"Peace Be With You"

Peace be with you. Many of you, especially if you are former Catholics, know this phrase ,   'Peace be with you.'  as part of the liturgy. St. Augustine in the 4th century first established the custom of exchanging this greeting, known as the "sign of peace" at Mass. Here in this sanctuary we commonly end our services every week by invoking another version of this familiar blessing when we say "Go now in peace". As is the case with many of the words and phrases with which we are most familiar through constant use, it is quite possible for us to go on uttering these phrases, day in, day out, without pausing to reflect on what they actually mean. This morning, let us contemplate what we are really saying. 

First - for a moment I'd like you to imagine a scene of peace.  Close your eyes and flesh it out. Describe it to yourself as fully as you can - enter into it deeply enough to feel its glow….

Some of you may have pictured yourself picnicking with loved ones in a meadow laden with butterflies on a warm, sunny day. Others may have envisioned the innocent face of a baby and mother, looking into one another's eyes absorbed by mutual wonder and love. Or you may have pictured your cat or your dog napping on a sun-soaked cushion somewhere. Whatever you conjured up the scene probably is consistent with the dictionary definition of peace: 'quiet; tranquility; mental calm; serenity; freedom from disturbance ...'

Now, bookmark those scenes for a minute. I imagine that none of them bears any resemblance to the moment in which Jesus first invoked the words, "Peace be with you."  The scene was anything but a traditionally peaceful one. Jesus had been crucified and there was much confusion among the disciples. Leaderless, in an atmosphere rife with political tension, we find them cloistered behind locked doors in the upper room. There are rumors that Jesus has appeared to Mary Magdalene.  I give you John 20: 19-26:

19. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came  and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."

20. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

21. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."

22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

23. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

24. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.

25. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place  my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe."

26. Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you."

This Christian story tells us a good deal. John speaks of locked doors, of secret meetings in the night, and of fear.  None of these things normally evokes a feeling of tranquility - nor does the appearance of Jesus whose body bears scars of his torture and death. This is a group that fears for its own safety and is terribly shaken.  Can you picture Jesus trying to settle his disciples down by saying repeatedly, "Peace be with you."  Three times he says this to them, "Peace be with you".

We tend to use this phrase as a blessing, but Jesus is trying to calm their nerves - in modern parlance, he's trying to get them to center themselves.  The worst has already happened. "Peace be with you." Pull yourselves together.  "Peace be with you." But Jesus means more than "be calm."   He is calling his disciples to a kind of peace we don't normally think of - to an inner peace that is accessible in the midst of turmoil, fear, danger and doubt. 

Just days before the evangelist  John has described  a scene in which Jesus predicts his death and says to them, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives. He warns, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you;…"  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." He also said, "As the father has loved me, I have loved you; abide in my love….

Jesus has predicted this moment outright, and all the worst has come to pass, yet he issues no call to arms or violence. This is the threshold at which everything they have done together takes on meaning. He says, "Abide in my love." He recalls them to his teachings which they have worked on together for so long. Rather, he reminds them of his love of each of them; and he commissions them to go out into the world as his teachers, to teach the love of God.  They are being called to walk as he did and proclaim the inner peace that comes from loving God, from being in relationship with the Holy as he has taught them. "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…. They have their commission. "Peace be with you." he says.

This is really an extraordinary moment.  These men have had their three years of Religious Education, and this, in a way, is their final exam - their moment, under pressure, to see if they can live out the teachings they have received. Can they walk the talk.

That's what religious education actually is, isn't it - teachings we may have received in moments of  tranquility, mental calm or quiet reflection? But those teachings only begin to live when the rubber hits the road, when they are tested in times of stress.

These particular men were successful in their charge. Their legacy lives on  - in our own hymnal we have this very beautiful Christian prayer:  Reading # 508:  _______________________ will read it for us.

#508 - Christian prayer

"Save us from weak resignation to violence,                                                                                   teach us that restraint is the highest expression of power,

that thoughtfulness and tenderness are the mark of the strong;

Jesus taught, always, that peace began with the individual, and that we are first to attend to the violence and sin within ourselves before we cast aspersions on others. We must repair the world one person at a time, always starting with ourselves. The prayer continues:

Help us to love our enemies,

Not by countenancing their sins,

But by remembering our own."

