Sunday Sermon

“Peace Be With You”

April 27^th, 2014

John 20:19-31

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

²¹ Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²² And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus Appears to Thomas

²⁴ Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

²⁸ Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

²⁹ Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The Purpose of John’s Gospel

³⁰ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Commentary:

“Peace be with you” was a common greeting of Jesus and his followers. It was actually “Shalom”, a greeting heard hundreds of times on the streets of Jerusalem on any given day. There was so very little peace in that day.

As we have mentioned before, the gospel of John was not completely finished until close to 100AD and is believed to be a product of the Johannine community.  The commissioning found in it occurs in Matthew, Luke and Acts but the commissions have little in common and are understood to be creations of the individual authors of the books and reflect the beliefs of the communities they served.   

Long discourses by Jesus found in the latest gospel, John, are very unlike the sayings and parables of the first three gospels, the synoptic gospels.  Jesus is known to have communicated in short pithy sentences and parables and never made a point of identifying himself as anything but a prophet or teacher. The Johannine Community on the other hand had an entirely different purpose and therefore is quite different. 

Because of the difficulties of composition, continuity and order of this gospel, scholars generally agree that the discourses found in John were assembled over a long period of time and bear only a faint affinity with the message of Jesus himself.  Though including some ancient material, they represent the theological tenets of a distinct group within emerging Christianity, the Johannine Circle, it has been called. A century later it would be absorbed into Gnostic Christianity on one hand and into “mainstream” Orthodox Christianity on the other hand. There were literally hundreds of different types of Christianity in the ancient world in that day.  It wasn’t until the 4^th Century that there was any kind of continuity established.  

What vestiges of the language of Jesus found there in the gospel of John have been thoroughly edited to conform to the theology of the Johannine Community.  The admonition to love in this gospel has been reduced from the love of neighbor, even of enemies, to love within the circle of disciples. The writer has freely created lines for Jesus to speak that reflect his own point of view or that of the community. 

The commission Jesus embodied, however, is a commission to each of us to bring peace, love, hope, and assurance of God’s continued presence and love for us and everyone around us.  As Jesus is quoted as saying to the Ethiopian woman, “His message was to the Jews.”  We are commissioned to look toward our own culture for ways to share his message of the kingdom. Although there is hunger and need throughout the known world, there is hunger and need close at hand here in our own country that we can easily assist to alleviate.  God sends each of us to do what we can to help those individuals and families.  That’s why we keep a food basket in the foyer. And that’s why we do what we are able to help the Christian Church of Independence feed a couple of hundred hungry and lonely people each Tuesday.  God’s continuing Holy Spirit is available to each of us and attempts to persuade us to meet this kind of need as we are able. 

Let us ask ourselves the question others have asked even in Jesus’ day. “So when will God’s Kingdom come? And Jesus said “it will not come by watching for it.  It will not be said ‘look here’ or ’look there’ Rather God’s Imperial Rule is spread out upon the earth and people don’t see it.” The gospel of Thomas, which did not make the canon, says this as well, “God’s Imperial Rule is within you and it is outside you.” In the gospel of Mary, which also did not make the canon, it says, “The seed of true humanity exists within you.”  I believe that. As Jesus told all who would hear him, the kingdom of God is already here, we simply don’t see it. It’s spread out! It is within you and me. There is need everywhere that is being met.

Sometimes that need is not for food or money. Sometimes it is a need to offer emotional support to those who are hurting.  

You have probably heard about a group of boys from Sudan called the Lost Boys.  My story is about one named Peter Ter.  Peter was three years old in 1988 when the war came to his part of the Sudan. The North bombed the South, which was the bread basket of the area.  Helping hands reached out to save the small boy time and again. When the bombing began helping hands would reach out to pull him to safety.  This happened time and again. A group of children became separated from their parents and they walked for months toward a refugee camp in Ethiopia. When the camp was attacked, they trekked 1,000 miles back through Sedan to Kenya. They walked until their feet bled. There were more then 20,000 Lost Boys and a large number of girls. Many became prey for lions and soldiers and starvation.  Thousands died. 

