Sunday, May 22, 2022

Knowing Peace When There's No Peace: A sermon for 6C Easter


The murder of ten Black people last weekend in Buffalo, NY, has been dominating the news cycle. Listening to the voices of people who live on Buffalo's East Side has left me sad and angry and frustrated. I hate that people are afraid to go out of their houses. I hate the fact that this is another round of targeted hateful violence against minorities in our country. And I hate that no matter how sad, angry, frustrated, and fed up I feel, nothing is going to change at the federal level with the people empowered to regulate who gets a gun, body armor, magazines that hold large amounts of bullets....

And then there is the heart of America, especially white America. We have governors and state legislatures passing laws to prevent the teaching of some of our ugliest parts of our collective history because it might make white children uncomfortable to learn that our ancestors participated in slavery and lynchings. The fact that they rail against "wokeness" is ironic, since the opposite of being "woke" is to be "asleep." I think what some of them fear is that their children and grandchildren might learn some things about their family history that would tarnish the reputation of great granddaddy and great grandma, who should have been arrested for participating in killing sprees. 

As I said in an email recently, if the government is going to stop public school teachers from telling the complete history of our country, then it is up to churches (specifically preachers) to keep shining the light into the darkness as Jesus taught us to do.  That is the only way we can hope to deliver ourselves from the sins committed in our name, and begin the long-delayed healing process that was supposed to have started in 1865.

+++

I’m sure y’all have heard about “Southern Goodbye Syndrome.”  Southerners have a tendency to linger and draw out their goodbyes. 

The dinner has ended.  A good time has been had by all, with delicious food and drinks and great conversation. 

The night is getting longer, the hosts are ready to turn in, and the guests gather up their things. 

That leads to another story. Something really funny that needs to be shared before they part. They laugh some more as the one story reminds someone of yet another time when the same thing happened to them. 

Fifteen minutes later, the keys are in hand. The guests have reached the door. And oh, by the way, how is your mama doing? Delighted to have been asked…the hosts share the news about the aging matriarch. 

Thirty minutes later, hugs are exchanged. Promises made that they’ll have to do this all again some time soon. And the guests exit the house…as the hosts linger with them on the front stoop for a few more happy exchanges. 

And then…ten minutes later…the guests get in their car and drive off into the night. The two parties finally have finished the Southern goodbye. 

In some respects…that’s what’s happening here with our Gospel. 

Jesus…in true Southern-style…is delivering one very long goodbye to his disciples…a farewell discourse that stretches from the beginning of chapter 13 in John’s Gospel…and continues through a very long prayer in Chapter 17. 

The synoptic gospels…Matthew, Mark, and Luke…don’t have this material and so scholars think this is particular to John’s community…the followers of Jesus who were living with increased tension and hostility as they were getting kicked out the synagogues and beginning to form house churches. 

These are the Jews who are no longer accepted in the Jewish community, and are offensive to the Roman Empire because they refuse to play along with the Emperor’s rules and bend their knees to Caesar. 

In other words…these are the words of Jesus to comfort a people who feel rejected and disinherited.  They’re afraid.

I’ve been thinking about this Gospel passage all week. I have been especially fixated on Jesus’ words “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” (John 14:27).

Now…for me…peace conjures up a feeling of calm. That sense of feeling the warmth of the sun on the skin on one of those rare days when it isn’t too hot or too cold…and the humidity is low…and a light breeze keeps the temperature just right. Perhaps you have other senses or imaginations of what that word “peace” means. 

In the Jewish tradition, the custom is to say “Shalom Aleichem” or “peace be unto you” and the response is a flipping of the phrase: “Aleichem shalom” or “Unto you be peace.” This is a signal to say, “I have received your shalom and am offering mine in return.” We have a similar tradition when we say, “The peace of the Lord be always with you,” and respond “and also with you.” 

These exchanges are not mere niceties. When we pass the peace, we are making a spiritual connection with each other…and acknowledging the presence of God’s spirit in that handshake or fist or elbow bump. We’re signaling in saying the words to each other that, “I am in unity of spirit with you.” And as has been said by many people far wiser than me, “unity” is in the root of the word “community.” And Christianity is meant to be a communal faith. 

This unity transcends all the ways in which we are beautifully and intentionally diverse…in our family backgrounds…skin color…sexualities…gender…languages. Even in diversity and difference…there is the unity that comes from this “Peace of the Lord” that is always with us.

This is some of what the disciples will learn…eventually.

It is a peace that I know has felt elusive in this past week.

The Tops Friendly Market was a hard-earned win for the East-side neighborhood in Buffalo New York. They were living in a food dessert, and had been lobbying to get a full service supermarket on their side of the city. It’s usually neighborhoods with higher concentrations of minorities or people with low or fixed incomes that find themselves having to go across town just to get essentials.  The higher-end grocery stores tend to set up shop where they attract wealthier and whiter populations.  So when Tops came to the East-Side almost twenty years ago…the neighbors rejoiced.  They could finally go only a block or two to pick up the eggs they needed to bake a cake. 

Such a small convenience…disrupted last week. 

Peace was shattered not just for Buffalo.  The shockwaves of such an intentional targeting of black people…done in the name of white people… has shaken many of us…both black and white. It recalls what happened in Charleston at a bible study at Mother Emmanuel Church…the lynchings that happened in the early 20th century…including the horrific death of Mary Turner and her unborn child here in this area. 

The police chief in Buffalo described what happened there as “evil.” Because it is. These acts of violence…these attempts to destroy community…to further drive us apart and make us afraid of each other…are the works of evil that we are called upon through our baptism to resist.  And not simply resist them individually, but to work toward the goal of ending them with the same power and determination that Jesus took to the cross…and won…even when the world thought he was losing. 

The spirit of Lord is upon me…Jesus said…to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, release to the captive and freedom to the oppressed (Luke 4;18). That is the piece of the Lord’s peace that we must tap into to give our voices the strength to say, “No more!” to those who want to destroy us and push us into tribal camps and stoke fear of the “other” whatever “other” that is at the moment.

“Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you” is not like the world’s idea of peace.  Our peace seems to be so fleeting and fragile.

The peace Jesus is sharing with them in this Gospel…and passing on to us…is the peace that is power.  

The power of God, which Jesus has shown us over and over in his teachings and ministry and resides in and around us always as God’s Holy Spirit.  

That power does not lose sight of Love and Love’s ability to carry us through even in dark and difficult times. 

That power of God which surpasses all our understanding, which keeps our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of Jesus Christ.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled” Jesus said…”and do not let them be afraid.” 

In the name of God F/S/HS.

 

 

 

 

 

No comments: