John 20:1-22 (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)

First of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be with you on this Easter morning. I've been preaching in Presbyterian churches for about six decades. Don't ask me how old I am, but it's six decades, mostly in Kentucky and Indiana. But it's been a while since I was here. 

I have preached in this church and enjoyed the coffee fellowship in the parlor. I've driven through here many times to preach at Scottsburg and often to drive to Louisville when we lived in Lawrence County. 

I'm going to promise you that this will not be a usual Easter sermon, not one that I have used anywhere else, because what I tell you cannot be used anywhere else. I believe in the statement of the great theologian of the twentieth century, Karl Barth, who said that the preacher should preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Now, given that newspapers are in dire shape, I worked for the Herald Times in Bloomington for a while, writing a religion column. Maybe you should have it say, “The Bible in one hand and the cell phone in the other,” hoping that doesn't go off during the service. 

You've heard already the traditional Easter story from John, but I'm not focusing on it. Instead, at the end of that account, Jesus appears and says, "Peace be with you." Or in the King James, "Peace be unto you." He repeats that several times in the post-resurrection appearance. And if there's anything we need right now in our world, it is peace. 

The word peace in Hebrew is shalom. And since Hebrew has no vowels but consonants. The consonants are sh, l, and m. The word Salem comes from the word for peace. 

I said, “How many states in the United States have a city named Salem?” Anybody want to guess? What did you say? [from the congregation: "I said fifty."] No, but in Texas, they have about fifteen. There are smaller settlements, so maybe, maybe that gets up to fifty. 

But it's very common. And some of them are better known. For example, Salem in Oregon is the capital. And unfortunately, in Massachusetts, Salem is known as the site of the terrible witch trials. But Salem is a beautiful name. And your city is named for the word that means peace. So that is my Easter message, peace. 

And also, Salem is part of the word for Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, the capital of the Holy Land in such conflict right now. So, when we say peace to Jeru-Salem, we're saying peace to Salem, Indiana, and throughout the world. 

Now I have three stories to tell you this morning unique to my life. But I hope interesting for yours. Right now I see three different aspects of peace the Easter peace we're talking about. One I call inner peace. And then we're going to talk about neighbor peace and global peace. 

Inner peace is peace in the soul, the heart, in the emotions. Peace with God because He lives in our hearts. And we'll sing that a little later: "You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart." Because Christ has redeemed us from death. By his death and resurrection, we can have inner peace. 

There is a hymn, and I know Trina and others are very fond of hymns as I am, is a peace hymn that we couldn't sing today, but we could. "Peace, perfect peace in this dark world of sin. The blood of Jesus whispers peace within." 

My story on inner peace is from the Kentucky Mountains, where I served for more than thirty years. We have heard in recent months of accounts of police officers attacking and killing others. And in the tiny community of Buckhorn, where I served a deputy sheriff from neighboring Breathitt County, shot and killed a young basketball coach whose name was Mickey Joe Fields. 

Now, we all know how much basketball means to us Hoosiers, and it means an equal amount or even more to Kentucky. Although right now we're not focused on every minute on the Final Four. But it's meeting right down there in Indianapolis, you know that. Maybe we could root for Michigan since they're in the Big Ten. 

But anyhow, I had to preach this coach's funeral at the big log cathedral. Uh, and it is a big church, seating about five hundred people, because it was once a Presbyterian school chapel, when public schools were not in that part of Kentucky. So, there were a lot of people there. So, in the funeral—which was extremely difficult to do, and I've had many ones that are difficult. This was the most difficult—I said, "Let us put away our guns. And practice love, peace instead of violence." 

I don't know if I'd have the courage to say that today, but I said it then, and afterwards, a young man came up to me. I knew his family well, and he was rather hot-headed. And he said, "Preacher, I'm glad you said what you did. I was planning after this service to go over into Breathitt County and find the sheriff and kill him, because I knew Mickey would find no justice in Breathitt County." 

I knew I had saved one life and maybe two. If he had shot the sheriff, they would have put him in prison and tried to execute him as well. Clyde had found inner peace, and I was glad that he did. I'm glad he turned to the peace of God to fill his heart, instead of the anger of getting back at someone else who had done him harm. Peace be with you this day in your inner peace and soul. The risen Christ wants you to find and have that inner peace. Whatever struggles or terrible things have happened to you and your loved ones. 

Second is peace with your neighbor. Like in the story of the Good Samaritan, which I'm sure you all know. Two and a half years ago, in October of 2023, my wife and I were on our way across the Atlantic to go to the Holy Land, Jerusalem. And also the nation of Egypt. There were mostly Episcopalians and some Presbyterians, in fact, a very fine couple from Louisville. And while we were flying across the Atlantic, the terrible act of Terrorism that started the war with Israel and its neighbors began. It was my birthday. And we were excited because Elma's grandparents were missionaries, United Presbyterian missionaries in Egypt, and she thought she might be able to see some of the work they had done. But the war broke out. That war still rages on. 

