Mount Sterling First United Methodist Church
What Peace Really Demands

  • Hearing God: Listening in a Noisy World

    Last week I asked if you ever had a problem praying to God, knowing what to say, what to think, what or who to pray for. Prayer is our ultimate deep relationship with God, so it is the best way that we can individually and collectively mature and deepen our connection with God. This week we will discuss how to hear God in a very noisy world.
    Hearing God means we are actively listening and in-tune with God’s voice, God’s prompting, God’s encouragement, God’s motivation, and God’s Spirit. Listening is an intentional act of inviting an outside force into your mind that will offer new information, new data, that could possibly change who you are, confirm who you are, and encourage your present day walk.
    Think through your life and how so much has changed, yet one force that has change, and yet remained, is the noise of life. When you are younger, you have the noise of your ever developing body, your parents/guardians, grandparents, siblings, extended family, friends from the neighborhood, friends from school, rules of school, rules of home, rules of the community you live, and the list goes on and on.
    When you get older your noise changes into adult responsibilities. You have the noise of paying bills, the noise of fixing things that are broken, the noise of family, employment, government, neighborhood, other people’s opinions, and the list goes on and on.
    In your retirement the noise changes again but is still present. You now have noises much like when you were younger and your body is doing things that you’ve never experienced before and you may not like it. You also have the noise of hoping you will have enough money to live on, wanting to be available to have fun, desiring to be with family, more medical appointments than you desire, traveling to new places, and the noise of silence as you see more friends start to leave you one by one.

    God speaks in many ways

    In all of noise of life, in every stage of your life, God still speaks. When you’re younger God speaks in a way that is relevant to a youthful age, in your busy adult years God is speaking above, in between, and beneath the cracks of life, in your maturing years of retirement God is speaking in the silence, the mundane, the unwanted, the joy, and the freedom that this life stage provides. God is always speaking but does so in many different ways so that every age and every culture will be able to hear, and hopefully listen.
    So, in the noise of your life, in whatever stage you are in, how does God speak to you? As a United Methodist Christian how does God speak to you? Looking upon our United Methodist heritage, God is said to speak to us through Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience.
    God’s voice is heard through scripture as it is a collection of 66+ books/letters/poems/songs that were constructed to evidence God engaging in relationship with humanity throughout many millennia. Scripture is one of our ultimate guides for reflection of religious interaction with a holy God and humanity on the onward and upward holiness progression of love. Mark Twain said,
    Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand.
    Mark Twain
    For non-Christians scripture can still speak to their existence but other religious or humanistic writings may play a larger role, this is to be expected but for us United Methodist Christians, scripture is still essential in our overall understanding of how God can speak through the generations.
    Tradition is another way God can speak to us. Tradition in the USA in 2024 is going to be different than Tradition in Rome in 1200 or Babylon in 300BC. God will speak through the present day culture in a way that is significant, symbolic, while emphasizing God’s holiness and illuminating human understanding through the ever-present and moving Spirit. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said,
    We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.
    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
    Traditions can come and go depending on the nature of what is needed and necessary for the people, at the time. Some Traditions can also last too long where no one understands why we do this specific act anymore. Traditions can also be good and deepen a prayerful relationship with God. God definitely speaks through the ritualistic acts that we, as a people, choose to do.
    Reason proclaims the active and ongoing knowledge that humans gain over time. You may have heard the phrase before, “we don’t check our brains at the door of the church”, this should be true of every church that you enter. If something simply does not make sense and new knowledge or data on a certain topic proves otherwise, especially if it speaks against a traditional interpretation of scripture, then reason should be highly considered as more relevant. Francis Bacon said,
    A little philosophy inclines men’s minds to atheism, but depth in philosophy brings men’s minds about to religion.
    —Francis Bacon
    Francis Bacon (Philosopher)
    God speaks through education as we learn more about this world, we do learn more about God and can learn to hear God’s voice in new and exciting ways. Reason is good so don’t easily cast it away when you may not fully understand something new.
    Experience is not new but was an addition from Wesley to the people called Methodists. Wesley added experience to the 3-fold Scripture, Tradition, and Reason from the Church of England. Experience is the active voice of the Holy Spirit in the daily life events, activities, and ever evolving culture of humanity. Humanity must listen to God through experiencing life for the maintenance of old relationships and the establishment of new relationships all consists of new and maturing experiences of life. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said,
    We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
    Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
    God definitely speaks through experiences that are new, frightening, uncomfortable, and confirming.
    Tradition, Reason, and Experience all speak to Scripture, as Scripture also speaks to Tradition, Reason, and Experience. God throughout time has spoken when there was no Scripture, no Tradition, and very limited Reason and Experience.

