“Peace?”
John 20:19-31
Chad is the fifth largest country in Africa, twice as big as Texas, with suffering to match its size.
For decades it has been torn by civil war.
Economically, it has been drained by drought and famine that leave it a veritable "basket case."
It is the 7th poorest country in the world and 80 % of the population lives below the poverty line.
Violent crimes, such as armed robbery, carjacking, and muggings, have been significantly increasing.
Terrorists may attack with little or no warning.
There are unmapped and undocumented minefields along the borders.
And I could go on and on and on.
Why am I mentioning all this?
Because according to Gallup’s 2019 Global Emotions Report, Chad was the most negative country in the world last year, and the United States?
Well, we are more stressed than anybody.
Most Americans recall feeling stressed in 2018.
Nearly half of us felt worried and more than a 5th of us felt angry.
Julie Ray, a Gallup Editor wrote in a summary report, “Even as their economy roared, more Americans were stressed, angry and worried last year than they have been at most points in the past decade.”
As a matter of fact, we Americans were more stressed than the poor residents of Chad!
(Pause)
On the evening of the day that Jesus rose from the dead we get a picture of a frightened and stressed out group of disciples.
The doors are shut and locked.
They are in hiding.
It’s very human of them.
And it’s very understandable.
They live in a violent society.
Rome kept the peace by nailing trouble-makers to crosses and leaving the bodies of the crucified hanging there for days and weeks for everyone to see.
Jesus had been one of those trouble-makers.
And therefore, He had died the most horrifying death known to humankind.
And now, due to guilt by association, the disciples are terrified that they will be next.
And who are they, after-all?
In the eyes of the world, they are a bunch of nobodies.
They are small-town blue-collar fishermen.
They are former tax collectors—extortionists.
They are the disabled, the marginalized.
They have no power; no political clout.
No one will miss them if they just—disappear.
They are all alone.
They are extremely vulnerable.
What are they going to do?
Can you imagine the fear they must have been experiencing?
Maybe you can to one degree or another.
After-all, you live in the most stressed-out country in the world!
And much of our stress comes from our fear.
In her book, Any Day a Beautiful Change, Katherine Pershey describes what it's like to be locked into a prison of fear:
Fear is a physiological response to tomorrow.
It is almost always about death.
Fear causes us to live in a perpetual state of anxiety.
Fear is exhausting and depressing.
Generally, the calamities I expect do not come to pass.
So, I replace them with new ones.”
I can relate.
How about you?
Have you ever been locked in by your fears?
It’s not much fun is it?
In any event, we read in our Gospel Lesson for this morning that “when the disciples were together, with the doors locked” because of fear, “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’”
“After he said this, he showed them his hands side.
The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”
Jesus meets us in our suffering places, in our fearful places, does He not?
And He does this through His suffering and death with and for us.
He has entered into this world and overcome the depths of our suffering, and we can meet Him there, just like the disciples met Him in their hiding place.
His wombs are a symbol of the worst that the world can do, and they also witness to the truth that the worst that the world can do has been overcome!!!
When the risen Christ shows the disciples His wounds He is saying to them and to you and to me: “The worst has been overcome.
What remains to be feared?
Nothing but Peace will prevail!!!”
Of course, the “peace” Jesus offers us has nothing to do with the absence of trouble.
Back in John 14:27 Jesus said to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Several years ago, I was going through a tremendously rough time when I was going through my divorce.
And I really hit “rock bottom.”
I was at the end of my rope.
And then something amazing happened.
I experienced Jesus right there with me.
And I was suddenly overjoyed.
I remember calling a friend and saying “Rock bottom isn’t so bad after-all, because Jesus is here.”
Jesus comes and meets us in our suffering places.
He comes showing us His wounds.
He comes saying, “Peace be with you!”
But He doesn’t stop there.
He invites us into the same kind of peace-making that defined His life and His mission, the same things that led Him to the Cross.
But, it is only possible for us to join into His mission through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And that is where true peace comes in.
For true peace is the kind of peace that brings the outcast and the marginalized back into the fold.
It offers food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, drink to the thirsty, and love to the unloved.
It includes the ostracized, loves enemies, and lifts up the oppressed.
Do you have that kind of peace?
Do I?
My mom has been in the hospital due to surgery to remove cancer from her colon.
I went to be with her in Kentucky this past Thursday and came back yesterday.
She is in a lot of pain.
She has a lot of healing to do.
I brought with me a prayer shawl made by the Prayer Shawl Ministry of this church.
My mother kept it draped over her the entire time I was there.
She was overjoyed by it.
And I think, it helped to bring her a sort of peace.
For some reason, Thomas wasn’t with the disciples on that first Easter evening when Jesus came and offered them peace.
A week later Jesus’ disciples were in the house again, and this time Thomas was with them.
Jesus invites Thomas: “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas’ response is the classic confession of faith: “My Lord and my God!” Thomas proclaims.
You know, I think the people in the homes surrounding our church building, the folks who are at home asleep or watching t-v right now are a lot like Thomas.
They are waiting to see the marks.
They aren’t looking for the marks on Jesus’ hands and side, they are waiting to see the marks of the Church doing what Christ has sent us to do!
They are waiting to see evidence that we are really connected to the Jesus Who was crucified and raised to life.
They are waiting to see if we are leaving any marks in our community.
Is there anything authentic about us that bears witness to Christ’s death and Resurrection?
Do we love well?
Do we love God and our neighbors.
Are we, like Jesus, welcoming to all people—no matter who they are, where they have come from, what they look or smell like?
Are we humble?
Do we serve?
So many of the stories that people outside the faith tell me, and I would imagine you as well, include their disillusionment with the Church, our failure to make real what we profess, to put our faith into action, to be Christ to our community.
That is why the church must be much more than a community that comes together to worship on Sundays and perhaps eat a meal on Wednesdays.
We are called to do the kinds of things Jesus did.
And Jesus met the needs of the people—with true, unconditional love and acceptance.
That’s why we are working to open a Food Pantry.
That’s why we are getting outside our closed doors.
Those of us who wish to call ourselves Jesus’ disciples must be willing to commit ourselves to Jesus’ type of peace making.
By ourselves, we humans are not capable of following Jesus: the power of sin is too great.
By ourselves we want to fit in, maintain our social status, preserve our privilege, and thus remain locked behind our doors in fear.
But, in the same way that the Resurrected Jesus came and stood among the disciples and breathed the Holy Spirit upon them—transforming them from a group of scared and lost people into a group of missionaries that have changed the world—the Jesus comes to us offering us the same Holy Spirit, calling us to the same mission and to the same peace.
Will we accept it?
