Peace be with you

Here is the sermon that I gave today. Read at your leisure and try to imagine me saying it because I think it sounds better when spoken aloud to try to imagine me standing in front of you inflecting and making wild hand gestures. The wide gaps between paragraphs are long pauses - I wish I had some sort of video recording to post instead...

Sermon for Sunday, April 23, 2006

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, defines agoraphobia this way “Agoraphobia today describes severe and pervasive anxiety about being in situations from which escape might be difficult or avoidance of situations such as being alone outside of the home, traveling in a car, bus, or airplane, or being in a crowded area.” People who suffer from agoraphobia often become prisoners in their own home. The idea of being in an uncontrollable environment causes them so much anxiety that they would rather stay in their homes for days on end, sometimes years, before they will risk leaving. Their feelings of safety come from the closed, locked door that shields them from the unpredictability of the world outside.

Doors can be precious things. They protect and shield many people from having to face what danger might be lying on the other side. They also open to some wonderful opportunities and friendships with people that we might have never thought possible. Some doors are large, some are small. Some slid open and others revolve. Sometimes crossing the threshold of a door into an unknown situation can make us want to turn around and go back so that we do not have to face whatever is on the other side.



The disciples had locked the door. And for good reason, the people outside of the door were looking for them and probably wanted to kill them for being followers of Jesus. They did not know what to do. The last time they had seen Jesus he was dead – really dead – and the hope for the resurrection that he kept talking about was beginning to dwindle. They did not want to step into the chaos outside their door for fear that they would not be able to escape unharmed and so they stay inside. What were they going to do?

“Peace be with you”. Can you imagine the surprise when Jesus appears in that room? The room with the door that was locked – the door that is STILL locked. Before they can even begin to comprehend anything else he shows them his hands and side so that they can see and touch his wounds. They can feel him and yet he could walk through the locked door. He didn’t need a key or to tear the door down, he just walks in. Then they rejoiced! “Peace be with you,” he says again. Peace indeed! Jesus is alive!

There is nothing more to fear because Jesus has defeated sin and death. And as he gives this peace he reminds them that as the Father has sent him, so he now will send the disciples with God’s peace to share with all people.

What wonderful words those are, “Peace be with you”. The word peace can mean so many things depending on the situation. In Hebrew the word Shalom is known to mean peace but it’s meaning can go further than that and for many it means a sense of completeness, wholeness, and tranquility; relief, comfort and strength. God’s peace is what will make the disciples able to enter new situations without fear of being alone. That peace is also what makes us know that WE are never alone.



When my Mom was in the hospital there were these large 5ft. wide doors that led to the Cardiac Care Unit. You had to push a big button on the wall for the doors to swing open. Once the doors were open there was a distinct odor of what I call, “hospital smell”. Sanitized air that felt heavy and daunting. I walked past the first three rooms and then came to hers and approached another threshold. There were two large sliding glass doors to her room that were usually open but created one more threshold in which I had to cross. The nurses were always really friendly and usually someone like my Dad or Grandmother was already there so it was easy to go in once I saw them. It was as if Jesus had whispered “Peace be with you” in my ear when I saw them because I was no longer afraid and knew that I would not have to go through that experience alone.



September 1 was my first day here at Gloria Dei. I had already moved in with the help of Tim and my Dad and now I was ready to start my work at the church. I put on a nice skirt and top and got the things that I thought I would need for my first day together in a bag. I walked through the trees and across the parking lot, up the stairs and then to those big red doors. I tugged on one and it was locked – so was the other. I saw a sign that said that I needed to ring the bell in order to gain entry. I have to say that I felt rather awkward talking to the voice that came over the intercom. “uh, um… I’m Annemarie… the new vicar?… “ There was a buzzing sound from the door and the voice said “Come on in!” I went in. Down the stairs and into the office where I was immediately met with a key to the entire building, except one closet for which there is a separate key. In a matter of about 3 minutes I went from being a stranger on the doorstep to the keeper of the keys. What a welcome. I heard “Peace be with you” at the sound of Lisa’s voice and as she handed me the keys – all of my anxiety was gone and I knew that everything was going to be ok.

At those words, “Peace be with you”, the fears of what was lying behind those locked doors is beginning to subside. The disciples are beginning to understand what this resurrection really means for them. At first they had begun to think that their job of preaching and teaching with Jesus was over after his death, but now their job is really just beginning. They now have good news to share with those who have been mourning and living in fear after his death. They are at the threshold of a new journey.

But Thomas was not with them when Jesus appeared. He did not hear those wonderful words or see the wounds and face of Jesus. The other disciples tried to tell him what they had seen so that he would know that Jesus was truly alive but he was not convinced. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

So what is the matter with Thomas? Does he think that the other disciples are lying about this? How could they lie about something so wonderful and uplifting? Thomas wants things to be done on his own terms. He likes to be in control of his life and how he experiences it. If he is going to believe that Jesus is alive he is going to need some proof… well more proof than what he has already heard from his friends.

We want to control things and do them on our own terms more often than we want to trust God to be there with us to help. We become trapped in our own version of agoraphobic behavior, we become fearful of that moment of letting go and trusting that we are not going to be left alone. The more we try to stay in that locked room under our own terms the more we become like Thomas who would not believe until Jesus held out his hands to touch him.

We want proof that that everything will be ok and that we will never be alone in that hospital room… on that job interview… at the moment of death. And just when we think that we are going to encounter inescapable chaos – Jesus whispers in our ear, “Peace be with you” and appears as our family and friends, appears as our supportive church community, and promises that we will never be alone.

The fact that we share the peace with one another every Sunday is not because Pastor Nagle or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided that it might be nice and neighborly to do. We exchange the peace with one another in order to build our community and to remind each other that in this body of Christ we are representatives of that peace for each other.

In this community our exchange comes at one of the most appropriate places that I have encountered. Some communities exchange the peace just before the offering is taken but here we exchange it right after the confession and absolution. We have just confessed to God that we are not even close to being worthy of the love and mercy that we are shown on a daily basis and have heard those words of forgiveness. What better time is there to hear “Peace be with you” than right then? It’s the hug of love and compassion that we need to feel in order to know that the mercy God has for us is real.

How many people do you know who do not have an opportunity to hear these words spoken to them and for them? How many people do you know who think that God has locked them out and could not possibly love them enough to actually bring them the kind of peace, love, and wholeness that we experience here? Maybe they are people that you used to see just a few pews ahead of you. For whatever the reasons there are people everywhere who feel as though God has abandoned them and are really waiting for someone to show them that the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side are actually for them and that they are worthy of that much love.

We are standing on the threshold of the door to finding the mission for the congregation. We will gather today to study the bible, discuss our faith, and make plans for how we will reach out into the world in the name of Christ. The world is full of chaos; in this week alone we remembered the Oklahoma City bombing and the Columbine Massacre and we are constantly aware of the wars that are going on overseas and next door and there is no way to know what we will have to face in the future. We do have a promise from God and Jesus through our baptism and this meal that we are about to share together that whatever we do, we do it as the collective body of Christ. We must always remember that no matter how thick the door or chaotic the situation Jesus is going to be there, whispering “Peace be with you”. Amen.