    The Role of Discernment

    This bring us to discernment. We all have the ability to perceive or recognize differences to judge what is right and wrong, good and evil, the voice of God and the will of humanity. Unfortunately, we’ve all come across people who who have very little discernment. There is a quote from an unknown author that says:
    ​
    Little [people] with little minds and little imaginations go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.
    Unknown
    In other words, there are some people who simply do not have any common sense to see life with another person’s vision or walk through this world in another person’s shoes. In our 1Kings scripture reading , we have the story of Elijah running for his life after the prophets of Baal were killed. Elijah proclaimed God’s word, held to his cultural traditions, reasoned with his real life circumstances, and experienced God anew in a relational conversation. The bookend of this experience was God questioning Elijah, “Why are you here?” God spoke with Elijah to confirm who he was, confirm his prophetic action, confirm that throughout all the noise around him that God is not in the noise of the world. God is ultimately received and heard in the thin, quiet moments of reflection, discernment, and interpretation while journeying in all the noise of this crazy world. Catherine of Siena said,
    The core of pride is impatience and its offshoot is the lack of any discernment.
    Saint Catherine of Siena
    Discerning God’s voice, while in the noisy moments of life, help us to do what the Psalmist invites the readers on multiple occasions-SELAH, to pause, to sit, to reflect, and then act. When one has a prayer life whose foundation is built upon divine discernment then you will have a pray-er who intentionally seeks God’s will as God’s ambassador not the world’s warrior. When we take time to discern we then will be able to hear the voice of God. John 10.27 says
    John 10:27 CEB
    My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.
    In the stillness of life we are able to be attentive to the voice of our Savior, to hear, to listen, and then to follow.

    God desires genuine relationships

    The busyness of life can be so noisy that we, at times, choose to deny God the relationship of his desire. That relationship is to give and receive love with you. The God/human relationship is one of intimacy in prayer, intimacy in action, intimacy in private, and intimacy in public. God never stops pursuing you for there is not an end point to a relationship. In prayer we continue to communicate with God and time with God is needed especially when the world’s noise can be too distracting. Thomas Schreiner says,
    Love for God cannot be sustained without a relationship with him, and such a relationship is nurtured by prayer.
    Thomas Schreiner
    A deeply held prayer life does not have to be one that is outlandish where you are always the person asked to pray in public settings; don’ worry that is always reserved for the pastor, even if the pastor don’t want to do it. A deeply held prayer life can also be very subtle. A deeply held prayer life can be very private. A deeply held prayer life is true prayer. R.T. France says,
    True prayer is not a technique nor a performance, but a relationship.
    R. T. France
    A true relationship with God must have true prayer from the believer or the seeker of the divine. Prayer enters one into the presence of God. Prayer strengthens the relationship with God. Prayer emboldens the faith of the believer in a noisy world. When you are soaked in prayer then you are transformed into your prayers. Warren Wiersbe says,
    Prayer is not something that I do; prayer is something that I am.
    Warren W. Wiersbe
    As we continue to develop our prayerful skills, we develop our listening skills, which develop our divine loving skills. A prayerful heart that listens to and connects with God is an act of love. Saint Augustine said,
    What you love you worship; true prayer, real prayer, is nothing but loving: what you love, that you pray to.
    Saint Augustine of Hippo
    As we pray to that which we love, our words and our actions will unite together as one. Our relationship with God will grow, the deafening noise of the world will extinguish, the words from our tongue will be praise, and people will see a prayerful life of love in action. So whether we are asleep or awake a life of prayer will guide us and help us to hear God more. John Wesley said,
    The moment I awaked, ‘Jesus, Master,’ was in my heart and in my mouth; and I found all my strength lay in keeping my eye fixed upon Him, and my soul waiting on Him continually.
    John Wesley (Founder of the Methodist Movement)

    Silent Reflection and Mindfulness

    As we enter into a new week, I encourage you to take time in silent reflection and mindfully focus upon God in prayer. Last week I invited you to pray the open-hearted disciples prayer. This week I invite you to say a prayer that has been said for many generations, The Jesus Prayer.
    Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner
    Amen.
  • Let There Be Peace On Earth
  • For The Healing Of The Nations

