So What? Now What?

John 20: 19-31

April 11, 2010

Rochelle A. Stackhouse

Well, all the hoopla is over now, the trumpets and Hallelujah Chorus, the flowers and the crowded pews! Now it’s just us, a smaller number of people gathered in a room wondering what is next. Christ is risen; most of us have known that to be true in some way, though, as with the disciples, perhaps not all of us. Peter is here. Mary is here, and I suspect Thomas is here, too. Some believe deeply and find great joy in that belief, especially at Easter. Some of us do not, but for whatever reason, you are here with us anyway, as Thomas stayed with those disciples he thought were delusional for seven days after that first Easter Sunday. And that’s a good thing.

It’s helpful to remember today what happened first after Christ’s Resurrection, no matter what the state of your faith or doubt this morning. What happened first was not frantic organizing or taking it to the streets. What happened first was not a multimedia campaign to advertise the Resurrection to the world. What happened first was not the formation of First Church of Jerusalem with by-laws and committees. What happened first was not the building of a building or the founding of a shrine or the writing of a gospel. All that came much, much later.

What happened first was the gift of peace.

What happened first was the gift of and call to peace.

On the evening of the first day of the new world, the evening after Jesus appeared to Mary in the cemetery, Jesus came to the disciples. Their door was locked for fear of being hauled away by the authorities as followers of Jesus, at least that’s what John says. I wonder if it was also locked because they were afraid Mary was right about Jesus being alive, and most of them feared that he would not be pleased with their behavior over the last few days. Peter did indeed deny even knowing Jesus. Most of the disciples fled and did not even stay at the cross with the dying Jesus. They all forgot what he had told them for three years. In each of their hearts were both the hope that Mary was right, and the fear that Mary was right.

But Jesus appeared despite the locked door, and the first thing he said was “Peace be with you.”

Quite frankly, when I die, I really hope this is the first thing I hear when I encounter God, that there is peace between us. Because I can imagine a different scenario, and so could those disciples. I can imagine God playing a power point presentation of Rochelle Ann Stackhouse’s worst moments. It will not be pretty. I can imagine being sent to clean the toilets of heaven or something as penance.

But those disciples were given no penance. Not even Peter. Jesus simply said, “Peace,” and in that word was the gift of forgiveness, the promise of complete reconciliation and oneness with God. The word in Hebrew would have been Shalom, with its connotation of wholeness. “Let our relationship be whole again,” Jesus said to them. Before anything else happened with this little community, they needed to know and trust that God loved them and was at one with them, no matter the past.

In the same way, on the eighth day after Easter, Jesus says to us, “Peace be with you.”

Then John tells us that Jesus showed them his hands and his side. The hands bore the nail wounds. The side had been pierced by a sword. They knew him by those wounds, and any doubts they may have had about his identity disappeared. Then this risen Jesus, still bearing the wounds of the world, once again said, “Peace be with you.” But this time he followed it up with “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” This time the gift of peace is not to be kept in that room with the faithful few, but it is to be taken to the wounded world in need of wholeness, places like New Haven after two more killings this weekend. John’s version of the giving of the Holy Spirit happens right here, on that day of Resurrection. Jesus sends them, but he gives them the peace of the Spirit to dwell inside them and give them the power and energy to spread wholeness around wherever it is needed. A few days later the risen Christ would take Peter aside and tell him that if Peter loved Christ, then he needed to feed and tend Christ’s sheep. Peace to us, Jesus said, and peace to “them,” too.

In the same way, on this eighth day, I believe the risen Christ says to us, “Peace be with you. As God sent me, so I send you.”

Then John tells us there was one disciple missing that night: Thomas. Despite the fact that his companions must have glowed with the power of the Spirit and the peace of Christ, Thomas wasn’t buying it. This whole resurrection thing just wasn’t rational; it didn’t make sense to him, no matter what they said. “Yeah, yeah,” he said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” But he hung around with them nonetheless.

Now I can imagine there may have been some pretty heated discussions in that house over the week between Easter and the eighth day. I imagine some of the others were a bit put out at Thomas for not trusting them, not believing them. I imagine Thomas was a bit irritated with them for pressing him too hard on this and making him feel like he was not faithful to God or to the memory of Jesus for not believing them. You may remember that the gospels tell us this group squabbled more than once even when Jesus was with them. It’s hard when a community is divided, is it not?

So on the eighth day, the risen Jesus once again came and stood among them, and Thomas was in the room. Once again his first words were “Peace be with you.”

Now maybe he said this to Thomas, but I suspect he said it looking around the room at all of them before he addressed Thomas specifically with a call to faith. Jesus knew that the task ahead of this little community was enormous. Jesus knew they needed to be of one heart, solid in their relationship not only with God, but in their relationships with each other. So this saying may have been as much a command as a gift: be at peace with each other. Move beyond your disputes to the work ahead. You are not only the agents of peace, but your community needs to model wholeness. You need each other to live out your call; you cannot do it alone or when you are divided from one another.

In the same way, on this eighth day, I believe the risen Christ comes to us, not just us here at Redeemer, but to the divided church universal, and says, “Peace be with you.”

Thrice blessed; thrice charged, we live into Easter. Beloved, hear the words of the risen Christ; however he speaks them to you.

Peace be with you. Amen.