May 1, 2016 – John 14:23-29
John 14:23-29
The Gift of Peace
Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 1, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I’m lying in bed writing this.
I’ve woken up not long ago and I have that nice warm snuggly morning feeling.
I’m drinking my coffee and I’m having my smoothie and my bed is soft and warm and cozy.
I’ve just finished praying and I’m feeling all peaceful.
A few weeks ago I wrote a sermon in an airport.
One of you said afterward, “You should write all your sermons in the airport”! Ahahahahaha!
Well, I guess a different venue gives you a different perspective.
So the morning I write this, I’m thinking about my sermon for this week.
I’m doing that and I’m thinking and then I’m thinking I’m just gonna write this here.
This feels kinda good to me.
Then I wonder how much work I can actually do from bed – besides this, I mean.
I can make phone calls. I can respond to e-mails. I can text Chrystl.
Maybe this has possibilities!
This is going to be the next big thing: working from bed! And I’ll have invented it!
Okay: here we go: I remember a time when the passing of the peace was much quieter affair than
it is now at First Lutheran Church – and it took a lot less time!
There was a time when you did not move around and search out people to share the peace with.
You politely stayed where you were and shook a few hands within reach – and that was fine.
And then one day I preached a sermon on how Jesus crossed all kinds of boundaries to
share the peace and the healing he’d been given to share.
And I mentioned that in our worship space there was this invisible boundary that was
just waiting to be crossed during the sharing of the peace: the centre aisle! Hahahaha!
Well, during that service you have no idea what that unleashed: a peace-sharing frenzy!
It was like you were just waiting to be given permission to cross boundaries to
share the gifts of God!
I just loved that – and continue to love sharing the gift of peace at First Lutheran Church.
Well, that ancient liturgical custom has a long history in Christian worship.
And it has its origins in the Gospel story this morning.
My peace, says Jesus, I give to you.
And so when I say, “May the peace of Christ be with you always,”
I am doing what Jesus did on that night long ago when
he said to his disciples: My peace I give to you.
Are there any more comforting words in the liturgy or in the Gospel: My peace I give to you?
Ahhhhhh: you just relax into them like when you crawl back into bed after
grabbing that first cup of coffee in the morning.
We hear these words as tremendously comforting because we so often experience life
as not being peaceful.
We hear these words in the midst of lives that are busy, and chaotic, and difficult.
We hear those words in the midst of lives that have their share of conflict
at home, in our workplaces, and in our relationships.
And so it is helpful to recall just when Jesus says these words to his disciples.
He does not say them when he’s feeling all good and when everything is going great.
He is saying these words on the night before his death.
He is saying these words on Maundy Thursday.
He’s gotten his friends together for a final meal, a little dinner party.
But remember the timing: it is the night when he knows when he will be betrayed.
It is the night when he will be handed over to those who hate him.
It is the night he will be taken away to be executed.
And yet, in the midst of all that, Jesus senses a deep sense of peace –
and seeks to give it away to his friends.
See: the thing with the peace Jesus is talking about is this:
we often define peace as the cessation of conflict or difficulty,
as if peace were just the absence of those things.
But the peace Jesus is talking about is different.
The peace Jesus is talking about is something that has its own presence and reality.
The peace Jesus is talking about is not just the absence of something,
it is the presence of something as real as the warm weighty comforter on your bed.
It is clearly not the absence or cessation of conflict and difficulty,
because Jesus is surrounded by those things, more on this night than ever.
And yet he speaks of his peace, of the peace he has.
What is that peace? That something that has its own weight and presence?
This week I had a conversation with one of you about prayer.
We were talking about prayer, and you said,
“You know, pastor, sometimes when I am praying – not always, but sometimes –
sometimes when I am praying I have this feeling, this feeling of peace,
that comes over me. It is the Holy Spirit. It is the presence of God.
When it happens it makes the hairs on my arm stand up.”
That is what I am talking about, that is the peace Jesus is talking about.
