I was signing off a Zoom call a few weeks ago and a pastor friend of mine said, in John 20:19–23, when Jesus appeared to the disciples behind locked doors, he said four things to them:
Peace be with you (twice).
I am sending you.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
Forgive others’ sins.
The simplicity, relevance, and power of these words really struck me! No matter what time or season we find ourselves in, these words and their encouragement and empowerment are profound.
Peace be with you. Peace is perhaps the most pervasive desire of every person. Who among us does not long to experience a profound and abiding inner peace, Jesus breathes this upon us. Moreover, we are in an escalated time of war, conflict, violence, and death across the globe and are desperate for peace, ceasefires, and nonviolent solutions. According to Geneva Academy, there are more than 110 armed conflicts currently taking place throughout the world.
Prayer: Jesus we receive your peace, help us to embody it and become peacemakers, that you may call us your children (Matthew 5:9).
Having received Jesus’ peace that surpasses understanding, he sends the disciples in the same manner and with the same mission, that Abba God sent and gave to him, to seek the least and the lost, to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free. We stand in a time of radical transition and even dismantling of what church is and will be. More than ever, we need to discover what it looks like to go and be church, as sent ones in the world, outside the church building.
Prayer: Jesus, we hear you sending us, grant us the energy, intelligence, imagination, and love of your Spirit to respond and go be the church in
the world.
As one holy, catholic, and apostolic (literally the sent ones) church, we are invited to receive the Holy Spirit, our companion on this journey. She is our indwelling presence, pledge and guarantee, our peacemaker, groaning intercessor, teacher, and encourager; our “come-alongsider,” gift bearer, comforter, and intuitive and attentive heart. What is more, while she is our faithful and reliable companion, there is no predicting her movement, direction, and fiery guidance, she is free like wind, fire, dove, breath and together we must seek to discern her comforting, guiding, directing, nudging, and leading us to bring peace to the world.
Prayer: Most powerful Holy Spirit, come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven where the ordinary is made glorious and the glory seems ordinary, bathe with the brilliance of your light, like dew.
Jesus final words, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” In this journey of welcoming peace and making it, being sent into the world, and receiving and following the Holy Spirit, we will make mistakes and we will hurt others in the process. What is more, Jesus said forgiveness—or the lack thereof—is potent. In offering it, it can bring freedom and release and if it is withheld it can bind and shackle us and others. We, like our Lord and brother Jesus, must forgive when others don’t know what they are doing and forgive 70 x 7! Forgiveness according to Walter Wangrin, is “a sort of divine absurdity. It is irrational, as the world reasons things and it is unwise… It is stepping outside the systems of law and into the world of mercy.”
Prayer: Jesus teach to forgive one another as you have forgiven us.
Well, I hope this brief reflection on Jesus’ simple, relevant, and powerful words, encourage and inspire us at ELPC, and that we may continue to become resurrection people, welcoming peace and making it, being sent into the world, and receiving and following the Holy Spirit and forgiving one another. And—by the way—there is no guarantee that this little reflection may not appear in a sermon sometime this summer!
—Pastor BJ