June 26, 2022

Third Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 8C – Bill Harkins

Collect of the Day

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel: Luke 9:51-62

When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

In the Name of the God of Creation, who loves us all…Amen. Good morning, and welcome to Holy Family on this 3rd Sunday after Pentecost. The readings for today provide us a rich scriptural tapestry with at least one thread in common. In each of these passages we find a journey, and guides—or guidelines—for the road ahead. These guides, and the gift they give, are spirit-filled in nature, and this is the shared narrative. That same Spirit informs, infuses, and empowers the readings, and in turn each of us. Begging the question, who and where are our guideposts in a season in which the world seems to have gone off balance? How might our faith, reason, and tradition assist us? What might it mean to participate in the Body of Christ in this time, and this place, as we face today’s challenges of violence, polarization, and isolation? In the Gospel text we are reminded that our journey with Jesus requires a clarity of commitment and purpose that we may find harrowing, in both the culturally familiar and agricultural senses of the term…that is, to vex or distress, and to turn over and dig into the soil in preparation for planting, growth, and harvest. And, the word “harvest” is instructive, since the OE etymology of the word harrow is “HARWE” from which we also get our word harvest. Jesus’ reminder that while plowing the field to which we have been assigned we cannot look back, even for those tasks which ordinarily require our utmost attention, is harrowing indeed. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” and “let the dead bury the dead.” It’s a hard road indeed for those to whom Jesus says, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” These are not slogans likely to be on the recruiting posters for this band of disciples and missionaries, but upon further reflection, we might ask ourselves what these thematic lessons are really about. We know these recruits came from all lines of work, and represented in this and other ways a cross-section of the society, just as those gathered here each week.  Somehow I find this comforting. I paid for college by working summers in a steel mill, mostly with welders. And though I was a bad welder, I came to appreciate their skills. Their patience with me and affection for me allowed me to get a wonderful blue collar education on the way to a transformative liberal arts education. I suspect each of the mostly blue collar disciples with Jesus brought particular gifts and strengths to their missionary work. And that these skills lent themselves to particular forms of ministry. So it is with us. In the passage from 2 Kings, Elijah and Elisha are also on a journey. I find the request from Elisha that he inherit a double share of Elijah’s spirit to be quite touching, and poignant. The mantle that fell as Elijah was taken up—an example of what we psychoanalytically trained theorists call a “transitional object”, kind of like a blanket or stuffed animal to which children become attached—is an outward and visible sign of the grace, and the spirit of and relationship with Elijah—and it  guides Elisha on his journey. The image of Elisha, now empowered by this spirit guide, parting the waters and moving on, is symbolic of what can happen when we are guided by our teachers, mentors, and those whose lives live on in us. Where might we be called to journey, both individually and as a church, particularly in this season of transition for us all? And what and who shall guide us? We may have to give up some things we’d rather not give up, or go places we rather not go. This too can be harrowing in both sense of the term. We might have to become what one of my former professors called “liminal persons,” at home in threshold spaces. We find references to the spaces “in-between” throughout Judeo-Christian writings, by such authors as Martin Buber, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis, and James Hollis, a Jungian therapist and author who has said that these in-between spaces are, spiritually and otherwise, the most fruitful places of all: doorways and vestibules; thresholds to transitional passages; deep forest paths; Gothic cathedrals; and foyers, and seasons of our lives having, as they do, a liminal appeal and the magical promise of being called forth into new interaction. In the popular Harry Potter series by JK Rowling Harry journeys to the Hogwarts School by meeting the train at platform number 9 ¾; it is neither nine, nor ten, but rather a space “in between.” Tolkein’s “middle earth” is another such liminal space. Perhaps, dear one’s we are in such a season in our nation, and our church. Perhaps we have what we need, right here among us.

Tuesday I enjoyed sitting in on the Worship Committee meeting with those wonderful souls to whom you have entrusted this aspect of our common lives, and I felt so at home there, as I have always felt here. I was so moved by the gentle grace with which this committee, led by George, Katharine, and Ric, engaged the discussion about how best to keep this sacred space safe in light of recent events, including our sister Episcopal Church in Birmingham. I suspect there were many opinions in the room about gun rights, but the conversation was guided by two unspoken lessons I have learned as a priest, therapist, and through Al-anon. The first is that it is often more important to be in relationship than it is to be right. And the second is that we can, most of the time, love completely without complete understanding. Both of these are Gospel Good News.

After the meeting I went up toward Amicalola Falls to run on the trails, and usher in the summer solstice. The Southern Appalachians are dry these days, all the more so in contrast to our recent visit with family in cool and rainy Montana. Vistas in Montana’s big sky are vast, and everywhere. Here, the forest both obscures, and discloses, and long views are not easily achieved. Running on unfamiliar trails, it is good to have signposts along the way, cairns made of stone, and places to pause, and to rest. In the silences one may hear, and perhaps see, streams unheard before. As Wendell Berry wrote in this liminal and well, harrowing sonnet:

“Sit and be still

until in the time

of no rain you hear

beneath the dry wind’s

commotion in the trees

the sound of flowing

water among the rocks,

a stream unheard before,

and you are where

breathing is prayer.“

~ Wendell Berry, Sabbaths

Perhaps we are called to do likewise—to sit and be still, and listen and look for the transitional spaces in our lives where our gifts and graces might find life, and find it authentically. I have come to believe that there are often two kinds of journeys. The first is like that of Odysseus, the protagonist and hero of The Odyssey. Odysseus wants nothing more than to return to Ithaca, and to Penelope, and all that he knew, and had left, and longed to see again. Everything that happens—the movement of the entire narrative—is in the service of getting back home. Contrast this with, say, the journey of Sarah and Abraham, whose final destination was unknown even to them, and who paradoxically came “home” to a place they had never been before. It is a journey reminiscent of T.S. Eliot’s lovely lines from Little Gidding: “We shall not cease from exploration; and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.”  In this paradoxical dialectic, only on the condition that Abraham relinquishes almost all that keeps him trapped in his past—and trying to get back to a familiar home—is it possible for him to move into the Promised Land, to go home to a place he has never been. And this is the nature of our summons as Christians, and it is the journey to pastures of wholeness, and abundance in the new normal. Some time ago a friend and colleague died after a courageous, year-long struggle with leukemia. A priest for more than forty years, he was gifted in the areas of ministry he most deeply loved; contemplative prayer, spiritual formation, and liturgy. He was a wise and gentle mentor to those of us younger in “priest years,” and a gift to each parish he served. We were also quite different in terms of our politics, and theology. After several hospital stays, two extensive rounds of chemotherapy, and a joyful but short lived remission, the cancer returned with new vigor. My colleague, in consultation with family and friends, decided to cease all but palliative care, and to die on his own life-giving terms. In one of our last conversations, watching the birds at the feeder on his back porch, he said “I have had so much love.” “Yes,” I replied, there are so many who love you and are grateful for you. I am one of them.” “That may be, “he replied, “but what I mean is that there are so many whom I have loved. I have so much gratitude for the love God has enabled me to give away.” We were quiet for a few minutes, and then he said, “Having made the decision not to continue with treatment has freed me to focus on the quality of my life rather than the longevity of it. It has given me the freedom to see in a new way how much love there has been, is now, and will be. Love is meant to be given away. That is what the Incarnation is all about.” We sat together in silence on his deck, in the early spring sun, with the goldfinches and nuthatches feasting at his birdfeeder. A few days later, he was gone. Among the truths my colleague helped me see was that bondage takes many forms, and we must be courageous in naming them. In the passage from Galatians and from the Gospel for this morning, we hear unequivocally that freedom is for love—and this requires release from any form of bondage that would keep us from giving this love away. Perhaps in our personal lives this may mean embracing the new chapter of life to which we are being invited. Perhaps as a church, it means letting go of business as usual during a season of unprecedented change. Paul emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit—in the renewal and re-imagination of membership in community, and Jesus calls us to keep our eyes on the prize of life-giving love, in community, and on the fundamental focus of our journey as the Body of Christ in the world. We are rightly suspicious when we are called only to joy. Yes, and even amidst our struggle with various forms of bondage, we can find life-giving possibilities, in conversation with one another, as the Body of Christ in this place, and guided by the Holy Spirit in Her mischief, in love. Amen.

June 19, 2022

Second Sunday after Pentecost – Byron Tindall

The Second Sunday after Pentecost 43 years ago was on June 17. It was also Fathers’ Day that year and one of the hottest Sundays I ever remember in Boonville, New York. On that day in 1979, the Rt. Rev. Ned Cole, Bishop of Central New York, ordained David R. Mihalyi and me to the priesthood in Trinity Episcopal Church in Boonville.

I tell you all of this because I’m about to do something I promised myself some 44 years ago I’d never do. This sermon is going to be political. I’ve always urged people to vote by saying something to the effect that “if you don’t vote on Tuesday then you have no right to complain on Wednesday.” I’ve never told anyone to vote for a particular candidate from the pulpit.

From Luke’s Gospel for today, we have the statement, “Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear.” It must be noted that the “all the people” is more than likely part of Luke’s hyperbole, for which he was known to use from time to time.

What was the great fear that seized the residents? Did Jesus instill fear into those to whom he preached and healed? I hardly think so. I think it could possibly have been a fear of violence. The sight of a herd of pigs throwing itself over a bank or cliff into a body of water and drowning seems to me to be a pretty violent act.

Were the Gerasenes afraid of how Jesus might cure someone else? Would that cure be just as violent?

There’s plenty of violence in the Old Testament, too. Just witness the Lesson from First Kings read a few minutes ago.

And there’s certainly more than enough violence to go around today in these United States of America.

I’m writing this almost 2 weeks ago. It’s Monday after the first weekend in June.

A weekend that saw no less than 10 incidents of mass shootings. A mass shooting is defined by Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which 4 or more individuals are killed or injured by gun fire during that event, excluding the one pulling the trigger.

The weekend total included at least a dozen people shot to death and more than 60 injuries, some of which were classified as critical. My source did not list the type weapon used in each case.

Here are the statistics as reported by a major news outlet:

  1. Socorro, Texas, five people wounded at a graduation party
  2. Summerton, South Carolina, one killed and at least seven others wounded at a graduation party
  3. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, two killed and 11 others hit at an entertainment district. A third death may have been one of the shooters.
  4. Chattanooga, Tennessee, two killed and 14 wounded at or near a nightclub
  5. Phoenix, Arizona, one killed and eight wounded at a strip mall
  6. Mesa, Arizona, two killed and two others injured by gunfire
  7. Omaha, Nebraska, one killed and three wounded
  8. Chesterfield, Virginia, one shot to death and five others wounded
  9. Macon, Georgia, one killed and three others wounded
  10. Saginaw, Michigan, three shot to death and two wounded.

 All of this came on the heels of the butchering of innocent elementary school children in Texas; the deadly assault on an Oklahoma medical facility, a racist rampage at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and an attack on a Taiwanese church service in California.

I think enough is enough. Far more than enough.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not against guns per se. Actually, I’m a gun owner just like many of you. I enjoy punching holes in paper targets. I even have a replica of a weapon used during the Revolutionary War. I like to fire that thing and smell the black powder. I’m not the most accurate shot with the Brown Bess, but I’ve been known to dispatch copperhead snakes with my old single-shot .22 caliber rifle. I don’t want the poisonous snakes around where we and our dog walk.

Let’s think about the Second Amendment to our Constitution for a minute. If my memory serves me correctly, there were no police departments at that time. And firearms were a lot different. An experienced person living and hunting back then could get off three or possibly four shots a minute.

An assault rifle is rated in the number of rounds fired per second. A handgun with a magazine holding 10 bullets can be emptied in a lot less than a minute.

The House of Representatives passed a law, that among other things, raises the age of someone allowed to purchase an assault-style rifle from 18 to 21 years of age. That law is expected to fail in the U.S. Senate.

Some senators are attempting to work out a compromise that will pass muster in the senate. What is being proposed doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Assault rifles are designed to do one thing and one thing only and that is to kill or maim the target. No citizen of this country of ours has a need whatsoever to own an assault rifle.

The Federal Assault Weapons Ban was enacted in 1994, and it expired in 2004. Repeated attempts to reinstitute the ban have always failed.

