"Grace and Peace"

Revelation 1:4-8 It happens to us, and it even happened to the disciples. It happened long ago, and it may be happening right here, right now. The tomb was found empty, the women met the risen Christ in the garden, they recognized Jesus as he broke the bread, they met him on that mountain in Galilee, a victory over death beyond even their wildest hopes, but it appears that it was hard, very hard for them to sustain the excitement and joy of the resurrection. One of the most remarkable stories is found at the end of John’s Gospel, when after all of these incredible things have happened in and around Jerusalem, the disciples have gone back home to go fishing. It is almost as if nothing really happened on that Easter morning, because everything has gone back to what it was before Jesus appeared. It happened to those disciples long ago, and it even happens to you and me. What seemed so sure and certain one week ago on Easter Sunday, has already begun to slip away, and we have drifted back to the way things were before Easter: to old habits, old behaviors, old expectations, and old dead-ends. It’s easy to see why. Though we have been amazed and astounded by the empty tomb and the stories of the risen Christ, the world has not really changed very much. The world has not taken the promise and hope of Easter to heart. This bothers me a lot. I love the Easter story, reading it from the Bible, sharing it with you during worship, and I love seeing how fired up we get about it on Easter morning. But it feels like all of my effort as preacher to proclaim the hope and power of the Gospel, all of your efforts to carry the Good news into the world, have been met with disinterest. Not animosity, usually, but disinterest. War in Afghanistan, bombings in Iraq, mean-spirited squabbling in Washington, gunshots in a city neighborhood, crime in Batavia. It’s like not a thing has really changed. I better be careful here, because my purpose is not to give up on Easter, and to convince you that the resurrection is powerless. No, my purpose is to give you something from Easter to hang onto, this Sunday and every Sunday that follows. Just a tiny part of the story, but something to hang onto when you’re slipping, something to help you keep your head up when the world weighs down on you, something to keep the music of praise echoing in your head, something to warm your heart, something to reach for when you find yourself in one of those dead-ends, something to smile about when you run into that wall of disinterest. What I have found to share with you is in the back of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, a simple little phrase, with a big impact. Those of us who have read this book before, even in part, have been struck by its strangeness. It’s not anything like the stories of the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It is a strange book, yet it begins with words of simple testimony from a man named John of Patmos. John was a Christian, one of the first Christians, who lived in a time when it was very dangerous to be a Christian, when the Easter story was in danger of being pushed aside or becoming forgotten by a disinterested world. John was in jail, a terrible place to be, far from friends, and family, and church. Yet it was there, at the worst time of his life, that he came to recognize the true power of Jesus Christ as the savior of us all, as he prayed, imagined and dreamed. In his dreams he found his freedom, in his visions he found God like never before. Though caged behind strong bars, perhaps with chains around his ankles, John became liberated by Jesus Christ. So here’s this simple phrase, “Grace and Peace”. And though the words were written long, long ago, they are the kind of words that make Easter real and powerful in you as you face an always disinterested, sometimes hostile world. "Grace and peace be yours from God, who is, who was, and who is to come." “Grace and Peace” – it is this phrase I want to give to you to hang onto this morning. Grace and Peace. Right at the beginning of the letter we're told what it’s all about. Most books save the punch-line and the climax for the end of the story. John gives it away in the very first sentence. If you are looking for a new way of life, if you are looking for a tangible Gospel, if you are looking for an Easter that grows in its impact, you're in the right place. Keep reading! Grace and peace, offered to you in Jesus Christ. "Grace and Peace be yours." Its John's way of declaring that everything that you've ever hoped for, everything that you've wanted to be, everything that you've wanted to give ... is possible in Jesus Christ. The Gospel gets such a hold of us because it tells what we already know, that in our experience things like Grace and Peace are worth finding and keeping and living by and sharing. The Gospel declares that grace and peace are from God to you, something to hang on to, something to reach for, something to live for, beginning with the resurrection of Easter, and continuing through each one of us. Here is a simple exercise, in which you take John’s words and make them personal to you. It’s simple, just add your name. "Grace and Peace to you, Jim." "Grace and Peace to you, ______”. Let’s try it! Peace is a word we generally understand. We hear it a lot, from preachers, politicians, from friends and enemies, in prayers, songs, and our own private thoughts. Peace – not just a cessation of war and fighting and violence, but the creation of all the things that make war and violence unnecessary, food, shelter, sharing, generosity, justice, love and caring. If we want to sustain the power of Easter, we need to incorporate this word into our daily lives. And our church needs to be visible in this community as a center of peaceful activity. Grace is a word that is less familiar to us. Grace means that God offers forgiveness and healing, love and care, freely to everyone. The gifts of God are not reserved for a select few perfect people, but offered in abundance to everyone, whether we have sought it, earned it, or deserved it. This is one of the most radical beliefs of Christians, the idea that God’s love is offered so freely, even to those who feel like they haven’t earned it, even to those who feel like they don’t deserve it. The idea of grace is nearly a complete opposite of the way the world seems to work. grace is the unique gift of God, and by saying the word, sharing the word, living the word, we perpetuate the radical message of Easter. Grace is not what we work hard to get, it is what we receive from God. We need to incorporate this idea of grace into everything we do to sustain the hope and promise of Easter. And our church needs to be a demonstration of God’s grace in action. John understood that God’s grace and peace were not a one-time experience long ago, but the present reality of Christian people, and a powerful hope for the future. "Grace and Peace be yours from God, who was, who is, and who is to come." “I am the alpha and the omega, says the Lord God Almighty, the beginning and the end, who was, who is, and who is to come." The world around us may have lost interest in Easter, but not us. “Grace and Peace” our motivation, our purpose, our hope, the way we live!