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PEACE THROUGH THE
TOUCH OF JESUS
(A sermon preached July 23, 2006 at University UMC by John Ross Thompson)
Text: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
This scripture text from Mark presents the touch as Jesus as something that
brings healing. Even in this day when we focus on unwanted touch, we know that
each of us needs loving touch in order to be whole.
I believe the touch of Jesus brings peace, a lasting peace which is a gift from
God.
For Christians, we know this peace through Jesus. Other faiths have
different ways to claim it.
Where is the outrage at the continuing violence in the world? Lebanon and Israel
were the scene of war for weeks before the ceasefire, killing hundreds of
persons, a majority of them civilians. Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, and
Sri Lanka are places where wars continues. The daily body count in places like
Iraq no longer is even mentioned in our news most days.
Those who seek to follow the Old Testament maxim of “an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth” soon learn that it only produces more violence.
We suffer today from compassion fatigue and cultural polarization. The extremes
of our society are emphasized, further dividing us.
Ephesians 2:11-22 is an example of this in the first century. Those who followed
Jewish laws were pitted against others.
Kevin Baker says about today: “Just ask those called ‘U. S. citizens by birth’
about ‘noncitizens’ in our midst; ask the ‘legally naturalized immigrant’ about
the ‘illegal alien,’ the Jewish Israeli ‘settler’ about the gentile Palestinian
‘squatter’ or the white-suburban commuter about the people who live in inner
city neighborhoods.”
“We know that we have helped to build walls of hostility. We’ve built many of
them not out of bricks and mortar, but out of the raw material of sin and
division. Then we’ve cemented them with the mortar of name-calling, labeling and
prejudice.”
--The Christian Century, July 11, 2006
We who seek to be Christ-like have a responsibility to turn hostility into
bridges, and to respect, not just tolerate, others.
There is a vision in Ezekiel 34:28 for today: “They shall no more be plunder for
the nations, nor shall the animals of the land devour them; they shall live in
safety and no one shall make them afraid.”
The Jesus touch helps us to see over walls, transcend walls or tear them down,
and to embrace the one who is ‘other’ to us.
The United Methodist Church Social Principles say it well: “We believe war is
incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ. We therefore reject war
as
an instrument of national foreign policy, to be employed only as a last
resort….We insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to resolve by
peaceful means every dispute…”
University UMC is a model community, where peace through the touch of Jesus
works and will continue to work. We claim the gift of God in Christ, use it for
daily living, and
make an impact on our community AND on the world.
I invite all of us to break down walls, build bridges, and refuse to be hostile,
all in the name of Christ.
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