It’s way past time for our legislators and congressmen and women to once again ban the ownership of assault weapons by citizens. I doubt many residents of Uvalde, Texas, would disagree with me on this.

Unfortunately in this day and age, all legislative bodies seem to agree on one thing. If the Democrats are for something, then the Republicans are against it, and conversely, if the Republicans support something, then the Democrats are required to oppose it.

How much longer are we going to remain hostage to those who have the authority to eliminate this scourge on our society? How many more massacres is it going to take before congress will stand up to the NRA and the firearms manufacturers who apparently help with the campaign financing of certain members of congress?

Maybe it’s time we the people put into office those candidates who are not beholding to the NRA or arms manufacturers and dealers.

At this point it makes absolutely no difference to me whether that candidate is a Republican or a Democrat; a Liberal or a Conservative so long as he or she stands for a total ban on assault rifles, increasing mental health services for those who probably shouldn’t have a firearm anyway, and requiring far more extensive background checks on those attempting to purchase any gun. That person will get my vote, and I hope and pray that you, too, will join me in getting that person elected.

I’m sure that many of you are familiar with Bob Dylan’s song, “Blowin in the Wind.”

            The last verse is:

            “Yes, and how many times must a man look up

            Before he can see the sky?

            And how many ears must one man have

            Before he can hear people cry?

            Yes, and how many deaths will it take ‘til he knows

            That too many people have died?

            The answer, my friend is blowin in the wind

            The answer is blowin in the wind”            

Maybe, just maybe, the winds of change will start blowing. It’s long overdue.

June 12, 2022

Trinity Sunday – George Yandell

Preaching on Trinity Sunday makes me feel like the heart attack victim that called for a priest. The priest arrived and moved the gathering crowd aside. He knelt beside her and saw she was too weak to handle confession and absolution, so he asked, “Do you believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?” With great effort, the stricken woman raised herself onto her elbows in the bed and addressed those surrounding her, “Here I lie dying, and the Father is asking me riddles!” (Adapted from a sermon by Lane Denson on Trinity Sunday, 2010.)

Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday each year whose content is theology and doctrine. It was first celebrated on the Sunday after Pentecost in the Church of England by Thomas a Becket in the late 12th century. Many of us become dazed and confused when correct belief about the Trinity is overblown in importance to many of our fellow Christians. ‘Correct belief’ is no longer relevant to many Christians. I believe they’re right. Believing pales in contrast to doing- doing what Jesus did- being transformed more and more into God’s self.

The Holy Trinity only appears once fully formulated in the NT- in the next-to-last verse of Matthew, called the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” In Hebrew usage, in the name of means ‘in the possession and protection of’.

The Trinity is alluded to in 2 Corin.1:21-22, and Paul uses this benediction at the end of that letter: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” I Peter 1:2 addressing disciples in exile in present-day Turkey: “destined by God the father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ.” Jude 20ff: “beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; Keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” These are the closest our scriptures come to a formulation of God as three in one. They suggest God presents God’s self to believers in three manifestations, three persons.

In ancient times, the Hebrew people feared seeing God face to face. They were even afraid of seeing Moses with his face unveiled, because his face glowed from being in God’s very presence. Three centuries after Jesus’ resurrection, Church leaders began to wrestle publicly with the nature of God- is God three in one, and if so, how to describe that mystery? The Greek word for ‘face’ (prōsōpon) was front and center in their discussions and arguments. That word means face, presence, person, appearance.

At an early stage in its existence, the Church had to face the question whether the simple expression ‘God’ was sufficient for the new understanding of God that had come about through the revelation of Jesus Christ. The uncertain and hesitant ascribing of the name of ‘God’ to Jesus in the NT may be taken as evidence of the extent to which thinking about God had been influenced by the new revelation in Christ. When the Christians spoke of God, they were thinking of Christ at the same time. (John Macquarrie, In Search of Deity: An Essay in Dialectical Theism, 1984, p. 230) 

Paul was earliest in Christian scripture to say, ‘For us there is one God, the Father, through whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.’ This is one of the earliest attempts to specify the Christian God and to distinguish [the one God] from the many ‘gods’ and ‘lords’ worshipped in other cults..…    Jesus is brought into very close relationship to God the Father, [even as co-creator]. This is because [Jesus] had brought to Christians a new understanding of God so profound that from then on they were determined not to speak of God without reference to Christ, or of Christ without reference to God.  (ibid)  For me, Jesus is the fullest revealing of God’s nature.

Knowing God face to face is a mystical experience for anyone. Seeing the face of God transforms us. This is what the early disciples of Jesus began to know- after his resurrection, seeing Jesus alive after death, looking into his face, they were forever changed. 

Gerald May says being transformed by God is like this: “Closer to us, the mystics say, than our breath. Closer than we are to ourselves, St. John of the Cross says, “We are in God like a stone is in the earth…already in the Center.” There is no way to get any closer to God than we already are. The spiritual life, then, is not about coming closer to God but rather realizing the communion and union that already exists, and always has, and always will, forever.”

If Church-people can become more concerned with encountering the living God face to face, rather than defending their understandings of God, we will have gotten the real importance of the Trinity. God appears to us as God will- the breath/ the spirit of God breathes over and into us, the Creator God gives us life and envelopes us in love, and Jesus leads us into new life, now.

I want to close with what may be the most profound mystical vision in all of the Bible- a vision of God’s intent for all of us. From the second letter of Paul to the Corinthian followers of Jesus.

(2 Corin.3:17 ff). “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” 

God wants to transform you and me from one degree of glory to another, led by God’s Spirit. That’s the Way of Jesus.

June 5, 2022

Pentecost C – George Yandell

With a rush of a mighty heavenly wind and with holy flames dancing on their heads, the disciples received the gift of God’s own Spirit. On the 50th day after Easter, God was preparing the tiny band of Jesus’ disciples to go public- to broadcast the incredible news of Jesus’ teaching, his death and resurrection, and ascension. Their witness would be so personal, so profound, that today, Christians are found in every nation, in every culture. What does the news of Jesus mean to diverse people today? And how do we proclaim or stifle His proclamation?

