Dancing with Peace

 Here is my message from Sunday. The text was John 20:19-31. 

Some of you I think have heard this story before, but my best friend from seminary, in her first appointment she was contacted to ask if she would like to participate in a sort of dancing with the stars as a fundraiser for several non-profits in the town. They were asking community leaders to participate who would be partners to professional dancers. She said yes, thinking she’d just show up do her thing to be supportive and be known in town, and then move on. So, she was a little surprised a few weeks later when she was contacted by a dance studio asking when she wanted to start her lessons in preparation. Obviously, this was going to be more serious than she thought, and so she made her appointment and went for her first dance lesson. Now what you have to know about Katherine was that before the ministry she was a counselor working with people who were having mental health crisis, and so she was used to be in charge, or taking charge of situations, because her life literally depended upon it at times. And so, she started up and let’s just say that the lesson wasn’t going great, and so they stopped and her instructed said, “You have to let go and let me lead if this is going to be effective and helpful,” and so Katherine responded that he obviously didn’t know who she was, that she is used to being in charge.” To which he responded, “You’re a minister. I thought this would be easy for you because I thought you would be used to turning your life and direction over to someone else to guide.” As you might guess, that left her a little aback, and changed not just her approach to dancing, but also as a refocusing of ministry.

And so that story is sort of around which this series, Dancing with God, will be based, although also taken from an idea by Marcia McFee of dancing after darkness, because while we often talk about having to follow God, or to put it in scriptural terms, to be a servant or slave to God, in fact a better way of understanding our journey with God is as a dance. Of turning our lives over to God as the lead, which requires us to follow that, to learn new things, occasionally to improvise in our steps, and when we get lost or confused to remember that sometimes we have to stop to return to the old familiar steps. And the dance we look at today is the dance of peace.

The gospel passage we heard from today, commonly referred to as the story of Doubting Thomas, is the recommended passage for this first Sunday after Easter every year, and therefore one that’s become fairly familiar to many people, and perhaps, then a little too familiar. And I often find myself trying to defend Thomas as I think he gets a bum rap, although I also find myself defending Judas, so I don’t know if that’s the company that Thomas wants to keep. But Thomas doesn’t ask for anything that the disciples themselves hadn’t also been shown, perhaps at their request, perhaps not, but they also hadn’t believed Mary Magdalene when she told them that she had encountered the risen Christ at the tomb, so why are not all called doubting I don’t know. And we can get a sense of their doubt because we are told that they are locked up in a room because, in John’s words “fear of the Jews.” I will only deal with this little bit that has become an anti-Semitic ploy to say that that statement doesn’t make any sense, because they are all Jews. But they are being driven in this moment not by love or joy or hope, but by fear.

In scripture there are several different meanings to fear. One of them is a sense of awe or wonder, so the statement from Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom, I have and will continue to argue, would better be translated as the awe of the Lord, or knowledge of the Lord, or amazement of the Lord. My best analogy is if you’ve ever stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon, or some other majestic natural wonder, and sort of overcome by the immensity of it, especially in comparing yourself to it, and there can even be a little trembling and fearfulness, as we often understand it, in that awesome presence. So that’s one sense, and then there is the fear fear. Shaking, quaking, terror of fear. And that is the fear that the disciples were feeling. And I think what happens is this notification from Jesus that that is the wrong emotion, and so when he appears to them his first response is “peace be with you.” And so, Jesus shows them his hands and his side, and they believe, and he breathes into them the Holy Spirit and with that also comes a message about forgiveness.

They then tell Thomas, who doesn’t believe, and a week later they are again shut-up in the house, although this time nothing is said either about them being fearful or that the doors of the house are locked, as they were the first time. I don’t think that omission is accidental, but instead a change in what they are doing and how they are feeling. That instead of living in fear, that perhaps the peace of Christ has also been reigning in their lives over the past week. And yet Jesus’ first statement to them again is “peace be with you.” Perhaps this is an indication that this is something that Jesus not only gives, but something we should continually be seeking, or perhaps chanting to ourselves, very similar to the Jedi like character Chirrut Imwe from Rogue One, as we witnessed last summer, who says “I am one with the force and the force is with me.” Maybe we should be saying something like “I am one with the peace of God, and the peace of God is with me.” And specially to say that in times when it definitely is apparent to us that that is not the case. Especially when we might be feeling fear, because these two things, peace and fear are connected by being somewhat opposites of each other, as well as how they are directed.

