The Second Sunday of Easter - April 27, 2025 Artwork

The Preaching Moment

A moment each week when all is well for a mom and priest. The sermons of Mother Suzanne Weidner-Smith, Rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Alvin, Texas. The Rev. Suzanne Smith came to Grace, Alvin, first as Deacon-in-Charge in July 2018, after graduation from the Seminary of the Southwest with a Diploma in Anglican Studies in May 2018. She was ordained to the Episcopal Priesthood in January 2019, and since 2020, has been the Rector of Grace. After earning her Bachelor of Science degree at A&M in Corpus Christi, she went to Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, where she earned a Master of Divinity degree, and was ordained a minister in the Baptist Church. In the first decade of her ministry, Suzanne was a practicing Hospice Chaplain, where she learned how to provide pastoral care at the bedside of patients transitioning from this world to the next. Listening to their stories, and telling stories of her own, she realized the power of sharing the Gospel in story form. Passionate about liturgy, she weaves scripture and story to communicate the Gospel today. Suzanne is the proud mother of Luke, Noah, and Andrew. Together, they enjoy Cub and Boy Scouts, soccer, and basketball.

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The Preaching Moment

The Second Sunday of Easter - April 27, 2025

December 14, 2025 • The Reverend Suzanne Weidner-Smith • Season 4 • Episode 18

Summary

Grace Community Missioner Ed Carrette explores Jesus's words from John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you," explaining that Christ's peace is not merely the absence of noise but His very presence with us—a costly gift flowing from His death, resurrection, and ascension that sustains us even in a hostile world. This divine peace, which passes all understanding, is meant to be received, lived in, and shared with others as we fulfill Christ's commission.

THE GOSPEL John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "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."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Artwork: The Incredulity of St. Thomas, by Benjamin West (1738-1820)

Grace Community Missioner Ed Carrette:

From the Gospel of St. John, peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Amen. Please be seated. We all yearn for peace and quiet at least some of the time. We live in a noisy, in intrusive world to the point that moments of silence may feel terrifying. Even when we are relaxing, there's a good chance that the phone will ring a sales pitch for something we don't need, or the doorbell ring with the Amazon delivery driver or the computer pewter ping. Even if we decide to get away from everything, getting there can be stressful. When we hear that Jesus appeared to his disciples after the resurrection and said, peace be with you, we wonder whether he was being sarcastic. The disciples are in the upper room huddled for fear. Fear denotes an absence of peace. The disciples feared their new title that of a apostle feared their mission to go out into the world and tell about Jesus and feared the outside world that seemed ready to pounce and destroy them as it seems to have done to Jesus.

On one level, Jesus saying Peace was utterly normal. Just as we say hi or hey, depending on our tribe or how are you? Greetings that have become so habitual. They're blurted out before we think in Israel then and now. The habitual greeting was shalom peace. It was expected. The response, peace be with you also was the polite reply. Jesus says hello to his fearful bemused friends as he says hello to us just as we share the peace during the Eucharist each Sunday. Too often at the Eucharist, we use the greeting to engage in hurried conversations that have nothing to do with peace at all. Want to join us for lunch after church? How about the Astros? What's up with the ac?

Meanwhile, the priest tries to shake as many hands as possible. Hopes. No one is offended if their hands aren't shaken and worries that this noisy interlude won't interrupt the rhythm of the liturgy. Yet when we emulate Jesus as we exchange the peace, we remember what he was saying to the disciples in that upper room. Well, what was he saying? Jesus was saying that his presence is peace, at peace. As St. Paul puts it, that is beyond our understanding, far more potent than an absence of noise or a feeling of wellbeing. Jesus says, peace and we are reminded how costly his gift of peace is and how extraordinary in its depth. Because Jesus has died, has risen, has ascended. We are offered a share in the results of those costly actions. Baptism reminds us that we have died with Jesus, have risen with him, have ascended with him, and now live in his company, in the company of the church, fed by word and sacrament.

Secondly, the peace of Jesus gives us the peace Jesus gives us, means that nothing can separate us from the love of God except our own unwillingness to accept the gift, live in the gift and share the gift. Accepting a gift is a moment of self emptying, of acceptance and gratitude. For a moment, we are beholden, vulnerable, dependent as we receive that which we lack receiving a gift can strike our pride can be uncomfortable. Living in the gift demands an active gratitude. It also means that we value that that which we have been given, we feel it necessary to show it off, and that leads to sharing the gift, the gift of the peace of God, which passes all understanding is to be received as a trust to share with others. Thus, when we exchange the peace today, we say to those we greet, here is the most wonderful gift. The gift of accepting Jesus into our lives and sharing that communion with each other and out into the world. All the orders Jesus gave to the apostles are about that peace. Go tell about me. Go baptize. Do this in remembrance. Love one another. In short hearing and accepting Jesus's hello forms us and renews us. It is that peace for which we yearn and which we are given. The apostles went out into a hostile world. Many of them were martyred, but through it all, they were upheld and sustained by the peace Jesus gave them. Today, he offers that same peace to us. Amen.