Spirit of theHeartland

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." That's just what Jesus said last week. Are we into reruns already?

Last week doubting Thomas figured out that Jesus was real because he saw the wounds. This week the frightened, unbelieving disciples are invited to "touch and see" that Jesus is not a ghost. And then Jesus does what no self-respecting ghost is able to do – he eats fish.

Here is that same really real God that was born in a barn. Resurrection and Incarnation share a fundamental message – that God is really, really part of this material world. God is more than Spirit. God eats broiled fish.

So often we put our faith all in the spiritual realm, unconsciously denying not only God's body but our own. We think that "the real me" is spiritual. We think of reality as a spiritual world untouched by the problems of the material world.

So Christianity becomes a spiritual nicety of love and peace, a precious moments picture, leaving the real world of pain and failure and sin behind.

Then Jesus shows up, with bloody holes in his hands, and asks for broiled fish. And it's right in the middle of this real-world mess of blood and fish and fear that he says to his friends, "Peace be with you."

Just what is this peace that Jesus brings? There's a tendency to define peace by its real-worldly opposites: War, chaos, division, fear, anxiety. Sometimes that portrays peace as an unattainable ideal.

The biblical background of Jesus' greeting is a bit more earthy. Jesus greets his friends with the Greek, "Eirene humin" which carries echoes of the Hebrew greeting, "Shalom." Shalom has to do with wholeness, health, security, a sense of being content, reconciled and in the right place with God, your neighbor and yourself.

"Peace be with you" is Jesus' reassurance in the face of the disciples' fears. Shalom. Be at peace. Jesus is here. All is well.

Imagine that kind of peace in your life. How would it look?

Long ago a man sought the perfect picture of peace. Not finding one that satisfied, he announced a contest to produce this masterpiece. The challenge stirred the imagination of artists everywhere, and paintings arrived from far and wide. Finally the great day of revelation arrived. The judges uncovered one peaceful scene after another, while the viewers clapped and cheered.

The tensions grew. Only two pictures remained veiled.

As a judge pulled the cover from one, a hush fell over the crowd.

A mirror-smooth lake reflected lacy, green birches under the soft blush of the evening sky. Along the grassy shore, a flock of sheep grazed undisturbed. Surely this was the winner.

The man with the vision uncovered the second painting himself, and the crowd gasped in surprise. Could this be peace?

A tumultuous waterfall cascaded down a rocky precipice; the crowd could almost feel its cold, penetrating spray. Stormy-gray clouds threatened to explode with lightning, wind and rain. In the midst of the thundering noises and bitter chill, a spindly tree clung to the rocks at the edge of the falls. One of its branches reached out in front of the torrential waters as if foolishly seeking to experience its full power.

A little bird had built a nest in the elbow of that branch. Content and undisturbed in her stormy surroundings, she rested on her eggs. With her eyes closed and her wings ready to cover her little ones, she manifested peace that transcends all earthly turmoil. *

This kind of peace of mind and heart is hard to come by in this world. The real world we live in can look pretty much like that stormy waterfall and clinging tree. People die. Hunger and injustice are always near at hand. Terrorism and disease lurk around every corner. And those we love best too often bring hurt into our lives.

But Jesus shows up scarred and hungry in this messy world speaking of peace. Peace that passes understanding, transcending all earthly turmoil.

Jesus knows the blood and the hunger and the sin. Yet he is able to bring us peace.

Jesus does not ignore the disciples' fear or their unbelief or the brokenness of the real world. How then is he able to speak of peace? How can true peace of mind and heart come in the middle of all this suffering and fear?

Duke University did a study looking for characteristics of "peace of mind." It's a picture not unlike the nesting bird in the storm. Factors found to contribute greatly to emotional and mental stability are:

2. The absence of suspicion and resentment. Nursing a grudge was a major factor in unhappiness.
3. Not living in the past. A preoccupation with old mistakes and failures leads to depression.
4. Not wasting time and energy fighting conditions you cannot change. Cooperate with life, instead of trying to run away from it.
5. Force yourself to stay involved with the living world. Resist the temptation to withdraw and become reclusive during periods of emotional stress.
6. Refuse to indulge in self-pity when life hands you a raw deal. Accept the fact that nobody gets through life without some sorrow and misfortune.
7. Cultivate the old-fashioned virtues--love, humor, compassion, and loyalty.
8. Do not expect too much of yourself. When there is too wide a gap between self-expectation and your ability to meet the goals you have set, feelings of inadequacy are inevitable.
9. Find something bigger than yourself to believe in. Self-centered, egotistical people score lowest in any test for measuring happiness.

Now Jesus didn't need an academic study to know these things. He had a simple word for it that he preached over and over again - "Forgiveness." Forgiving others, forgiving yourself, and accepting forgiveness. Forgiveness is the path to shalom.

Both John and Luke note that the Risen Lord greets his friends with "Peace be with you," and speaks of forgiveness at the same time. Last week we heard, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." This week we hear that after the resurrection, "Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name"

Surprisingly, in today's gospel Jesus does not talk about proclaiming resurrection or eternal life. What is to be proclaimed in his name is repentance and forgiveness of sins. It would be much more fun to preach eternal life than forgiveness. We'd all like to live in eternal life. It's much harder to live in forgiveness.

But then who wants eternal life without forgiveness? Who wants to live forever with our sins?

The biblical word for forgiveness literally means "to let go." Forgiveness means recognizing that real world not peaceful. Living in the real world requires naming the sin and forgiving it – letting it go while living our lives in the midst of it, like the study about "peace of mind" or the small bird nesting in the storm.

Forgiveness is the path to shalom. But forgiving others is easier said than done. And it can be even harder to forgive ourselves and accept forgiveness. Thank God, Jesus is here. The peace that Jesus gives is not the absence of trouble, but is rather the confidence that he is there with you always.

Sometimes forgiveness is too big a task for any human. Remember then that forgiveness belongs to God. Even Jesus, hanging on the cross, rather than saying "I forgive you," said instead to those who crucified him, "Father, forgive them."

Forgiveness belongs to God. And God is able to forgive what we humans could not. When we find ourselves not able to forgive the sin – our own sin or the sins of others that have hurt us – then we can ask God to do the forgiving. It's a "let go and let God" kind of thing. And God really can do it for us. It has, in fact, already been done for us.

Into this messy world of sin comes a God so real that he eats broiled fish, a God so real that he knows our sin and forgives it, lets it go and refuses to hang on to it

Jesus shows us that forgiveness can be really real. And when forgiveness is real then, already in this sinful world here and now, we will live in peace.

Peace be with you.

*Berit Kjos, A Wardrobe from the King, pp. 45-46.

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