From the collect for Pentecost: “Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your holy spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Reaching to the ends of the earth- that’s always been God’s desire for the world. In the first account of creation in Genesis 1, God tells the humans God created in God’s own image: “Be fruitful and increase, and fill the whole earth.” After God flooded the world and delivered Noah and his family safe and sound, God again said, “Be fruitful, people the whole earth.” Yet God’s people resisted God’s command to fill the earth. God found instead that Adam’s descendants wanted to live apart from others. They kept clumping up together, resisting the insecure frontiers. They made cities, sheltering themselves from people different from themselves.

One group of people became famous for their homogeneity. They wanted to preserve their closed group for all time: from today’s Hebrew scripture: “All the earth was one language, one set of words. And it happened as they journeyed from the east they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to each other, ‘Come, let us bake bricks and burn them hard’; and the brick served them as stone and bitumen served them as mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build us a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, that we may make us a name, lest we be scattered over all the earth.’

“And the Lord came down to see the city and tower that the human creatures had built. And the Lord said, ‘As one people with one language for all, if this is what they have begun to do, now on nothing they plot to do will elude them. Come, let us go down and baffle their language there so that they will not understand each other’s language.’ And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it is called Babel, for there the Lord made the language of the whole earth babble. And from there the Lord scattered them over all the earth.” [This translation from The Five Books of Moses by Robert Alter, 2004.]

When I was young, my Sunday School teachers taught an interesting thing- they told me God was punishing the people who built the tower of Babel. How many of you were taught this as a punishment story? That says something interesting about our culture, doesn’t it? But there’s not one mention of punishment for the tower builders; instead, God scatters them out over all the earth: accomplishing what God had intended from the beginning- that the people of God should fill the whole earth, and speak many languages. Something in God loves diversity. God wants the earth filled with many different languages, multiple cultures. God wants the world rich and complex. Yet God’s people always try to confound that richness. They cordon themselves off, shutting out those different from themselves.

Why does God love diversity? Because it’s powerful when people of diverse backgrounds and cultures choose to live together with God. Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus met with folks out of the mainstream. He even talked to non-Jewish women, something patently forbidden. His parables kept prodding people to see their world through the eyes of heaven: no barriers can keep people from loving one another if they seek God’s love in human relationships. Jesus knew that God’s own power is unleashed when people with profound differences seek the kingdom of God together in the here and now.

And that brings us to Pentecost. Once more the disciples were separated, apart, together. They’d witnessed the crucifixion and resurrection of their friend and rabbi Jesus. They’d been waiting for the coming Counselor Jesus had foretold. They were waiting for God to act. And God did act. The Holy Spirit danced on them all. They received the Spirit on behalf of people everywhere. Peter looking at John saw the fire, felt the Holy wind, and realized John was seeing it on Peter too. The Spirit drove them out into the streets of Jerusalem. They were given words of foreign languages spontaneously- they were bursting in enthusiasm, speaking to Jews from all over the known world. Each was telling the wonderful work of God in raising Jesus. It’s very important to note: the people were not united in one tongue. Rather God’s Spirit confirmed their diversity. God loves it!

I’m convinced God’s original intent, to fill the earth with people who know God’s name, was confirmed once more on Pentecost. For God, the diversity of the many people God created is meant to be the decoration of humankind, not the seed of human division. The many colors, the ethnic traditions, the accents of the tongues from many different regions are rich embellishments. Our idiosyncrasies are the jewels in the crown of humanity. God spoke clearly, in exotic foreign tongues, through the mouths of simple Galilean fishermen- who had been transformed by the Spirit. God confirmed the news once again, “Go into all the world, be fruitful, tell the story of Jesus Christ, and let your own tongues glorify God to all the corners of the world.”

Now the challenge: how to make our diversity in Christ our power? Diversity itself doesn’t create power- it is unity in diversity that yields power. I believe God thrives on rich expressions of unity in diversity. When I served St. James the Less Church in Nashville, I was active in the Madison Ministerial Association. We struggled to attract ministers from all the denominations to the annual community observance at Thanksgiving and during the week of prayer for Christian unity. We couldn’t get the Church of Christ ministers to come. One year one of us said, “Let’s give up on them, save our breath, they’ll never participate.” The 7th Day Adventist minister quietly said, “We can’t stop trying. We need the people most different from us to complete our understanding of God. And they need us.” I asked him, “How did you come to this knowing?” He replied, “It’s all because of Pentecost- God wants all the diverse people of the world to be filled with God’s spirit, so they can love God and love neighbor as self.” Wow. The Holy Spirit is the unifying clasp on the cloak of faith. That’s the message of Pentecost. There’s a name for that miracle of cohesion against the odds. A name for the world-filling body of Spirit-led people. We call it Church. It is the world’s hope. God rejoices that the Church seeks the Spirit in all things, in all places, bridging the differences that clump us all together and make us fear one another. May the Spirit lead us into God’s world in love, that the whole earth may be filled with the giddy joy of resurrection hope.

May 29, 2022

Easter 7 C – George Yandell

In the passage from Acts, Paul and his companions continued their stay in the Roman colony of Philippi. As they were going to a place of prayer, they met a slave girl who had a “spirit of divination” (16:16) and whose owners profited from her fortune-telling skills. For several days, the girl followed them about shouting “These men are the slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation”. Like the other demonic spirits in the Gospels, this one recognized the saving power of God as proclaimed by Paul and Silas. Paul finally became so annoyed with her constant presence that he exorcized the spirit from the girl in the name of Jesus. Her owners were enraged, because now that the demonic spirit was gone, so were their profits. Thus they dragged Paul and his companion Silas before the magistrates, where they were charged with disturbing the city and advocating unlawful customs. As the crowd joined in the attack, Paul and Silas were flogged and thrown into jail with their feet tethered in stocks.

In the middle of the night, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing, a violent earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. All the locked doors were opened and the prisoners’ chains unfastened. When the jailer in charge awoke and saw this, he was ready to kill himself, as he would be held liable if the prisoners escaped. When Paul assured him that all the prisoners were still there, the jailer fell down in gratitude. He recognized Paul as an agent of God far greater than any he had known, and so he asked “What must I do to be saved? Paul responded, “Believe on the Lord Jesus”. Paul’s message that salvation comes through belief in Jesus is the gospel in its simplest form. Paul and Silas then spoke the “word of the Lord” to the jailer and his household. After the jailer tended the wounds of Paul and Silas, he and his entire family were baptized. They were all invited to a celebratory meal, the eucharist, as the jailer “rejoiced that he had become a believer in God”. 

