Thursday, June 21, 2007

The theme for today was Peace.

Colossians 3:15

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”

Perhaps serendipitously, our Church bulletin from the EL Church of the Ascension last Sunday had a back page describing peace as it is plays out in the Gospel of Luke:

“Peace. The word appears and reappears in Luke’s Gospel. What is striking is that, again and again, is that is shows up in moments that seem FAR from peaceful. In Luke’s story of Jesus, the word seems to mean far more than simply calm, quiet or happiness. Rather, it encapsulates joy tinged with awe, wonder, uncertainty, even fear. And so it is a bold and dangerous move to “share the peace” with one another in the midst of worship. It is an awesome matter to be sent forth with the words ‘Go in Peace’”

Mike Naumann’s crew finished their site work today. We were behind, but were jettisoned to a”nearly finished” position by another visit from Crew 10 who sent the double crew about its business of nearly finishing the exterior painting on Franklin Street.

As our crew shared devotions over lunch, the eerie theme of the double edged nature of peace came through in a few instances. There was a sound of Christian rock coming over the speakers from a nearby car radio as police sirens blared in the background. The mixing of the two sounds seemed to be telling its own story.

Later in the evening, the theme of peace was brought home by the evening program where four Stations of the Cross were set up for work campers to visit stations of inner peace, peace in relationship with one another, peace from stress, and the sweet peace of Jesus. While I thought I most wanted to visit the station of inner peace that I have been seeking, it was my visit to the “peace from stress” station that I most remembered. At this station, you were asked to take a nail you picked up at the cross and scratch it on cinder blocks as you recall your stressful situations in an effort to relieve you of them by way of the cross. There were 6 cinder blocks at the station. As I sat nearby, I heard the sound resonating of all 6 blocks being scratched only to have everyone cease scratching at the same moment, leaving only the sound of acoustic guitar playing in my ears. It was a most peaceful realization that when the stress was given up to the nails of the cross, the calm after the storm could be felt and appreciated in a new way.
Everyone then took their nails with some small adornment from each visited station and nailed them to a cross in the middle of the auditorium. Mike Naumann’s observations struck me most. He said he saw how the cross swayed under the weight of people’s pushing their nails into it, from side to side. I couldn’t help but think about the 400 people in the room and scale it up to the number of people on the Earth – for whom 10 million more crosses would need to be filled with nails to bear the weight of all humankind’s need for peace. It was very moving.

There was also a powerful video clip of a fictional story about a future plague killing millions worldwide, the cure to which could be provided only by all the blood of a single, only child of a young couple. They were asked to make the decision which they left to their child. It was gut-wrenching for me, as a parent of two young children, to watch. The child chooses to “go to God” and give up his blood for everybody. The striking moment to some was after the child’s funeral everyone who was saved appears to “go on about business as usual”, fast-paced and seemingly with little memory or appreciation for the great sacrifice made on their behalf, so they could have life. The father simply looks around and says, “I thought it would be different now.”

Ring a bell?