Peter has a “can do” attitude though. The children mainly fended for themselves. Peter is a survivor.  He vowed to become literate and read by poring over a Bible. He learned to write by tracing letters in the dust. 

Crime and disease were everywhere but there was also generosity.  After almost nine years at Kakuma, he was given the refugee status by the US government.  He learned he would be moving to a place called Florida.  On his last day there, one of his friends gave him some used clothing with the word “Florida” and the image of a crocodile stamped on it.  He said he was a “Gator” when he was still in Kenya. 

Once again, in the US, Peter was befriended by a woman he ran into in the grocery store.  She hosted a party for a group of the boys.  Her generosity landed some of them an opportunity for an apartment through Lutheran Social services.  He and another Lost Boy  were given an apartment with three months free rent.  

They didn’t even know how to use a light switch and running water was new to them. But they knew they would have to get a job if they were to stay in the apartment.  Peter accepted the invitation to work at a warehouse and learned to run a forklift before he learned to drive. He loved the job. He was thankful for everything that had happened to him.  His boss loaned him books and invited him home for Thanksgiving.  Everywhere he went, people went out of their way to help him.  One friend helped him to study for the GED.  They also helped him find a better job at a Natural Food Store. 

One woman offered to pay for him to have his teeth fixed. When he met the dentist, the dentist decided to do the work pro bono.  He was a joy everywhere he went. He was always so cheerful and a delightful person.

He finally was accepted at University of Florida, where he worked for a degree in political science. 

He had an opportunity to travel to Israel where didn’t exactly blend in.  Armed men challenged his passport.  But Peter was polite and asked them if they would let him take a photo with them. He had a soft spoken way about him and had a God given gift with people. He radiated respect. 

For centuries social theorists have explained human behavior through a grim lens, declaring that people were inherently violent and territorial.  But in the past few years academics in a variety of fields have produced evidence bolstering an alternative perspective.  Central to our existence is what researchers call pro-sociality: a complex mix of empathy, gratitude, kindness, love, altruism, and cooperation. They’ve also found that pro-social behavior often spreads, with recipients doing what we call paying it forward.     

Peter wanted to give back to the country that, as he put it, “restored his dignity”. He joined the Peace Corp. When people he met criticized America he often told them “I was born into war, poverty, and disease. America adopted me. How can you think of America as a bad society?”  When security forces taunted him, he politely pushed back. “They’d shout “Why is America killing Muslims?” He would say “That is not a good question.” He suggested that there were criticisms they could raise about their government too and that the two sides should treat one another with respect. He is now working toward a double master’s degree in co-existence and conflict resolution.   

We have each had traumatic events in our lives. Sometimes those traumatic events, which at the time seem terrible, may  equip us to assist others in like situations better then one who has never encountered any trauma in their lives. In cases like those, our past misfortunes may be used to relate to another in a similar situation and we may be able to bring ministry.   

God uses us, as we will allow ourselves to be used, to bring ministry and assistance wherever we find need. 

As you reflect on your life, note when someone has been able to assist you to become someone closer to being a whole person. 

Personally, I thank God every day for good friends who have brought ministry to me throughout my life.  I even thank God for the experience of finding myself in a family with alcoholic parents. Trying to bring ministry to my parents at the end of their lives gave me an opportunity to forget about my own set of personal problems and concentrate on assisting them while I was able and they were still alive. And as been said many times, “Sometimes what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” 

So, consider this: As you examine your life, what opportunities for ministry have you had that have enabled you to become a minister of personal ministry yourself?  When have you needed to see and feel God’s presence in your life?  

God offers hope and compels us to believe in the continuing presence of God’s Holy Spirit to bless our personal as well as a corporate mission and ministries.  Let us listen for God’s still small voice as it encourages us to look for ways to bring ministry to others.