It’s that thing that brings a sense of wholeness, of rightness, of fulfillment.
It brings a sense of being in harmony with one’s self and with those around us.
It entails a sense of contentment – and even more a sense of fulfillment.
It is that feeling you have when you are at rest with a beloved person and
you don’t want to be anywhere else.
Fulfillment, harmony, contentment, peace – not just the absence of conflict,
but the weighty and real presence of these things.
This is what Jesus seeks to give – and this is what Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to give.
This is what the practice of prayer invites us into in the midst of all our betrayals and difficulties.
The assurance that there is something more at work in the world and in our lives.
The assurance that there is something real that exists beyond the boundaries of our burdens.
Something with its own weight and reality: the gift of the peace of God.
A peace Jesus gives and – amazingly – a gift we can give each other.
I am most open to this gift when I wake in the morning, when I first open my eyes.
And everything is quiet, and I am still in that state between sleeping and waking.
And so that is when I pray and invite the presence of the Holy Spirit into myself.
I think maybe Jesus is a morning person – I certainly am not –
because that is maybe when I sense Jesus wants to give me the gift of peace the most.
Then – and when I am with those I love.
I think maybe Jesus wants to give me that gift early in the day so
I can then use the rest of my day to give it away.
See: in the story, Jesus not only senses the peace and lets it ground him in a difficult situation,
he also has the presence of mind to look around and realize that his friends are
scared out of their frickin’ minds about what is going to happen to him –
and what could very well happen to them as his associates.
So he takes the gift of peace he has – and he gives it to them, which is a gracious thing to do.
He tells them that when he goes away they will not be left alone.
The Holy Spirit will come, over and over, and give them his peace, for as long as they need it.
When they pray, when they are gathered together, in the midst of stress and hardship:
it will come, and it will allow them to be the people he has called them to be:
people of peace – and people of passing on the peace.
Because they will be invited to do as he has done: not to keep the peace, but to give it away.
Give it away to one another, and give it away to the world.
Because that is what they are for: that is what you are for.
Just before our story today, the other Judas asks a question of Jesus:
“How is that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
It’s an honest question we all wish we had the guts to ask Jesus,
and that we probably silently are thinking a lot of the time:
why doesn’t Jesus just make obvious to everyone what seems obvious to us?
That loving one another and caring for the vulnerable are the most important things in life?
That forgiveness and hospitality and community are prime virtues of human existence?
That creation is to be cared for and that we are here for one reason only: to love one another?
That every single person is made in the image of God and is to be respected accordingly?
If Jesus is so great, why doesn’t he just make all this obvious to everyone!
See Judas is really asking Jesus: Why do WE have to carry the message????
And of course Jesus, as so often, doesn’t really answer the question.
He just makes a statement: those who love me will do what I say.
And the Holy Spirit will come to you and help you.
I’ll give you my peace so that you can give peace away in your everyday life.
The closest he comes to answering Judas’ question in John’s Gospel is simply to say:
Together you will do greater things than I have done.
I think it’s Jesus’ way of saying, “I am just one guy. But you are many.”
God wants to work through us. That’s just the way it is.
Jesus doesn’t like working alone. Jesus wants to work through you.
Because he knows it will give your life meaning and purpose,
and that you will give life to the world.
The day began in bed. It started with that easy peaceful feeling.
Knowing that there are many difficulties outside my cozy bedroom and many challenges
in my life and in the life of our congregation and in the life of the world.
But the Holy Spirit comes with its own presence and weight and assures me that
there is a force for peace that is at work in our world.
And that Jesus is calling me to give it away this day. That is all.
Give it away in the sermon I write. Then get out of bed. And go out. And give it away.
Give it to the people in worship, so they can take it with them and give it away.
For Jesus is one, but you are many.
So cross that centre aisle, engage in the peace-sharing frenzy, and then cross every boundary
you can when you leave this place to share the peace you’ve been given this morning.
And may the peace of Christ be with you always. And together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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