H. Stephen Shoemaker
HE SHALL SPEAK PEACE
Myers Park Baptist Church
Charlotte, North Carolina
December 8, 2002
Texts: Zechariah 9:9-10; Matthew 5:3-12
The only time Jesus’ words are used in Handel’s Messiah is in the soprano aria near the end of Part One: "Come unto him." And in that aria his words are shifted from first person to third person: "Come unto him," rather than "Come unto me."
You see, in Handel’s Messiah, Jesus himself never appears. All the way through, the words and music point to him, explain the meaning and significance of him. But he himself never shows up, nor do his words -- except this once. As in the classic novel and movie about Jesus from the 1950's The Robe, Jesus is never seen. We know him only through the eyes of others. There may be something important here.
I
Here then are the words of Jesus that Handel and his librettist, Charles Jennens, chose above all of them to include in Messiah:
If you were to create a gift box edition of Jesus’ favorite sayings, this one would make most people’s lists.
What a welcome promise: Rest for weary souls! The sufferings, conflicts, worry and stress of our lives leave us exhausted in spirit. One psychiatrist, Willard Gaylin, writes that "feeling tired" may often have less to do with body-weariness and more to do with weariness of mind and spirit, a low-grade depression.
But in these welcome words we often miss the hinge of the text, the key phrase, three words: "Learn of me."
Learning is the path to comfort, rest, peace. Not learning about him, but learning of him. It is learning as a way of life, as a form of spiritual practice. Disciple literally means "learner." Dallas Willard likes to translate the word disciple as "apprentice" and defines apprentice this way:
(The Divine Conspiracy)
This is what we set out to do when we become "learners of him," whom we call the Christ.
II
This spiritual practice, this learning of Christ, is not for our internal well-being alone but for the well-being of relationships, communities and nations. This is what shalom means in the Hebrew tradition. It involves all of life.
In Handel’s Messiah, the soprano aria, "Come unto Him" is paired with the alto aria "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd." If you studied the Ezekiel text in Bible Workbench a few weeks ago, you discovered that the image of shepherd was used to describe the good or godly king. In Ezekiel 34 Yahweh describes what Yahweh and Yahweh’s shepherd-king are up to:
The sleek and strong need watching over, lest they exploit the poor and weak.
I don’t think some people would want those words of scripture posted in school classrooms.
Nor the words of Zechariah which you have heard read and which you will soon hear sung in the soprano aria:
It is the women and children of any city or country who experience most directly the shalom of their world, or lack of it.
With the true shepherd-king there is justice in the land and healing and wholeness -- which is the root meaning of salvation.
Yahweh’s king rides not on a stallion, a war horse, but on a donkey as a servant of God’s people. Jesus staged his own entry into Jerusalem on a donkey to bring to mind these words from Zechariah. The prophet goes on:
In the translation of Handel’s day, the soprano sings, He will speak peace to the heathen, but the Hebrew word refers to all nations and peoples outside of Israel.
It seems a poignant cry in this world of ours armed in every corner with all the chariots and war horses and bows we can manufacture. Can this human race created in the imago dei ever attain the divine glory and realize that our salvation, our healing and wholeness, is not in these things? What do such words mean to our nation, whose military budget now exceeds all the military budgets of all other nations on earth combined? (Jimmy Carter in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize this week, reported our military budget exceeds the budget of the next fifteen nations combined.)
III
Jesus spoke peace as a way of life. "Learn of me," he said, and we have no better place to start than the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes:
Blessed, happy, dwelling in shalom, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven, the basileia tou theou, the kingdom of God.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The warfare is over.
Blessed, happy, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the things of God, for
they shall be filled.
Blessed, happy, dwellers in shalom, are the merciful, the givers of mercy, for they shall
receive mercy too.
Blessed, happy are the pure in heart, whose hearts are set on one thing, pleasing God, for
they shall see the one they love.
Blessed, happy are the peacemakers, the makers and builders of peace, for they shall be
called the daughters and sons of God.
Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of God’s justice and
righteousness, for the kingdom belongs to them.
Blessed are you, Jesus said, [shifting to the second person plural,] Blessed
are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad. [Imagine that!?] For God’s reward
will be great. So have God’s prophets always been reviled and persecuted.
He shall speak peace. And so shall we who learn of him and follow in his way.
I see you speaking peace every day in our city and community. People like Ann Hester and Jean Feiler, working so hard for a moratorium on the death penalty in this state, second only to Texas in executions. I think of our business leaders like Cliff Cameron, who led First Union, and Allen Tate, who leads his business and led the Chamber of Commerce, working for more jobs and economic growth for our city. Walter Rauschenbusch, father of the social gospel in America, called a job a means of grace. Or Wilton Connor, who just retired from his business, but made it for his employees a place of shalom. Or people like Paul and Evelyn Hanneman, helping lead Urban Ministry Center and The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. I could go on and on. Please forgive all the obvious omissions. Time and cold prohibit more.
He will speak peace. I close with three stories: Of an African prince, of a rural housewife, of a former member here, an attorney.
The African prince, Nelson Mandela, this man of royal African blood who spent twenty-seven years in prison for his opposition to apartheid in South Africa.
I saw his speech on T.V. the day he was released from prison and spoke to over half a million people gathered in Cape Town. Now graying, thinner, but with the passion of God’s justice still burning in his bones, he stood to speak. He closed with words from his trial spoken twenty-seven years before:
Second story, Kathleen Norris is a poet who moved with her husband to a small farmhouse in South Dakota, her grandmother’s house. There she began a spiritual reawakening and began to attend a small rural church. She observed the profound spirituality of the people there. One was a woman named LaVonne. She is described in one of Norris’ poems:
Last story, of a beloved member here who died a number of years back: Bill Walker, a prominent attorney, leader in our church, chair of the deacons, Doris Walker’s husband and Nancy Walker’s father. I’ve heard many wonderful stories about him. Here is one.
He was involved in a big trial and needed more time to prepare adequately for his direct. He went to the opposing lawyer, one of Charlotte’s best and toughest and most aggressive, and he asked for his help in getting an extension. The lawyer refused to do so. Bill said to him, "You know, one of these days our roles will be reversed. You will need more time to prepare adequately for your client and you will ask for my help in getting an extension. And you know what? When you do, I’ll give it to you."
I watch now with pride his daughter at work as an attorney, in the quality and compassion and fire for justice in her work.
He shall speak peace. And so shall we who learn of him.
1. "LaVonne's Mantlepiece" in Little Girls at Church (Pittsburgh: U. of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), p. 17.