Thursday in Easter Week: Where is that Peace the Risen Christ Was Suppose to Give?

Scriptural Basis

Luke 24:36b-48 (NRSV)

While the disciples were talking about how they had seen Jesus risen from the dead, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

Blog Reflection

"Peace be with you!?!"  Where the hell is the peace the risen Jesus wished the disciples on Easter Day for the people in the six southern states where over 250 people were killed by tornadoes? 

How can we have that peace that Christ wished with a Oklahoma law maker stating that "Black people do not work as hard as white people do"?

When a married lesbian supreme court nominee is bullied in her confirmation hearings in Massachusetts, and the State Senate there votes to limit away collective bargaining rights for health care for public workers, where is the peace the resurrected Christ wished?

How are people suppose to believe in the peace the resurrection of Jesus Christ brings with anti-LGBT equality groups suggesting that Planned Parenthood billboard advertisements are "too gay friendly."

Keep in mind a couple things.  The people Jesus gave his peace too, were not exactly the most faithful people to him.  The men that the risen Jesus said "Peace be with you" too, were the 12 men who all accept one abandoned him in his time of suffering and death.  Even Peter who is known as the "first of Apostles" whom the Catholic church says was the first Pope, denied Jesus three times out of fear for his life.  If you were Jesus who had died and risen again, would  you really wish 11 cowardly men peace?

There is another way to look at this. 

The people Jesus wished God's peace to, were not perfect, were not without their fears, difficulties or without their fear of what people will say or do to them.   These were not people who had an unshakable faith in God's power.  When Mary Magdelene first brought them news of the resurrection, many of them were not so sure they believed it until they saw him with their own eyes  

Yes, the risen Jesus wishes all of us God's peace.  Even when we do not exactly believe or trust in God in our most weak and vulnerable moments.  Even when the pain of loss such as what the folks in the six southern states are experiencing, the risen Christ still comes in the midst of their tragedy to give them a sense of God's peace.   Even when believing in God's goodness and mercy is really difficult because of how much life stinks, God's peace through the risen Jesus is still at work and somehow will in the end become real.

There is no peace however, in prejudice or scapegoating in the Name of the resurrected Jesus.  The Christianists and arch-conservative Catholics who are working to establish amendments against marriage equality for LGBT people such as what is happening in Minnesota, does not establish the peace of the resurrected Jesus.  There is enough discouragements to faith in Christ's resurrection through natural disasters without adding discrimination against people for their sexual orientation and/or gender expression/identity, or race.  If it is the goal of Christians to establish the peace of God's reign on earth, prejudice and violence driven by bad religious zeal goes a long way to damage the faith of people who might otherwise want to believe in the resurrection.

May Jesus Christ give God's peace to those who are suffering this day because of nature, prejudice or violence.  May Christians become instruments of the peace that the risen Christ can and desires to give people looking and starving for some kind of peace in this world.

Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Thursday in Easter Week, Book of Common Prayer, page 212).