September 14, 2025 · Rev. Derek van Gulden · Numbers 6:22-27; Philippians 4:4-9; John 14:27-31
The peace of God that passes all understanding is the scripture people ask Rev. Derek van Gulden for most, and two members who found it near the end of their lives taught what it means: it's all about love. Peace also takes work, the sermon says: forgiving, visiting, feeding, and speaking up for those who have no voice.
Transcript
People of God. Would you join me in a moment of prayer? Gracious and holy God, this morning I ask you to move the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts by your loving hand, and help each of us not to be the instrument of our own or anyone else's oppression, but to be an instrument of peace in every step, in every breath, in every moment of every day. Amen.
Peace. We talk about it a lot. Sometimes we rail about it. Sometimes we're quiet about it. The peace that passes all understanding. If you'll indulge me. Rejoice in God always. Again I say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be made known to everybody. God is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I read that again. The Philippians passage has one become one that when I visit people, when they're ill or when they're recovering, or they just want to chat. It's probably the most asked for piece of scripture. And there's always that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.
I spent a lot of time reading commentaries and listening to other people during the week. And yet today I'm not going to share those with you. Beautiful words. Beautiful. But I'm going to share with you from people I know who have found that peace. Some of them you will recognize their names. Marsha. I happen to be able to sit with Marsha in the last moments of her life. And though she couldn't talk well, she repeated over and over, tell them that it's all about love. That's where the peace comes from.
This week. With Helen. Helen had been in hospice for. I can't remember how long, maybe six months or more. So her and I had a chance to chat. I never realized that Helen could be so chatty, but she was in those moments when it was just her and I. And she loved this piece. And at her service you will hear other pieces she loved. But a few days ago it was actually the. Evening before she passed, she'd been very quiet, a little bit restless, but when I was praying for her and I'd get close to her ear because she did have hearing troubles, she squeezed my hand and said, I found it. And it's okay. She found that peace that surpasses all understanding.
I share those with you because for me, at that moment in their lives, and I've certainly sat with people who have shared other moments, not just at the end of their life. But they found that peace, a peace that has. One of them told me, not either one of those, but another person said that peace for them came from the realization and joy in their life. Knowing Jesus and knowing no matter what, Jesus was always there. And for them, that was a great joy that brought them great peace.
There's another aspect of peace that I will share with you up on our banner here. There's a lot of words. We see them every week. I'm not sure how often we read them. Protect the environment. Care for the poor. Forgive. Often.
When I'm working with people towards the end of their life, I use this book called The Four Words That Matter Most. It was written by. Of course I'm going to blank on his name, Doctor Bach. Did I get that correct? He was a palliative care doctor at Dartmouth Medical Center when he wrote this book. He had spent a good part of his career doing palliative care, end of life. And he said in his book, these are words for living, not for dying.
And the words are, please forgive me, I forgive you. Thank you. And I love you. And it's amazing to me. I don't know why. I think it's amazing, but how often people want to talk about forgiveness. Why forgive? How to forgive, how to move forward.
There are many people have said this, but last night at coffee hour, as I do before every coffee hour, I invite people to join me in a prayer for peace. Now for me, the interesting part is when I tell him we're going to pray and you see about half of them, just their eyes open up and they're like, I'm not here for that. But when we pray for peace, everybody joins in. And I shared this one last night because I think Jay mentioned this a little bit in what he shared with us, but this came from Desmond Tutu quite a while ago. There will be no future without forgiveness. Any process of peace is bound to collapse if this is missing. There's no way peace and stability can come through the gun of vengeance. I'd never read that before, and I saw it this week.
There are many ways to find that peace. When Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he was in jail, coming towards the end of his life. And the church at Philippi was one of his very first church plants. And yet they were in turmoil. Turmoil. The two leaders, two women who worked with Paul so closely at the creation of this church, were in a bit of a quandary, a bit of turmoil, and that was coming also from the congregation. And in that passage that we heard not only talks about peace, but it talks about, remember all these things that we did and then lists them. Do these start to do them again?
In our time. It would be something like go visit someone from your congregation or in your community. Someone who may live alone. Someone who feels lonely. Someone that's having a great time. Take a bag of groceries to somebody in need, drops them off at open door. Bring your extra clothes that all of us know we have. Some of us, including me. Way too many. For the rummage sale or the second glance. Amy didn't pay me for that.
Piece is not a passive thing. Peace takes work. real work, to find the peace that we need not only within ourselves but within our community, but within the world, is to stand up and use our voice for those who have no voice. Those who are suffering because of injustices of so many kind. And those are increasing every day. Every day. Not to do it with violence, but to speak out, to help at the same time that we do other things, gather together, learn, but also care for them while you're doing this.
And remember. From a very wise woman. It's all about love. Amen.