Easter 6C

6th Sunday of Easter May 26, 2019 Our gospel readings for the last few weeks in John’s gospel have taken us back in time to before Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Last Sunday, we saw Judas leaving the Upper Room gathering with the other disciples to go out and betray Jesus. And this Sunday, we see the remaining disciples growing increasingly more anxious, and several of them are posing questions to Jesus to try to understand his mysterious words about leaving them soon. This section of John’s gospel is made up of four whole chapters that are known as John’s farewell discourse—four chapters where Jesus is reassuring and comforting and teaching his disciples, trying to prepare them for what is next. Liturgically, this week, we are moving toward the end of the Easter season. This Thursday is the feast day of the Ascension when we celebrate Jesus’s ascension into heaven (it’s 1 of 7 of our major feast days in the church). Two weeks from today, we’ll have the feast of Pentecost, when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. And next Sunday is this weird, in-between time, when Jesus has ascended but the Holy Spirit hasn’t shown up yet. But for today, Jesus is promising his disciples and us that the Holy Spirit is coming, and he offers them and us the gift of his peace saying, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” I’ve been thinking about peace this week. Often when we use the word peace, we mean an absence of conflict or even a “Peaceful easy feeling” (like we sang coming in at 10). But the word that Jesus uses—shalom—is a much more complex word. It means beyond peace to completeness or wholeness, and even such completeness or wholeness that causes one to act or respond with generosity. The thing about Jesus’s peace is that it is a gift which is freely given by him but cannot be earned or attained by us. Peace is something that we can only receive. And sometimes we refuse to receive it, don’t we? One member of our Wednesday service congregation, when we were talking about this, shared a story of a lady in her church who resisted the institution of the passing of the peace in the “new” prayer book and she would just stand there with her arms crossed as people exchanged the peace around her. So we can resist this gift of peace, this gift of wholeness. But we can also be conduits of Jesus’s peace for one another. Another one of our Wednesday congregation shared that she had recently been using a spiritual practice called “a meditation for loving kindness.” In this practice, you pray the following things for yourself and for other people, praying them three times each. 1. May you be happy. 2. May you be healthy. 3. May you be at peace. Consider starting this practice just for yourself, that you may be open to receive Jesus’s gift of peace, Jesus’s gift of wholeness. Then deepen the practice to include those for whom it is easy for you to love. Pray this three-prayer for each of them three times. Then, we you are ready for the advanced class, add in doing this for a person you are at odds with—maybe someone who has wounded you, someone with whom you disagree. This week, your invitation is two part. First, pay attention to the ways that you resist the gift of Jesus’s peace or wholeness in your life. When you catch yourself in those moments, consider uncrossing your arms and asking for help receiving it. Then second, look for ways to pass that gift of peace or wholeness on to others. There are countless ways of doing this in every single day, but if you are looking for a place to start, consider using the meditation for loving kindness: 1. May you be happy. 2. May you be healthy. 3. May you be at peace.