A Prayer for Eliza (April 28, 2019), Rev. Peter Heinrichs
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.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
In baptism today we have officially welcomed Eliza Kathleen Haskell into our midst here at South Freeport Church and into the Way of Jesus Christ. While there is clearly something tribal about our welcome to Eliza, there is a great deal more to it as well. We have put her square in the path of the risen Jesus who says to her, Peace be with you, Eliza.
In our tradition, baptism is the sign and seal of something that is already true. She was never not God’s; she was never not going to be offered the peace of Jesus. Baptism affirms what God does. Our own baptismal gift to Eliza is to show her that we ourselves have accepted the peace Jesus offers. What she first learns about that peace, she learns in crucial ways, from us.
Let me remind us all that Eliza’s family, especially her parents Rachel and Dane, can’t do this all by themselves. They will be busy being……..well, parents. They won’t do the parenting job perfectly because perfect parenting can’t be done. They will love Eliza through the ups and downs of growing up and wish sometimes they knew how to do a better job of it. The good news is that they will get through it (and so will she); the bad news is that the loving and the parental self-questioning never seem to stop, no matter how old and grown-up the kids get. It never stops!
How often I have wanted to give advice to my adult children that will not be welcome. Can I please get an Amen from parents who know what I’m talking about?
Now, here is the truth we can help Eliza with. The peace Jesus offers her – and us – can only be found on the inside. The world around us can neither give us this peace nor can it take peace away. Peace is an inside job. We come from peace when we enter this world and we return to peace when we leave it.
Some of you know that I, with my wife Susan, spent time with my father this past week. My father is simply fading away. He has pain. He has significant memory issues. He can be peevish and difficult. Care taking of him, a large part of which falls on my mother and my brother Mark, is a challenging process. But as I sat with him and listened to him, I realized that there is a deeper awareness going on inside him. At the same time he is forgetting, he is remembering. His stories (which can seem like they come out of nowhere) are all about moving, adapting, changing and arriving. Something in him is allowing a shift, a turn toward dying, which, it turns out, is a new sort of life. It’s almost as if he were taking off the mask of life’s concerns and letting his real face be seen. It’s a very tender moment to witness, this allowing of peace.
Real peace has (as they say) “good bones.” You can’t miss it or mistake peace for anything else.
But we don’t have to wait for peace. That’s the message of John’s Gospel today. We’ve already been given it. Peace be with you, says Jesus twice in our passage today. It’s not just a greeting; it’s a gift. A few chapters earlier in John’s Gospel the pre-resurrection Jesus says to these same disciples: My peace I give you; not as the world gives give I unto you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
This is no namby-pamby peace; nor is it an idea up in your head. This peace is your capacity to be with what troubles you; it is your willingness to walk through what makes you afraid. As you all well know, peace like this takes practice; it takes falling down and picking yourself up. It means making peace with yourself.
The prize of the practice of peace is that each day becomes a gift. Each day is a day to realize that your heart is not overcome and your fear has not stopped you. There is that in you which the world has not given you, nor can it take away from you.
What a gift to a child if her adults – not just her parents – her community of adults speak of peace with how they live their lives! Speak honestly, that is, not hiding trouble or fear, but showing their willingness to practice what they say they believe.
So my prayer for Eliza today is not that she never have trouble in her life, nor that she never be afraid. My prayer is that she have adult companions on the journey who show her that her peace is already inside her and that her peace is trustworthy. What a gift. She may have to hear the message many times before she believes it. But she will never forget those who cared enough to let her know.
My prayer is that you experience Jesus looking over the heads of the ancient disciples right into your eyes and that you hear him say to you, Peace be with you. My peace I give you.
This is what baptism is for. To see and hear for ourselves. Then to pass it on.
Amen
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.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
In baptism today we have officially welcomed Eliza Kathleen Haskell into our midst here at South Freeport Church and into the Way of Jesus Christ. While there is clearly something tribal about our welcome to Eliza, there is a great deal more to it as well. We have put her square in the path of the risen Jesus who says to her, Peace be with you, Eliza.
In our tradition, baptism is the sign and seal of something that is already true. She was never not God’s; she was never not going to be offered the peace of Jesus. Baptism affirms what God does. Our own baptismal gift to Eliza is to show her that we ourselves have accepted the peace Jesus offers. What she first learns about that peace, she learns in crucial ways, from us.
Let me remind us all that Eliza’s family, especially her parents Rachel and Dane, can’t do this all by themselves. They will be busy being……..well, parents. They won’t do the parenting job perfectly because perfect parenting can’t be done. They will love Eliza through the ups and downs of growing up and wish sometimes they knew how to do a better job of it. The good news is that they will get through it (and so will she); the bad news is that the loving and the parental self-questioning never seem to stop, no matter how old and grown-up the kids get. It never stops!
How often I have wanted to give advice to my adult children that will not be welcome. Can I please get an Amen from parents who know what I’m talking about?
Now, here is the truth we can help Eliza with. The peace Jesus offers her – and us – can only be found on the inside. The world around us can neither give us this peace nor can it take peace away. Peace is an inside job. We come from peace when we enter this world and we return to peace when we leave it.
Some of you know that I, with my wife Susan, spent time with my father this past week. My father is simply fading away. He has pain. He has significant memory issues. He can be peevish and difficult. Care taking of him, a large part of which falls on my mother and my brother Mark, is a challenging process. But as I sat with him and listened to him, I realized that there is a deeper awareness going on inside him. At the same time he is forgetting, he is remembering. His stories (which can seem like they come out of nowhere) are all about moving, adapting, changing and arriving. Something in him is allowing a shift, a turn toward dying, which, it turns out, is a new sort of life. It’s almost as if he were taking off the mask of life’s concerns and letting his real face be seen. It’s a very tender moment to witness, this allowing of peace.
Real peace has (as they say) “good bones.” You can’t miss it or mistake peace for anything else.
But we don’t have to wait for peace. That’s the message of John’s Gospel today. We’ve already been given it. Peace be with you, says Jesus twice in our passage today. It’s not just a greeting; it’s a gift. A few chapters earlier in John’s Gospel the pre-resurrection Jesus says to these same disciples: My peace I give you; not as the world gives give I unto you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
This is no namby-pamby peace; nor is it an idea up in your head. This peace is your capacity to be with what troubles you; it is your willingness to walk through what makes you afraid. As you all well know, peace like this takes practice; it takes falling down and picking yourself up. It means making peace with yourself.
The prize of the practice of peace is that each day becomes a gift. Each day is a day to realize that your heart is not overcome and your fear has not stopped you. There is that in you which the world has not given you, nor can it take away from you.
What a gift to a child if her adults – not just her parents – her community of adults speak of peace with how they live their lives! Speak honestly, that is, not hiding trouble or fear, but showing their willingness to practice what they say they believe.
So my prayer for Eliza today is not that she never have trouble in her life, nor that she never be afraid. My prayer is that she have adult companions on the journey who show her that her peace is already inside her and that her peace is trustworthy. What a gift. She may have to hear the message many times before she believes it. But she will never forget those who cared enough to let her know.
My prayer is that you experience Jesus looking over the heads of the ancient disciples right into your eyes and that you hear him say to you, Peace be with you. My peace I give you.
This is what baptism is for. To see and hear for ourselves. Then to pass it on.
Amen