In its clearest early meaning, believing on or in the Lord Jesus means ‘be-loving’ Jesus. Until around 1000 C.E. people heard the passage as “Salvation comes from loving Jesus in response to his love for us.” So the jailer rejoiced at loving Jesus and the God of creation.

Jesus had promised the disciples that the Father would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with them. Paul and Silas were filled with the Spirit, which drove them to love the jailer. The jailer’s life was turned by that love, which Paul said was actually the love of Jesus, resurrected.

The Acts narrative has all the ingredients for a greedy, self-deceiving, status quo society: There is a used slave-girl fortuneteller who thinks that the future is all fated and can be programmed with certitude. There are money-making exploiters, the banker-pimps who use the innocent fortune-teller to generate private wealth. There are the magistrates who use their authority to maintain the status quo and prevent any social “disturbance.” And there’s a prison that is a social statement about power and order that constitutes a threat to any who act “outside the box.”

Into the midst of these “fixtures” of a stable society come the followers of Jesus. They assert an alternative “way of salvation”. The new way of well-being exposes all their old ways as failed frauds. In reaction to such news, the magistrates by decree and the mob by violence try to stop the news of “another way.” But, we are told, “suddenly” all the fixtures of shut-down control are shattered. The text makes no direct connection between the news and the quake. It leads us to imagine that God’s new power is on the move. It’s no wonder that the ones who know, sing and pray, and praise. We praise because we know the prison-houses of fear cannot contain this God who gives “life and breath and all things”. [Adapted from Walter Brueggemann in Sojourners May 2010.] What is most important for us who participate in Church is recalling that Jesus and his followers proclaimed the kingdom of God present now. As Dom Crossan points out from the Lord’s Prayer: heaven is in great shape- it’s on earth where the problems lie. Jesus prayed and we pray that earth will be transformed more and more into heaven’s likeness. It means be-loving Jesus is not just a get-into-heaven-free card. It isn’t a fad to reassure us. Heaven now means being part of the body and caring for all those God places in our path. It means sharing the love of Jesus and the joy of heaven here and now. Be-loving Jesus means proclaiming love in the face of fear. That’s our challenge, that’s our mission- telling those trying to escape this life that it is God’s intent, through Jesus, that we love so well that people experience the joy of heaven now. Life after death takes care of itself. 

May 22, 2022

Easter 6 C – George Yandell

Xenophobia. X-e-n-o-phobia. “Fear of the strange, the foreign, the different.” Xenophobia rises naturally in humans, it seems. It creates the need for humans to overcome their fears of the differences between them, if they want to co-exist and cooperate with one another. Xenophobia drives the need for “the healing of the nations” in the Revelation to John. Human tendencies to xenophobia drive Jesus to promise in the gospel, “Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”

I have read science fiction novels by C.J. Cherryh for some time. (The genera now called ‘Speculative Fiction’ by some.) In one 5-book series called “The Chanur Saga”, the characters in far off galaxies are all afraid of one another and they distrust particularly the dark, large, long-snouted, rat-like, tough-skinned beings called “the Kiff”. Brrr. The Kiff smell like ammonia, they are ruthless fighters, and seem always to make off with the prize when either wars or treaties are made. The problem is that every species’ trade routes are being upset by another species- (spider-like methane-breathing creatures- ugh!). The only progress they can make is when they overcome their differences and unite with a common front. But they all have this fear, an incredible fear, of those different from themselves. Even the Kiff fear those they themselves consider less formidable, less threatening. Where their fear comes from I don’t know. They seem to have no reason to fear anyone. 

Good sci fi often serves as prophecy for the secular world. I believe Cherryh’s novels are fables about the here and now.

In Jasper and Atlanta there are clear parallels. We fear those different from us. Every culture of the world has people who are accepted or put down by the prevailing power elite. Often it’s around ethnicity, country of origin or poverty. Sometimes it’s around religion. Fear of the different is contagious. I think the Revelation to John and the gospel offer an alternative way- the way of fearless accepting and loving.

Everything Jesus preached created a bridge to a new domain, a new creation. The new way of Jesus breaks in through self-giving love. Jesus modeled how self-giving love works. The result of his self-giving love is a peace that surpasses the world’s ways. Examples of the new way are like the vision of heaven in the Revelation. “The nations will walk by the light of the glory of God. The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations.”

The word in Greek for “nations” is “gen’tes”. It translates the Hebrew word which means “the others- Gentiles.” The Hebrew people worked in every aspect of life to keep themselves separate from the ‘gentes.’ Why keep separate? Because the Jews feared non-Jews. They had reason to. Yet their fear kept them isolated. It prevented them accepting many whom God sent to offer them redemption, love and peace.

Hatred rises out of fear. The bombings of the world trade center in New York and the other sites were carried out by people who hate. Their ugly hatred still galvanizes us 21 years later. The horror and outrage they created is still giving rise to an even stronger and wider-spreading hatred—hatred of those who live in the countries where the bombers came from. Hatred has multiplied as a result of their actions. Our fear of one another has grown because hatred has multiplied, and love has become scarce. Evil has won twice, and wins again every time fear spawns more hated.

Why are people in the south, and most Americans, so ready to fear one another? I believe it’s a matter of turf protection. Threats, or the perception of threats to our property, our turf, our security, our beliefs, those threats drive our fears. The need we have to call a piece of turf or a strongly held belief “my own” prepares us to fear incursion. The more our territory is threatened, the stronger grows the insatiable need to have stronger and stronger protections. Anyone who might take away our territory, our stuff, our way of living is judged to be an interloper and thus, an undesirable threat, an enemy.

I believe that we unconsciously project our interior darkness onto those who are most different from us. In fact, the greatest threat to your turf and my turf, our stuff, is disintegration of our culture because of our fear. Jesus once said in the gospel of Luke, “Hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” Look within you for your own fear, your own sin, and work to drive it out. The mistrust and fear that many of us have of different-skinned people and different-sexed people, people who threaten us because of cultural biases, cultural differences, is really a threat from within us. A fear in each of our hearts, a fear of losing what we have. 

