2 Corinthians 13:11-13
“God…grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…the courage to change the things I can…and the wisdom to know the difference.”
- Those are uplifting words from the pen of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.
- They have come to be known as the “Serenity Prayer.”
- They have become precious to many people.
- Many who cherish them are involved in 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous.
- Central to the whole AA movement is the concept of serenity…inner peace.
- Calm the storm within and you will be able to handle the storm without.
- Good advice but easier said than done.
- And that is what a young man named Martin Luther discovered over five hundred years ago.
One July day…young Martin was walking through a wooded area.
- And when he saw dark thunder clouds rolling in…he doubled his speed.
- Too late…the storm caught him while he was still deep in the woods.
- As the unnerving thunder grew closer…Martin began to fear for his life.
- Just then…the hairs on his arm stood on end…as a bolt of lightning blasted a tree a few yards away.
- Martin fell to his knees…and the prayer he uttered was not spoken…but screamed:
- “St. Anne…help me…and I will become a monk.”
Well…That’s how the founder of the Reformation chose for himself a religious vocation.
- Even after joining the Augustinian order…Martin continued to be afraid and worry.
- The one thing he worried about most was his salvation.
- Whether…in the last judgment…when the Lord separates humanity into two groups…would Martin belong to the sheep or the goats?
- When Martin Luther…now a young priest…celebrated his first mass…he was terrified.
- Who was he…a sinner…to dare address God?
- It was all he could do to quell the fear long enough to finish the liturgy.
Martin’s fear drove him to the scriptures.
- He studied Hebrew and Greek…becoming a leading scholar in his order…and…indeed…in all the church.
- The passion that drove his studies was not the love of learning.
- But a desperate desire to know he was accepted by God.
- Martin was looking for peace.
Those dark days Martin would later describe as a spiritual trial of terror…despair and religious crisis.
- He prayed…he fasted…he mortified his flesh…but to no avail.
- God was punishing him for his sin…he was certain.
Finally…Luther discovered his answer.
- Verse 17 of Chapter 1 of Romans.
- “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”
- It spoke to his heart that day as never before.
Later…in his famous hymn: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” Luther would write:
- Did we in our own strength confide…our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our side…the man of God’s own choosing.
- That God-chosen man…is Jesus the Christ…God’s own son.
- Have faith in him…and salvation comes to the believer as a gift from God.
Finally…after all those years…Martin Luther found serenity:
- Accepting the things he could not change…courageously changing the things he could and wisely seeking to discern the difference between the two.
In today’s reading from Second Corinthians…Paul ends his letter with words of encouragement and benediction:
- “Put things in order…listen to my appeal…agree with one another…live in peace…and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
- What the apostle means is that we receive God’s peace at the same time when deciding to live at peace with one another.
Also…in Romans…Paul promises:
- “Therefore…since we are justified by faith…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- God is no longer the dread adversary…sternly judging us.
- To Martin’s surprise…God turns out to be the author of grace and forgiveness…the giver of peace.
- OK then…deliverance is one of those things we cannot achieve ourselves.
- It is the work of the Christ of God.
Here are the remaining…seldom-quoted lines of Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer:
- “Living one day at a time…enjoying one moment at a time…accepting hardship as the pathway to peace…taking…as Jesus did…this sinful world as it is…not as I would have it…trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will. That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next.”
- If you end the serenity prayer with the first sentence…serenity can become a kind of goal for which we strive.
- Even though the prayer says: “God grant me the serenity” …it is easy to skip over that.
- The result is to misunderstand serenity as a washed-out positive-thinking wish.
- Just think peaceful thoughts and everything will be all right.
The peace we crave is not won through some persistent self-discipline.
- It is peace with God that Paul is speaking about here.
- Not peace within ourselves!
- Peace does not depend on what we have done for God.
- But rather on what God has done for us.
Ask people what they must do to get to heaven and most reply: “Be good.”
- Jesus’ reply is this: All we must do is cry “Help.”
- God welcomes home anyone who will have him.
- God has more faith in us than we do in ourselves.
- Like Martin Luther…we must learn to have faith in God’s faith in us.
- God’s belief in us enables us to believe in ourselves.
Somewhere along the line…perhaps in our younger years…we absorbed messages that we were inadequate…ugly and unexceptional.
- That we were lacking in essential goodness and beauty.
- That we were not truly created in God’s image.
Jesus came that we might discover otherwise:
- That we might have true spiritual peace.
- Jesus’ desire is that we may “have life…and have it abundantly.”
- His wish is that we may find the peace that passes all understanding.