blossom within each of us we grow closer to god and stronger as Christians, I would like to take a real look at the people to whom Paul is writing of these fruits of the spirit. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Paul is writing to the church of Galatia, a town on the Mediterranean coast of present day Turkey. This was an established community of Christians who had begun to accept the teachings of another group of Christians who claimed the Law of Moses supersedes the grace of Jesus and the power of the spirit. This difference of opinions has created such a schism that the community has become staunchly divided. This conflicted community is who Paul writes to and after explaining to them that it is the grace of Jesus that trumps the Law of Moses he clarifies the ways that the spirit of god can come in and reconcile this broken church. He implores this group to seek the spirit, to welcome the spirit and finally to live out the fruits of the spirit in their own lives in such a way that each of their individual paths will lead to a wholeness of the church, which will lead to a peace filled community. And so, towards the end of the letter Paul tells them what a life filled with the spirit of God looks like, in this life you can see the love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control of God. As Brother Jim mentioned on our first week, these are not characteristics that we alone can develop and possess but instead fruits that develop through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And so, as we look at the way that the Spirit develops peace in our lives I want us to keep in mind that paul first wrote these words to a community in anguish and community that found itself in a cross fire of opinions and ideas. A community that, just like us, both desires peace but also creates the chaos that they live within. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> This part of it, the desire to both find the peace of the spirit and also to create the chaos is just part of our struggle as humanity. We are a hectic people, a people who struggle to communicate, who struggle to know what is right and wrong and a people who struggle to have the confidence to accept the presence and thus the peace of God. As I researched what peace meant I encountered a really eloquent definition: The word "peace" comes from the Greek word eirene, the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word shalom, which expresses the idea of wholeness, completeness, or tranquility in the soul that is unaffected by the outward circumstances or pressures. The word eirene strongly suggests the rule of order in place of chaos. When a person is dominated by peace, she has a calm, inner stability that results in the ability to conduct herself peacefully, even in the midst of circumstances that would normally be very nerve-wracking, traumatic, or upsetting...Rather than allowing the difficulties and pressures of life to break her, a person who is possessed by peace is whole, complete, orderly, stable, and poised for blessing. While seeking peace in place of the chaos that surrounds us is difficult, it represents the constant struggle between our broken humanity and the wholeness that God presents us with. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> So, what does it mean for our lives to risk pursuing the peace of the spirit? In a real way, what does it mean for us to set aside the chaos that we create and instead seek the wholeness that God offers us through the peace of the spirit? As I considered this I took time to really seek examples of when I or others have experienced the peace of the spirit. I guess it was the summer vacation theme again but quickly I thought of Ozark Mission Project. I know that this church has had a lot of experience with omp over the last few years, but for those of you who don t know this is a youth mission camp that happens over 12 times each summer where youth and a few adults go out into various communities around Arkansas and serve their neighbors. Well, I have been to OMP over a dozen times and each and every camp had at least one camper who chose omp over a trip to Hawaii or Europe or some other vacation destination. And while they were apprehensive at the beginning of the week by the end of the week they were glowing with the love and peace of God. Last year, during our youth s OMP presentation one of the adults said that while he always took a summer vacation to the beach with his family, this year he chose to go on this work based mission trip instead and the end result was that he was more rested and more at peace than he had ever felt after one of his traditional vacations. And think that this really illustrates the ways that the peace of the spirit finds ways into our lives. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> While we struggle to find peace in our lives we seek all of these man made sorts of peace. We go on elaborate vacations, we spend days at the spa, we do yoga and listen to new age music all while seeking the wholeness that only the presence and assurance of God can create. While we seek a man-made peace God is offering us a very real peace, where through the knowledge of this presence we can feel more than relaxed or calm, but instead find wholeness. This wholeness is risky. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> While we struggle to find this man made peace, the peace of the spirit is very real, it is not about escaping our reality but instead it is calling us to participate in this reality is a more physical way. For the Galatians the peace of god called them into reconciliation with one another. The Peace of god is powerful and calls us into new and risky things. Whether that be finding new people and new places or reconciling with old place and old people this peace is not an easy thing. When commenting about the fruits of the spirit, Stanley Hauerwas, professor of ethics at Duke University, says , We can risk being peaceful in a violent world, risk being kind in a competitive society, risk being faithful in an age of cynicism, risk being gentle among those who admire the tough, risk love when it may not be returned, because we have the confidence that in Christ we have been born into a new reality . </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> My prayer for us this day is that we set aside our anxieties and fears of the peace of god and deny those man-made attempts at peace and find ourselves face to face with the reality of God s peace and presence in each of our lives. For that is what peace is, the constant assurance that god is with us and in this world, that within the fears, anxieities and chaos god is at work for god. I hope that we can embrace this peace and make it a real, and risky, part of lives today. And we have a chance to do this right now. As we enter into our time of communion we are called into peace and reconciliation with both God and the community that surrounds us today. Communion is a sign of god s unfailing grace to and undeniable presence in our lives and our call to go out into the world experiencing and spreading the peace of god. </font></p> <br><br> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> </table> <TABLE width=800 border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <TR bgcolor="#d8d2d8"> <TD width=800 valign="baseline" bgcolor="#d8d2d8" align=right> <!--- beige F2F2E6 ----> <font face="verdana" color="#000000" size="1"> This site designed and maintained by <a href="http://www.hipdogwebdesign.com">HipDog Web Design&reg;</a><br> Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved.</TD> <TD width="19%">&nbsp;</TD> </TR> </TABLE> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>