Easter 2A "Peace Be With You and Carry On"

I am sure that many of you have seen either on a t-shirt, poster, or in on-line advertising, a crown in the upper middle line  with three lines of words following - spoofs on the phrase “Keep calm and carry on.”

The slogan comes from propaganda posters designed by the British government in 1939. The poster was designed a few months before WWII with the crown to symbolize that of King George VI.  The slogan was to be used to boost the morale of British subjects in the aftermath of possible and widely predicted air raids on their major cities.  The plan was to issue the posters upon invasion; it didn’t happen and the posters were distributed in a very limited fashion, with no public display.  In 2000 they appeared on the Antiques Road  Show, and now the phrase or spoofs thereof are readily available.  “Keep calm and carry on.”

Curious isn’t it?  That a poster designed for a different time and era has widespread meaning today; it has captured the imagination of current culture.  Could it be that wars and rumours of war, the rise of terrorist talk, news cast fear mongering, violence going viral, that people are seeking a balance, something to hold on to, a light that speaks to the darkness?  And that a simple phrase; repeated in hundreds of ways – keep calm and ---followed by some kind of action; that this simple phrase strikes a nerve.

The phrase is really not all that different from what we hear in the gospel today – a phrase from almost 2000 years ago:

Pax vobiscum. Peace be with you --- and carry on.

This is important.  It is recorded as Jesus having said “peace be with you” thrice -- in very close proximity; amidst the chaos of challenging experiences (a person rising from the dead after all), with crowds of people in Jerusalem at angst with the authorities, where zealots and Messiahs are appearing on every street corner, where hopes are dashed and replaced with peculiar mysteries; where tensions are high and people are deciding what to do next.  The words from the teacher are: “peace be with you.”

The Gospel attributed to John, written at the end of the First Century, after the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans, a time that was full of wrestlesness, wars, persecution, poverty; John ends his telling of the Gospel with these words, highlighting there importance.  This story is the ending of the original Gospel of John, the next chapter was a later add on. 

The words “peace be with you” are for that time, for this time, for the times to come.

 Peace be with you and carry on.

But carry on how? Carry on to what...

The other piece of importance to John’s closing words are the words that are centred between the conveying of peace.  Note the verse, “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.”

Filled with the peace of Jesus, the Spirit starts a causation to action, the community was to be lodged in an ethos of forgiveness – brought about by Jesus’ peace.  The disciples and followers were to become corporate remitters of sin.

The very breath of Jesus, Jesus’ peace, changed people in inexplicable ways.  Later on the inexplicable is described as belief and faith --- who understands these words or feelings; but peace...  peace we can wrap our heads around, even if we haven’t totally experienced perfect peace.  We do know, and most of us can verbalize, what peace is not.

At the recent passing of Alistair MacLeod I took to reading quotes that he had written.  The following describes for me what Jesus’ “peace be with you” means.  They were words to help the disciples, to compel the followers to carry on ... to get on with living. Alistair wrote:

And then there came into my heart a very great love for my father and I thought it was very much braver to spend a life doing what you really do not want rather than selfishly following forever your own dreams and inclinations. (REPEAT)

Following the resurrection an array of stories are told of the encounters people have as they come to faith. All different, with people responding in a myriad of ways: dis-belief, doubt, knowing, immediate acceptance, those that required thinking time.  Faith happened in its own way, at its own time, a gift from God --- the peace was to be the ‘carry on’ while the Good News sunk in, while people began to understand, while people entered the mystery and Easter joy.  Jesus was wise. There was a realization that faith and belief, takes a lifetime and more; however, there is peace for the journey, peace to carry on so that one might share the story and peace with others, despite apparent faith, belief, or lack thereof.

John believed that when one had an encounter with THE Christ --- the one born for God so loved the world --- the one who in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God --- when encountering THIS Christ, a person would fundamentally change by being in the Presence; close enough for Jesus’ breath to breathe peace on the body and into the heart.  Through the encounter people were made whole, forgiven, loved; given grace upon grace. This means that the disciples, the followers gathered in the dwelling when Jesus appears behind closed doors cannot stay behind those doors.  They need to carry on – to get moving!

Alistair talked about a very great love coming into the heart for the father --- interpreted to the Easter story, a very great love for God  --- and it made the one who experienced the love, to be so overwhelmed that the lover changed how he lived.  The lover of the father turned to a life that turned him from selfish ways, dreams, and inclinations.  The change was to a life with an ethos of forgiveness, a life to which human beings would rather not want. It is a life that is counter cultural, seen as foolish to some, can lead to hurt and heartache for the lover; it is brave to be on the path to believe, to faith, to doubt; embraced in the breath of peace.

I had a crazy thought Thursday afternoon, perhaps brought on by an excessive amount of running ...

I thought of people in the parish and others whom I know who are in a place where they need to hear, “peace be with you and (in many more cases the push) carry on.”

I thought of myself at times when it was all I could do to hold on and what it would have meant if someone called me that day –someone known or unknown to say – “Peace be with you and carry on.”

Now the crazy thought I had ... what if each of us here today spent half an hour this afternoon , random calling phone numbers and simply saying, “Hello, Peace be with you and carry on.”

Would THE Christ be breathed into the lives of others?  Would a journey of faith, doubt, and belief blossom; wrapped in God’s peace?

A crazier thought, what if we random called ... or better yet, choose specific people in our lives with whom we need to share Christ’s peace (in an act of forgiveness); what if we called and simply said, “Hello, Peace be with, you are forgiven.”

If the 60 of us or so gathered here did this radical, counter cultural action, can you envision the city’s heart –that it would start to melt and be imbued with a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Crazy, perhaps. Doable for sure.  Are you willing to set yourself aside, to do what you do not want, out of love for the father?  

Peace be with you and carry on/Peace be with you and forgive./Keep calm and forgive. /Pax vobiscum.