Day 121 - Peace Be With You (Why You Don't Want To Hold Onto Sin)

A sermon given April 7, 2013 at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy-Daisy, TN. Sermon texts (NRSV) are Judges 6:1,7-24; John 20:19-29

We have all heard the greeting, “Peace be with you.” You have probably heard it in worship as we share the peace and greet each other. You might have heard it as a call/response at the opening of worship: “Peace be with you” – “and also with you.” We think of it as a greeting. In fact the translation in the Pew Bible (Contemporary English Version) goes that way, “Jesus greeted them…” a wish for someone to do well, “peace to you, my friend.”

HOWEVER, the Greek text clearly says “Peace be to you.”  It is an obviously rooted in an ancient Hebrew expression of the relationship between the Israelites and God.

The passage in Judges shows us what I mean. A little background is in order. Judges describes the ancient history of Israel before there were kings, when the Israelites lived among the previous inhabitants of the land, sometimes subjugating them, sometimes being subjugated - usually after they fell to the lure of their religious traditions. 

Just before Gideon’s time Israel had enjoyed forty years of peace celebrating the victory of The Lord over the Canaanites. Earlier The Lord allowed the Canaanites to subjugate Israel because Israel had done the worst insulting sin, to worship the gods of the Canaanites; or done what was evil in the sight of God. Then in response to their cries, the judge Deborah played the role in liberating Israel. This victory celebration continued for forty years until the memory of the reason for celebration was forgotten. As the saying goes, those who forget the past are condemned to relive it. Now in Gideon’s time the Israelites had done evil in the eyes of God again, embracing the gods of Midian. As a result the Lord allowed the Midianites to ravage their land for seven years.

Then the Angel of the Lord called Gideon to be his tool to free the Israelites. “The Angel of the Lord” is an expression for YHWH, the name of the Lord so terrifying that the Israelites will not utter it.  Gideon is responding to a God so powerful and terrifying that to look on The Lord’s face means certain death. When Gideon realized who was before him he was struck with terror, “Help me, Lord GOD! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 

The Angel of the Lord had confronted Gideon, the youngest man of his family from the smallest and weakest tribe of Israel to call him to defeat Midian. Gideon objects out of doubt and fear.  But the Lord said to Gideon, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.”  The Scripture says Gideon built an altar there and called the place “Shalom Adonai” or “The LORD is peace.” Shalom is a special kind of peace. It is a general, or universal condition of serenity that comes from knowing your welfare is completely assured by The Lord. More than the absence of war and discord, shalom is the complete serenity of The Lord’s grace.

So when Gideon hears, “The Lord is with you,” it is not a normal greeting of best wishes, but is a declaration or imperative of certainty by the voice of The Lord, “Peace be with you. Take heart Gideon and rest easy, The Lord is with you now and will protect you.”

Jesus’ appearance John 20:19-29

On the evening of the third day after Christ’s crucifixion when most of Jesus’ followers except Thomas, are huddled and trembling in fear behind locked doors in the house that they met with Jesus on the night of his arrest. Suddenly Jesus appears. What are his first words? “Peace be with you,” the assurance of salvation.

In a short while Jesus says it again more emphatically, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathes the breath of the Holy Spirit upon them.   Are you thinking about Gideon here, the frightened little man in The Lord’s presence who receives a true blessing of shalom? It seems to me Jesus is preparing the disciples for what comes next, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the commission.  Jesus says now that you have the peace of The Lord and the Holy Spirit,  “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

What does that mean, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained?”  Is Jesus telling them they have his power to forgive or condemn? Neither the Greek nor English are clear about what this passage actually means. How do you hold or retain sin?  A lot of well-meaning Christians clearly believe that Jesus is giving special power of forgiving or condemning to their ministers. They can hold a person’s sins against them. This is the view of the Roman Catholic Church, for example.

In a way, many of us Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists think that way. It is so easy to see the sins of others and be blind about sin in ourselves. Maybe someone wrongs us and we think, “I don’t believe that person is sorry, they cry crocodile tears. I doubt the least bit repentance is there.” Is that the kind of power Jesus gives to these disciples, and by extension to us?

Let’s read on.

Jesus’ presence makes it undeniable that he has arisen. It is visual evidence. The disciples believe, leave and spend the next few days telling people what they have seen. John recounts the famous story of poor doubting Thomas who refuses to believe what he has been told because he hasn’t seen it. He refuses to believe what Jesus first told all of them before his death, and what his friends who had seen Jesus after his death tell him. Thomas can only say, “I do not believe this outrageous story.”

A week later everybody including Thomas is back in the house again and Jesus reappears. What does he say to Thomas and the others for the third time? “Peace be with you.”  And then Thomas, after he sees and touches the wounds on Jesus’ arms and side, exclaims, “My Lord and My God!”

Jesus could have said, “Thomas you are not worthy of my grace. I told you I would die that you might live, and that I would return to you, but you didn’t believe me. I don’t think you are serious. I don’t think you mean what you say. I hold your unbelief against you regardless of what you say. You only say, ‘My Lord and my God,’ because you can’t deny I am standing in front of you. That is the only reason you say you believe.”

That might really be the human thing to do. But Jesus does not go that route, his only remark on Thomas’ need to see the truth for himself is, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Imagine how blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe!”

