Peace be with you
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams
Saint George’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia
Third Sunday of Easter
April 14th, 2024
“Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’. Luke 24:36b-48
This past Monday, people all over our country were caught up in the wonder of the solar eclipse. Many people travelled to the places that experienced totality, including some Saint Georgians. And here in our area, it was wonderful to see people, even for just a day, joined together in a way that had nothing to do with anything going on that divides us. I was out in our front yard from 3 to 3:30 that day with the glasses that Ben Keseley, our Minister of Music, gave us from his stash. And I was amazed to see the eclipse. Even if it was only 89% here, it was still incredible. Parents were walking back from the school across the street from us, after a viewing party, with their children chattering away about how great it was. Two of my older neighbors walked by and wanted to show me the cool crescent-shaped shadows that the eclipse made on the street, as the light was filtered through the leaves of a tree. It was a lovely moment of shared spiritual connection. Moments of wonder are a wonderful thing, they are part of what makes us human, and seasons of wonder are even better.
The Great Fifty Days of Easter is such a time. The resurrection is just too awesome to be contained in one Sunday, so we have this long season of celebration to give us time to experience it more fully. So here we are on the Third Sunday of Easter and we hear the story of one of Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances to his disciples. But in order to really appreciate it, we need to back up a little. In Luke’s telling of Jesus’ resurrection, several women come to the tomb and two angels tell them that he is risen and to share the good news with the other disciples. After that, two of the disciples are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus and Jesus appears to them, but they do not recognize him until he shares a meal with them. When today’s Gospel begins, those same disciples have run back to Jerusalem to tell the others who are locked away that they have seen Jesus in the flesh. So there is a strange mixture of disbelief, excitement and fear in the room as Jesus suddenly enters and says, “peace be with you.” Just a few days earlier, Jesus’ friends watched as he was tried, beaten, forced to walk through the streets and then die an excruciating and humiliating death on a cross. They had been hiding in fear ever since because who knew what the Roman authorities had in store for them? The women had told them that the tomb was empty, the others had told them about seeing Jesus on the road to Emmaus, but it was all just too much to process after such an exhausting ordeal. And then suddenly Jesus appears in the room. He walks into their fear, into their confusion, into their exhaustion and disbelief and simply says “peace be with you.” “Peace be with you.”
We are living in a dysphoric time right now and we have a lot in common with those first disciples. There is such fear and anxiety in the air about our public life, and understandably so. There is a lot at stake. Institutions are under threat. Societal values that we used to think we all held in common are now in question. There is an incredible level of fear and anxiety about the future of our country, in addition to the rising concerns in the Middle East and around the world.
And on top of that, there is uncertainty about the future of the Church. There are daily articles about the demise of the institutional Church as we know it. But just as Jesus appeared to his disciples in their fear and showed them that he was truly resurrected from the dead, we know from our experience here at Saint George’s, and in many other places, that the Church is very much alive. Just as Jesus showed his friends his hands and feet, we can look around and see that Jesus is still with us. We had a packed house on Easter morning and we are all here today. We are blessed to have even more people connecting with us now than we did before the pandemic. People are still longing to experience the risen Christ and the community gathered around him. And today we are baptizing these two beautiful children, Elizabeth and Andrew, into our faith community. Just as surely as Jesus came and stood in the midst of his disciples, he is in the midst of us this morning. He is not dead and neither is the Church.
“Peace be with you.” Those are powerful, life-giving words. When we share the peace each Sunday, it reminds us that Jesus is here and that we are the instruments of his peace. He offers us his peace each and every day, all we have to do is to stretch out our hands to receive it. And the best gift that we can possibly give ourselves is to take some time each day to visualize Jesus coming into whatever locked down place we may be living in in our hearts and minds, looking each one of us in the eye and saying, “peace be with you.” Jesus is really and truly present to us, every day, 24/7. He brings us peace that transforms our traumatic experiences and gives us hope, Easter hope, hope that comes from God.
It seemed to everyone who witnessed Jesus’ death that the forces of this world had triumphed, but Jesus’ appearance to them told them otherwise. So it is for us. The resurrection changes everything. It completely reorients us and helps us to see that Easter is the axis around which our lives revolve. Without Easter, there would be no Christianity. We wouldn’t be here today if people didn’t see and believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. That was the big news then and its big news today. Everything Jesus did during his earthly ministry was wonder-filled, but the news of his resurrection was a complete game-changer. Jesus told his friends to be witnesses of the empty tomb and they were. Seeing him calmed their anxiety and gave them peace. And that inspired them to share it with others. That is how we claim joy in the midst of sorrow. It is how we claim hope in a despairing world. It is how we navigate uncertain times with courage.
After Jesus greets his friends in peace, he asks them for some food. Luke wants us to know that Jesus was truly alive in his body, and not just a ghost. One of the things that we need to sustain life is food and sharing food with our friends is the best. Sharing meals is one of the main ways that we come to know each other more deeply and it’s how we know Jesus more intimately. So it says a lot that the first thing Jesus did after his resurrection was to eat with his friends and it was also the last thing Jesus did before his death. The night before he died, Jesus broke bread and said, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.” In a few minutes, we will share communion and when we do we will know that Jesus is with us in a very tangible way. The very act of gathering around the altar platform, side by side, with hands outstretched, is an act of hope in a hopeless world. It’s also an act of defiance, challenging the narrative of despair. And we ask God to continue to draw more and more people to us, expanding our circle of friends to share communion with, our circle of love, just as the Gospel extended to the ends of the earth. That’s how God’s love is – it grows and grows and includes everyone-without exception. We pray that through this meal, God will unlock whatever needs to be freed in us this day, so that we may find peace in order to share that peace with others.
“Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’.