BY Dennis Morreau | May 20, 2020
The worst day the Church will ever have was Good Friday. Judas turned in our Lord, Peter denied Him three times and the other ten disappeared. These were the twelve with whom Jesus had just spent three years. No one knew Him better and yet all twelve apostles had failed Him. I want you to focus on Christ’s attitude towards the twelve after the resurrection and ask yourself this question: Was Christ mad at His apostles? If you read the last couple of chapters of John you will find that the answer is no. When Jesus appears to them inside their locked upper room he shows them the same unconditional love that He demonstrated before, then gives them work to do. He begins all of this with the words “Peace be with you”. These words are so important He says them three times. Thus what began in that upper room where a small group of people huddled in fear went on to build the Christian Church even though joining that church meant being hunted, persecuted and killed for nearly three hundred years.
So just what is this “peace” Jesus bestowed on those gathered in that upper room? If they were not just casual words of greeting among friends then it becomes an interesting question much like “What is gravity?” And much like gravity, the “peace” Jesus bestowed maybe cannot be defined, but it’s effects can absolutely be described in detail. Those that hid in that locked upper room suddenly became fearless. That fearlessness did not come from a belief that nothing bad was ever going to happen to them, but rather from the certainty that so long as they remained faithful to the teachings of Christ and pursued the “Great Commission” work Jesus had laid before them that worry, fear, and anxiety would lose all meaning for them.
They proceeded to live out their lives, functioning in a world where they would be hunted, persecuted, and put to death, yet succeeding in converting their persecuters to the Christian faith, all in absolute peace. No armies, no uprisings, no overthrowing of the existing government, just living and teaching the Gospel, the good news. That “peace”, “The Peace of The Lord” in most liturgies, isn’t that what we all want?
I am beginning to see that the modern church wants to enjoy the benefits of that peace, but on it’s own terms. We don’t want to leave the upper room. The problem with that is at least two fold. The imagined safety of remaining in that locked upper room is an illusion and erodes your faith. You cannot say “I believe in the life, teachings, and power of Christ” and then say “Those people over there are not my problem”. We have been led to believe that we can be Christian and yet view other people as our enemy. Spoiler alert , Jesus had enemies but never viewed anyone as his enemy. There are those that know Christ, and those that need to know Christ. We are called to do the introductions. When we do that we get to enjoy that Peace! We cannot do that and remain in that locked upper room
The bigger issue with remaining in that locked upper room is that that won’t be where Jesus is most of the time. He may come visit from time to time to see if you want to come out but the work He has for us lies entirely outside that locked upper room. That’s where the work is. Going to those groups that don’t know Christ and living the Gospel in such a way that they want what they will see in you, the ‘Peace of the Lord.” Is it difficult, absolutely! Is it always going to be safe, no! I have a three inch scar on my forearm to show for my efforts. But what I also have to show for it are six homeless individuals I got off of the street. Will there be occasions when you see your efforts appear to fail, certainly. One of my longest efforts ended recently with an individual dying from an overdose. While that was truly a sad day I realize that working with that one individual as I did allowed me to reach the other six who are no longer on the street. Mother Teresa once said something to the effect that we are called to faithfulness and should leave the issue of success or failure to God.
While we may not realize we are hiding in that upper room we absolutely are. We are lured into the habit of participating in those parts of our faith life that lie in our comfort zone. We will serve in the church choir but when given the opportunity to mentor in prison we give the answer “I haven’t been called to that ministry” (actual words from a member of the vestry on which I once served) which I find interesting given the contents of Matthew 25. We believe in “Evangelism” so long as we can limit that to how to increase the membership of my church as opposed to going out and meeting the unchurched and introducing them to Christ, after all, that’s what we pay the pastor for (again the actual words of a vestry member). Perhaps the biggest action we take that keeps us locked in that upper room is our collective silence in the face of great evil.
To be clear this is by no means a new problem but I will certainly suggest that it has escalated in recent years. Certainly we can all agree that the Christian community in Germany allowed Adolph Hitler to commit untold atrocities while they remained collectively silent. Yet in that same time period we imprisoned an entire ethnic group, those of Japanese descent, though they had shown no disloyalty, and in most cases were not immigrants. Before you give in to the argument that we were at war I will remind you that American citizens of German descent were left alone to continue their lives. The Christian community in America again, collectively remained silent.
Should I make a list of all the different groups that we are now encouraged to regard as our enemies. I think you can make that list yourself and yet the church remains silent. Though I am on that list, both for being disabled and elderly, that isn’t the silence that causes me the most pain at the moment . It is the church’s indifference and complete silence to gun violence. We sit back and watch our children being gunned down in schoolyards, churches, libraries, and yoga studios, and not only remain silent but insist that the answer can only be to have more guns in the possession of more people. We seem to prefer this solution to the one Christ indicated which in fact worked all through the persecutions that being to live, teach, and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Please know it is my intention to break down the issues mentioned above and not just to proclaim the problem. I believe there are instead real solutions that do not require us to abandon our faith and I want us to have that discussion. For the moment I leave you to contemplate these three thoughts. It’s time for us as Christians to regain our voice and end our silence in the face of evil. Secondly isn’t it time for us as followers of Christ to actually follow Christ and leave the upper room and never return? Finally, isn’t it about time for all of us to have that peace Jesus bestowed on the apostles in that upper room? I think you know what you need to do.
That Still Small Voice 