Peace be with you
Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, year B
Bible reading: John 20:19
On my way to work in the morning I like to listen to Emma Ayers on ABC-FM. You can always be guaranteed she’ll play the daily swoon at about 8:15. Swoon in the words of the ABC website, is your invitation to indulge in a magical moment of musical bliss. Time to let your mind wander to wherever relaxing, lilting, ravishing music takes you.
So let your world stand still with Swoon every morning on Classic Breakfast. The daily swoon can have a powerful pacifying affect on me. Suddenly the stress of the freeway traffic or the concerns of work are put on hold momentarily, and I experience peace.
And perhaps you can relate to that. If music’s not your thing, then perhaps you find peace in a quiet location in the country somewhere, or in solitude, or staring into the mesmerizing flames of a log fire, or listening to the rhythmic breathing of waves at the seaside, maybe through meditation, or simply in a good night’s sleep.
People desire many things – power, pleasure, wealth. But whether they realise it or not, they long for peace.
- In some cultures it comes out in their greeting. Jews greet each other with ‘Shalom’. ‘Salâm ‘alekum’ in the Muslim world. But there is anything but peace between Jews and Arabs and many parts of the world.
- Sometimes people march for peace. Ironically their marches so often end in violent clashes with police.
Well let me tell you about the greatest peace of all. It’s the peace that everyone longs for but it passes all human understanding. It’s this peace that Jesus gives to his followers just after he has risen from the grave. Three times in our text today Jesus imparts his peace.
- Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ (John 20:19)
- The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.’ (John 20: 20b-21a)
- Eight days later … Jesus came and stood among them, and said, ‘Peace be with you.’(John 20:26a,c)
What makes the peace of the Lord supreme? How is it so unique? Why will I never find this kind of peace sipping a flat white at a beach café, reading the morning paper with the gentle cries of seagulls and the lazy lapping of water in the background? How is it superior to self-realisation and meditation techniques that try to find peace from within oneself?
Well, let’s just recall what has just happened here. The disciples had experienced grief at the death of their Lord, and we know it was no easy death to witness. They were also racked with guilt for abandoning their master when the going got tough. What’s more their lives were now in danger, and that’s why they were hiding away behind closed doors.
But then Mary had burst in that morning with the news that she had seen the Lord alive again. Her report was verified when Jesus came and stood among the 10 disciples, Thomas being absent on that first occasion.
What were his first words to them? ‘Peace be with you’.
What kind of greeting is this? It’s good news. It’s pure gospel. It’s absolution. The first thing the risen Lord Jesus does is to forgive their sins and declare to them that all is well. He steps into that nervous, barricaded room and banishes any fear of death, any fear of condemnation. Here is the fulfilment of the Christmas annunciation of ‘peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.’
The church is usually ecstatic at this time of year. But the peace of Christ is more than an emotion. It’s the result of God’s gracious presence with us through his Son. Our Lord’s words, ‘peace be with you’, are more than just a greeting. These words impart divine peace because they come from the one who has defeated all that threatens us, and who now stands in the presence of his people.
Now this doesn’t mean that your work will suddenly cease to be stressful at times. It’s no guarantee that all your relationships will be smoothed out, or that your neighbourhood will be free of crime, or that your country will never go to war.
But in the midst of life’s turmoil, the presence of the risen Saviour creates a peace that passes all human understanding, a deep-seated peace that holds fast even when the world around is giving way. While various forms of meditation teach a retreat from physical reality, the peace of Christ means entering into the fullness of life with God in Christ. God’s peace is not attained by a process of emptying but of filling. His is an alien peace, as it comes to us from outside ourselves. (John Kleinig’s term, ‘Receptive Spirituality’ in his book Grace upon Grace emphasises this unique trait of Christian spirituality.)
God’s peace is not just a theory or an idea, but a concrete reality. Jesus entered that room in person. The disciples, including the doubting Thomas 8 days later, were able to touch him and to eat with him. He was no figment of their imagination.
‘That’s all very well for them’
, you say. And you wish you were there 2000 years ago.
But so that you may also know this peace, our Lord has established concrete means through which he comes to you: through his powerful word; through the action of water and word in holy baptism; through the regular reception of the Lord’s body and blood in the Eucharist.
So you don’t have to be super-spiritual to know God’s peace. You don’t have to be a guru. Little children can know it. The same peace that filled the occupants of that upper room in Jerusalem fills this place when we gather for worship. God grants us this peace here in worship, and we possess it, despite the noisy jets flying over, the restless babies, or ambulance sirens screaming in the distance. The peace of the Lord runs like a golden thread throughout our worship and extends into our daily lives!
Even as we prepare to worship, we confess our sins to God, and receive that longed-for forgiveness. Until this happens we are restless. We are like the disciples, hiding away from ourselves and from others. But then with great relief we hear those words spoken as from Christ himself: ‘I forgive you your sins … peace be with you.’ Aren’t these just the pastor’s words? One sinner to another? How can I be sure that I am receiving God’s forgiveness through them?
Because on that evening Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples and commissioned them. He gave them the authority to forgive sins:
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
And so we enter into our worship saying, ‘in peace let us pray to the Lord’. Later, after the word of God is preached, the minister announces‘the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus’.
Then we arrive at the Eucharist where we pray, ‘Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us…grant us your peace.’
What better way is there to receive ongoing peace than through the sacrament where we receive Christ’s body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, for the restoration and preservation of both body and soul? After this we truly can go in peace.
The final blessing aptly closes with those words again: ‘The Lord bless you…and give you peace’, to which you all answer the acclamation of faith: Amen!
And that’s not where it ends. The peace of forgiveness is not exclusively the domain of the pastor. You exercise it in your homes, in your congregation, your workplaces, in your extended families. You are the true peacekeeping force in the world. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you
, said our Lord, just before entrusting his church with the ministry of peaceful reconciliation.
God’s peace is abundant and free. What would keep anyone from receiving it? Well we saw how Thomas resisted the news of the risen Lord. Unless I see, I will not believe…Unless I touch him, I will not believe. I will not…
How sad when people wilfully shun Christ. O what peace they often forfeit by abstaining from the presence of Christ.
When he finally met up with Thomas face to face, Jesus said, ‘Don’t be faithless(literally, Don’t be unbelieving), but believing.’
Divine forgiveness is God’s gift to the world. It brings us into the presence of God. It destroys death and guilt. It dispels fear and gloom. Through it, the risen Lord brings peace to sooth all grief and woe. True peace consists in knowing and being totally in harmony with God through the presence of the risen Lord Jesus. Fear, violence and sin vanish in the face of this divine peace. It is the elusive peace for which humanity searches frantically.
Some words of Father Scott Lewis from The Catholic Register (Canada):
Since Jesus rose from the grave, it is no longer so elusive. It is available and free to all who receive the Lord in faith. It makes its way out of closed doors into the world through his church, through us, who have been commissioned to continue His mission of reconciliation. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Peace be with you!