exultemus

Tag: faith

  • Peace, But Not as the World Gives

    This is the text of a sermon which was preached at St Neot on the Sixth Sunday of Easter

    These were the readings Acts 169-15 Revelation 2110, 22-225 John 1423-29

    Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

    We saw a few weeks ago that Jesus greeted his disciples, on the day of his resurrection, in the upper room with the words, “Peace be with you.” He did it again the following week when Thomas was present with them. Paul greets the churches he writes to with the word “peace.” He does so in his letters to the Romans, both of his letters to the church in Corinth, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians; in fact every one of his letters begin with that greeting. It was a conventional greeting among the Jews of his time, just like our, “How are you?”, “I’m fine.”

    In today’s gospel Jesus changes what that greeting means as he says to his disciples, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

    What did it mean then? And, what does it mean now?

    When a Jew greeted a friend in the time of Jesus Peace be with you meant something very similar to How are you? It carried ideas of soundness of body, a hope that the person greeted is in good health, that all is well with them.

    But Jesus here extends its meaning, I do not give to you as the world gives. This is now not just a greeting, a way of initiating a conversation. It’s not just politeness. Now, it is about Christ’s gift to us.

    As always, we need to look carefully at the context in which Jesus offers this new gift to his disciples – and through them to us.

    This saying of Jesus occurs in that long discourse in John’s gospel which takes place at the last supper. The discourse is Jesus’ valedictory words to his disciples; it prepares them for what happens after his resurrection.

    There are three key sayings of Jesus up to this point in this discourse in John’s gospel,

    I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. It is by your love for one another that everyone will recognise you as my disciples.

    I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me you will know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.

    Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

    Like so much of what he says and does the disciples can only fully understand when they look back after his resurrection. But although Jesus must leave them they will not be alone, that was Jesus’ promise to them,

    The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.

    And,

    Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

    We have the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of Christ’s peace to make these sayings of Jesus not mere words but deep experiences for us in which these words of Jesus are truly fulfilled in our lives.

    The Holy Spirit will remind us and teach us all that we need to remember and know. (We’ll reflect more on this as we approach the feast of Pentecost in two weeks time.)

    The peace that Jesus gives is the very presence of God with us. It’s not the sort of peace that the world gives (an absence of conflict, noise and clamour), but a peace that only God can give. It is a peace which comes from our being the place where Jesus and the Father make their home. The peace which comes from having God dwelling in our hearts.

    This peace that God gives doesn’t simply wish us good health or wholeness – it makes us whole, it is healing, it is renewing, it forgives our sins, it puts us in a right relationship with God and with each other.

    When we share the peace in a few minutes we will be sharing the peace which God gives. It’s not just about wishing each other well it’s about healing our relationships and putting us right with each other – so that we can be right with God – as we read in the first letter of John (420b), whoever does not love the brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. So to be put right with God we need to be right with each other. The peace which God gives does that for us.

    God’s peace means that we can love one another, as Jesus commanded. It means that we can truly know God and Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. It means that we can become the place where God and Christ make their home.

    The peace which Jesus gives is a gift which transforms who we are, which makes us Christians and, most importantly, makes God present in the world through us. Each one of us.

    We are the dwelling place of God and of Jesus.

  • Making Sense of It All

    Having recently received the Bishop’s Permission to Officiate in the Diocese of Truro, and having a little more time on my hands, I thought that I should revive this blog. What follows is the text of a sermon I preached on the Second Sunday of Easter at The Church of St Neot, Cornwall.

    The readings for the day were, Acts 527-32 Revelation 14-8 John 2019-31

    Jabberwocky

    ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
    All mimsy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.

    “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!T
    he jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
    Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
    The frumious Bandersnatch!”

    He took his vorpal sword in hand;
    Long time the manxome foe he sought—
    So rested he by the Tumtum tree
    And stood awhile in thought.

    And, as in uffish thought he stood,
    The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
    Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
    And burbled as it came!

    He took his vorpal sword in hand;
    Long time the manxome foe he sought—
    So rested he by the Tumtum tree
    And stood awhile in thought.

    One, two! One, two! And through and through
    The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
    He left it dead, and with its head
    He went galumphing back.

    “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
    Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
    O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
    He chortled in his joy.

    ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
    All mimsy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.

    I’m sure that many of you will recognize that poem from Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. Nonsense poems, of which this, Jabberwocky, is one of the most well known, were popular at the time of its writing. Many of the words are made up, not real words at all – brillig, vorpal, uffish, frumious, manxome. And yet when we read the poem we understand perfectly what is happening. The story, if not the words themselves, makes sense.

    Let’s turn our attention now away from Jabberwocky and to today’s gospel reading.

    This story, like almost all of the stories of Jesus following his resurrection has elements which make it appear at first sight to be nonsense. Here it’s the sudden appearance of Jesus, who the disciples know was dead two days ago, in a locked room.

