April 15, 2012 "Peace Be With You"

Acts 4:32-35
John 209;19-31
Yesterday morning, we took the Confirmation Class to Jewish Synagogue to experience worship.
Yesterday was the 8th Day of Passover, a Day for remembering those who have died in the last year. The focus of each of the readings and prayers was about the tythe we owe God for life, reminder that every 7th year all human debts were to be forgiven, because ultimately everything we have belongs to God. Driving to Syracuse one of the Confirmands commented about the price of Gasoline. Immediately, another suggested: “I know a way that you could lower the price of gas by $1, and it will only cost you $1 per gallon to do it.” It seems our young believers have already learned the lessons of this world, how to safeguard against personal needs and fears by creating schemes to make money.We have taught our children well.

On the Evening of the Resurrection, and again a week later, the Risen Jesus stood before the Disciples and said to them: “Peace Be With You!” Such a simplistic phrase.
Peace Be With You! I recall in the hours and days and weeks after 9-11-2001 we longed for a Savior who would come to us where we were, locked away with our fears, to stand among us, to pronounce those words: Peace Be With You! Not a Victory over our enemies, but desire for the power to put the worms back in the can, to make everything and everyone seem nice and happy. Peace Be With You!

Increasingly, throughout the last Century, I do not know whether it was the advent of Saturday Evening Post-style journalism as opposed to hard News, the Norman Vincent Peales and Robert Schullers, the sprawl of suburban lifestyle, or the growth of capitalism and our Madonna's mantra that possessing a Material world would grant us access to virtual worlds; but with all of this, the focus and purpose of being the Church changed! “Peace Be With You!” has come to represent emotional peace, security, spiritual and metaphysical comfort, a lack of anxiety, and one-ness with control over our fears of our world.

Perhaps it is only nostalgia, but there seems to have been a time in which “Peace Be With You!” and the purpose of the community of faith, were that we could change the world, not to conquer with a Christian Empire, but that we could bring about the Kingdom of God in our lifetimes and cultures, we could witness a “Resurrected Peace for Everyone.” Those now of a passed generation, created The Presbyterian Manor's, the St. Joseph's Hospitals, the Columbia Presbyterian Hospitals, as a mission to make the world outside our doors different, to live in a world where death did not control, where fears did not limit, but where we could offer hope and life beyond, where we could live as a resurrected people of God!

An NPR Commentator this week described a reality, I had never before considered. Throughout the rest of the world, the safety-net, caring for the poor, providing hospitals and food, have come through government aid and the aid of International government agencies. North America is unique in that the role of the Churches and Synagogues, the communities of faith, has been to provide that safety-net. That same day, an editorial appeared in the Syracuse paper about the effect of church closures on the historic sky-scape of the city, a perceived need to rescue and preserve historic buildings because of their architecture, long after the church ceased to be, to act and believe as the community of faith.

John's Gospel names how our fears have prevented us from believing in Easter and acting as a community of faith. Over time, we have attempted to castrate this story by emphasizing the weakness of Thomas, giving him the moniker and ascribing all blame as “Doubting Thomas”. The point of recalling this story is that On the Evening of that Very Day... which Day? On the day of Resurrection, the 3rd Day after he was crucified to death, when Mary claimed to have seen the resurrected Lord, and Peter and John found he was no longer dead and buried, instead of the Disciples singing, working miracles, living as a resurrected Easter people, they locked themselves away in an upper room out of fear. The focus of this story is not on Thomas, not on the need for physical proof, the focus of this story is on THE LOCKED DOOR, the door which keeps the world out, and restrains us to sit with our fears.

The Old Testament routinely uses Biblical phrases like “Behold”, John's Gospel challenges us by reframing events with the counterpoint “AND”. The disciples had locked themselves away in the Upper Room for Fear, AND JESUS Came and stood among them. There is no explanation how he came through a locked door. The reality of this story is that Jesus is not a ghost, not a spirit, but physically tangible and real, he can be heard and touched, his breath can be felt, and he especially bears the wounds of his suffering and death. The Resurrected Jesus stands among his disciples in the Upper Room where the last time they had gathered together he had washed their feet and created Communion AND YET on Easter and again exactly one week later the Resurrected Jesus says “Peace Be With You” and they do not know who he is! That is what fear does to us, how fear obscures all other realities, even prevents us from making logical connections or risking to act in faith.

The translation to English of what Jesus said here needs polishing... the point is not “Do not doubt but believe”, but rather “Do not be held captive to your fears, do not be unbelievers, Instead act based on the power of God at Easter, the power of the Resurrection to change reality.”

A short time later, about two months according to the Book of Acts, the Community of Faith has formed. “The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed to possess anything of his own.” Pentecost did far more than increase the number of believers, and allow the apostles to speak in different languages, this people were living seemingly without fear. The disciples spoke openly of their faith and experience. And no one had NEED of Anything. Whenever anyone sold property it was laid before the Apostles' feet and distribution was made to any who had need. As if to make the authority and power of this more explicit two stories are told.

One man named Joseph, who had been a Levite and from far distant Cyprus, one whom the apostles had called Barnabas, sold a field and laid everything at the Apostles' feet. This Barnabas, this voice of encouragement, goes on to become the missionary traveling companion of Paul. Meanwhile, there was also a couple named Ananias and his wife Sapphira. They too sold a piece of property, but the two conspired together against the community, that they would lie about the value, so as to make it seem as though they gave everything when actually out of fear for themselves and their need to get ahead they kept a portion for themselves. The point does not seem to be what they gave, but that they were motivated by their fears, by their lack of trust and faith, and they chose to conspire together against God. Laying their offering before the Apostles' Peter asked Ananias why he had chosen to lie? And immediately Ananias died. Three hours later, his spouse Sapphira came in and was asked whether they had conspired in fear, or given everything, and she again lied protecting what they had kept back, and Sapphira died.

About three years ago, I was walking through Sunday School Classrooms and when considering what we as a community of faith are doing to change the world, they had had no answer. The point is not a debate of faith versus works righteousness, or preaching the Bible versus not doing so, but that often we do share with our children, or teach new believers what it is to live the Resurrection. By not teaching, by not witnessing the work of God in this community and in the world, our children are left in their fears, left believing faith is only a comfort for our fears, an alternative to locking ourselves away. Perhaps it is only baking cookies for a Memorial to one who has died. Perhaps it is a lifetime of singing in the choir or accompanying worship. Perhaps it is providing food for people who are hungry through the Food Pantry. Perhaps it is lifting a hammer to provide a home to a family who cannot otherwise change their circumstance. Perhaps it is in providing healthcare to a people on the other-side of the world you will never meet. Christian Faith is not simply theoretical. Christian Faith does not encourage and bless us for having protected ourselves financially against our fears. Faith recognizes that all reality, all the world, all of our lives come from God and belong to God. Christian Faith calls us to action questioning how we shall live knowing that there are no limitations, nothing to fear, to hear and know and experience Peace as a faith that changes the world.