And we never got to the Holy Land. We waited in the Paris de Gaulle airport to see what our travel company would say to us and do to us. And it was not just living one day at a time. It was living one hour at a time. We thought we might get to go to Egypt and visit Sinai, where Abraham received the Ten Commandments, by the way. It was a long one, but we watched a good part of the Ten Commandments last night on television. It's shown every Holy Week and Passover season. It was determined that Sinai was too close to Gaza. 

Congregations like the congregation of Spencer that knew we were going on that trip were terribly worried. They said, what about the Jessens? They're on their way to Israel. And there was war there. We were able to get the word back. Thankful for these modern devices, but we were safe in Egypt and enjoyed seeing the territory where Elma's grandfather had served as an agricultural missionary. 

We actually rode down the Nile River, and I recommend that to you. Egypt is a land that needs help, and there is a Christian minority that is still strong in that country. But on our trip, one of the first things we saw was a massive tribute to Anwar Sadat. It was he, as president of Egypt that President Jimmy Carter, who just died, brought to Camp David to meet with and begin to work out a peace. The first peace of Israel with any of its Arab neighbors. 

In a lengthy struggle. Carter, a Bible believing Baptist Christian, brought peace to that corner of the world now embroiled again in war and Sadat was assassinated, and we saw the tribute to him, a massive monument to Anwar Sadat, for finding peace with Israel and the Jewish people. Blessed are the peacemakers, Jesus said. But sometimes they die in their peacemaking efforts, as Jesus did also. 

But loving your neighbor, even your enemy, is finding a peace that we all need. And Jesus even found that peace for the thief on the cross. He was a criminal. He deserved to die, perhaps. But Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." Remember me when you come into your kingdom. 

When Jesus appeared to the disciples on that first Easter day, he said, "love for your neighbors." Peter who denied Thomas, who doubted, even Judas, who betrayed, "Peace to you." That's inner peace and neighbor peace. In this world right now, in this country, we are as polarized, divided, and seem unable to find peace, even with some of those closest to us. We need Easter peace. 

The third kind of Easter peace I call global peace, or perhaps the peace of the world. It seems so far away on this Easter Day, even in Salem, a city of peace. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, in a world divided like ours, Sadducees and Pharisees and zealots and Hebrews and Romans and Herod and Pilate. And he died to bring us peace. The hymn says it well: "He died that we might be forgiven. He died to make us good. He died that we at last might go to heaven. Saved by his precious blood." 

I'm a Rotarian, and if you're a member of the Lions Club or the Kiwanis Club, I've also been a member of those clubs as well. But Tuesday, I had to give a reflection to a large gathering in the Indiana Memorial Union on the university campus during Holy Week and Jewish Passover. I said, in these awful days, Rotarians, do what you're doing already: Feeding the hungry, clothing, the naked, housing, the unhoused, visiting the sick and welcoming the stranger. 

And I thought, a perfect story for the kind of peace that we need. And it's right next door to us in Salem, the City of Peace. In neighboring Orange County, where Paoli is the county seat, like you are in Washington. Fifty years ago, a group of Mennonite doctors and nurses went to the state health department and said, what is the most underserved county in all of Indiana? The answer was Orange County. 

Now, that was long before the casino and West Baden and French Lick was in the news. So they came to Orange County, underserved. Wally Shellenberger was the first psychiatrist in that county. And after he retired, he and his wife went to Iran for three years. Their family said, "Why do you want to go to Iran? They're our enemy." That's before the present war, of course, but they said, "We want to learn more about Persia and the ancient culture of Iran." I haven't had a chance to talk to them lately, but I certainly intend to. 

Mennonites are conscientious objectors to war. And so they find alternate service, often in mental health institutions and wherever they are needed. Recently, a young doctor that we know, Doctor Yoder, when we were in Lawrence County and also in in Monroe County, we learned about these people. She went to bat and said, "Don't take away our obstetrical services in the small Paoli Hospital." 

And IU Health, which is a big, giant organization, said, "Okay, we'll keep it there so that women in Orange County and the surrounding area can go there and have their babies." That's what Mennonites do, peacefully following Jesus. They do his work, and I'm sure many of you will know about that, just knowing your proximity to that area. That is their contribution to global peace, by starting where they are. 

And that's what I'm challenging you to do. On this day, with the world rejoicing that a flyer, a pilot, shot down in the war is safe, we need to pray for inner peace, neighbor peace, and global peace by beginning where we are. 

Come up here, if you don't mind. We've been married long enough years that she's learned to be able to do this with me. So this is my challenge to you. Make Salem the city of Peace again. So we can sing, [singing with his wife, Elma] "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, sing for the night is o'er. Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna forevermore! Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna forevermore!” And all the people said, Amen.

An audio recording, taken from our "phone church" connection, can be found at this link.