Instead, Jesus intends us to give love away freely. The bridge Jesus builds urges us to approach one another open-handed, open-hearted. What matters is not retribution, but our hearts, turning to love. The heart that opens itself and gives itself in concern for others is not a heart that is defensive, hateful, mistrustful, and bent on driving out those most different from us. This must be the Church’s central message for our culture in this still new millennium. If we can’t learn to trust, if we can’t begin to cross the bridges, rather than building walls, there won’t be a culture left for us.

Jesus knew that evil is ever present, and that the ONLY defense, the only hope for the world was his disciples and their love for one another. The times now demand the same from us- love one another as Jesus loves us. Act your love sacrificially. Open yourself to your neighbor, especially to the one most different from you. Fear only the loss of connection to your loving God.

Loving like this is hard. To equip ourselves to love in self-sacrificing ways, the Church offers these ancient, time-honored practices to us:

*Read the bible and other spirit-renewing works regularly both alone and together- join a small group to study the bible. Come to Sunday school.

*Pray daily for yourself, for your family, friends, for those in distress, for the Church, and for your enemies. Holy Family offers the daily offices online for all of us.

*Come to church regularly, hear the good news preached, confess your short-comings, receive God’s absolution and Holy Communion and go back into your daily places, where the action is, to work for Christ’s new creation of love.

*Tithe- give freely to God through the Church the first-fruits of your life’s work as the beginning of giving your whole self freely to God.

*And enjoy your faith- “faith” in Greek springs from the word same word as “fidelity.” Practicing fidelity in a relationship of love with God and with one another in these ways sets us free. All God requires is for us to be faithful. As long as we are aiming to be full of faith, we’re becoming free. God’s peace then has a chance to gather us as a loving mother gathers her children in her arms.

Even in the face of evil, Jesus offered himself in love. Love practiced through disciplined living toward Christ, allows our fears to subside, our hatred to cease, and our world to be healed, one person at a time. I want to coin a new word- Xenophilia. X-e-n-o-philia. Love of the stranger. From the Greek roots, “xeno”- strange, foreign, different; and “philia”- to love, have affection for. To have brotherly or sisterly affection for, is philia. If we cultivate and practice xenophilia in the face of xenophobia, we know God’s own peace. That’s the fruit of faithful living. It’s what Jesus intends.

May 15, 2022

Easter 5 C – George Yandell

Since God blessed Abraham and commissioned him and Israel to be a blessing to all nations, God’s dream has been to renew the earth, modeled after heaven. All Jesus preached was a new creation, evolved from the old. So what happens when God’s people erect walls to separate themselves from the other peoples of the world? Let’s listen to the passage from the Acts of the Apostles. 

When summoned by the circumcised believers of the Way of Jesus in Jerusalem, they asked Peter, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Peter tells them of the trance he fell into at Joppa – how God let down a sheet with all sorts of animals forbidden for human consumption under Jewish law, and told Peter, “Get up, kill and eat. What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Now what did Peter do? He replied not to the question regarding circumcision from the elders in Jerusalem, but how God gave him a vision and corrected Peter- God made the animals good to eat. He replied not to their concern about circumcised vs. uncircumcised, but about table fellowship.

What is Peter doing? He’s leapfrogging over the question of separation between the circumcised and uncircumcised men, and going back to the beginning. He points out that God recalls in the vision of the sheet containing the animals, the very beginning of creation where God created all manner of things and pronounced them good- and calls the Jerusalem leaders to recognize that God intended Israel to be a blessing to the nations, that God was God over all the nations- so if God tells Peter all manner of things are fine for food, it recalls the followers of Jesus to their historic mission- instead of withdrawing and tightening the ring of fellowship, the followers are to sit at table with Gentiles, even Gentile women, and all those who should be sharing God’s blessing. 

Seems that God got tired of the followers of Jesus making walls between God’s people and intervened with the Holy Spirit to set the Jesus people back on track.  

What is the nature of the blessing Peter offered to the non-Jews? In all his preaching, he recalled the teaching of Jesus- in Christ, God was opening up God’s new creation through self-emptying love. That’s what we hear in the passage from John’s gospel. “In John, Jesus …. [reveals]…God’s love, and so the [historic] imitation of God becomes an imitation of Christ, an imitation of Jesus. The Jesus of John’s gospel says, ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (From Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary, Marcus Borg, 2006, pp. 184-185) 

Thomas a Kempis’ book Of The Imitation of Christ is perhaps the most widely read Christian devotional work after the Bible, and is regarded as a devotional and religious classic. Its popularity was immediate, and it was printed 745 times before 1650. It still points us to love and live as Jesus did.

The new command Peter lived and preached was to love as Jesus loved, with discipline- imitate Jesus. Be rooted in the ancient tradition of Israel to be a light to all people, and share the blessing of knowing the resurrected Jesus through the community of faith. Change as the Spirit directs, always linking us anew to God’s intent. The power of the Holy Spirit will give the followers of Jesus the gumption and the love to carry it out. 

What is the nature of faith in this new creation? What is heaven on earth really like? Walls fall down. Folks get surprised by goodness when they have become cynical and expect the worst. Remember Robert Frosts’ poem? MENDING WALL. I want to recite it.

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun, and makes gaps even two can pass abreast…

No one has seen them made or heard them made, but at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; and on a day we meet to walk the line and set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each….

There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across and eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’.

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder if I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it where there are cows? But here there are no cows. 

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.’ “ I believe the Holy Spirit acts even now to grab our attention, to tear down the walls, and usher in God’s love.

May 8, 2022

Easter 4 C – George Yandell

The scene in the gospel has Jesus at the Festival of the Dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Jewish leaders query Jesus, “Are you the messiah? Tell us plainly.” He uses a figure that was in the minds of the people- from intertestamental writings, from the psalms and prophets- “You don’t get it, because you don’t belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice- I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life- no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Jesus ends with the radical statement, “The Father and I are one”.

