May 25, 2025 – The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Rev. Cal Calhoun
In the Name of the Prince of Peace: Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Like last week’s gospel, these are some of Jesus’ last words to the disciples at the Last Supper. “Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you.”
Peace. We refer to Jesus as the Prince of Peace. What does peace mean to you? Is it a sense of calm? A sense of well-being? It is a lack of something like anxiety or worry? Is peace the opposite of fear?
How might someone from the Ukraine, or South Sudan, or Gaza, who knows no peace because of the violence all around them, how might they define peace differently than we would?
Shalom. Shalom is the word for peace in Hebrew, which is the language of the Old Testament. It is possible that Jesus used this word with the disciples in this conversation, he knew Hebrew and so did the disciples. But apparently Ancient Aramaic was Jesus’ primary language. So we don’t know precisely what word he used here. Shalom has a sense about it that goes beyond may all be well with you, it includes may you have all you need. It has a material component, if you will. Which makes sense, if you were in a situation that was free from violence and worry, except you didn’t have enough for your family to eat, you probably wouldn’t claim to be at peace. You certainly would be worrying about that one important thing.
Last week we were reminded of how the Holy Spirit informed Peter, to make no distinction between them, the Gentiles to whom he was called to go, and us, the Christ believing Jews who made up the very first phase of the church. I am listening to an audiobook, one of the best I’ve ever listened to, it is titled Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah. It is his autobiography of being born bi-racial or “colored,” neither black or white, in apartheid South Africa. After high school, he makes money selling pirated CD’s of music, and DVD’s of movies and video games. That begins to blossom into selling stolen items, especially electronics, DVD players, PlayStations and the like. He talked about learning to not ask where something came from. He felt he could rationalize it because he wasn’t stealing anything. He also had someone tell him it was ok, because “white people,” or wealthy people, had insurance, so they weren’t really out anything. Of course, those of us who have insurance know it doesn’t really work that way. He relates the story of buying the first digital camera he had ever seen, which of course had been stolen. When he got into it, he found the vacation pictures of a white family. He somehow realized that he didn’t just have some-thing that really belonged to them, but he was in possession of their memories. He had something they couldn’t replace by buying a new camera. For Trevor, this camera not only heightened his moral awareness, it also began to gray the area between us and them.
Martin Luther King Jr. said that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere“. He also said, “true peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice“. Which is to ask can my peace, my safety, my well-being be disconnected from others, from them? What does it mean to be at peace, if a beloved family member is not at peace? What does it mean to be at peace, if your neighbor is not at peace? What does it mean to be at peace, after watching the evening news?
AND, Jesus, as some of his last words to the disciples says, “Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you.” And the crazy thing is, a few chapters later in this Gospel of John, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, he appears to the disciples in the closed room. John tells us, “When it was evening on that day,” the day of Jesus’ resurrection, “the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Some of the last words before his arrest, AND the very first words after his resurrection to the disciples are about wanting them to know peace. John continues, “After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.” He repeats himself.
There can be no denying Jesus wanted his disciples to know peace, to be in possession of his peace.
Jesus’ desire for the disciples to know peace, for us to know peace, has, as part of it, an understanding of reality. As Jesus says these words to the disciples at the Last Supper, he knows a difficult time is ahead: his arrest and crucifixion. He wants his disciples to know somehow it will be ok.
After the resurrection, his first words are “Peace be with you.” Which he repeats. He knows what they have been through and how scared they are. But his next words are, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” No week on the beach to recover. As disciples, you are now apostles, those who are sent. And the world needs you to spread the good news. And we know few, if any, of the disciples had a long life and what we would call a peaceful death.
Jesus’ desire for us to have peace, doesn’t mean everything will be “peachy.” It doesn’t mean we will never be betrayed, that we will never lose a loved one. It doesn’t mean we will never be hungry or be in need. It doesn’t mean all our deals will go right.
What it does mean, I believe, is that at a deep place, at soul depth, we can have a sense that “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well,” as Julian of Norwich told us. Or maybe said another way, by John Lennon, “Everything will be ok in the end. If everything’s is not ok, it’s not the end.” Peace be with you. Amen.
Year C – The Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 25, 2025 – The Rev. Cal Calhoun