      • Matthew 5:9CEB

      • James 3:13–18CEB

  • In last week’s sermon, we cleansed the sanctuary of competing allegiances. Now we are called to go deeper. Not merely to dwell in a sanctuary freed from idols, but to become peacemakers who step beyond its walls. Not keepers of calm or maintainers of the status quo, but active, embodied peacemakers in a world trained by violence, sustained by pride, and shaped by fear. 
    Matthew 5:9 reads, “Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children.” Notice the active verb: those who make peace. Not people who desire peace. Not people who talk about peace. Not people who simply avoid conflict. But people who make peace. People who work at reconciliation, justice, and transformation, even when it disrupts the settled world.
    Yet for generations, the Church has misunderstood peace. Too often we have presented it as a passive virtue. Peace, in many circles, has come to mean quietness, orderliness, or neutrality. We’ve confused silence with reconciliation. We’ve called the absence of conflict the presence of peace. If we’ve learned anything from the prophets, from Jesus himself, and from the wisdom of the early church, it’s that peace isn’t passive. Peace is not a lack of trouble, it is a presence of justice, of reconciliation, and of God’s transforming love. Real peace costs something. It’s active, intentional resistance to violence, indifference, and pride. It’s a holy disruption.*
    Jesus Didn’t Say “Blessed Are the Peacekeepers”
    This distinction matters. To keep peace is often to maintain the existing order, even if that order is unjust. Peacekeeping assumes that quiet is preferable to conflict, even when conflict is necessary to confront sin. It’s why so many churches have been complicit in racial injustice, economic inequality, and gender-based harm. They preferred to keep peace than to make it. 
    As we read from scripture, Jesus blesses the peacemakers. To make peace requires initiative, courage, and sacrifice. It means facing brokenness head-on. It means telling the truth, even when it disrupts. It means naming harm, challenging systems, and refusing to let lies masquerade as harmony. Jesus didn’t shy away from conflict. He entered conflict with love, calling out both religious leaders and imperial forces, not as an aggressor, but as a reconciling agent. His way of peace led to a cross, not a crown.
    Peacemaking is not conflict avoidance. It is the sacred, Spirit-led work of stepping into the breach with compassion, courage, and clarity. It is choosing love over retaliation, justice over comfort, and community over compliance. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he meant those willing to resist the sword of Caesar with the cross of Christ.*
    Wisdom from Above: The Way of Peacemaking
    The writer of James, in 3:13–18, offers us a deeper lens into what peacemaking looks like. “Are any of you wise and understanding?” James asks. “Show that your actions are good with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom.” He then draws a sharp contrast between two forms of wisdom. Earthly wisdom is unspiritual and demonic, rooted in selfish ambition and envy, and producing disorder, violence, and evil. Godly wisdom is from above because it is pure, peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair, and genuine.
    These two wisdoms are not abstract concepts. They are ways of living. The wisdom from below aligns with the gospel of the nation. It is competitive, hierarchical, bent on proving, winning, and dominating. It is the wisdom of empire, the logic of conquest. It shouts down opponents, clings to power, and masks insecurity with bravado.
    The wisdom from above? That’s peacemaking wisdom. It listens. It yields. It refuses to mirror the aggression of the world. It doesn’t puff up. It bows down, not in submission to injustice but in humble solidarity with the vulnerable. It allows for repentance, reconciliation, and trusts in transformation as it cultivates relationships. James gives us a glimpse of its fruit: “Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.” Peacemaking plants justice. Peace doesn’t grow from control, it grows from compassion.*
    The Peace of Christ Rejects the Sword of Caesar
    This is the heart of our message today. The peace of Christ refuses the sword of Caesar. It resists the national interest when that interest demands war, coercion, or the marginalization of others in order to obtain, as The Beverly Hillbillies said, “black gold” or precious metals from the ground. 
    Too often, Christians have baptized the ambitions of empire, calling conquest a form of protection and domination a form of security. We have justified wars, policed borders, dehumanized migrants, and aligned ourselves with national interests as if they were divine interests. We have waved flags over battlefields and steps of the capitol while forgetting that Jesus told Peter to put the sword away. The church has, unfortunately, adopted the worlds mantra of attack first and ask questions later, but, of course, we have “christianized” the language saying “just do it and ask for forgiveness later”. 
    Peace in the kingdom of God does not come through strength but through surrender, not to enemies, but to the Spirit of God. It does not come through military dominance, but through relational investment. Open & Relational theology helps us here. It reminds us that God does not coerce. God persuades. God invites. God works in and through relationship, never overpowering but always luring creation toward beauty, truth, and goodness.
