Sermon – John 14:27-31
24 February 2025, 107th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia
Ecumenical Service on the Independence Day, Tallinn Episcopal Cathedral
Urmas Viilma, Archbishop of the EELC
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” John 14:27-31
What is peace? The answer depends on what we mean by ‘peace’. Spiritual peace implies inner peace of the heart, a state where a person’s conscience is clear and their soul is at peace. Domestic peace denotes peace at home where everyone can feel safe, with prevailing unity, mutual understanding and love between family members and loved ones. Social peace persists if there is peace and unity in the community, everywhere around us. It means that we do not encounter physical or verbal violence, stigmatisation or cancellation, for instance, on our home street, in road traffic, but also in the parliament hall, TV programs and social media platforms. Social peace prevails when everyone feels safe and protected, irrespective of any differentiating characteristics they may have. Our idea of peace also includes good and neighbourly relations between nations and states, the absence of war and terrorism, a sense of security and trust, with no country or nation attempting to dominate others through military, political or economic force.
If even one among many desires unrest, that is what they will get. If we all stood for peace and focused on achieving, negotiating, making peace in every situation, there would be no violence at homes, on the streets, between countries or nations. This is why achieving peace is much harder than causing unrest. Peace can only be maintained when it is desired by everyone. If even one does not want it, there can be no definitive peace. Peace is achieved if it is in everyone’s interests – this is why we need to strive towards such a peace, a just peace. Peace also means autonomy and independence, both at personal and national level. Because there can be no peace without freedom, as the strong suppresses the weak in one way or another, making it lose its independence.
Just like peace that stems from within us, unrest and confusion can have similar origins. Even a single person can disturb peace for everyone, be it at home, in a team, community, society or, ultimately, in the world. We have seen it first hand for the past three years when Russia has carried out its ruthless aggression in Ukraine.
Peace is the guarantee of a healthy society. Mental health experts struggle to understand and explain the increasing feelings of hopelessness and depression in the younger generation, which seem to run counter to the notions of perfect life and happiness that have been characteristic of the past developments of the welfare society. However, there is deep hopelessness inside… People lack peace of mind as unease and concern about being directly affected by the surrounding uncertainties rob them of hope.
It is customary for us to talk about how we are shaped by our past. This is particularly the case on the Independence Day, as we reminisce about the suffering and the fighting spirit of the people. The sacrifices of our predecessors enabled us to win the War of Independence, break the occupation, and gain freedom through song, not only for our soul, but also for our country and its people. We are shaped by the past!
However, the past and the history cannot affect the salvation of our souls. “You need to care for your souls,” is a notorious phrase uttered by the parish warden in the black and white film, based on the novel “Spring” by Oskar Luts. The parish warden who, wielding a poker iron, chased Joosep Toots under the classroom desks had it absolutely right. Our ultimate fate is determined by the eternal future that reaches out to our temporal present. This is what the Book of Books tells us about. The best peacemakers are those who are guided by the experience of the past but rely on a hope for a brighter future when making decisions today. The entire world can be made better by doing so.
Unfortunately, it has not always been successful in the past. Time and again, peacemakers are overpowered by those who cause unrest and war, and peace is lost. In Hando Runnel’s words:
Anguish is blossoming high
Peace is nowhere to be found
Not afore the oven
Not abaft the oven
(Hando Runnel, “Varing” [Collapse], 2009)
With a new kind of peace rhetoric spreading over the globe from beyond the Atlantic, it is appropriate to recall the past. In February 1945, the allied victors of World War II met for a conference in Yalta. They celebrated the arrival of peace and the defeat of Hitler. The major powers negotiated peace above the heads of small nations. This meeting was followed by nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation in the Baltic states. As we reflect on the initiative for peace talks that we have heard a lot about in recent weeks, we should try to prevent history from repeating and ask, was the peace negotiated in Yalta 80 years ago a just peace? What kind of peace do we want for Ukraine? What kind of peace would we like to maintain in Estonia and what sacrifices are we prepared to make for this?
The Year of the Book that started a month ago has sharpened the minds of everyone with literary and cultural inclinations. Being a people that learned writing in the church and became a nation by reading books, would it be possible for us to be not only a people of the book but also a people of the Book of Life? The Book of Daniel in the Old Testament states, “But at that time your people – everyone whose name is found written in the book – will be delivered” (Daniel 12:1). As a cultured nation of Christian Europe, we could modify a poetic phrase by Hando Runnel to declare that “Writing starts in church, people start in books, people’s salvation starts in the Book of Life.” The Book of Life plays an important role both in the Book of Daniel and in the Book of Revelation. According to the Scriptures, the Book of Life is a biography that records the entire life of a person, through the lens of their righteous deeds or crimes, as a maker of peace or of unrest. Everyone who is a peacemaker can hope that their name has been entered in the Book of Life.
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). The churches are called to proclaim hope, not unrest, let alone incite war or bloodshed. The core of our proclamation should be the coming of peace – eschatological peace. But there is also timeless truth in recognising that in the midst of the unrest of the transient world, internal peace of the heart can be attained by believing in a better world that awaits us. This is the world described in the book that shaped us to become the people that we are today as we celebrate the anniversary of our independent statehood.
