{"id":1421,"date":"2012-03-29T16:08:55","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T23:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2012-05-03T11:58:07","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T18:58:07","slug":"pastors-pen-april-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=1421","title":{"rendered":"Pastor’s Pen April 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, \u201cPeace be with you.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/address>\n
They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.<\/em><\/address>\n
He said to them, \u201cWhy are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?\u00a0 <\/em><\/address>\n
Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.\u00a0 <\/em><\/address>\n
Touch me and see\u2026\u201d and he showed them his hands and his feet.<\/em><\/address>\n
– Luke 24:36b-40<\/address>\n

Beloved of God,<\/p>\n

How are you at entering a completely novel situation?\u00a0 Are you a \u201cgo with the flow\u201d<\/em> kind of person? Or do you avoid new situations like the plague? Do you enter a new context spontaneously or do you try to prepare yourself as much as you can? Me, I like to get information in advance so I\u2019ll feel more confident when I cross the threshold into a new place. We all have different ways of meeting up with something or someone new.\u00a0 But sometimes, information is not available.\u00a0 Sometimes, the context is so radically new that nothing can prepare us for what we face.<\/p>\n

In each of the gospels, the disciples\u2019 first reaction to the resurrection is one of fear. That\u2019s not surprising, really.\u00a0 Because in the face of things we don\u2019t understand or can\u2019t comprehend, in the face of questions that challenge our understanding of reality, fear and anxiety are almost always the first emotions to exert themselves.\u00a0 That\u2019s why nearly every time in the Scriptures that divine messengers and human beings meet the first words spoken are:\u00a0 BE NOT AFRAID.\u00a0 God knows how paralyzing fear can be.\u00a0 God knows how fear diminishes our capacity to trust.<\/p>\n

So it is no surprise that when Jesus speaks to his community as their risen Lord, he begins his greeting with the words, PEACE BE WITH YOU.\u00a0\u00a0 He begins with PEACE, and slowly, ever so slowly, fear unwinds and anxiety lessens, and then, new possibilities begin to emerge.\u00a0 In back to back stories at the end of Luke\u2019s gospel we can see how fear is finally overcome by faith and anxiety and despair are replaced by trust and confidence.\u00a0 But this transformation doesn\u2019t happen instantly!\u00a0 It\u2019s not a slam dunk!\u00a0 <\/strong>When it comes to hearing the resurrection story and allowing the implications of that news to begin to register, once is not enough.\u00a0 The first disciples needed it\u2014and we need it\u2014again and again.<\/p>\n

During the 50 days of Easter we learn what it means to be Easter people.<\/strong>\u00a0 We learn what it means to encounter the Risen Christ and to be sent by him into new territory as witnesses and servants of the Risen One.\u00a0 But one Sunday, one worship experience, one trip to the Table, one Bible study, one conversation isn\u2019t enough.\u00a0 We need to be reminded of God\u2019s grace and God\u2019s call again and again.\u00a0 We are Easter people, marked with the cross of Christ forever, and called to live our life in community in the context of a deep trust in our risen Savior.\u00a0 Easter people who are learning to look at the world and their own experience through the lens of Christ\u2019s resurrection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It took the disciples 50 days before they were ready to be witnesses, to bear good news in a form the world could recognize; to incarnate it; enflesh it; live it.\u00a0 But whether it takes us 50 days or 50 years to grasp the transforming power that God makes available to us, we\u2019ll keep on coming back here to this community, to this Word, to this Font and Table because this is where Christ promises he will meet us, and will calm our anxieties and banish our fears.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not that fear and anxiety don\u2019t try to creep back in.\u00a0 But when we feel fear slinking into our thoughts and anxiety trying to take hold of our minds, we need to recall the words of Jesus:\u00a0 PEACE BE WITH YOU<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 And as his peace takes hold of us, fear is once more set aside and faith rises up to take its place, declaring:\u00a0<\/p>\n

See!\u00a0 What love the Father has given us, that we should be called the children of God\u2014and that is what we are!<\/em><\/strong><\/address>\n

Ever with hope,<\/p>\n

Pastor Erik<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, \u201cPeace be with you.\u201d\u00a0 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, \u201cWhy are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?\u00a0 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-newsletter","category-pastors-pen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1454,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions\/1454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}