Challenged by Peace

 HOMILY, ST. PAUL’S, FOLEY – 3 EASTER, YEAR B

APRIL 18, 2021

 

TEXT:                        LUKE 24:36B-48                  

 

            “Peace be with you.”

 

            With these words the resurrected Jesus has greeted his disciples last Sunday and this – in John’s gospel and today in Luke’s.

 

            “Peace be with you.” That peace which passes all understanding is a characteristic of true Christian community.  The sign that we are followers of Christ is defined by Jesus himself in the Gospel according to John: “By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

 

            But that really wasn’t Jesus’ path, and it isn’t ours, is it? Peace prevails on certain levels, but it is not a defining characteristic of our nation or world, is it?

 

            Isaiah, chapter 53, is known as The Suffering Servant, and it was key foundation stone for those who saw Jesus’ life described in the Old Testament:

 

⁴Surely he has borne our infirmities
    and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
    struck down by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
    and by his bruises we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

 

            And the world in which he came to minister was not one of peace and love.  The prophet Jeremiah voiced God’s word in the sixth chapter of his book: “They have treated the wounds my people carelessly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” 

 

            I know that the vision Jesus had of the post-resurrection, fully-redeemed world would be different.  We see glimpses of it, in our personal relationships. Here and there, now and again, is a way we could describe it. When touched by those moments, we are able to express in a meaningful way the love that is an example of the path that Jesus calls us to travel.

 

            But, let’s be honest with one another:  The world around us – and the world far distant – is still much more characteristic of Isaiah’s vision and of Jeremiah’s prophecy.

 

            We may cry peace, peace and we may show love to one another – yet we are not yet fully people of peace, and our arms of love do not yet embrace all people. This is something I am saying about the larger, surrounding world, and not focusing on St. Paul’s alone.

 

            The fact is that the world is still broken, and we are part of that world.  The world around us is far short of God’s vision of what it should be.  Of necessity, we must engage with that world and, sometimes, we respond in-kind.  But we must recognize that, just as the world is falling short of Christ’s vision, we, too, are participating in the sin of a broken world. It is just a fact of human existence.  We call it the human condition. We are redeemed, but we still fall short.

 

            This does not mean we are bad people, but it does mean we (and the world) have a ways to go.  We are saved by the grace of God, and our calling is to grow into that role every day.