    When we act in peace, we reflect the relational nature of God. We do not dominate or subdue others. We listen. We learn. We embody a different story. Wesleyan theology echoes this in its understanding of sanctifying grace. The grace that shapes us to be holy is not a one-time fix. It is an evolving relationship with ongoing transformation. Peacemaking is not a one-time act. It is a lifestyle of holiness in public. Scripture does not only define God as love but also defines God as holy. Peace encompasses all that is loving within the holiness of our most high God.*
    Living Peace as Cultural Confrontation
    Peacemaking, then, becomes a countercultural act; it’s who we become in our becoming. We grow in grace and wisdom toward holier, more loving ways of being, ways that reject empire and embody the kingdom. It does not merely stand apart from war, it confronts the culture of war. It challenges the rhetoric that glorifies violence, the industries that profit from it, and the policies that perpetuate it. Peacemaking names the idol of nationalism that demands loyalty above justice and calls it what it is: a counterfeit gospel.
    To live peace is to stand in opposition to the myth that war makes us safe, that might makes right, that our enemies are less than human, therefore, expendable. It means calling out systems that dehumanize migrants, criminalize poverty, and racialize fear. It means reshaping our imaginations, not around winning, but around healing.
    In our everyday lives we are called to co-create peace with the Prince of Peace guiding us along the way. Peace doesn’t mean everyone agrees with us. Peace means we are faithful to the ways of Jesus even when the world mocks it. Peace means we don’t scapegoat. We don’t retaliate. We don’t prop up ideologies that bless violence. Peace means we speak against maintaining the strongest military force that can threaten blow the entire world up if we don’t get our way. We resist the militarization of our borders, our police, our cities, and even our language.
    Peace is not the absence of tension. It’s the presence of prophetic tension. It’s standing in the middle of a broken world with our eyes fixed on a new one. Living peace means naming the idol of nationalism. It requires questioning injustices cloaked as patriotism. It means dismantling systems that criminalize poverty and oppress racially diverse communities. It offers a vision of human dignity that transcends citizenship, race, or nationality. It’s declaring that Jesus is Lord, and politicians are not.*
    The Church as a Peace Movement
    So, what does this mean for us, church? It means we stop pretending that peace is optional. Part of Christian discipleship is understanding that we must be a peace movement, not a political part or a lobbying group. It is the very identity of God’s children. We must be a people so committed to Christ’s peace that we look foolish to the world. A people so stubborn in love that our neighbors actually take notice. You know the neighbors I talk about (Canada, Mexico, China, Russia, Korea, Venezuela, et.al.)
    We must teach our children that the peace of Christ costs something because it is worth the investment. Christ isn’t boring old news, it’s the only good news for the world that can actually change a hard stoney heart into one that continuously cares for someone other than our self. The gospel message demands that we love our enemies, not just tolerate friends. The message of peace demands we ask different questions: not “How do I win?” but “How do I heal?” Not “What is legal?” but “What is just?” Not “How do I stay safe?” but “Who is not safe yet, and how can I stand with them?”
    We must make our churches laboratories of peace and sacred places where people practice truth-telling, forgiveness, listening, and deep courage. Our worship should form us for the work of peacemaking, not pacification. Our prayers must shape our politics. Our communion tables must teach us how to sit with people we disagree with and love them anyway.
    To be a cupbearer of God’s love is to offer peace, not poison. To be an ambassador of Christ is to carry the ministry of reconciliation, not the armor of conquest. The Church must be known not for what it opposes but for the peace it plants, the justice it pursues, and the hope it embodies.*
    A Final Invitation
    This week, I invite you to examine your understanding of peace. Is it active or passive? Is it rooted in the cross or clothed in the flag? Is it shaped by Jesus or shadowed by Caesar? Ask yourself: where have I kept peace when I should have made it? Where have I remained silent when truth needed speaking? What wisdom have I followed, the wisdom from below or the wisdom from above?
    Let us choose to become peacemakers. Let us reject the wisdom of pride and violence. Let us be, as James reads, those who sow seeds of justice with our peaceful acts. Because when Jesus said, “Happy and Blessed are the peacemakers,” he was not handing out a slogan. He was inviting us into a way of life. May we accept that invitation with courage and faith. May it be so, in Jesus’ name.
    Let us pray: God of peace, who speaks through burning bushes and broken bodies, we confess that we have often settled for silence when your Spirit calls us to speak. Forgive us for the peace we have kept when we should have made it. Empower us with wisdom from above that we might become sowers of justice. Teach us to walk in your way of peace, even when it costs us comfort or approval. Help us to follow Jesus, the true peacemaker, with integrity, imagination, and love. In his holy name we pray. Amen.
Mount Sterling First United Methodist Church
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(740) 869-3577
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