Peace with you

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My sermon for the is weekend will be based on this one from 2004. This sermon is based on the thoughts of Bishop Willamon found at the Duke archives here. I didn't use any of his text, but the idea - what does the church look like when we take up Jesus' radical peace as an end to fear, has inspired me.

This may preach differently than written. The congregation I speak to tomorrow is pleasantly satisfied with itself, even though it is not growing presently, and not growing because new folks find it self-satisfied. People are turned toward those they already know. It has its own version of 'locked doors.'

I will mull over this and pray to see if I dare touch that caged lion.

Easter 2C, April 18, 2004
Acts 5:27-32, John 20:19-31

This is the church? No - not us - the guys in the story.
Last week we had the story of Mary of Magdala, to whom Jesus identified himself as the risen, soon-to-be ascended Christ - going to join the glory of the Father. We had the hope of the risen Christ at the dawn of the day, springing out of the heart into the soul, singing - alleluia.

And now, on the evening of that day - the same day Mary had seen Jesus in the morning - the guys are behind closed doors - locked in - because of fear. Whatever they believe, whatever hope Peter and the beloved disciple brought back - the group of disciples is in fear. Whatever Mary has said - they are behind locked doors. And this is the church - all the church Jesus has.

Even without the full awareness of the resurrection - we might expect more of the guys than this -this cowering. For long, long periods, Jesus had been instructing them in his thought - I am the bread of life, I am the way, the truth and the life, Love One another, - showing them through healing and feeding miracles - who he was and what his Father intended. Jesus had been their teacher, their rabbi, their master - and their messiah. They had seen Lazarus brought back to life!

Now they feared. They locked the door for fear of the authorities. They huddled - maybe they prayed, maybe they sang, but they did not go out.

Wondering, waiting - I guess the question in their minds was “so if the tomb is empty, and Jesus is alive - in some sense, at least Mary says so - what now? What happens next? What do we do?” Is this the end of the world? (That possibility was much discussed in their day). If so, then all they needed to do was wait. Stick together and wait for the next mighty act of God - to lift them up into heaven and reward them for their faithfulness in walking with Jesus ministry on earth. The End.

Not the end. Not at all. for when Jesus appears to the disciples, huddled in the locked room, on the night of the resurrection - their world does not end. It is just beginning - the beginning of something they could not, clearly did not, imagine. It is the beginning of the church at work. The church of the Holy Spirit - the group of people who are sent by Jesus, just as Jesus was sent by the Father.

For Jesus appears among them (all except Thomas, more about that later) and says “peace be with you.” Peace be with you. This is the promise and the hope - the enabling and the answer to the fear that gripped them. Peace be with you. More than a greeting, it is a blessing - be the people of peace, be the authors of peace, be the carriers of peace to the world.

And then he completes his promise with the breath of life - the Holy Spirit - here offered as a quiet breath and wind - the conferring of authority through breathing the same air as the Lord. The authority conferred is to deal with sin - of all things - sin. Not the authority to heal or to feed thousands with a few loaves of bread - but to forgive sins.

Think about it - think about the dramatic shift in the perspective of the disciples in these very few verses. At the beginning they had been in fear, locked in their rooms. At the best they were expecting the end of the world - the dawn of the day of the Lord. At the worst they may have been waiting for the knock on the door that signals the coming of the police.

And now - they are the ones sent by Jesus - the sent-ones, the apostles - from apo-stella - to be sent. They have a mission - they are commissioned to get out there and deal with sin. They are Peter in the first reading - standing up for Jesus in front of the authorities.

None of this has been for their benefit alone. Not the years of teaching and observing and wonder at the miracles. Not the horrible last week and the aching agony of watching their master die. Not the marvel and astonishment at the empty tomb and Mary’s story. None of this has been for them.

It is for the mission - it is for the vision - it is for the outreach - it is for the world.

Jesus Christ died for the world. And if the impact of his death - and resurrection - stopped at the locked doors of the upper room - then it was for nothing.

As the Father sent me, so I send you. And they were sent. And they went.

Now Thomas was not there. And not only did he not believe what the others were telling him - he did not ‘get’ the mission part. “I’m to do what - wrestle with the notion of sin - forgiving it and retaining it? “ “I’m to put my life on the line for this vision of a Risen Messiah and eternal life with God.” Thomas desires some more personal evidence and he gets it.

But Thomas also appears as the first one of us. The First one who must believe because of the witness of the church. As we must believe. The one who points the way for all of us: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. Thomas claims: My Lord and My God!

The apostles carried out their mission right out of that room into the world. They gave us stories to tell and words to pray - they gave us hope to cling to and reason to continue. They gave us a mission. The mission to wrestle with sin and replace it with peace. The mission to see the world clearly and to know God even more clearly - the mission to say “peace be with you” and know it for the life-transforming message it truly can be.

The question I may need to ask - what are our 'locked doors' - what do we fear? New people and their needs and ideas? Change? Losing our identity, losing staff people we like, losing our comfortable way of relating to church? Being asked to be 'more' - more generous, more committed, more flexible, more responsible, more open?

If Jesus' gift to the church is 'Peace' and 'Spirit' - and that's not just 'inner peace' but 'shalom' equaling wholeness, then what difference does the 'peace power' make here? What is different for disciples who have met the risen Christ? What energy flow is divinely granted to moved through them?

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