A long time ago I saw a picture entitled “Peace.” It shows a little bird sitting on a branch overhanging a torrential waterfall with billowing storm clouds building in the background. The bird is singing his heart out. The painting illustrates what Jesus talks about in the Gospel lesson in terms of practical peace. The Pharisees had challenged Jesus about some of His disciples who ate without washing their hands according to some minor points in the Law. Jesus counters with a spiritual principle: That which comes out of a man defiles him, not what goes in. Ideally, our action and our conviction should coincide, but when they conflict moral choices take precedence over material manipulations in indicating the condition of the heart. Life is lived from the inside out. Just as we build our world according to the models we have in our minds, so we manifest what is in our hearts by the moral choices we make. We create the spiritual circumstances of our lives, they do not create us. And so it is with practical peace.

By way of illustration Matthew relates a confusing and troubling incident in Jesus’ life. A Gentile woman comes to Jesus asking for healing for her daughter and Jesus ignores her. Before we judge either Jesus or Matthew too harshly we must remember that God often withholds Himself from us. Teresa of Calcutta for 55 years yearned for the presence of God and never felt it. Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, God abandoning His temple. Even Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The woman’s experience is not out of the ordinary, and neither is Jesus’ action, for it is in these times of trial that the truth of our inner being is made known. And it is in the trial that Jesus inflicts on this woman is shown to be one who, in spite of the lack of response, retains her faith in Jesus; as one who is willing to struggle through because inside she knows that she knows that she knows. We see a woman who does not lose her balance in the face of the apparent injustice, but rather out of that situation lives into justice. In her inner core she is like that bird on the branch that maintains her peaceful core—life lived from the inside out.

So what is peace? The peace that is the fruit of the Spirit is not what is achieved by NATO or Operation Iraqi Freedom. Peace achieved by armies is only the cessation of war, a balance of belligerencies. God’s peace is a dynamic inner state. It is “shalom,” Hebrew for total well-being of the body and its strength, the soul and its relationships, and the spirit and its energies. Peace is harmony, beginning from within, where all things are in proper balance. Peace is ultimately the presence of God, the source and end of all things from Whom all things draw their greatest context and purpose. Peaceful people inspire peace around them, for only from inner peace can true outer peace be established.

In this troubled world, how do we get peace? To get peace get God. Adam and Eve sinned and the effect was alienation from God, from one another and from creation. Alienation is the awareness of separation and a wish that it were not so. Augustine of Hippo wrote 1600 years ago, “My heart is restless until it rests in you, O Lord.” In Christ we are reconciled again with God: Ephesians 2:14: “For He Himself is our peace.” If peace is well-being of body, soul and spirit, then reconciliation with the ground of our being is the very first step. Open your heart to His grace and truth, if you need help ask a trusted friend or your clergy-person.

Get anchored. Recently I was out fishing with someone from the parish on a windy day. The wind kept blowing us off the water we wanted to fish. Had we used it, the anchor would have kept us where we wanted to be. An anchor is something that keeps you in one place in spite of pressures to move you. There are many pressures on us every day: financial or social pressures, relationship issues, personal desires, opportunities and disappointments…. Without grounding we are blown with the winds of the moment, and there is no guarantee of harmony and balance. We say “Ignorance is bliss,” but the full quote is “Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.” (Thomas Gray).” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psalm 111:10) “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is…peace-loving…” (James 3:17) Daily commit yourself to that anchor. Every Wednesday evening at 6:00 we offer a contemplative healing mass, a quiet moment in the middle of a hectic week to anchor you in His peace.

Get focused. Let go of distractions. I walk my dog Candy in the mornings. She is a young pup who is in love with the world. As such she has a hard time paying attention—to me, that is, and not to the bug on the street, the dog barking in the neighbor’s yard, or the turkey vulture flying overhead. William James said, “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” Holy detachment is really nothing more than holy focus, letting God so fill our mind, heart and spirit that everything else is pushed gently into its proper place. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Your focus as a Christian is the transformation of the world by the power of Christ’s death and resurrection, starting with your own life and working outward. The focus of St. Christopher’s is to be the best possible place where that transformation can take place in you in the context of the Anglican tradition. Everything else is lunch.

Get perspective. Did you know that the top of Dog Hill on the way to Belton is almost exactly the same elevation as the Rectory in Harker Heights? I had no way of knowing that until I achieved a sense of perspective based not on my experience but on something beyond: the satellites my GPS unit talks to. We cannot get a fix on our concerns and our issues that trouble our peace until we stand back from them, and gain a perspective grounded in something beyond them. The greater the perspective the greater the wisdom, the greater the wisdom the greater the peace. Stop and think for a minute. The issues that trouble your world—what will they look like in a month? In a year? In five years? In 10 years? In 50 or 100 years? A sign on my boss’s desk read: “Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall never be unemployed.” Jesus said, “My peace I give you, not as the world gives give I unto you. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!”

For the fruit of the Spirit is…peace.

Fr. Paul Moore+