Howdy, Church Fans! Here is the text from this weekend. As always, the vid will be up in a couple days.
Have you noticed how light is getting outside these days? Just six weeks ago, we were waking up in darkness and coming home in darkness. It’s quite a contrast.
There is a similar contrast in the post-resurrection gospels. Did you pick up on it? Before the resurrection, whether it is a huge catch of fish, while he’s walking on the water, or healing a young person, or whenever Jesus is manifesting some aspect of his divinity, the first words out of his mouth were always, “Do not be afraid.”
Now, after the resurrection, the first words out of his mouth are invariably: “Peace be with you.” What’s the difference?
I think much of it has to do with how we understand the word “Peace.” It helps to remember that Jesus and the eleven were all good, pious first century Jews. In our own time, we might tend to think of peace as the absence of conflict or a nice feeling of interior contentment, or some such. Those are nice as far as they go, but it the Hebrew notion of “shalom” is much more expansive.
Simply put, the “shalom”, the peace that we are talking about here is a state where everything is as God has intended it to be. It’s a subtle but important difference.
With other notions of peace, the onus is all on us. How do we work for peace? What structures of institutional sin or policies can we put in place to ensure equality? What programs can we develop to raise awareness? We act as if it all depends on us. How very Pelagian.
How very different is the notion of shalom as Jesus and the apostles understood it. As we read in the scriptures, God prepared a people. In the fullness of time, the Eternal Word, the Father’s perfect self-expression took flesh of the Virgin Mary and entered fully into the reality of the human condition. By his suffering and death, he redeemed us. By his rising he has shown us that we too are to share in his glory – perfectly human, body and soul. Finally, things are as God has intended them to be. Because of this, fear simply out of context.
As people of the resurrection, we have a role in helping those who do not yet know Christ, or do not know him fully to come to a deeper understanding of these sacred mysteries. Our “Peace be with you,” is not some nice little comforting phrase. It is a declaration that it is God who has acted and now all is as he intended it be.