          Christian Prayer

But the message of peace is not particular to the Christian faith alone. Nor is the idea that peace must begin with each one of us inspecting our own hearts. There have been many transmissions of Religious Education, legacies from many cultures. As Unitarian Universalists, our education is broad.  Here is the Dalai Lama, religious leader of the nation of Tibet:

"Although attempting to bring about world peace through the internal transformation of individuals is difficult, it is the only way.  Peace must first be developed within the individual.  And I believe that love, compassion, and altruism are the fundamental basis for peace.  Once these qualities are developed within the individual, he or she is then able to create an atmosphere              of peace and harmony.  This atmosphere can be expanded and extended from the individual to his family, from the family to the community and eventually to the whole world." [1]    

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile from his own country of Tibet, which has been taken over by the Chinese,  teaches that peace must move from the individual heart out into the community and beyond into the world.  

In Reading #602 in our hymnal  Lao-Tse  The founder of Taoism, says the same thing, but in reverse.

Please turn to Responsive Reading # 602 - led by ____________________________.

If there is to be peace in the world,

There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,

There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,

There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,

There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,

There must be peace in the heart.

And now, the great Hindu leader Mohandas Gandhi.  Please join in with me  Responsive reading #577:

#577          Gandhi - Hindu

If someone with courage and vision can rise to lead non-violent action, the winter of despair can, in the twinkling of an eye, be turned into the summer of hope.

It is possible to live in peace.

Nonviolence is not a garment to put on and off at will.  Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

It is possible to live in peace.

Nonviolence, which is a quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.  It is a plant of slow growth, growing imperceptibly but surely.

It is possible to live in peace.

If a single person achieves the highest kind of love it will be sufficient to neutralize the hate of millions.

It is possible to live in peace.

If we are to reach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.

It is possible to live in peace.

The future depends on what we do in the present.

It is possible to live in peace.

We associate peace with tranquility. But another aspect or expression of peace in the world, when it is being challenged by violence, is nonviolence.

And finally, a reading by Unitarian Olympia Brown:______________________

#578   Olympia Brown                   Unitarian

We can never make the world safe

by fighting.

Every nation must learn that the people

of all nations are children of God,

and must share the wealth of the world.

You may say this is impracticable,

far away, can never be accomplished,

but it is the work we are

appointed to do.

Sometime, somehow, somewhere,

We must ever teach this great lesson.

Religious Education has been remarkably consistent across the world's religions and cultures. We too, as Unitarian Universalist students of, not one remarkable tradition but many, are commissioned to go out into the world as teachers, to walk the talk as best we can.  Just like the disciples first commissioned by Jesus, these teachings only begin to live when they are tested.

.

Colman McCarthy, teaches courses in the history, theory and practice of nonviolence. He has had some 1,500 students from Georgetown University Law School, the University of Maryland, American University, George Mason University and several high schools In the first moments of the first class he always gives a spot quiz, asking his students to identify the following:

Robert E. Lee, Sojourner Truth, Ulysses S. Grant, A.J. Muste, Adin BalJou, Caesar, John Woolman, Dwight Eisenhower, Dorothy Day

Most students, whether in law school, college or high school, know five — the generals. The other five — Truth, Muste, Ballou, Woolman and Day — are unknowns, these advocates of nonviolence, each of whom took personal risks by acting on the belief that the force of nonviolence is more effective, moral and enduring than the force of violence. Coleman says his students have been cheated in school, for nowhere in their education has the history of nonviolent resistance or a nonviolent alternative, been taught. As Olympia Brown says, "sometime, somehow, somewhere, we must ever teach this great lesson."

John Foster Dulles once said, "The world will never have lasting peace so long as [people] reserve for war the finest human qualities.  Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and self-sacrifice and a righteous, dynamic faith."

People are willing to sacrifice their lives if they think they have a chance to win. But to choose nonviolence asks one to step out of the mainstream - to sacrifice the appearance of being relevant. That's a huge immediate sacrifice - there's no glamour in it. Advocates of peace in times of conflict risk no longer being taken seriously. That is dreadfully hard. And yet, as Eleanor Roosevelt said, "It isn't enough to talk about peace; one must believe in it; one must work at it." Peace requires a righteous and dynamic faith - it is a matter of the individual heart. We are called to be faithful.

If any of our religious education teachings on peace are to mean anything, they must be embodied, not abandoned, precisely when the violence begins to ratchet up. Today there is much confusion and political tension. There is a side of us that may want to cloister here behind locked doors.  There is another side that may want to fight. This is for us a time to settle down and to center; a time to be recalled to the many teachings we as Unitarian Universalists have embraced together over so many years - the teachings of Jesus, Lao-Tse, Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama and all the world's great religions.   May peace be with you.