Three Feet to Peace

As I was working on my sermon for this week, I found myself overwhelmed by the enormity of the world’s grief. Not only am I working through my own grief, but I am also living in a world that is crying out in agony over the painful ways we have treated her.  

Grief is heavy. It is one of those things that weighs you down; that makes you feel like you can’t take a deep breath even though you try. I find myself at the end of this sermon series grieving the promises of peace that are unrealized. I grieve that I may never see some of these peaceful things come to fruition in my lifetime. I grieve that my daughter will have to work just as hard, if not harder, for peace-on-earth. 

Then I look to Carrie Newcomer, my favorite singer/songwriter on the planet. I was introduced to this Hoosier folk artist when I was in college. I find that her words often sneak into my daily vocabulary and phrases from her songs sneak into my sermons. As a deacon in the United Methodist Church, I find the holy ways she interacts with the ordinary to be so incredibly sacred. In her song “Three Feet or So” she sings: “I can’t change the whole world, but I can change the world I know – what's within three feet or so.” 

Whew – what a breath of fresh air! What a deep breath! 

My favorite thing about the church is the community. Things do not happen in isolation in a worshiping community. We share one another’s joys, pains, concerns, and lives. We join one another in our grief and in our hope. 

When we baptize one of God’s beloved, we promise to walk with them in their faith journey for as long as they are with us, sharing in their times of rock-solid faith and their times of shaky faith. 

We come to the Table we come together, seeking a taste of the goodness of God that is ever-present for us. We confess our sins together, are forgiven together, and come to the table as reconciled children of God in one accord, committed to working on making the world a better place when we leave that holy space. 

When we declare we will be advocates for peace in our local communities and in our world, we also declare that we will change the world we know. Advocating for peace means nothing if we do not then do something to bring peace here. And thanks be to God, we do not do this alone or on a grand scale. 

When we change the world we know, what’s within three feet or so, but do that in a community – what a difference we can make! When we stretch our hands out to change the world we can reach, and do that with others, all of a sudden we are changing a significant portion of the world. 

Declaring that we will be advocates for peace means that we commit ourselves to being peacemakers, taking big steps in our own lives to change the world in little ways that bring more peace than violence or harm. The scripture text for this week tells us to start with changing our weapons into tools for the community. 

What is within your three-foot radius that you can change to advocate for peace on earth? 

Yours in Community, 

Rev. Rachel