Give Me Peace

This is the English translated outline of the sermon preached by Rev. Musubi Tabuchi to the congregations of Ashiya Christian Church and Unfinished Community on Sunday, May 29th, 2025, drawing from John 14:23-29

According to the Christian calendar, Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, spent 40 days on earth with his disciples, and then ascended into heaven. This year May 29th marks the day of Jesus' ascension. The resurrected Jesus leaving the earth once again was a cause of great anxiety for the disciples, who had already felt such great fear when they lost Jesus to death on the cross.

Once again the disciples were very anxious about the resurrection, very uncertain about the idea of losing Jesus a second time. So when Jesus speaks of peace, he's not only speaking of the kind of peace which means the resolution of war and other social issues, but a resolution of our own inner anxieties and personal concerns. We are still able to manage with the presence of Jesus, but the idea of Him leaving us is unsettling. It makes us anxious to think about it, but that anxiety dissipates if Jesus is still with us, and we find that we can manage after all.

Those of us who feel this kind of anxiety in our lives may not have enough trust in our hearts to trust the words of Jesus, which we have heard so very many times. We might not believe Jesus when he tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not be troubled,"(Matthew 6:25). That restlessness, that anxiety, which we always feel is really just the state in which we have lost sight of Jesus. But as long as we keep our hearts and eyes on Jesus, things will be ok. We just need to talk to Jesus, and pray.

So, let us pray.

God of love, help us to be people who firmly take hold of the peace that Jesus has given us, allowing that peace to comfort our anxieties so we may spend our days prayerfully and in love.

We pray this in the name of our Lord,

Amen