Advent Lutheran Church

"Peace Be with You (Shalom)"

Selam!!

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of the Lord be with you. The peace of the Lord be with you. The peace of the Lord be with you.

If you follow the gospel reading carefully, this is exactly what Jesus did. We hear him saying,   “Peace be with you” every time he met the disciples.    

 Why did he begin with peace; and why three times?

The answer is because, he promised to give peace. He promised to give a kind of peace that the world cannot give. This kind of greeting is not common in John’s gospel prior to this time.    The word peace is mentioned only in chapter 14: 27 when Jesus promised to give peace. John 14:27   “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.”

To understand why he emphasized peace it is good to ask what peace is. Please ask yourself and the person next to you what peace is and listen to the definition.  

Here is what I found out from the web.  Peace is:

v  The state prevailing during the absence of war

v  Harmonious relations; freedom from disputes; 

v  The absence of mental stress or anxiety

v  The general security of public places;

v  A treaty to cease hostilities

 

All of the above definitions of peace are relative. Yes to some extent, maybe the world can give a kind of peace that is defined in the above statements.  The irony is, that the world always tries to bring peace not always in peace but in violence. 

You might have heard about the Untied Nations Peacekeeping Force. As their name indicates, they are peacekeepers. However, they try to enforce peace in an area that needs peace through the same force the violent groups use.

The only difference between the violent force and the peacekeeping force is the color of their uniform and their vehicles. In most cases, the United Nations Peacekeeping Force vehicles are painted white and their uniforms are blue.

God bless all who are working to bring peace to the world. However, Jesus is not speaking about the kind of peace that the world is trying to give.

 When we hear, “Peace be with you” from the mouth of Jesus, it is not a greeting.  It is a gift.  In chapter 6: verse 63 Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life”. Therefore, when Jesus says, “Peace be with you,” he means it. There is a spirit and life in his word. It has the power to affect those who hear the word.

Peace in Hebrew is “Shalom”. Shalom has a deeper meaning than simply an absence of war. When Jesus says Shalom, it means: Completeness, wholeness, health, hope, welfare, safety, soundness, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony.

We live in a nation where there is no war, here in America. I know America is in a war with al-Qaida, but not on American soil. When a war is going on on your soil, it is different!  Even in a peaceful nation like America, peace is relative. It depends where you live. If you live in a city like Chicago or Philadelphia where young people are killed every day, your definition of peace will be a bit different.

Fear and anxiety would be high when you live in a city where the crime rate is high. When you live in war zone, it is very different.  You feel like you are walking every day through the shadow of death.

The disciples fear is a kind of fear very like that of people living in a war zone: a few days before, their city was in turmoil. Their leader was killed. They don’t know who will be next.

I know that feeling. In my early child hood days, I remember the war between Ethiopia and Somalia. I was born and raised in the city close to the border of Somalia. We were the first victim of the war.

An even more recent memory is the one that happened in 1991 when we had a government change by force. For one week, Ethiopia was without an official government. For one week, all Addis Ababa residents were locked in our houses. We were hearing guns, bombs, dynamites from all over the places. We were literally living under the shadow of death. People were shot while there were in their houses not knowing from where the gun was fired.  Many disturbing and hard to tell things happened in those days.

We were all waiting to hear the news through the radio that says “the war is over now we are in peace.”  I know that feeling when people are killed on the street by the government  because of their political views.  The ultimate source of fear for the disciples was not the Jews. Not even the Romans. The ultimate source of fear for both the disciples and all humanity is death. 

Death brings incompleteness to humanity. Death brings hopelessness to humanity.  No matter how successful and happy we are in life, there is something called death that comes to make our life incomplete.

That is why Jesus is giving us peace, shalom, completeness. Since he overcame death that used to make our life incomplete, he is the only one who is able to give us the peace that completes our life.  That is the peace that comes from the power of his resurrection. That is the peace is our hope.  That is why he presented his body, his hand and his side to the disciples. It was not only as evidence of his resurrection, but also as a sign and glimpse of their and our own resurrection, too.

In order to internalize the message of resurrection they needed the Holy Spirit. That is why Christ breathed the Holy Spirit on them. The Holy Spirit is our evidence of the resurrection. In  Romans 8:11 it is written, ¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

In addition to that, their mission in the world is not going to be by their power or by their might but by the Holy Spirit they have received. Their message to the people would be “Peace” Hope, completeness, Shalom.

 First communion kids you remember the three things that happen in communion?  Jesus comes to us, forgives our sins, strengthens our faith. That was what Jesus was doing with the disciples. In his presence and by saying, “peace be with you,” he was strengthening their faith.

In the mean time, here comes Thomas. Thomas is not only representative of all of us who are struggling with unbelief, but also represents persons with a different opinion, color, gender, age. In most case, communities and sometimes even a church has no place for people like Thomas who comes with a different opinion or demand.  But God is big enough to reach out to all kind of persons and personalities. Amen!!!

As a person who was raised in a nation where 35% of the population is Islam and as a person who lived half of my life under the communist regime, I know Muslims and Atheists who were converted to Christianity because God reached them where they were.  Especially since Islam teaches that Jesus or “Isa” was not crucified and dead but ascended, it is difficult to make them believe. I have heard dozens of stories of how Jesus appeared in their dreams and visions as crucified and resurrected and made them believe.

When people like Thomas believe in Christ, you will be amazed what comes from their mouth. The confession we hear from Thomas “My Lord and my God!” is not found anywhere else in the gospel.  Christ has been acknowledged as Lord, Messiah, Son of God, Son of David but not as God anywhere else in the gospel.

Brothers and sisters, we are living in a world that is full of uncertainty. We live in a world that is full of fear. Fear, of diseases, fear of losing of job, fear of getting job, fear of divorce, fear of terminal illness and ultimately fear of death.

When I was young, I spent a quiet some time with my grandmother. I learned alot of wisdom from her. When I spent the night in her house, every night before we go to bed she says “Yenege sew yibelen” “May the lord help us to see tomorrow”. One night I asked her to explain why she says those words. She answered, “Mott  ye enkelef tanash wondim endehone atawkemne?” “ Oh  boy, don’t you know that sleep is the younger brother of death?”

Grandma fears sleep as death, but she hopes to see the next morning by the help of God. For grandma waking from her sleep is as being raised from dead. For her, waking up from bed is not a routine but a gift from God. Her hope to see tomorrow is in God who raised Jesus from the dead.

Brothers and sisters, the peace we hear and receive from the Lord comes from his resurrection. Resurrection is not only about the next life. It is also about giving us a reason to live this life. It is about the good hope for the future and courage for today. We hear him three times because discipleship is a process. We need to hear the hope of resurrection again and again.

To live in the peace of the Lord is one of the signs of living in the kingdom of God. Paul writes in Romans 14:17  ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters are you surrounded by any kind of fear?  Then, the peace of the Lord be with you.     Amen