SPEAKER_00: I speak to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in case you are gonna miss what I'm gonna say, I'll let you know my point right now.
SPEAKER_00: And then if you want to go to sleep, you can go to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: My main point for this sermon is that fear creates confusion, competition, and conflict.
SPEAKER_00: Fear creates confusion, competition, and conflict.
SPEAKER_00: But the peace of the reason Christ creates collaboration, communion, and sharation.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, this Easter tie, I want us to reflect on this truth: that the way of love drives out fear and makes room for peace.
SPEAKER_00: So when we hear the Easter story, we often rush past Good Friday too quickly.
SPEAKER_00: But Good Friday, but Good Friday was traumatic.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was tortured, humiliated, and killed publicly.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of violence was meant to do more than just kill Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It was meant to terrify his followers.
SPEAKER_00: It was meant to scatter them.
SPEAKER_00: It was meant to make them afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we arrived at John 20, we should not be surprised that the disciples are behind locked doors.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells the John tells us plainly that they were there for fear.
SPEAKER_00: Fear had shut the doors.
SPEAKER_00: Fear had shut down their courage.
SPEAKER_00: Fear had shut down their imagination.
SPEAKER_00: And fear still does that to us.
SPEAKER_00: Fear creates confusion.
SPEAKER_00: It creates competition.
SPEAKER_00: It creates conflict.
SPEAKER_00: Fear makes people to compare themselves to one another.
SPEAKER_00: You remember John and Peter?
SPEAKER_00: They were outrunning each other.
SPEAKER_00: As someone who runs, I know how that feels.
SPEAKER_00: Like if I beat you, I will let you know.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine Peter and John.
SPEAKER_00: They had that conversation.
SPEAKER_00: I was first, then you.
SPEAKER_00: So this peace is real peace.
SPEAKER_00: It is shalom, wholeness, restoration, and healed relationships.
SPEAKER_00: It is the peace Jesus promised in John 14, 27, when he said, Peace I live with you.
SPEAKER_00: My peace I give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Do not, do not let your hearts be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: And do not let them be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: The reason Christ stands before them as a wounded Savior.
SPEAKER_00: That means resurrection does not erase suffering.
SPEAKER_00: It transforms it.
SPEAKER_00: It changes it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' wounds are not hidden.
SPEAKER_00: They become signs of love.
SPEAKER_00: That matters to us, church.
SPEAKER_00: That matters to us.
SPEAKER_00: Because the church is a wounded body.
SPEAKER_00: We are people with scars.
SPEAKER_00: We are people who are craving.
SPEAKER_00: We are people with questions.
SPEAKER_00: Where is God?
SPEAKER_00: What is He doing?
SPEAKER_00: Why is it taking so long?
SPEAKER_00: Yet we belong to a raising Lord who says, in the midst of all that, peace be with you.
SPEAKER_00: And once that peace is spoken, everything begins to change.
SPEAKER_00: Accept the peace.
SPEAKER_00: Fear had locked the doors.
SPEAKER_00: But peace opens them.
SPEAKER_00: Fear had isolated the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: But peace forms them into community.
SPEAKER_00: Fear had them hide.
SPEAKER_00: But peace, stand them on mission.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, as the Father has sent me, so I send you.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, peace is not just a feeling.
SPEAKER_00: Peace is what makes mission possible.
SPEAKER_00: Fear makes people to compete.
SPEAKER_00: I've said that.
SPEAKER_00: But peace, peace helps us, helps people to see what we need to collaborate on.
SPEAKER_00: The mission.
SPEAKER_00: We are sent by God.
SPEAKER_00: We are people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Fear says, oh, protect yourself, protect yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That's what fear says.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, no, no, friends, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Peace says, receive the spirit, receive the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Fear says, there is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: This is only for me.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, don't believe that lie.
SPEAKER_00: Peace says Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: There's enough for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: There's abundance in this world.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's Thomas.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do with him.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas was not there the first time.
SPEAKER_00: He missed the moment.
SPEAKER_00: And that maybe that's another form of fear.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of missing out.
SPEAKER_00: The fear that everyone else got the blessing you did not get.
SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus comes again, he does not exclude Thomas.
SPEAKER_00: He does not shame Thomas.
SPEAKER_00: He offers Thomas what?
SPEAKER_00: The same gift of peace.
SPEAKER_00: That is good news for us.
SPEAKER_00: Because peace makes room even for those who are always late, who are always doubtful, who find themselves craving.
SPEAKER_00: Peace does not divide us to say, oh, you have more faith.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Peace does not divide us and say, oh, there's insiders and outsiders.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: Peace gathers everyone.
SPEAKER_00: I mean everyone.
SPEAKER_00: When I say everyone, I mean everyone.
SPEAKER_00: As Episcopalians, that's who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We know this liturgically too.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna say it soon.
SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: We pass peace.
SPEAKER_00: That is not just like, oh, how are you?
SPEAKER_00: It's not a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's more than that.
SPEAKER_00: It is a holy, holy practice.
SPEAKER_00: It is the bridge between hearing from God's word and coming to God's table.
SPEAKER_00: It is a way of saying, in Christ, we seek wholeness with God and with one another.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a problem with me, please let me know before I leave here.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: As a prayer book says on Monday, Thursday, peace is my last gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: My own peace, I now live with you.
SPEAKER_00: I give you a new commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Love one another as I loved you.
SPEAKER_00: Peace and love belong together.
SPEAKER_00: That is the way of love.
SPEAKER_00: So in this Easter season, the question is simple.
SPEAKER_00: Will fear rule us?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you will respond in saying, no, fear will not rule us.
SPEAKER_00: Peace, peace will form us.
SPEAKER_00: Will we live by confusion?
SPEAKER_00: Will we live by competition?
SPEAKER_00: We will live by conflict.
SPEAKER_00: Or we will receive the peace of Christ and become people of collaboration, communion, and teamwork.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is the message of Easter.
SPEAKER_00: Fear locks doors, but peace opens those doors.
SPEAKER_00: Fear divides.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Peace gathers us, it brings us together.
SPEAKER_00: Fear competes, but peace collaborates.
SPEAKER_00: So may the risen Christ enter every locked room in our lives, every lock room in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: May He meet us in our fear.
SPEAKER_00: May He breathe his spirit upon us.
SPEAKER_00: May His word become our way.