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“Peace be with you.” John 20:19, 21
The doors are locked out of fear. Then and now. Then, because what might happen if the authorities get wind of Mary’s amazing announcement that she had seen the Lord, that Jesus is risen, that she talked with him and walked with him in the garden, that everything’s changed. Then, because death did not have the last word. Then because if that is true, surely the authorities will come after his followers, to arrest and perhaps crucify them too. Then because new life can be far more frightening than being dead, buried and eventually forgotten.
Now, the doors are locked to keep the virus out. Now because social distancing prevents its spread. Now, because washing hands, wearing masks, donning gloves, wiping down door knobs, steering wheels, grocery carts with disinfectant can help to keep us safe. Now because compliance is not just for our own good, but for everyone’s. So, we shelter in place behind locked doors because of the devastating repercussions if we don’t.
Then Jesus came and stood among them. He does so because he sees that while they’ve entered their own tombs of fear and doubt, they’ve locked themselves in for the doors of our tombs are always locked from the inside. So instead of them coming to him, Jesus goes to them right through the door, the locks, the fear. Jesus comes to us, too – through the internet, the telephone, the isolation, to be with us as he was with them. To his disciples, then and now, Jesus gives three gifts, each one bearing resurrection.
The first is the gift of his peace, shalom. He doesn’t scold his disciples, nor does he tell them to buck up or even to believe what Mary told them. Instead Jesus blesses them with peace, shows them his wounded hands, and his side so they would believe that it was really him. Then they see and believe, “he’s the Lord.” And he blesses them with peace once again. Jesus gives them a double blessing. In an Easter sermon, Joseph Sittler said the first blessing is the “peace of God as rest, whose gift is to have no anxiety.” This comes as God’s acceptance of a person exactly where they are, which for the disciples, and for us too, was and is, a place of fear and doubt. Jesus’ second blessing of peace, “fulfills itself as movement which goes out with holy concern about everything.” This peace “knows that the peace-less world is precisely the place for the working out of God’s will for truth, justice, purity, and beauty.”[i] Jesus gives the disciples and us peace so that we might share peace with others. In this way, holy rest is transformed into holy action. During these days of being quarantine, especially for families with restless and bored children, sharing this peace before meals, before bed, before “losing it”, becomes a blessing. In the sharing we are reminded God is with us. Holy rest transformed into holy action, peace into peace.
After the gift of peace, Jesus gives the gift of purpose. He tells his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Now they have something to live for, a reason to gather up their courage and step out of the fear-filled room into the world. Ponder this for a moment. Jesus sends his followers into the world that crucified him. He doesn’t offer a safe haven, because he doesn’t want them to just celebrate Easter, but to live it.
So how are we living the resurrection while in quarantine? What is our purpose? One of the ways we are doing this as a congregation is through virtual worship which you are experiencing right now. Together we hear the Gospel, together we pray and pass the peace, together we receive Holy Communion, together we sing the hymns and go in peace. While we are physically separated through God’s love, we are together. When our worship is shared, we become digital missionaries, sharing God’s peace and love all over the world.
What is your purpose? How are you living the resurrection? For some it’s guiding children through on-line learning and for others sewing masks. It’s making phone calls to church members and elderly neighbors, perhaps helping with shopping. For those of us for whom the stimulus checks are not a necessity, but extra, it’s giving it away to PACS or Orion or other agencies that are helping our neighbors in need. It’s praying and hoping and giving. All of it, living the resurrection.
Jesus knows, however, if peace and purpose is all that he gives, his disciples will stay stuck behind locked doors. Grief is exhausting. They will not have the energy to do anything else. So, Jesus breathes new life into the disciples and gives them power. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he says, and then he goes on “if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” The original Greek defines forgiveness as releasing and sin as brokenness. The disciples are given power to release or retain brokenness. Think about that – isn’t brokenness what sin actually is? Isn’t forgiveness, the releasing, the healing of what is broken and not only for others, but also for ourselves? Lewis Smedes wrote, “to forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that prisoner was you.”[ii] Jesus comes to his disciples, blesses them with peace, purpose and power, moving them beyond their fear, beyond the locked doors, from death into life.
Jesus does the same for us, coming to us in the closed off, broken place of our lives. When we’ve locked ourselves up in fear and grief, Jesus comes to us. If we’ve walled ourselves in with anger or resentment or resistance to new possibility and change, he still comes to us. When we get stuck in self-centeredness and ignore the common good, Jesus is right there calling us to expand our horizons. There’s nothing than can keep him from us, including death. My friend Sue says, “Jesus comes eastering in us” offering us peace, purpose and power. Jesus breathes new life into us, but he doesn’t open the door for us. Rather, he gives us all we need so that we might open our doors into new life, new creation, a new way of being that moves us from celebrating Easter to living it. Amen.
[i] Joseph Sittler, The Care of the Earth and Other University Sermons, Philadelphia Fortress Press, 1964, 39.
[ii] Lewis B. Smedes, Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve, 1985