SUNDAY SERMON: Primed for peace
By Rev. Stephen Baldwin
OLD TESTAMENT: Psalm 133
NEW TESTAMENT: John 20.19-31
If you want to be entertained, watch a man try to start his lawn equipment for the first time in the spring. Am I right? You’ll hear sounds and words you’ve never heard before!
My first battle this spring was with the push mower, which just wouldn’t start. I had already cleaned the spark plug and changed the air filter and filled it with fresh gas. I cranked that engine over and over, because the harder you pull the crank the more likely it is to start, right? Well, it wasn’t working.
After a few more tries, and a few choice words, I figured out my mistake. It wasn’t the equipment; it was me. (Ouch, it hurts to admit that!) I forgot to prime it. The primer is a little half circle filled with air that you push to send a tiny bit of fuel straight to the engine. Once I primed it, it started right up.
Priming isn’t just for lawn mowers, though. We do it all the time ourselves. We prime our bodies for movement by stretching. We prime our stomachs for eating a meal with appetizers. We prime our minds for a test by studying. Are you with me? Priming is practice. It gets us started.
Psychologists tell us that human beings are primed for action by words. Yes, the words we hear and use get us ready to act. They study this regularly by using “priming experiments.” Here’s how it works.
They give two groups of people sentences which are scrambled. They give one group a scrambled sentence like, “always is rude she”, and they have to write the words in the correct order to make the sentence, “She is always rude.” They give the other group a scrambled sentence like, “polite a is lady”, and they have to put the words in the right order to make the sentence, “A lady is polite.” The first group is primed with dozens of sentences about being rude. The second group is primed with dozens of sentences about being polite.
Then…here’s the point of the experiment…they ask each individual from the groups to take their answer sheet (of unscrambled sentences) to a room down the hall. In that room, the person they are supposed to give their answer sheet to is engaged in a deep conversation and has been instructed by the psychologists not to stop talking until the participant interrupts. The study, then, is about seeing how long it takes people from the group primed with rudeness to interrupt the conversation as compared to how long it takes people from the group primed with politeness.
Do you think there was a difference? There was! The group primed to be rude interrupted after a few minutes, on average. Nearly everyone in the group primed to be polite…never interrupted!
Words hold power. Just like a little gas primes an engine to run and stretching primes a body to move, words prime a person to act. When people heard words like “nice, polite, patient, and kind,” guess how they act? Nice, polite, patient, and kind. Jesus knew this all too well, so he primed his people for peaceful action.
When he was resurrected, Jesus entered a community in crisis. The disciples and believers were frightened. They knew not to cross Pilate. Seven years earlier, a group of Jews protested his decision to take money from the temple to use for public works projects–roads, bridges, water. He had them all killed for protesting his decision. So they know they can’t do anything about what has happened to Jesus. They had to be livid inside, but they knew they couldn’t do anything about it.
They were a people primed for fear, scared silly inside their own minds. So when Jesus appears to them, what does he say? “Peace be with you.” He primes them with peace. And just a few moments later he does it again! The next week, he does it again. He speaks peace, out loud, again and again and again. “Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Peace be with you.”
Remember what John said he told the Marys when he’s resurrected? “Don’t be afraid; be rejoicing!”
And now, as he sees the other believers for the first time since the resurrection, he says, “Peace be with you.”
He was priming his people for peace when as far as they knew they were in a war they could never win. It was something none of them could have done on their own. None of us could either. Only our Savior could lead us to peace in that situation.
While “peace” is a word we use often, it’s important to say what we mean by it. For the Roman government of Jesus’ day, the same government who killed Jesus, peace meant order. It meant maintaining power and control by any means necessary. That’s why Pilate killed the Jews who protested his decision. They threatened his peace by questioning him. When Jesus spoke peace, he meant something very different.
It was not an orderly absence of conflict, like it was for the government. For Jesus, peace meant wholeness. The Hebrews have a word for it, “shalom.” It’s a peace that passes all understanding. A divine gift. A tranquil soul, no matter the wars and conflicts that rage around you. Translators say the word in English that best equates to “shalom” is “flourishing.” Flourishing in all dimensions of your life–in your relationship with God, your relationships with others, and joy everywhere in between.
“Peace be with you,” Jesus says to his followers following his resurrection. “Peace be with you,” Jesus says to us still today.
Some might think of peace as a choice we must make each day. But it’s more than that. It’s a gift, given by God, which we are responsible for accepting and making part of our lives. It’s a flourishing which God intends for us no matter what is going on around us.
Jesus primed us for peace. He gifted us with peace. All we have to do is live it.
This spring, when you’re pulling out the mower or trying to fire up the weedeater, and it just won’t start…don’t get frustrated like me. Take your time. Prime it. A little bit of gas will go a long way.
And the same is true with your spiritual life. You are primed for peace. Gifted by God with a tranquil soul. All you have to do is live it. Just like Jesus taught us. Amen.
