When Jesus came and stood among his disciples, that’s what he said.
Peace be with you.
It was a traditional greeting. We say good morning. That’s a greeting, but if you say it with intention, it becomes a wish, or even a prayer, that your day is a good one.
You know the Hawaiian greeting: aloha. Or you could say Aloha nui loa, or aloha kakahiaka.
When our friend Ioane was here, he taught us the Samoan word for it; do you remember? Talofa. Just like the Hawaiian word aloha, it means love and blessings to you.
Good morning. Hello. Aloha. Talofa.
When Jesus greeted his disciples by saying “Peace be with you,” it was a traditional greeting. In Hebrew, it’s Shalom aleichem. Included in that is a wish for goodwill, happiness, harmony, and blessing.
So Jesus came to where the disciples were, and greeted them. Shalom aleichem. Peace be with you.
Then he said it to them again: shalom aleichem. Peace be with you.
But Thomas wasn’t there. So later, when Thomas was with the others, and Jesus again appeared to them, he said: shalom aleichem. Peace be with you.
It’s just a simple greeting. Greetings like that are a formality. We don’t even think of them.
Good morning. How are you? Fine, thanks...
But in this particular story, the gospel writer is deliberate and intentional about highlighting the fact that Jesus offered this greeting to the disciples not once, not twice, but three times.
Let’s replace it with our familiar phrase “good morning” and see changes how we hear it…
On the first day of the week, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “good morning.”
He showed them his hands and side, and the disciples rejoiced, and Jesus said to them again, “good morning.”
Um, you already said that, Jesus.
Then a few days later, Thomas is with them. Jesus appears and he says, “Good morning.”
OK, it’s a different day, so it makes sense, but from a literary standpoint, it’s old and redundant. No great novel has a character say “good morning,” and then say “good morning,” and then, a few sentences later, say “good morning” again.
Unless... if a character was portrayed that way in a novel, you’d wonder why. I mean: it’s not normal. The author must be trying to make a point. The author must be trying to draw our attention to this. Why else would the author repeat what is normally an everyday greeting, one we don’t even think about?
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Peace be with you.
Sometimes you hear someone say to a friend, “How are you,” and the friend replies, “Fine.” Then the first friend repeats: “No, really, how are you?”
Because it’s repeated, you know it’s real.
Because it’s repeated, you know the person saying it really means it, really wants to know.
What if we began every conversation, every correspondence, by saying: Peace be with you.
What if we began every conversation, every correspondence, with that greeting… and meant it.
Peace be with you.
What if every time you sent an email to someone, you started off by typing, “peace be with you.”
What if every time you had to contact customer service, you started off by saying, “peace be with you.”
And meant it…
What if every time you needed to confront your child or your spouse or your parent or your classmate or your coworker about their behavior, you started off by saying, “peace be with you.”
And meant it…
In other words, what if you actually started every interaction with another person with the intention, in your heart and in your mind, of bringing peace to that person…
Maybe you do have to confront a family member or coworker; can you do it in a way that is most likely to bring peace to both you and to them? What is your intention in confronting them? Is it to find a solution that brings peace to you both? Or is it simply to make them feel bad?
Peace be with you, spoken with intention, can be a powerful thing.
If it is spoken without intention, without meaning, then it might actually do more harm than good. If the words that follow your greeting are intended to hurt the other person, then your greeting is a false one.
But if it is spoken with intention… if it is spoken from the heart… if it is real and authentic… then your greeting is powerful and good.
It doesn’t have to be said out loud. In certain circumstances, that might even be awkward. But say it in your heart. In your heart, in your mind, begin every interaction with an intention to bring peace to that person.
We’ve talked about this before, that in our worship service, and in the worship services of many churches, there is a time when we pass the peace to each other - a moment when we say to one another, “Peace be with you.” And in a lot of churches, the temptation is for this to turn into a few minutes of social time.
But when done right, this is a significant liturgical moment.
Jesus knew that sometimes we say words that are hurtful, words that create bad feelings, and sometimes those bad feelings linger. In his Sermon on the Mount, he told his followers to not hold on to their anger, and he told his followers to never call someone a name - don’t call them an idiot, or a fool.
