The Peace of Christ

Text: John 20:19-31

This passage from John is one of those that quite poetically describes what the church is. It says that: 1) Jesus the crucified is alive and in our midst; 2) in an act of New Creation he's breathed the very life of the Triune God of grace into his followers so that there is now an inseparable union between us and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and 3) Jesus raised and present and our union with him becomes evident as we devote ourselves to the work of reconciliation which is being a community of human beings who are able to love, serve, and forgive as Jesus has done for each of us. Therefore, for the church, reconciliation is our business and nothing else. We are to be the community where human brokenness is healed. If we make our reason for existence anything else we are not the Church of Jesus Christ.

Let us use our imaginations for a moment and put ourselves there in that room with the disciples that evening when Jesus appeared to them. Here we are utterly heartbroken, utterly confused. We've closed the doors and locked them, hiding because we're terrified for our lives. What are we going to do now? The crowds, the authorities – THEM – they crucified Jesus; mocked him, spit on him. He was a bloody mess. We barely could recognize him. Violence! What will they do to us? Jesus hadn’t done anything wrong. Pilate declared Jesus innocent of any charge, but our people, especially our leaders wanted Jesus dead and they want us in the least to be disbanded. Pilate himself had even realized there was an odd “authority” about Jesus; afraid of Jesus I would say. He certainly wanted the priests to know there was something more to Jesus so he “enthroned” him on that cross beneath the title “King of the Jews”. That really ticked off the priests. Is there going to be another revolt? That's not what Jesus wanted! What will they do to us? But wasn't it true? Jesus was the Messiah, wasn't he? What are we going to do now? We really had hoped that Jesus was the Messiah. We came here to Jerusalem really expecting that he was going to get rid of that sham of power entrenched in the Temple and send the Romans “hameward tae think again.” But where's the kingdom of God? Where is it? He's dead. What now? What about us? And what's this that Mary and the other women are saying? His tomb is empty? Jesus is alive? Raised from the dead? They say he said we should go to Galilee and meet him there. This is getting crazy! What are we going to do now?

That’s a good question even for us 2,000 years later? What are we going to do? Maybe by now you're getting the sense of the disillusionment, of the monster emotional roller coaster they were on; torn with fear, grief, doubt, and...faith. And then in the midst of all that Jesus appears to them. Out of nowhere, King Jesus, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Jesus their Beloved, Jesus their Lord and God appears risen from the dead. Then King Jesus says to them not “Grab your swords. The angels are coming,” but rather, “Peace be with you.” He shows them his wounds and they are moved to joy.  It really is him and he is raised from the dead. He had died and come out the other side.

Then, Jesus again says “Peace be with you.” but, this time adding (and I paraphrase) “As the Father sent me with all his authority to establish the Kingdom of God so also I am sending you forth in my own authority to establish the Kingdom of God (and I will be with you).” And then he performs this act of New Creation; he breathes upon them the breath of New Creation life that is in him, the Holy Spirit. Just as in Genesis the Trinity breathed into Adam the breath of life so that Adam became a living being, so Jesus here breathes the breath of New Creation life, into these children of Adam, that they may be children of God. Then Jesus sends them forth not to go to war to establish his Kingdom nor with moral authority over a society but rather imbued with the authority to forgive or not to forgive the sins of others; thus, God-given power to do the work of reconciliation. Weird kingdom, eh?...not of this world!

Jesus has come not to create buildings on street corners housing institutions associated with him in name only, rather, he has come to create, get this, a new humanity; a new humanity that is distinguished by his peace which is his own presence with us and our union to him in the Holy Spirit. His peace is a gift. It is the breath of the new life of his resurrected humanity freely given to his followers. Just as the Trinity breathed simple life, existential life into humanity in the first place now through Jesus he breathes the new life of his very self into humanity, the Holy Spirit. This gift, this new gift of new humanity thrives in the intrauterine waters of a people empowered by Jesus to carry out the work of reconciliation. This peace that he gives us grows in and through our work of making peace amongst ourselves as a congregation and in all our relationships. Jesus' new humanity comes to us to create new human community, people who gather together to be intentional about healing the brokenness that sin has brought about in their lives.