Did Jesus see sin in Thomas’ demand for visible proof rather than in Jesus’ own words and then hold on to it as a grudge?  Did Jesus resent Thomas and slowly let that resentment eat away at him in anger? No. Before Thomas had said the first word Jesus knew what he would say, and Jesus spoke first, “Peace be with you.”

Jesus is telling Thomas, “Take heart Thomas and rest assured the Lord is with you and will protect you. You are forgiven, and now go out into the world and do likewise, you have the power and choice that I have, to forgive the sins of any so that they are erased as if they never existed; or to hold onto the sins of any, to begrudge those sins against them, to doubt their sincerity so that their sins keep eating away at your soul because they have become your own sins.”

Thomas, like Gideon knew how weak he and his tribe of Hebrews were. When The Lord commissioned Gideon to take his band of soldiers and deliver Israel from the Midianites what did Gideon say? In so many words, “I doubt that Lord.  Not only is my tribe the weakest, I am the youngest in my family, I doubt I can do what you ask.”

Did the Lord strike him down in anger? No, The Lord said, “Peace be with you, rest easy because I will take care of you. Just do what I tell you to do.”

It is amazing that in these eleven verses, John has captured the full heart of humanity and Christian duty: Faith, belief, doubt and forgiveness and Gideon’s understanding of the peace that only comes from God.

Story: To have the power to forgive or hold onto sin is a dangerous burden.

There was once a pastor who was not able to really get a good handle on the consequences of holding onto another’s sin until it did him and his congregation quite a bit of harm. I think it is a good example for everyone.

This minister wanted to do something his way at the church.  He felt that he knew what needed to be done and everyone should follow him. When he ran into push-back from his session as he tried to implement the changes, he took it personally. He could have analyzed the situation and discovered the reason for the pushback. Maybe the session doubted the minister’s way would work? Maybe the minister harbored a lack of confidence in his own ability to convince that caused him to doubt the session trusted him, rather than honestly evaluating himself?

In his anger he began making negative comments in public to friends about his session and the troublemakers on it. As he talked he began to see more and more instances where his desires and his session diverged. He began to convince himself that they didn’t like his prayers. They didn't like his music selection. They didn’t like his way of doing pastoral care. Soon these negative comments made their way back around to the session as they always do. Some members of the session heard enough gossip from mutual friends that they began to believe it themselves. Some of them would no longer talk to the minister. Their reluctance just fueled the pastor’s anger and resentment. Soon the minister was coming and going through the side door to his office so he could avoid people. The acid bile of resentment just sat in everyone’s stomach and burned their souls from the inside outwards.

Before too long, the whole congregation, even those who knew nothing of the particulars, and the minister were caught up in the turmoil. Everybody began making blunt recriminations before worship. The minister nurtured his hurt, held on to that sin of resentment, anger and cutting comments by some members. It got to the point that when level-headed people finally began to seek avenues with the minister to find reconciliation the minister could not respond positively. He ended up leaving that congregation. Both the congregation and the poor minister were gravely wounded by the experience of holding onto the other’s sin.  It was so corrosive I’m not sure how the minister can recover and I worry about the congregation’s ability to do so also.

There may have been many specific instances of hurt from a perceived wrong that caused the confrontation.  What is so tragic is no one stopped to doubt. The minister never stopped to consider whether the push-back meant he had doubt in his own mind he could achieve what he wanted to do.  No one on the session stopped to doubt that perhaps their push-back might be fear for the stability and future of the congregation.  Did the minister or session consider their doubt could be like the doubt of Thomas that could be resolved by taking the time to explain and convince them what he wanted to do and what they feared? Do you see that if any of them had the courage and faith to doubt the words of the other were mean-spirited but maybe caused by fear, concern and misunderstanding, all this pain might have been avoided? Doubt has its place in faith and forgiveness.

The minister especially has that obligation and freedom bestowed by the Holy Spirit to forgive the sin or hold onto sin. Once sin is forgiven it is gone. But to hold onto it keeps it alive, eating away at both parties.

Conclusion:

It is not clear in John when he talks of disciples, whether he means only the 11 Apostles or all his followers who abandoned him upon his crucifixion.  In our Reformed tradition we believe that when Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” he calls all believers to a common vocation to proclaim the good News in word and deed and forgive sin by spreading the peace of his forgiveness - “Peace be with you,” that heals sin.

Like it or not, Jesus for his own purposes gave us flawed people always prone to error the vocation to walk in the world as he did. Jesus returned to the World and gave the peace of forgiveness to his disciples and many believed again. He recognized the very commendable honor to the fortunate who believe without seeing; but did not condemn or hold onto the doubt of the faithful believer as sin. He forgave even the ones who doubted the truth but went on to proclaim it.

Throughout Lent I kept saying Faith is a certainty of belief and the action it causes, why am I now saying faith allows, if not requires doubt?  The doubt I am talking about is not excluding or questioning belief of the other person because they sin. That kind of doubt is insidious. It will weigh down sinner and minister. Like Gideon, make doubt your own strength; it causes you to depend on The Lord for his peace. 

We are all ministers charged to seek out sin and give forgiveness. Jesus called us to do that when he returned to his disciples on that Sunday evening long ago. Hold onto what is good and do not return evil for evil. Do not hold onto someone’s sin, but seek to find the peace of Christ in your forgiving it. Remember, we are all Christ’s ministers.  AMEN.