But sometimes we do, and maybe we didn’t really mean it, but feelings are hurt. So Jesus said that when you and your friend come to worship, you need to first reconcile with one another. “First go and make things right with your brother or sister,” is what Jesus said. Go and let them know that your prayer for them is not animosity, but peace.
The gospel message is about finding peace and wholeness. When Jesus healed people, he often told them to go in peace. More precisely, he said “go, and peace be with you.” He also told them that their faith has made them well, which could also mean their faith has made them whole, or their faith has saved them.
In fact, the way these terms are interrelated, you could define salvation as “dwelling in peace.” If you feel peace within you - no anxiety, no fear about anything, so that peace has come upon you - you feel whole. You feel well. You feel saved from whatever may have been keeping you from peace in the past.
I think of people who hold on to their anger… people who find it impossible to forgive… They never experience peace for themselves.
Some years ago I told you the story of Azim Khamisa, who I heard speak at a CCEJ Interfaith breakfast in 2013. In 1995, Azim’s only son, Tariq – who was 20 years old at the time – was shot and killed by 14 year-old Tony Hicks.
Azim was devastated over the loss of his only son. And then he became angry. His anger consumed him. He felt angry that we live in a society which allows so many children to kill and be killed.
Many of us are angry; angry at all that is going on; angry at school shootings; angry at the prejudice and xenophobia in our world; angry at so many things.
We’re angry!
Anger isn’t bad; it can lead us to act. It can motivate us. It can be transformed into positive action.
But anger that lingers, that festers, that isn’t somehow transformed into something positive, becomes a poisonous cancer.
Following his son’s murder, Azim realized his anger was consuming him, and that he needed to turn his anger into positive action. So he decided to reach out to the family of Tony Hicks, the teenager who murdered his son.
He reached out to them with peaceful intentions.
He reached out to them, and “peace be with you” was in his heart.
He eventually forgave Tony for killing his son, and developed a bond of friendship with him - with the young man who murdered his son.
And then he started the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, named after his son, which works to end violence among young people. And he promised Tony Hicks that, when he gets released from prison, there is a job waiting for him with the foundation.
Azim figured out how to transform anger into peace.
I am convinced that, in the struggle for justice, in the struggle for equality, anger is often what gets us involved, anger is what wakes us up, but unless we can transform that anger into action - and unless that action is motivated by peaceful intention - we will never succeed in our efforts.
I see people holding onto their anger, making their anger the foundation of what they live for, when really, they should be making peace the foundation. We may start in anger - anger may awaken us to what we need to do - but once we start doing it, anger needs to give way to peace.
I think Jesus’s disciples were motivated by anger when they started following him. Anger at the Roman Empire and all the injustices they and their people endured. They were angry, and they wanted a revolution.
Jesus did start a revolution, but his was a revolution based on love and peace. He tried to teach the disciples this, but they didn’t always get it. Read the gospels, and how many times do you see them stumbling, confused, and consumed by fear?
Jesus performs a miracle, Jesus walks on water - and they are afraid. The authorities come after Jesus - and they are afraid. Jesus is crucified - and they flee. And out of fear they end up hiding behind locked doors.
But then, finally, they get it. Finally they learn to let peace dwell within them. Jesus appears, and says “Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Peace be with you.” Then we move into the book of Acts, and the disciples become the leaders of this new movement, and *poof!* - all of a sudden they are filled with confidence. And, it seems, peace.
The disciples themselves are put on trial, and they calmly and confidently testify to the power of Christ. Then some of them are put in prison; an angel comes and sets them free. The next day the captain finds them and brings them in for question, but the captain doesn’t use force, because he is afraid. He is afraid, but the disciples are not. They have the peace of Christ.
Somehow, they went from hiding in a room with the doors locked to boldly, confidently testifying to the truth they had witnessed. Thrown in prison, threatened with death, they somehow remained at peace.
What a transformation!
For the most part, their goal was the same: start a movement that was an alternative to life in the Roman Empire. But now, they were doing so with peace in their hearts. They were filled with the peace of Christ, and even if they didn’t say so out loud, their intention for everyone they met, friends and enemies, was expressed in the simple phrase:
“Peace be with you.”
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