Peace be with You

Scripture Text: John 20:19-31

Prayer of Illumination: Risen and Reigning Lord, unlock our hearts today as we seek to hear your Words for us and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be ever acceptable in your sight, Lord, our Rock and Redeemer. Amen.

This second Sunday after Easter begins our Eastertide/ Pentecost season. I encourage you to be on the lookout for seasonal bookmarks and devotionals from our Eastertide/ Pentecost team this week as we delve deeper into God’s story with the theme focusing in on; God’s breath, our story. Eastertide spans the fifty days between Resurrection Sunday and celebration of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. These were the earliest days of the church when times were chaotic, decision needed to be made, and the apostles were trying to continuously remember what it meant to follow Christ.

In our text from John, we hear the story of Christ’s second resurrection appearance. You may remember in John’s gospel, Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved only saw an empty tomb, Mary was the only one to see the Risen Lord. Most of the disciples had gathered together in hiding, fearful for their lives, perhaps in the room where they had shared the Last Supper with Christ just a few days earlier. Their grief was fresh and raw and real. Here these words from John 20:19-31:

Imagine what it is like to try to believe the unbelievable. You have probably had the worst week imaginable as your beloved teacher and friend suffered a horrific death. You know that he spoke about coming back but you do not understand what He meant by such words and you are still confused; only now you are confused and alone. As an aside, I think Thomas gets an undeserved nickname from this text. I find Thomas’ questions relatable and valid, but that’s another sermon for another day.  Friends, the disciples are confused and anxious but today’s text is a story of hope and promise and not a story of reprimand.

It is a lesson about Jesus giving what is needed for belief even after the cross and the grace of His patience to do so. The first time Jesus walks through locked doors, his disciples are fearful of Jewish leaders.  Perhaps they remained fearful of Jewish leaders even after Jesus appeared to them as the second time the doors were also locked. Yet, twice in our scripture, Jesus walked through locked doors and offered peace…a peace only He can grant. He gave the gift of the Holy Spirit, so we would believe and not be alone. Jesus does not stop appearing and coming to us just because the doors are locked; He walks through them as many times as needed, is patient and shows the immeasurable extent of His love for us. The Risen Christ gives his fearful disciples the promised peace which passes understanding. Even if the disciples were isolated twice due to fear, Jesus finds ways to breach their barrier, enter in their isolated spaces, and say peace be with you.

 

So friends, here we are today. The followers of Jesus. Waiting in uncertainty. Just like the followers did two thousand years ago. Friends, I miss seeing you. I miss gathering for worship. All of this can be so overwhelming, sheltering in place, not knowing when the world will take a turn for the better. But friends, John’s gospel today, allows us, invites us, compels us to name our anxieties, and laments, as Thomas and the other disciples did, without shame or embarrassment. Because the truth of the text remains the same. Though the days seem longer and the world is filled with chaos—-I believe in every fiber of my being that God is with us through it all.

Whether you are facing fear because of the virus or bank account balances or staffing changes at work—God is with you. Whether you are at your wits end, doubting a day will ever come when life will yet again feel normal—-God is with you. Whether you personally are secluded at home, or leaving home daily for your essential job while you pray for no contamination among the people you encounter – God is with you.

Jesus will walk through our locked doors as many times as needed. This can be especially hard to believe when it seems our universe has crumbled around us and we are faced with physical and spiritual chaos and crisis. What compelled me most about this text as I studied this week was, the Risen Lord, knows exactly where we are and how we actually are. Yet as Jill Duffield states, “He does not condemn our struggles to believe in God’s power and God’s goodness when all we’d imagined or planned gets upended…Friends, God in Christ makes his way to us, wherever we are, to reassure us of the trustworthiness of God’s creative, living word. He allows us to see him, touch him, stare at him in awe filled wonder, and study him, recognizing our fragility and shock….as we huddle anxiously in secluded places, how have we seen and heard, touched and felt, experienced without question our Lord and God, Jesus Christ?” When God in Christ walks through our locked doors and sits with us, passing an unfathomable peace, how can we embody such peace?

In times of chaos and uncertainty, it can be all we can do to hold on to short truths. Christ is risen. Christ walks through locked doors and brings peace which passes understanding. Christ calls us to share that peace. And friends, Christ is with us, no matter our circumstances.

After her mother suffered a stroke and she felt as though her world was crumbling in around her, Minister Elizabeth Johnson reflects, “The whole thing threatens to go whirling into emotional and intellectual and spiritual chaos. But the breath of the Spirit, with each breath of my body, keeps insisting that God does not run out of Easters. That the living Christ keeps walking through locked doors and locked minds until everything else recedes into the background and I blurt out the confession, ‘My Lord! And my God!” Thomas was in such a place of chaos and God met him there.

Friends, God does not run out of Easters. And God in Christ, never stops walking through locked doors to be present with our confusion and anxiety, for God is always with us. Amen.