Let us not take for granted this gift of peace that Jesus has given the communities of people who gather in his name. The image of this peace, the image of God, can be yet again marred if we retain, or grasp upon the sins of others with judgmentalism rather than unconditional love and the sincere desire to see them healed. The image is disfigured beyond recognition when we blatantly refuse to do the work of amends-making for the injuries we ourselves have caused others and when we intentionally hold on to hate, begrudging others. Jesus’ Kingdom truly is a different sort of kingdom. The peace of Christ is the direct result of the good news of his kingdom come, of the Trinity having acted within history to save his creation in, through, and as Jesus of Nazareth the Christ, our risen Lord. The Christian faith, the Church, is not about a system of personal beliefs or ideas and ideals of religion nor is our purpose preserving morality and higher social virtues in an immoral culture that lacks virtue. Rather, we are about the peace of Christ embodied in human community. We are the new humanity made alive by the Trinity’s sending, giving, and placing his very self as Jesus Christ into the old humanity and putting it to death and them making it anew through himself, a newness which becomes visible as we his followers go about the ministry of reconciliation.

There is a practice that many churches do that I think every church ought to do every week. It's the practice of greeting one another with the peace of Christ. It is done to give body and voice to the reconciling and transforming work Jesus himself is here doing in our midst through the Holy Spirit. He is here breathing on us making us to be the new humanity evidenced in reconciliation that will come to it’s completion at his return. To say to another person, “the peace of Christ be with you” is to say “I want everything that Jesus came, lived, died, was raised and reigns for to take effect in you and this gesture, take it or leave it, embodies it.” It is to say, “I want you to know personally the steadfast love and faithfulness of God the Father.” It is to say, “I want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit and made new.” “I want you to know peace in your relationships in such a way as only the God who made you can give it.” It is to say, “You are forgiven. I am forgiven. Indeed, there is nothing that separates us from the love of the Trinity in Jesus Christ.”  Greeting others with the peace of Christ just may be the greatest work of evangelism the church can do.

This act of extending the peace of Christ seemed to start making its rounds in the 90’s back in the days when I was in seminary as a rebirth of an early church tradition. It was amazing to hear the stories that ministers had and still have in getting their congregations to turn to one another on Sunday morning and say, “the peace of Christ be with you.” Most churches had no problem with turning to the people sitting around them and saying “Good morning.” But to say, “the peace of Christ be with you,” was a different matter. It was a little too much Jesus for many and resistance arose. There have actually been instances where church members have secretly organized to get rid of their minister for introducing “the peace of Christ” into the worship service.

In my last church I was overjoyed with the way they received it. When we first did it, I said, “Please, stand and turn and great one another in the peace of Christ.” I was expecting that they would just turn to those seated nearby and say it like they do in the big churches that do it; but there was suddenly a spontaneous eruption of each person getting up and walking around having to go to every person to extend the peace so that each received it from all. I was caught off guard by that like a small taste of what the disciples were caught of guard on that night when Jesus appeared to them. That act of spontaneity made evident, made visible to me “Jesus is here.” In that liturgical act of peacemaking Jesus became evidently present in our midst.

There is a song about the peace of Christ that I’d like to share with you and maybe we can sing it together. Glen Soderholm wrote it. It’s a reflection upon Psalm 133 which reads: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the LORD ordained his blessing, life forevermore.”

The Peace of Christ

May the peace of Christ be with and also with you.
May the peace of Christ be with you in all you do.

Its like the precious oil that flows down Aaron’s beard.

And as dew falls from the mountain

The blessing bursts forth here.

So we throw down all our weapons and the things we long to control.

And call now for Jesus’ presence

To restore our very souls.

We turn now from the solitaryto the dance of kindred hearts
 And laughing with each other

As each one takes their part.

The peace of Christ be with you. Amen.