Fear, for the most part, is in inward directed feeling, or emotion. Yes, it is possible to be fearful for others, as any parent of teenagers can attest, that you fear what might happen to them in the world, or for anyone who has had a loved one go to war. Fear can also be outward directed at others, usually as a stereotype we make about others, we fear “those people”, but even that is an inward driven response, because it’s largely individual. I cannot handle spiders because of a fear, and others have no problem with them. We have an innate fear of snakes, which is why a twig laying on the ground, can cause us to jump in fright, but plenty of people can deal with snakes just fine. And so, fear tends to be about what makes us afraid, what makes us anxious, what makes us frightened. Fear tends to be self-referential. Peace, on the other hand, tends to largely be other-referential. Being at peace with yourself plays a significant part of being able to be at peace with others, and we’ll come back to that thought, but peace tends to be seen in how we relate with others, which is why it is the thing that Jesus is granting to others.

Peace plays a significant role in the New Testament. It is found in every book except that of 1 John, although that doesn’t mean it’s not present because it is 1 John that we hear “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment.” (4:18) which means, I think, that peace and love are directly connected, if peace is a way to cast out fear, or to move through fear, to the other side to love. Now the Greek word for peace in the New Testament is directly connected to the Hebrew word for peace, a word with which most of us are more familiar, which is shalom. Shalom has a more traditional meaning of peace as being an absence of war or violence, as that clearly is a part of peace, but it’s also much deeper than that, as we have covered several times. It also has a sense of wholeness, or well-being, or contentment, or safety. And those are both intrapersonal, dealing with yourself, and also interpersonal, dealing with others. And that is where shalom takes on even deeper meaning because that sense of shalom also is about a restoration of relationship. And so, we could, and perhaps should, see Jesus as God’s ultimate shalom, God’s restoration of relationship. And so, when Jesus says “peace be with you,” this is about much more than just not being violent, or at war with others, but it’s about restoration of relationship with God and with each other by being, or becoming, or working on becoming, whole and content, healed and comfortable, reconciled and relaxed. Sounds so easy doesn’t it? And to obtain one, either inward or outward, you have to have the other. And that’s where it’s context in the Roman world also comes into play.

Because this sense of peace, shalom, stands in direct contrast to the Roman ideal of peace, perhaps best demonstrated by the idea of Pax Romana, or Roman Peace. And how did Roman peace come about? Through violence and destruction and subjugation. Peace at the point of a sword. Roman peace celebrated the destruction of enemies so that they were no longer a threat. We will destroy anything and anyone that threatens us, or that we might fear in anyway, and because they are then gone, peace can reign. Until it has to happen all over again. But that’s why Jesus’ message about the Kingdom of God stood in such contrast, to turn the other cheek, to pray for your enemies, to forgive others not just 7 times, but 70 times 7 times. That’s how we abide in God’s love and how God’s love abides in us, and leads us away from fear, because fear doesn’t exist in love. Or as the author and philosopher Aldous Huxley wrote, “Fear casts out love. And not only love. Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth.” We know it’s true, and if you don’t think that, just pay attention to whomever is telling us to fear or hate others; love is not involved.

And if you are thinking “well that all sounds great to do, John, but it also seems impossible.” And that’s exactly the point. We cannot do it ourselves; that’s why we need God. That’s why peace is a fruit of the Spirit; it’s why Jesus breathes the Spirit onto the disciples, it’s why we receive the Spirit in baptism, because we cannot do it by ourselves, but with Christ all things are possible. It’s why I am calling this the dance of peace. Because we partner with God, with God taking the lead to show us the way, to follow the way of peace, to know that “God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” who practices forgiveness for things big and small. So how do we live in peace? How do we learn peace? How do we even begin to know what peace is? By partnering with God, and that begins, just as Katherine learned, by stop trying to do it ourselves, and simply saying to God, “I need your help. Lead me in your peace. Pattern me in your love. Teach me the rhythms of this dance. And help me when I fall and fail, to get up, dust myself off, listen to the cadence of your harmony and start the dance over again.”

To be at peace with others, to be in shalom, we have to be at peace with ourselves, and to be at peace with ourselves, we have to be in shalom with God, in relationship, turning ourselves over to God’s lead in this dance of faith. To learn to dream bigger and more than we could ever imagine, to move beyond ourselves, to move with God, to be at peace with God, ourselves and with each other. In Acts, Peter encounters Cornelius, a Roman soldier, and Peter tells him that the heart of the message is the peace of Jesus, and then Spirit comes upon Cornelius, amazing all that the Spirit, the peace of Christ, is available to everyone, we just have to be willing to join into the dance. And to remember that even when we take one step forward, and then taking a step back, that it’s not a failure, it’s just a form of the cha-cha, part of this dance of faith. Jesus said to the disciples, Jesus says to us, “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.” For fear and peace stand in opposition, because love casts out fear and love is the way of peace, the way of shalom. So, may we begin or renew our dance with God in the way of peace seeking healing and wholeness, assurance and calm, safety and restoration in the arms of the one who is the Lord of the Dance. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.