May 25 2025 Easter 6
Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10-14, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29
Jesus is still preparing the disciples for ‘life after’. He is telling them all they need to know to continue to live the life he has invited them into so that they may continue to share Jesus’ message with all they will encounter in the years to come. Basically, Jesus is preparing the disciples for ministry, and his words are to for us too, to prepare us for the ministry we have in our communities. And we all have ministries. Ordination is not the ‘password needed’ for ministry, life in Jesus is. And so, as we live our lives of ministry we are told that, to get it right, we need to ‘keep’ Jesus words, or ‘give witness’ to Jesus. And our witness is often more powerful when it comes from ‘the margins’, from and to those places where there is little power, those places that look at the ‘broad perspective’ of a situation. And Jesus assures us we are not alone as we do this, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit will be with us. And she will teach us everything we need to know and remind us of Jesus’ words to us.
Jesus is offering us, all of us, peace. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you”. But given the penchant for society to change the meaning of words to suit their own agenda, how do you understand peace. What does this word say to you, today. I do not think Jesus meant it as an ‘absence of conflict’, even though the end to violence is clearly a good thing. Every day, in morning prayer, I pray a prayer for those caught in the midst of war, that there may be a cessation of hostilities in areas of conflict. But I think the peace we are offered here by Jesus offers more than just an absence of something negative.
There are two strands to this gift of peace; this gift Jesus says is not like the peace that the world offers.
The first strand is thoroughly Jewish. Shalom was, and still is, the most precious Hebrew word. It is the complete well being, the health of an individual, a family, a community and a nation. And they believe God wants this for all God’s people. It is the end of war and injustice, the end of hatred and poverty. Its perfection will come on the victory-day when God will bring in the new, golden age: the day of the Lord’s new world order. Humanity will be one, one united family. Shalom is an affirmation of faith and hope in the face of all that is negative and destructive in the world. Jesus, the Jew, on the night of his betrayal, did a very Jewish thing and offered shalom to his friends. The promise, the hope, when all seemed so hopeless.
The second strand is Jesus’ peace. He calls it ‘my peace’ and it is the peace that is at the core of his being, even when things are particularly difficult or ‘dark’. His peace is the ‘deeply rooted trust’ he had in the loving providence of God. No matter what was going on, he had a deeply rooted closeness to God. His peace was a foundational serenity of spirit. And he wanted his disciples to not only share this deeply rooted shalom but also to be ready to withstand, without dismay or fear, the horrors that were about to take place. He believed they could continue to live their lives fruitfully, allowing God to take all the frayed and bloodied ends of life and weave them into something new and wonderful.
When someone tells you they are feeling ‘at peace’, they are not really telling you they have an absence of conflict. I think they are telling you they are feeling a sense of wholeness, or even rightness, of and in their very being. They are telling you they have a sense of harmony with people and things around them. Jesus’ peace connotes this sense of contentment, but more importantly it is a sense of fulfillment, a sense that at this particular moment, they are basking in God’s pleasure. And that sense is possible even amid struggle, conflict, hardship, and disruption.
Remember, Jesus is saying these words on the night of his betrayal, the evening he will be arrested, tried, and put to death. And yet, in that moment, he not only senses peace but gives it to the disciples. And this peace is a gift of God, it is something we sense most acutely when we allow God to have a degree of control in the things that are of concern to us or that we worry about. It does not mean we surrender responsibility for them, but we recognise that there are limits to those things we can achieve or affect on our own, and so, we place ourselves, our loved ones, our fortunes, and our future, in God’s hands. And God’s response is to give us peace, a peace that gives us the freedom to take our eyes off our troubles and see those around us as gifts of God worthy of our love and attention.
Soon, after our intercessional prayers, we will ‘pass the peace’, and we will all look at each other, and maybe utter the words ‘peace be with you’. We will smile (hopefully), we no longer physically shake hands, but we ‘figuratively’ shake each other’s hands as we look into their faces, smile, and say our simple statement. But how often do you sense the depth of God’s gift of peace, the promise that no matter what is happening around you, God will not abandon you. How often do you ‘get caught up in and by’ God’s shalom, the promise that God will keep hold of us through all that might come our way. How often do you sense the deep purpose God has that we not only experience this shalom but that we also share it with others.
Despite what the world may offer us under the guise of peace – God’s peace is not something we seek or grasp, we can only receive it. It is only when we release our grasp on the many ‘balls’ we ‘keep in the air’, that we can receive God’s peace. And even in those times when we are convinced that it is ‘all up to me’, we will find that God is still there offering us God’s peace, the gift that the world cannot give.
So, I invite you to spend a moment, and bask in God’s pleasure, in the confidence that God loves you and wants to use you for good. And then, when you are ‘passing the peace’ turn to those around you, bless them with the same gift you have received and say, simply and meaningfully, ‘the peace of Christ be with you’.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” In this deeply rooted shalom, nothing would be wasted, everything had meaning. May you receive God’s peace anew this week, and share it with those you encounter on your daily travels. Jesus has not left us ‘on our own’, God is present in our lives giving the amazing and life sustaining gift of peace, so get ready to receive it.