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04.19.09

2nd Sunday of Easter

PEACE BE WITH YOU

PSALM 37:1-11; JOHN 20:19-29

• When Hope Seems Lost
• An Act of Desperation
• It was January 1999
• A young man drove his car onto a railroad crossing and put the shift lever in park
• The caution lights began to blink and the warning gates came down, yet the young man just sat there, waiting to die
• Although only in his mid-twenties, his life had become unbearable
• The strain and stress he felt became unmanageable as one disappointment followed another
• While he was loved deeply by his friends and family, he was very much a loner, for he was not one to reach out to anyone for help
• To others he appeared quite normal, but inside he was living in hell, struggling with depression, and searching for a peace he was unable to find
• The train’s brakes began to squeal as the engineer frantically blew the whistle—disaster seemed immanent
• Then, all of a sudden, the car lurched forward
• The driver peeled out from between the crossing gates just in the nick of time, allowing the train to pass unheeded
• It was almost like a miracle had occurred
• The young  man was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment
• When the police asked him why he had parked his car on the crossing, he said he was trying to kill himself
• But in the moments just before the train would have smashed his car, he claimed he heard the voice of God
• “Your life isn’t over,” the voice said to him.  “Don’t end it this way.”
• He was convicted of the charges, but instead of going to jail, he was admitted to a local treatment facility for depression
• Disturbing the Peace
• While many of us don’t take such drastic measures, there are plenty of things in life that disturb our peace
• Sadly, there are some who see no way out of the darkness that envelops them, who don’t hear the voice of God or anyone else, who succeed at bringing their life to a tragic end
• Our peace is disturbed by wars that make little sense, by senseless acts of violence that claim the life of innocent people
• Our peace is disturbed by domestic disputes and by troubles with our children and family members
• Our peace is disturbed by sickness and death
• It’s disturbed by the loss of a job, by financial reversals, by loneliness and isolation, by physical limitations, by age
• It’s disturbed when we see others succeeding while we continue to struggle
• These things and many more can strip us of our peace and invade our sense of well-being
• When our peace is disturbed and our well-being is threatened, fear often becomes the driving force of our life
• That fear often causes doubts to rise within us
• We doubt our worth as a person; we doubt that circumstances will ever get any better; we doubt the sincerity of other people’s love for us; we doubt the existence of God
• Doubt can cut deep into our confidence like a knife through soft butter and cause us significant spiritual malady—low self-esteem, lack of direction, anger, paranoia
• Shane Stanford, in his book, The Seven Next Words of Christ: Finding Hope in the Resurrection Sayings, says this in his chapter on this resurrection appearance of Jesus: “Doubt knows what to do with our failures, watering those seeds of guilt until they are full-blown weeds…But the real hope for humanity is that God continues to beckon.  Whether in the bright light of day or the darkness of depression, God does not forget to call our names and bring us home.”
• God’s Gift of Peace
• The Appearance of Jesus
• Imagine what it must have been like for the disciples on that first Easter evening
• There was no rest or peace for them during this Sabbath
• Jesus had been arrested and executed, so they were suffering the pain and grief of their loss
• They were ridden with guilt because each of them to a man had abandoned the one person who had been so faithful to them for the past three years
• One of them took money to hand him over, and took his own life in remorse; one of them verbally denied knowing Jesus, not once but three times
• While the rest of them neither betrayed or verbally denied him, their actions labeled them guilty as well, for only one of them mustered enough courage to show his face at the cross
• Since Jesus had been arrested and executed, they cowered in fear behind locked doors, panic stricken at any sound at the entrance, thinking that the soldiers had come for them as well
• As this day began, there were reports that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb, so they feared they might be charged with tomb robbing as they tried to pull off a hoax that Jesus was resurrected
• There were also stories that some of his followers had seen him alive, but that seemed so utterly impossible
• They wanted to believe, but it was just too unbelievable
• Overwhelmed by all the emotion, peace was nowhere to be found
• As Luke tells the story, they had just received the report from the two travelers on the road to Emmaus that Jesus had walked and talked and ate with them
• John adds the details that they were together behind locked doors because they were afraid, and that Thomas was missing from the group when Jesus first appeared
• His first words to them spoke right to the heart—it was just what they needed to hear: “Peace be with you.”
• In the language of New Testament Greek, this is only one word, “eirene”
• “Eirene” is the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic word, the language Jesus actually spoke—and that word is “shalom”
• A Prayer for Peace
• Shalom was used as both a greeting and a blessing
• It was the first word spoken when encountering a person and the last word spoken before departing from one another
• More than just “hello” and “goodbye,” shalom is a blessing offered as a prayer for peace
• Peace means more than just a spiritual state of calmness
