The Pursuit of Peace

Beth Bray: Good morning.
I wanted to start this morning by telling you
a little bit about myself because I do know some of you,
but I think sometimes seniors get up here
for senior spotlight and you don't know who they are
because they're not on campus.
So hi, I'm Beth.
I'm an early childhood education major
with a minor in children's ministry.
I'm graduating in December, so the end is near.
I talk to children all day, every day,
not college students, so bear with me.
I am currently student teaching in a class
of fourth graders that make me laugh,
they frustrate me, and they show me each day
how to be a better teacher
and just a better human being in general.
I grew up in a small town outside of Austin
and started school here at LCU in August of 2020.
My last semester of my senior year in high school
was the beginning of COVID-19,
so I've been soaking in all the senior year things
this semester and last since my high school
senior experience was cut short.
So much of my time here at LCU has been defined
by the Lord being good to me,
even when I keep messing up and needing grace.
I love serving the Lord and being obedient to him
because in that service and obedience,
I get to experience joy that comes from him alone.
While at LCU, I found a home in the education department
with professors that I've come to rely on
for classroom advice as well as life advice,
friends that I wouldn't have made
if we hadn't been in the same major,
and a place to channel my creativity and my love for school.
I rushed my freshman year as many of you just did
and found a home with the girls in CDs.
Social clubs were an essential part of my time here at LCU
between rush events, directing a Master of Holly show
and serving them as president.
The friendships and relationships that were formed
during my time here have been beyond my wildest dreams.
And it's my prayer that the Lord will gently guide you
to your people and your place here
and that he continues to sustain you there
as you move through your college years.
There have certainly been periods of time
in the past four years that I've experienced
the pain of loneliness, the pain of loss,
the desperation of unanswered questions
and the sting of bitterness and rejection.
But God has shown up in mighty ways and remains close to me
when I try to wander far from him.
All of that to say, the college experience
is not all rainbows and butterflies and sunshine,
but a good amount of it actually can be.
A few months ago, Josh asked me to speak in chapel
and he told me that the theme this year is peace.
When considering the meaning of peace
as feeling calm and serene,
I am not the girl to be giving that chapel talk.
During that conversation with Josh,
we had to shuffle around the date
that I was gonna speak probably three or four times
because I kept telling him dates that would work
only for me to realize that I had something else that day.
I rely on my Google calendar
and if you saw the amount of alarms in my phone,
you'd probably keel over.
There was a time in my life not so long ago
that I loved to be busy and I hated to sit still
and have time to think about all the things
that made me sad or mad or feel lonely.
So I won't be able to talk to you about peace
as a synonym for tranquility
or give you any advice about how to be better
at practicing Sabbath because it's something
that I'm still having to practice and work on
and talking to you about it would make me a hypocrite.
However, I would love to share with you my thoughts
about another practice of peace
that we read about in Matthew 5, 9.
Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers
"for they will be called children of God."
This verse is part of Jesus' Beatitudes
in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus' statement is seen as an invitation
to be a blessing to those who bridge divides
and sow seeds of reconciliation.
It means that peacemakers' behavior will signal to others
that they are members of God's family.
In the Bible, the making of peace is a constant concern
and Jesus himself is considered the supreme peacemaker.
In fact, when the angels came to announce to the shepherds
the birth of Jesus, they say, "Peace on earth."
Peacemaking is seen as a reflection of the character of God
and those who undertake this work
are acknowledged as God's children.
Now, as I've said, I'm student teaching,
so I know I know and am learning a lot about children.
The girls that I student teach with
have become very special to me
and I asked for their help to acquire
our students' thoughts on peace.
So now I'm gonna share with you what we collected.
I love when kids shock me.
Some of their responses are deeply thoughtful
and some of them I would say are even philosophical,
so nine-year-olds can shock you.
Here were some of my favorite responses.
I feel peace when I'm with my family.
Peace means to me that everyone is not fighting but calm.
Peace is when someone is fighting and you stop the fight.
I am a peacemaker when I stop fights with my friends.
Peace is kindness and calmness.
I can make peace by making things fair.
Peace is to do things without causing conflict.
I am peaceful when I stop a fight.
Peace is like to be nice to someone
and make an agreement with someone.
What peace means to me is calmness, no fights.
Peace is like you don't mess with each other.
Peace is calmness and not choosing to fight.
One friend decided to be very brave and she said,
"How I will use peace in my life
is if there is a war in our world, I will make peace."
