“Be Quiet”

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness. Amen.

Noise. What an incredibly noisy culture we live in. Everyday, from the moment our alarm clocks wake us up in the morning until late at night when we try to shut it all out and go back to sleep, we’re bombarded with noise – both of the kind we hear and the kind we see. Traffic, stop lights, car alarms, hip-hop, action movies, meaningless chatter, neon signs, loud ties, tie-dye, screen savers, intercoms, conveyor belts, trains, honking horns, screaming kids… its all a bunch of noise!

Why so much noise? Why can’t modern man just be quiet? Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” I’m convinced that the reason modern man hates silence and so actively tries to drown it out with noise is that he has a disquieted heart. He has a heart filled with anxiety and fear, and so he produces noise: anything loud enough to distract and desensitize himself from his inner disquietude.

In our collect today we prayed that God would give to us His Church that quietness of godliness which overcomes the disquietude – the anxiety and fear – of our fallen world, and of our fallen natures. These are radically contrasting dispositions of hearts and souls and minds.

Our Scripture lessons this morning present us with a case study in this contrast between the disquietude of the natural man, and the quietness of the man transformed by grace. The contrast is put forward to us in the two phases of the life of one man. That man was the apostle Peter.

St. Peter seems to be man we can all easily identify with especially in the first phase of his life. But we ought to be able to identify with him in the second phase of his life also, because he exemplifies for us a man who has, by grace, come to have that godly quietness which we make our special request this morning.

Anyone who has read St. Peter’s first epistle knows that Peter did indeed learn godly quietness. In his second phase of life, Peter had that stillness of heart and quiet confidence that comes through godliness. He knew the truth of the words of the prophet Isaiah who said, “the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness [shall be] quietness and assurance forever.”

Peace, quietness, assurance, these are the fruits of righteousness. The way to quietness is through godliness. And St. Peter, a man who learned this way through an oft times tumultuous life walking with Christ, exhorts us to follow the same way in our epistle lesson today. He says, “He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit: let him run away from evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers.” Now that is true peace. That is quiet assurance that lasts forever. And it is peace and quiet that comes through godliness.

And then notice what St. Peter tells us is the consequence of this godly quietness. He says, in effect, that having that peace and quiet assurance through godliness, there is then no one who can possibly harm you! “Who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?” Some of us might be so bold as to answer, “Well actually, Peter, there are a lot of people out there would like to hurt us for following the good. I mean, look what happened to you. You were crucified upside-down for following the good. It seems that if anyone should fear harm it’s those who follow that which is good, especially those who follow the Good Man Jesus Christ. Just flip through a martyrology sometime. More people have died for following Christ than were killed in the death-camps of Nazi Germany.

But look what happened to St. Peter. Peter was a man very familiar with fear and anxiety. In the first phase of his life Peter did not know peace. He had a disquieted spirit. An example of this is seen in our Gospel lesson.

Peter witnesses the awesome power of Jesus Christ displayed in the miraculous catch of fish. And he’s made suddenly aware of his own sinfulness as he stands in the presence of the Lord. He’s terrified. So what does he do? He tells Jesus to go away. He tells the Christ, the Son of the living God to get away from him! “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.”

Peter knew fear. Peter knew what it was to be anxious for his own life. Of all the disciples of Christ, Peter seems to be the prime example of one who feared harm for following the Good. In fear Peter said three times, “I don’t know him.” He denied his Lord to save his own skin. And after the Lord’s crucifixion, Peter went into hiding with the others for fear of the Jews. The dispositions of Peter’s soul in the first phase of his life was disquietude; his heart was full of fear and anxiety.

So what happened to St. Peter? What transformed him from the disquieted, fearful, anxious coward, who was ready to give up his Lord to save his own life, to the man who stood up boldly before the same men who crucified Jesus and proclaimed Him to be Lord and Christ? It was the small matter of a resurrection. Jesus Christ was dead, and then he wasn’t anymore. Peter saw him die. He saw the centurion pierce his heart with the spear. There was no doubt that Jesus was dead. But then he was alive again, and he showed himself to Peter. And in the resurrected Christ Peter saw all his enemies, all his fears and anxieties defeated. What power did any enemy have against him after that? What was there left to fear? Nothing could ultimately touch him: Not death. Jesus conquered death. Not the Devil. The Devil got his head crushed on Golgotha. Not Sin. Jesus bore his sins in his body on the tree. Not Suffering. Jesus transformed our suffering into glory. And so it’s in this faith that Peter, the man transformed from fear to godly quietness, says to us, “Who is he that will harm you?” It’s the same question the apostle Paul asks: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

This knowledge, this faith, is like a healing balm for the soul. It was for Peter and it can be for us. This faith is the ground of that inner quietness that we so desperately need, and which our culture so desperately needs. Yes, that quietness is perfected through godliness. But it’s born of faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ask yourselves, “What do I possibly have to fear? What reason could I possibly have to be anxious in my heart?” Or with the Psalmist, “Why art thou so vexed, O my soul? And why art thou so disquieted within me?” Jesus Christ died, and rose again, and that fact is as true now for you as it was way back then for St. Peter. In Christ, what enemies will you not conquer? There is nothing that can stand up to you because you have already died and been raised up in Christ. And even if you are killed for the sake of the Gospel, what harm is that to you? Peter says, happy are you! You will be with the Lord and with his saints in glory, and you r body will rest in the certain hope of the resurrection. Believe it. Meditate upon. Have faith in the Resurrection and you will have a quiet spirit. It’s this faith that made the early Christians the fearless witnesses they were, even though so many of them died for the faith.

Before the Resurrection of Christ, Peter just didn’t get it. He had a fearful, disquieted spirit, even though the Son of God himself turned to him on that boat and said, “Fear not.” Peter didn’t get it. He didn’t get it until he saw in the resurrected Lord all the sources of all his fears and anxieties completely destroyed. And having those fears destroyed, he was freed to serve the Lord in godly quietness.

Peace and quiet are rare commodities in our early twenty-first century culture. The other day a friend said to me, “What I really need is some time just to get quiet for a while.” He’s right. That is what we all need. But what we need most of all is that quietness of spirit that can come only through a living faith in Jesus Christ and a godly life. This is that peace and quiet the world cannot give. This is that true godly quietness for which we prayer this week.

As we come now to partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, let us come with joyful, quiet hearts, in confident assurance that Christ is risen, and that He comes to us now to feed us and to strengthen us with Himself, and to give us His peace. +