Sunday, April 27, 2025
The Rev. Anne C. Williamson
PEACE BE WITH YOU
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
The Easter Acclamation for the season of Easter – Eastertide - for Easter is a season, not just a single day– and there is more than one resurrection story. This chapter of St. John’s Gospel has several resurrection accounts. Mary Magdalene hearing Jesus’ voice, the beloved disciple seeing the grave cloths, the other disciples encountering the risen Jesus in the locked upper room…
There are two resurrection appearances in our Gospel today: First Jesus appears and greets the disciples – ‘peace be with you’ – a common greeting but also words spoken only three days before, perhaps in that very place? On the night before he died, Jesus spoke words of peace, to his friends. ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’
‘Peace be with you’ – a common Hebrew greeting, but given new emphasis by Jesus. For the word shalom which we translate as peace is more than the absence of conflict, or the ease of life. I have a Study Bible which has a note for that verse – John 14:27 - that describes peace as ‘total well-being and inner rest of spirit, in fellowship with God.’
Peace was a major theme in our conversation at Reading Between the Lines this week. (RBTL is the weekly study of one of the Sunday lectionary readings, often but not always the Gospel reading, which takes place on Wednesday mornings in the Philbrick Room – see me or Diane Harvey for more information!). As we talked about different ideas of what peace might mean, the blessing we often use, based on a verse from Philippians 4, came to mind – ‘The peace of God which passes all understanding…’, a peace not dependent on circumstance but on God.
This deep peace is the offering of Jesus to his fearful and anxious disciples on the evening of that first Easter, when they have locked themselves away in fear. There was undoubtedly joy, and relief, in receiving this greeting of peace. We hear that the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
The second offering of the three-fold ‘peace be with you’ is followed by a commission: ‘As the Father sent me, I send you’. The disciples are now apostles – the word apostle meaning one who is sent. But they are not sent out in their own strength; another promise of three days earlier is kept (John 14:26), the gift of the Holy Spirit: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’
The Spirit or breath of God – spirit and breath are the same word in Hebrew - ruach and in Greek - pneuma – the Spirit is given for the purpose of going – the gift is a sign (John loves signs! Miracles and other acts of Jesus are called signs in St. John ‘s Gospel) that points to the fulfilment of the prophecy spoken by the prophet Joel, that God’s Spirit would be poured out on all, young and old, women and men. Our story from Acts is one story of many where this group of scared disciples, who we read today were locked in an upper room in fear, became fearless proclaimers of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Not in their own strength, but through the Spirit of God working in and through them. They would call for repentance and proclaim forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name in the days and weeks after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost – 50 days after Easter.
Now to the second resurrection appearance - One of the disciples, Thomas, is not present on that first Easter evening, but Jesus returns a week later and again says ‘peace be with you’ to the gathered disciples. Thomas is often dubbed ‘Doubting Thomas’ but really he has not desired more than the others who have encountered the resurrected Jesus received. Jesus does not seem to take umbrage at Thomas’ desire for physical evidence, indeed his first words are words of reconciliation – ‘peace be with you’. As theologian Frank Crouch noted ‘Thomas is welcomed into the peace of Christ before he can either apologize or defend himself’.
In his Easter message, Biship Sean Rowe, the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, reminded us that Jesus came as a peacemaker: ‘How quickly the apostles forgot what Jesus modelled days before on Palm Sunday and at the Last Supper. The long-awaited Messiah fashioned himself not as a political conqueror but as a peacemaker’. I wonder if we, too, often forget that peace is at the heart of the way of Jesus, the Way of Love.
St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (Eph 2:13-20) speaks of Jesus melding two worlds, Jewish and Gentile, together for peace:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
Peace to those who are near, and peace to those who are far off...
A number of years ago, at a time of great upheaval in my life, I went on a pilgrimage to Iona – the island off the west coast of Scotland where St. Columba brought Celtic Christianity to the British Isles. It was a place of peace for me. The pilgrimage was lead by John Philip Newell who has a CD of chants for peace – and we sang a number of them in the ancient chapel adjacent to Iona Abbey. We spoke and sang a lot about peace as well as experiencing peace. One chant that I recall particularly was about peace in three languages: Arabic - Salaam, Hebrew – Shalom, and English with the refrain: Let peace begin with me.
The 14th century Christian writer Thomas A Kempis, author of the Imitation of Christ, wrote ‘First keep peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others’.
I have said before that hymns, songs and chants are prayer guides for me. I know others have had that experience too! Here is a version of St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer for peace sung by The Porter’s Gate for your own musical prayer experience. The prayer can be found on page 833 of the Book of Common prayer.
We need to speak peace today – Christians have not always done a great job of speaking peace to those near and to those far off. In this age of heightened anxiety and fear, speaking peace is what we are called to do, but it needs to begin with us and in us. And it is hard to do on our own. So I invite you to hear Jesus speak those words ‘peace be with you’ to you. I invite you to let Jesus breathe the Holy Spirit into you, as one of the gifts of the Spirit is peace (Galatians 5:22-23). And pray for me, as I will pray for you, that we will live as instruments of God’s peace. AMEN
The Rev. Anne Williamson preaches on the Second Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2025.