• It means more than just the absence of war, for even when war may be absent, peace may still not be present
• Shalom involves wholeness, and wholeness implies good health, prosperity, security, rest blessing, and a good life
• It means a restored relationship between God and humanity and restored relationships between other human beings
• Speaking the word shalom, one does not simply convey the wish that all of these things may be true for the one to whom it’s spoken; the one speaking that word makes the commitment to do all in his or her power to make certain that wholeness actually comes to pass in the life of the other
• Just as it is true, as James says is James 2:14-17, that faith is useless unless it moves us to action to help someone in need, so it is true with peace (shalom)
• We cannot expect that simply by wishing those without clothing and daily food will keep warm and well fed without taking action to make it happen, so peace will not come to us or to others unless we commit to work for the wholeness that peace implies
• Without a doubt, this was the word these first disciples needed to hear
• Their lives had been fractured by all they experienced, yet Jesus offers them wholeness
• He offers them the help they need to put their lives back together
• He says, in essence, “I am still here and I will always be here.  And I will make certain you have everything you need.”
• In this one word, Jesus gave them forgiveness for their sins, relieving the guilt they were all experiencing
• He gave them comfort for their troubled souls and peace for their hearts and minds, all of which had been disturbed by what they had experienced
• He gave them healing for their broken relationship with God and with each other
• He gave them himself by imparting his Spirit upon them
• And above all else, he gave them the power to make a difference in the lives of others—the power to restore relationships, the power to overcome injustice, the power to aid in healing—physically, mentally, and spiritually, the power to work to bring real and lasting peace, not only to themselves but to others and to all of creation
• Overcoming Injustice
• The psalmist also offers us a word of peace in times of trouble
• All around us we see evil and people profiting from it as they exploit others to advance their own causes
• Yet, the psalmist’s words are clear: good will triumph over evil and God will ultimately have the victory
• In the end, those who do evil will get their due and those who suffer at the hands of others will receive their reward
• But to us, that still seems unfair
• Why do those who suffer have to wait for their vindication?
• The answer is, they don’t
• Vindication begins to come at the hands of those who “trust in the Lord and do good”
• Notice the two parts of this phrase
• First, we are called to trust—to believe in the power of God to overcome all the forces of evil that afflict human life
• God has the power and God will act
• We need to believe with all our heart that this is true
• Secondly, the phrase commands us to “do good”
• In other words, to do what is right and just—to be peacemakers
• To the meek God will give a great inheritance, but meek does not mean weak
• Instead, meek means one who is selfless and not self-seeking, one who not only endures injury with patience, but one who works to overcome injury to self and to others
• It takes great strength to stand up to injustice and work to correct it
• It’s hard work to bring peace, wholeness and well-being to others
• But that’s exactly what Jesus does for us
• When Jesus spoke this word of peace to his disciples, he not only granted them wholeness and a restored relationship to God, he also empowered them to bring wholeness and right relationship to others
• The Action of Peace
• When Jesus speaks his word of peace to us, he also empowers us to bring wholeness and right relationship to others
• He blesses us with peace so that we might work for peace for others by being peacemakers
• This peace—shalom—includes not just spiritual contentment, for no one can be spiritually content if they are hungry, homeless or sick with no way to overcome these dilemmas
• So Jesus’ blessing of peace is also a call to be peacemakers
• “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
• And they are children of God because they exhibit in their lives what the love of God is truly all about—selfless giving for the sake of others
• Quoting Shane Stanford again, he writes, “The nature of God’s peace has nothing to do with relinquishing the world’s difficulties; it has everything to do with embracing the world’s beauty…The nature of God’s peace is never experienced in our self-sufficiency but only in a relationship resembling the dependence of a child on a parent.  Our “mortality” is not the result of wounds to our bodies, but in the scars, scabs, and scratches of our souls that become infected with too much “us” and not enough “God.”
• This is the problem
• Our efforts at peace fail because they are our efforts
• We seek to gain peace, not for the benefit of others, but for our own benefit
• But true and lasting peace begins with relationship—a right relationship with God and a right relationship with others
• This is what Jesus gives and this is why the peace he gives is different from the peace we seek for ourselves
• It is only through a restored relationship with God that a true and lasting peace is attained
• Only as we live out that peace is true peace with others possible
• To live in peace is to seek the total well-being of others; it is to give of ourselves selflessly for those around us; it is to forgive as we have been forgiven; and it is to love as we are loved
• When we start consistently acting in love for others, when we start consistently following the examples and teachings of Jesus, when others are able to look at us and see Jesus, only then will peace have a chance