Summer Preaching Series June 21-22, 2025
“Peace” John 14:27 and John 16:33
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Everybody needs peace in their life. Peace in their home, with neighbors and at work. People yearn for peace in their minds and in their souls. We need to be at peace with ourselves and with our God. Every day we need peace.
Ina Olsson is one of those people who needed peace. Ina is a member of this congregation. When I asked for verses that were important and life-changing, a basis for my sermon series this summer, she provided me with these:
Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
It is Ina’s story that makes these verses, and this desire for peace, even more powerful. Ina wrote this to me, “It was September 21, 2020 and I had talked to my Dad and arranged to come down the following week to be present for a ‘video’ physician call with him. (Ina’s folks lived in Salina, Kansas) He was 91 and computers were not intuitive for him and he wanted me present to listen to the physician. He was joking and we were laughing. Moments after we spoke, he was loading scrap metal in his trailer, and he was struck by an SUV and killed. The 80-year-old driver had ‘passed out’, lost control of the car and didn’t even know what had happened.”
There were questions about why the driver “passed out”. Usually when a fatality happens in an accident, alcohol and drug levels are taken, but in this case they weren’t. Ina continues her account, “It was very tough, and my heart was grieving and troubled. I just needed to find peace. I prayed for peace – I had forgiven quickly but everything was so difficult. My mother, my siblings, getting the affairs in order. I drove back and forth from Denver to Salina, Kansas almost every two weeks for a short weekend for 1 ½ years – until my mother passed away. I desperately needed peace.” Elsewhere Ina said that her mantra during these days was, “Find peace even though my world is in disorder.”
I bet you have a story like Ina’s. Different details, but the same need. Life can be messy. Life can be in disorder. You, and I desperately need peace.
The context of the verses that Ina leaned on for her strength during this long period of chaos and disorder, John 14 and John 16: “Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you…Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid”; and “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace”, were words spoken by Jesus in a time of great stress.
These words about peace were spoken on Holy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. Shortly after He spoke these words, Jesus would go to the Mount of Olives, sweat blood during His prayers, and beseech His Father, “Father, if you are willing take this cup from me. Yet, not my will, but yours be done.” He would be arrested, abused, mocked, tried and crucified. Those that heard those words about peace and not being afraid, worried that they would be the next ones led to the cross.
It is always context that makes our words and actions take on a greater meaning. If someone has hurt you, or you have hurt someone else, words of forgiveness from your mouth, or being forgiven from their mouth, mean so much more than when someone says, “Don’t worry about it”, or “It’s OK”. When two friends have lived in bitterness too long, or when a husband and wife have lived in a very uncomfortable silence for hours, that seemed like days, the words, “I truly love you” take on a memorable depth. Forgiveness and love are great gifts.
So is peace. It is the calm in the chaos. And God is the giver of peace. Do you remember the first words that Jesus spoke to the apostle’s as they were huddled in that little room in Jerusalem on Easter evening. They trembled thinking that what happened to their master was going to happen to them. But Jesus, now resurrected, comes to them and His first words were, “Peace.” “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’” (John 20:19-21) And when Doubting Thomas was with the others one week later, Jesus’ first words were to him and them were, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:26)
Peace, the Hebrew word is “Shalom”, is much more than an absence of trouble or fighting or war. God’s peace, God’s shalom is everything that God provides for our greatest good.
Do you need peace in your life? Peace is God’s gift to you. It is an amazing, overwhelming reality. It begins with knowing and trusting Jesus as your Redeemer and Savior. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Because of whom we cling to, trust in, rely upon – that is, Jesus – we have peace with God. When we turn from our sins and look for the mercy of God shown clearly in Jesus we are given forgiveness of sins, we are promised eternal life, and we are given the reality of peace. We have peace with God and then we can live content with ourselves. What a gift. What a reality. What a calming feeling. Peace with God through Jesus. We can sing and say with confidence, “It is well with my soul.”
Randy Waesche, one of our regular worshippers, told me that the verses in the Bible that have changed his life are Jeremiah 9:23-24. They are verses that don’t look inward to self but outward to God:
This is what the Lord says: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord.
We have peace with God in spite of our sins and weaknesses. He cleansed us from all of our sins. Jesus has brought this peace. He stands with us. He is beside us.
This peace is not just ours. We can’t be greedy with it. It is for others, as well. We have to do a better job of giving that peace to others. We need to tell others of the peace in life, and in death, and forever in heaven, that Jesus has come to bring to them.
Ina Olsson needed peace but she knew others needed it as well. In her e-mail she wrote, “Later, I prayed for the driver because our neighbor he was visiting said he hadn’t left his house for months and could not bring himself to drive. I prayed for all the people grieving, trying to place blame. Nothing could bring him (my dad) back. I asked them to forgive so that their hearts could heal.”
We need peace. The wars that are being fought at this moment all over the globe should cause us great consternation. The wars that are fought, not with guns or missiles or armies, but with words and in hate and vengeance, should cause us great grief. God has something better for us, and for them, than such discord and conflict. Jesus says, “My peace I give to you.” His peace is greater than anything the world can give.
We turn to our God. We turn to Jesus and ask for His peace in our soul, in our mind, by our words and in our actions. Jesus gives peace. Jesus brings peace. His peace is yours. Amen!!