The scene occurs in winter at the temple, in the City of David and the Seat of Orthodoxy. Right out there, in front of God, the doctors of orthodoxy (and anyone else who happened to be on hand), Jesus utters the unthinkable to the strict Hebrew monotheists. Yes, he and the Father God of Israel are one. One in spirit? One in being? One in like-mindedness? One in personality? The particulars are not mentioned. But enough is enough. Even to insinuate, even to give the slightest impression that this hillbilly rabbi from Galilee who speaks with an accent is equivalent to the HOLY ONE of Israel is beyond laughable; it is dangerous blasphemy of the highest order. Somehow, Jesus escapes a stoning on the spot—only to endure death by crucifixion a short time later. [Adapted from King Oehmig’s article in Synthesis, May, 2013.]

Listen to these passages from writings in our Apocrypha, circulating in Israel in the years before Jesus was born – keep in mind that the shepherd’s staff has two useful ends: a crook for drawing the sheep away from danger, and a blunt end for prodding them toward places they would rather not go. A good shepherd both protects and agitates as needed. [Shepherd’s crook information from Christian Century, March 30, 2016 in an article by Austin Crenshaw Shelley.]

Judith

Then I will lead you through Judea,until you come to Jerusalem; there I willset your throne. You will drive them likesheep that have no shepherd, and no dogwill so much as growl at you. For thiswas told me to give me foreknowledge;it was announced to me, and I was sentto tell you (11:19).

Sirach

The compassion of human beings is for their neighbors, but the compassion of the Lord is for every living thing. He rebukes and trains and teaches them, and turns them back, as a shepherd his flock (18:13).

2 Esdras

Therefore I say to you, O nations that hear and understand, Wait for your shepherd; he will give you everlasting rest, because he who will come at the end of the age is close at hand (2:34). Rise therefore and eat some bread, and do not forsake us, like a shepherd who leaves the flock in the power of savage wolves (5:18).

As we continue the season of resurrection, this week brings home the “Shepherd” metaphor- it appears in three of the four readings. Two underlying messages emerge:

1) In Christ, life is found even in the face of death—from Peter’s raising of Tabitha; to the Psalmist’s confidence of traveling through the valley of the shadow of death to finally dwell in God’s house; to the heavenly gathering of those who have died as martyrs in the persecution of followers of the Way; to Jesus’ promise that his sheep receive eternal life from him, the message of life beyond death is clear.

2) The Shepherd is also a messianic and a subversive image. Where the leaders of Israel had failed to be faithful shepherds, and where the Roman Empire had slaughtered followers (sheep) of Christ, Jesus stands as the one who has died but has risen— defying the death-dealing powers that be, and winning life and security for his sheep.

The last few years have left the world reeling in shock, from the repeated impact of natural disasters, to revelations of corruption in many governments, to ongoing wars in Ukraine and Africa, to the growing concern about climate change, to the economic crises across the globe. In the midst of all of this bad news, the message of resurrection is both a comfort and a call to remain strong and courageous in working for a just and peaceful world. In addition, this week’s readings speak a prophetic message to those in any kind of leadership, challenging them to be true, life-giving shepherds, and calling us to hold them accountable, while retaining our primary allegiance to Jesus as the one true Shepherd.

The dual themes of this week are an invitation to Christian communities and individuals to enter more fully, and more practically, into the Easter story. On one hand, we all face the threat of death—the big deaths of loss of loved ones or personal tragedy, and the small ones of broken relationships or difficult life circumstances—and we need to be reminded that life is found in the midst of death. The comfort this message offers is also a call to keep faith, to continue to strive to live in compassionate and life-giving ways, and to live fully our own leadership—as parents, educators, business or community leaders. To live our own leadership as good shepherds, providing, protecting and guiding those under our care. Ultimately, when justice fails in any community, it is both a crisis of leadership and a crisis of faith. The resurrection addresses both needs, and gives us the resources we need to engage the hurting places in our world. [Adapted from sacredise.com.]

I end with a story that underscores to me the meaning of Jesus as shepherd to his sheep- he conveyed this meaning to everyone he met, even after his resurrection.  Recall how he said, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” [Luke 13: 34]

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried out from under their dead mother’s wings.

The bird, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and gathered them under her wings as the toxic smoke rose. Perhaps she could have flown to safety, but had refused to abandon her babies. Then the blaze had arrived and as the heat scorched her, the mother had remained steadfast. She had been willing to die so that those under the cover of her wings would live. As the psalm says it, “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.” (Ps. 91:4). Death yields life, even from the tomb. Easter is for everyone, every being everywhere, now.  [From Synthesis Issue for Easter 4]

May 1, 2022

Easter 3 C – George Yandell

It was around 34 C.E. Paul was in his early 30’s. From the passage in Acts we read, Paul was converted in or near Damascus, Syria. But contrary to popular interpretation, he was not converted from a Jew to a Christian, but it was a conversion within Judaism, a deepening of his own tradition. He was very devout as a youth, raised a Pharisee, and knew Hebrew and Greek. His hometown of Tarsus on the coast of today’s Turkey was a Greek-speaking environment. Tarsus is roughly 400 miles north of Jerusalem. Damascus is @ 150 miles north of Jerusalem.

Paul was a Pharisee, according to his own account. To be a Pharisee, one had to have an intense religious impulse. After the Damascus road experience, Paul had repeating, frequent mystical experiences of Jesus resurrected. Unlike other followers of Jesus, he experienced only the risen Christ, not Jesus during his earthly ministry. Our view today is: if the crucified Jesus can be experienced alive by a Pharisee who was persecuting followers of Jesus, then God had said yes to Jesus – God had vindicated Jesus against the forces of the empire when God resurrected Jesus. Paul was transformed in Damascus to proclaim that vindication. Paul stands as the most persuasive witness of resurrection the world has known.

Together with Peter, featured in today’s gospel reading, they were the two best fishers of humans to follow the resurrected Jesus.  As John tells the story, he leaves the impression the disciples weren’t doing much of anything, just standing around, maybe wondering what on earth they’d got themselves into. But then Peter broke the spell. “I’m going fishing.” At least, I’m going to do something while I’m not doing anything, anyway. So they all said, in effect, “We’re not doing anything either, so we’ll go with you.”