Peace is when you're fighting,
you do not fight back even though you want to.
Peace is when people make up for fighting
and work together to join teams.
Now there was an underlying theme
that came out of the cards that I wasn't expecting.
So just humor me and raise your hand
if you have a brother or you are a brother.
Go ahead.
Okay, ready for this?
Put your hands down.
I'm peaceful when I'm in an argument with my brother
and I try to make an agreement.
I'm a peacemaker when I choose not to hit my brother
even though it's hard, I still try.
I am peaceful when I let my brother play with my toys.
I am finally peaceful when my brother
leaves to go to my grandparents' house.
I am peaceful when my brother leaves me the heck alone.
I am a peacemaker when I am not hitting my brother.
This is my favorite.
I am peaceful when my brother hits me
and I blame him for it and he gets in trouble
or I choose peace by not punching him in the face.
And then she said, "Oh, and by the way, Ms. Bray,
"my brother is four years old."
Out of all the funny and thoughtful ones put together,
these two stuck out to me the most.
Peace is something we should want in the world.
It brings people together, stops fights,
and helps us remember to be kind to each other.
Peace means to me making the world
a better place with Jesus.
I love to see the world through the eyes of children.
When I consider what it means to be a peacemaker
or question how I become a peacemaker,
I think of Psalm 34: 14, and 1 Peter 3: 11.
These verses say the same thing,
and it's what was on my mind and heart
from the very beginning of thinking about
what I was gonna talk to you about today.
The tail end of the verse says, "Seek peace and pursue it,"
or another translation says, "Search for peace
"and work to maintain it."
But Beth, how do I look for peace?
Can't it just find me?
No, peace is a fruit of the spirit that we must bear,
and it is one that is often overlooked
or deemed unimportant, especially in the face of injustice
and our human desire for revenge.
I hate to tell you this, but sometime in your life,
you'll experience the sorrow that comes from being slighted,
treated unfairly, passed over and ignored
or taken for granted.
It's painful to have evil returned for good
or to give of yourself and receive wounds in return.
When I am tempted to hurt someone who has hurt me,
the Holy Spirit sends my mother's voice to my head,
and she tenderly quotes, as she so often did
to me and my sisters growing up, 1 Peter 3, 9,
"Do not repay evil with evil."
When you suffer unjustly, you need to know
that Jesus has suffered unjustly also.
No one has ever been wronged and had their rights ignored
or taken away more than your Savior.
Nevertheless, Christ was the supreme peacemaker.
Peter tells us in the way Jesus endured the evils
and injustices committed against Him,
He left an example for us
so that we could follow in His steps.
Jesus embodies the way God wants peacemakers to act
when we're wronged, provoked or wounded.
Entrusting yourself to God means looking to Him
to deal with the injustice
rather than trying to vindicate yourself.
I think that this idea is pretty foreign to a lot of us.
When Christ bore our sins, He absorbed the pain
of what we did to Him without passing it on.
This is what peacemakers do.
When someone's ugly to you,
you might be tempted to be ugly
to the next person you talk to,
and then they might wanna react badly
to the next person they talk to, and so on and so forth.
The only way to break escalating cycles of retaliation
is for someone to absorb the pain rather than pass it on.
Someone must say, "It stops here."
That's what Christ, the great peacekeeper,
has done for us.
Knowing His vindication was with God
and trusting Him for the outcome,
Jesus broke the otherwise endless cycle
of violence and vengeance by bearing our sins
and absorbing the pain.
Many of the students' cards that I read to you
said something along the lines of,
"Stop fights, make agreements, or show kindness."
Don't you love when the Lord connects the dots?
Knowing your need, that being justice,
you become poor in spirit and are thrown back
in fresh dependence on the Lord.
You begin to recognize and mourn the compromises
of your past life and to submit yourself with meekness
to the will of God,
even when these steps are difficult and costly.
From this, I believe God will bring the good fruit
of a tender heart filled with compassion,
mercy, and forgiveness,
a pure heart that wills one thing and pursues holiness,
and a peaceable heart that will make it possible
for you to be a peacemaker in a divided and troubled world.
Go in peace today and pray that as our world becomes wracked
with things that divide us and ask us to become sick
with anger in the name of justice,
that instead your heart will turn
towards the pursuit of peace,
living in the example of Jesus,
our perfect peacemaker and giver.
You're dismissed.