“Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with
you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands
and his side…” (John 20:19b-20a)
It took a few minutes for the transport staff that cares for disabled
individuals to get Mary[i] to
the gravesite in her wheelchair. She was saying a last good-bye to her sister,
Jean. Jean had been a career woman, never married, and had no children. She had
spent the last years of her life in a care facility due to protracted illness
and, as such, was no longer in contact with co-workers or neighborhood friends.
Mary was also childless. The family marker at the grave bore the names of Mary
and Jean’s parents and two siblings who had predeceased them. There remained
two blank spaces on the monument, reserved for Jean and Mary. Besides Mary and
myself, there were only two other people present at the funeral service—Mary’s
close girlfriend and a male caregiver who pushed Mary in her chair and assisted
with her portable oxygen tank.
At the grave Mary began
to cry. “They’re all gone,” she said. “I’m alone. I wish the Lord would come
and get me.”
Her friend and the
transport staff—who apparently knew her well—circled around her, giving hugs of
comfort. Some had tears in their own eyes, crying for and with Mary. I recalled
something a funeral director had said once, and I shared it: There are a lot of
different ways to be a family. The compassionate staff that had gathered around
the grieving woman assured her they were her brothers and sisters in Christ,
and that they loved and cared for her as if she were their own flesh and blood.
God never stops being
good just because we, temporarily, stop seeing God’s goodness. It is the work
of the Holy Spirit to gather and unite us.
It is, however, very easy
to get “locked-up” in sadness and anxiety. In the Gospel lesson for Pentecost
(John 2019-23), Jesus enters the closed-off place where his loved ones are
huddled and blesses them with the gift of peace. “Peace be with you,” he says
to them—twice. And Christ’s peace is essential, because there can be no
empowerment without knowing peace.
Jesus then goes on to
show the disciples his wounds. When they see the scars of the nails and the
spear they know the one who blesses them with peace is truly their crucified
friend. Nevertheless, I think the scars he reveals do more than just provide
identification. These wounds proclaim his genuineness. They say he was willing
to suffer, that he has endured all that they endure and fear enduring. His
peace comes from this endurance, and he is speaking the truth. There is
something which bonds and unites us whenever we’re willing to show our scars
and share our woundedness.
And Jesus’ wounds tell
those whom he loves he has been victorious over death, and they will be also.
Pentecost is the birthday
of the Christian faith, the day our scared and wounded founders felt the peace
of the Holy Spirit descend on them, letting them bang open the locked door of
their grief and fear and joyfully proclaim the goodness of the Lord. I don’t
see this festival day to be a Hallelujah-shouting, speaking-in-tongues event
here at Faith Lutheran of Philadelphia. But I hope it will be a day when the
peace that comes from Jesus is felt in our hearts. I hope we will find renewed
appreciation for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the gifts which bind and unite
us, and have done so over the years. I see this celebration rather like a
birthday party for a 100-year-old lady. No, she won’t be getting out of her
wheelchair and dancing a rumba across the floor of the care facility common
room. Rather, this will be a contemplative celebration recalling the wonderful
things she has seen, the many people she has loved, the faith that has
sustained her to this advanced age, and the constant goodness of God.
And God’s goodness is
never ending. I believe God is busy doing a new, and unexpected thing. We may
not see how the Spirit is at work, but she’s certainly working. I learned
recently that a study of generosity and volunteerism has revealed millennials are
twice as generous and volunteer with twice the frequency of the two generations
which have preceded them. There is a new spirit of love and responsibility
emerging, and time will tell how it will impact the Church.
In the meantime, let’s
rejoice for what the Spirit has done and is still doing. As Luther taught:
“I believe that by my own
understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to
him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened
me with her gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as she
calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian Church on earth
and keeps it with Jesus Christ in one common, true faith. Daily in the
Christian church the Holy Spirit abundantly forgives sin—mine and those of all
believers. On the last day the Holy Spirit will raise me and all the dead and
will to me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly
true.[ii]”
May God’s Spirit grant
you the peace which passes all our understanding.
[i]
“Mary” isn’t her real name. I’m changing names out of courtesy as this event
was fairly recent.
[ii]
Luther’s explanation to the third Article of the Apostles Creed, from The Small Catechism (Here We Stand Student Book, Augsburg
Press 2010) I have subsitituted the feminine pronoun out of respect for the gramatical gender of the original language and in a spirit of inclusivity.
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