SCRIPTURE
JOHN 14:15-31; PHILIPPIANS 4

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

—JOHIN 14:26-27

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

—PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7

Recently I heard from a friend who called to tell me she’s going on an end-of life plan under hospice care. She’s only in her forties but has battled chronic illness for more than ten years, and her doctors finally admitted they were out of new things to try. After such a long time fighting illness, I asked her how she and her husband had come to this difficult decision. She paused for a long moment, then said, “Well, you know that peace that passes understanding? We have that.” I marvel at my beautiful friend who is willing to walk forward into death, knowing the peace that is with her now will be with her forever.

The peace that transcends all understanding is a really good name for it. How could we possibly understand the kind of peace that persists when there are seemingly no signs of peace on the horizon? It’s the kind of peace that completely befuddles the oppressors of martyrs and the persecuted church. It’s the kind of peace that, as gospel singer-songwriter Shirley Caesar and so many choirs have sung about, “the world didn’t give to me, and the world can’t take it away.” Christ’s peace is surely the gift unlike anything else the world gives. It’s peace no one can take away because the gift is a person who decides to stay. Our Advocate, Comforter, Holy Spirit, third Person of the triune God is with us always, no matter what. This is the source of our peace.

God's intention for all God’s creation is shalom—wholeness and well-being, safety and belonging for all. While we long for it to be apparent in all relationships and places on earth, shalom is not dependent on external factors. Our deepest sense of well-being comes from within us, radiating from that very place in which Christ has made his home. With the peace of Christ ruling our hearts (Colossians 3:15) and guarding our minds, we can be people who are settled, assured of our belonging, and held in the eternal safety of God's love. This gift of peace empowers us, like the Jesus we follow, to walk even through the worst of injustice and death without surrendering our deepest well-being. We can be in pain, we can certainly lament, and we can even be angry and confused. But we will never be abandoned.

Writing during the intense political turmoil and international plague of the twelfth century, Julian of Norwich was given her own vision of God's peace. She wrote, “I saw that God is our true peace; and he is our safe protector when we ourselves are in disquiet, and he constantly works to bring us into endless peace.”1 We are always being invited into the ongoing project of God’s peace, in our lives and in our world. Even in the midst of waiting for the chaos of war and division to end, the peace of Christ is with us. And in us, the people of peace, the watching
world sees a gift that may prompt the question: where did you get that?

1. Julian of Norwich, The Showings, trans. Edmund College and James Walsh (Mahwah,
Nj: Paulist Press, 1978}, 265.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, AND PRAYER

When have you experienced the peace that passes all understanding—or witnessed it in someone else?

How does it provide you peace to imagine God being fully present with you now?

How or when have you been a person of peace? How can you be a person of peace going forward?