It’s amazing now to remember how simple this little scene was, and how simple-minded were these fishermen. They couldn’t even recognize Jesus who stood on the beach. It wasn’t all that long, remember, since the resurrection, an event, we could expect might just have caught their attention and set them in motion as much, maybe, as a tornado coming across the water. (The 3 preceding paragraphs adapted from Out of Nowhere, 4/20/07, an online commentary by Lane Denson.)

I’m fascinated by the gospel reading’s telling us of the incredible catch of fish after Jesus instructed the weary fishermen to cast the net on the other side of the boat. They caught 153 fish. I’ve read countless gospel commentaries and none can say exactly why it counts 153 fish. To me 153 symbolizes a huge catch of humans, the net is the fellowship of Jesus, and the fact it’s not torn (the Greek word is the root of our word ‘schism’ = not torn) means the whole fellowship is united, in one big net. Peter throwing on his clothes, diving in to swim to the shore to be with Jesus, suggests abundant joy at realizing we are fishing together for new disciples for Jesus.

The temptation in every age is for the Church to be all dry and cozy in our own little boats, not doing much of anything. We shy away from casting the net too broadly, or else we may upset the tidy boat, and haul in some fellows that aren’t all to our liking. My experience is when we stop casting with abandon, our nets begin to rot from disuse. We’re always prone to being tossed about by the tragedies of the days we live in. Often the horrors of humans’ treatment one of another makes us Jesus-people no longer venturesome. The horrors make us more prone to protect ourselves. The radical sharing community that Jesus initiated and Paul expanded loses its way. We forget that Christians are always to be expanding, engaging, aiming together for that mystical communion with Jesus that Paul knew. 

Some time ago Maya Angelo, the renowned American poet and children’s advocate, told this story. She was talking with a woman who had listened to Angelo at a public gathering. The woman contested one of her points and said to her, indignantly, “Well, I am a Christian.” Maya Angelo responded, “What, already?” Knowing we’re not fully realized as disciples, knowing we’re prone to failure, I propose this conundrum: To shrink from engagement, or to engage? That’s our question. 

If we’re actively casting the big net, it means we’re bold in the world, bold about following the Way of Jesus. Casting the big net shows others we want to be together with them in all the pains and joys of living. We want to be with them because we’ve sampled joy with Jesus in diving into the fellowship. It means we look to God in everything, in all our pains and joys, and we seek to support each other in walking through our fears. In short, we’re like Paul and Peter.  Even when we get sideways with each other, even when we’re not living fully the Way of Jesus, even when we’re beat up and despised by others for our faith, we can count on one another to correct and coach us. That’s pretty much what Jesus was doing on the beach wasn’t it? Offering instruction, sustenance, and fellowship to some worn-out fishermen. Remember, he is resurrected, and he is here. Would you like to share the meal he’s prepared?

April 24, 2022

Easter 2C – George Yandell

“Peace to you,” said Jesus to his disciples, huddled in the room in fear on Easter evening. ‘Salem’ is Peace in Aramaic, ‘Shalom’ in Hebrew. They feared those who’d collaborated with the Roman officials to have Jesus crucified, they feared living without Jesus. They were scared enough to lock the doors and hideout. Maybe rumors of the empty tomb had reached them- maybe they were just still too traumatized by Jesus’ crucifixion to venture out of a safe place. But Jesus came, stood among them, and said, Salem. And he said it again. “Peace to you.” 

Interestingly, he and the disciples were gathered in Yaru-salem, the city whose name means “Foundation of God.” I think the disciples may have heard two complementary messages when Jesus spoke to them, and we might as well. 

1) Jerusalem, the city of Zion, was the site of the crucifixion, and the resurrection. It became the foundation for their faith in the resurrected Jesus.

2) When Jesus spoke “Peace” to them, they also might have heard echoes of Salem, a name for God. I think they may have been quaking, seeing Jesus alive, and they may have realized that everything is different, the foundation of God has shifted, everything is new. All is right!! Jesus lives!

The peace Jesus spoke is the new foundation of the new city of God. Poor Thomas- he’d missed the appearing of Jesus, so no wonder he didn’t get it. How could he? He had to hear the word himself from Jesus, “Peace to you. Salem. Don’t be faithless—be faithful!!” And Thomas heard. And so do we. Peace, resurrection life, is a new foundation laid for God’s people. It is the only thing that distinguishes us from non-believers- we have faith, because we’ve felt the faith whose foundation is the peace of Jesus. This peace is not a simply blissful harmony. It’s not simply the ending of conflict. This peace is God’s gift to us.

God’s peace is a state of wholeness, given to individuals and to groups. It brings, in different times to different groups, health, prosperity, security, and spiritual completeness. But hear this, Christians, each time Jesus speaks it, he says “Peace to you, PLURAL. Peace to All Y’all.” The peace which Jesus gives must be shared to be lived. That’s why Thomas was so negative- he’d missed out on knowing the peace the other disciples shared. And when he received Salem from Jesus, he said to Jesus, “You’re the Lord of me, you’re the God of me.” He got it. The peace Jesus offered infused him.

Listen to what Peter spoke in the reading from Acts. He and the other disciples had been brought before the temple council in Jerusalem. Peter and his friends had been teaching boldly in the name of Jesus, their resurrected Messiah. Peter answered their charges, knowing he too could face the same death as Jesus: “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit.” Whoa! Peter too had been transformed by the peace that the resurrected Jesus had offered when he appeared to Thomas and his friends. That peace gift from the Spirit of God made Peter bold and strong.

How many of you remember when the “new” BCP was installed in your parish pews in 1976? How many of the people in your parishes resisted passing the peace? I remember lots of grumbling, especially from men in the parish. They didn’t get it, and we often don’t get it either: “The Peace of the Lord be with you” is a resurrection greeting. It’s not just wishing people well, but it’s to recall for us that we are all gathered into Christ’s resurrection. We are one with him in resurrection life. We are the City of God now. We are the disciples in whom the peace of God lodges. I think we can take a message from Thomas and Peter today—seek the peace Jesus gives in every moment. Come together with your fellow believers; live the peace of Jesus. And when you don’t have faith, come together with us anyway. I think Jesus is telling us in this lesson, “If you don’t believe, act like you do, imitate those who have God’s peace, and you will receive it.”