    But to us it’s a familiar account which contributes to our understanding of who Jesus is and what God has done for us through Jesus’ death and resurrection. The first appearance recorded here, on the day of the resurrection, tells of Jesus coming to the disciples in the locked room and greeting them with the words, “Peace be with you” and showing them the marks of his crucifixion in his hands and side – the symbols of his suffering and death.

    He commissions them, “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.” and breathes the Holy Spirit into them, giving them authority to forgive sins.

    The second appearance begins similarly. The disciples are again all locked away in the room and Jesus appears and greets them with the same words, “Peace be with you.”, but this time Thomas, who was absent the first time, is now with them.

    Thomas is the one who cannot believe what the others have told him, “Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.” To Thomas, what the others have told him is just nonsense. It is impossible that Jesus should be alive; it is not possible that he could just appear behind a locked door; it is absurd that he could have spoken with them, or said to them anything at all; he must be just a ghost, a figment of their grieving imaginations – not that Thomas believes in ghosts. It’s just a sort of mass hysteria.

    And on the second occasion, a week later, Jesus’ whole purpose in appearing would seem to be to draw Thomas in with the other disciples from doubting to believing. He needs to understand that their report is not nonsense. He wants Thomas to be able to make sense of what he has heard. And so he shows him the marks of the nails, he invites him to put his hand into his side. Thomas’s response is profound, “My Lord and my God!” as everything suddenly makes sense for him.

    What had seemed so much nonsense when his friends told him about the first appearance now makes perfect sense. Of course, Jesus is alive. He’d told them that he would rise again – and they hadn’t understood. He’d spoken about the three days – but they didn’t know what he was talking about. He’d prepared them for this moment: the moment when they see Jesus as Lord and God – for doubtful as Thomas had been it is Thomas who first sees the whole truth. His acclamation of Jesus as Lord and God makes sense of everything for the other disciples as well.

    All the things that Jesus had said, all the things that Jesus had done now make sense for Thomas, and not only for Thomas but for Peter and John and Mary Magdalene and the others as well. Everything has fallen into place.

    And, what is true for Thomas and the disciples is true for us too. This insight that Thomas has is what makes it all make sense for us too – and not just the resurrection itself, but everything that Jesus was doing during his life among us.

    If you read through John’s gospel – and if you never have I thoroughly recommend that you do – it is hard to make sense of all that is happening. There are all these lengthy discourses rather than the pithy parables of the other gospels. They’re clearly important but not always easy to make sense of. There are fewer miracles, but they seem more significant than in the other gospels. They’re clearly meant to teach us something, but we’re not quite sure what.

    It’s only when you get to this moment, in the twentieth chapter (and this is probably where John originally finished his gospel. Chapter 21 feels like a later addition, perhaps by John or a disciple), that everything really falls into place. As Thomas says, “My Lord and my God!” the whole of the gospel makes perfect sense.

    The wedding at Cana when Jesus turns water into wine – because he is the Son of God, having authority over all creation.

    Jesus throws the money changers and the pigeon sellers out of the Temple, because it is his Temple that is being defiled.

    Jesus’ long meeting and discussion with Nicodemus, where we learn that God loved the world so much that he sent his Son into the world, not to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved makes perfect sense when we realise that Jesus is God.

    The raising of Lazarus. Again we can only make sense of it because we know that Jesus is God, the Lord of life.

    And so on.

    Everything, read in the light of Thomas’s realisation that Jesus is Lord and God, makes perfect sense. It is the key to what God is doing in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

    The world will say to us that this story is just so much nonsense. And they’re right – in a way – but so wrong too.

    It is when we have come to know that Jesus is our Lord and our God that we can truly understand these events.

    Without this knowledge, that Jesus is Lord and God, the whole story is as much nonsense as Jabberwocky. It makes no sense.

    When Thomas realises who Jesus truly is, he understands the whole truth about Jesus, about God and about himself.

    This is the moment too when all of the disciples finally come to understand who Jesus is. But the moment that we see and confess that Jesus is Lord and God is the moment when everything becomes clear to us. Of course Jesus is risen from the dead. Death cannot defeat God because God is true life! Jesus overcomes death because he is God!

    Unless we can see and proclaim with Thomas that Jesus is “Our Lord and our God!” the whole series of events that we celebrate at Easter are just a load of nonsense. They make no sense. It is impossible. It could not happen.

    Jesus’ response to Thomas’s exclamation is, “You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” is a blessing on us who believe, but is also a constant reminder to us that the resurrection only makes sense to those who see it through the eyes of faith.

    When we understand in the very depth of our being that Jesus is Lord and God we receive this blessing of Christ.

    That blessing is to be the ones who know that Jesus has defeated death and that, through his death and resurrection we share in his eternal life and are called to share our faith and bring hope and salvation to the world.