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It was no clean thing, this,
no easy walk into that dark night
filled with memorable soundbites
and photo op moments,
soldiers in their dress uniforms
and dignitaries in their solemn regalia.

No clean thing, this,
filled with the sweat of pain
and the taste of blood,
the dust of the road,
the tears of grief,
the reality of betrayal,
the weight of sin.

No calm thing, this,
filled instead with noise:
the noise of mockery, bitter and undeserved,
punctuated with spittle and blows.
the noise of pain:
the slap of the flagellum against bare skin,
the sound of hammers driving spikes into wood
through human flesh,
cries ripped unbidden from the depths of the gut,
as flesh protested the hot sudden agony
that would not go away.
The noise of expediency: "Crucify him yourselves."

No easy walk this,
rushed through the crowded streets
beneath a crushing weight,
stripped of everything that matters most to man,
standing naked in the light of day
bruised and bloody and battered,
with nothing left to give
except the acceptance of pain,
except the final acts of love,
surrender
death.

Help me see, O Jesus,
beyond the pretty pictures
and soundbites
and images
of how God descended to death
in the dirty, miserable realness of it,
of man's willingness to be inhuman,
and you did this knowing how dark we can be,
and how unloving we can be,
and how we cling to the dark in spite of your light,
and you still chose to go.

Alleluia!

thank you all today is this........
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"How does it feel when you have a major fight with your spouse or someone you love? Or when things are so tense with a co-worker or your boss that you dread each encounter?

How does it you feel when you have done something very wrong, and are consumed by guilt?

If you are anything like me – your stomach is in a knot and you feel crummy.

It is with those questions in your minds that I say to you this morning:
Peace be with you.

Jesus says this three times in the passage we read this morning from John’s Gospel:
Peace be with you. Shalom.

No doubt the disciples are feeling traumatized. Their friend and teacher had just been horribly tortured and killed. And the Gospels don’t record any saying of "good-byes."Today we would say that the disciples had had "no closure."

And to add to their trauma, I imagine a couple of them were feeling huge guilt about falling asleep in the Garden. And Peter was probably feeling huge guilt about denying Jesus three times.

Now – Jesus could have come into that room and said, "Yup, it’s me again – and Boy, am I steamed about last week, you guys.""All I asked of you was that you stay awake with me in the Garden. And Peter? –I TOLD you you’d deny me three times. See? I knew you would."

But there were no accusations. No "I told you so’s." Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." And the disciples began to rejoice. Their grief ended. Then, the text tells us, Jesus breathed His Holy Spirit on them,and gave them the power to forgive.

In saying SHALOM, Jesus was echoing he had said to them during the Last Supper:
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you ... Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
When Jesus stood among them and said, "Peace be with you," everything changed. Grief was replaced by joy.

Mary, too, had seen Jesus in the Garden after His Resurrection, and even though he didn’t look like Jesus, she recognized Him as soon as He said her name.

"Mary." "Rabboni," she replied with relief and giddy exultation.

Mary, too, received PEACE from an encounter with the risen Lord.

But Thomas was not with them in the Upper Room that first night.

Probably too mired in his own grief, he had separated himself from the community.

And when I looked at this passage, I noticed a difference between Thomas and the others. When the disciples excitedly told Thomas that Christ was alive, Thomas had doubts.

His friends were jubilant: "We have seen the Lord!"

But Thomas, still mired in the events of the last week, lacked the PEACE that comes from an encounter with the Risen Lord.

Thomas, you could say, hadn’t moved from Good Friday to Easter yet.

So then – Jesus appears in the Upper Room a second time.

This time he focuses his attention directly on Thomas. Thomas, it is I.

"Put your finger here and see my hands.

Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."

Despite the famous painting by Caravaggio, the text does NOT tell us that Thomas actually put his fingers in Jesus’ side. Thomas, faced with a direct encounter with the Risen Lord, merely says, "My Lord and my God!"

Thomas spoke – finally – with the conviction of a man relieved. A man at peace.

Back to those difficult situations that occur in our lives.

Those big blow-ups that occur in families, those folks we try to avoid, those uncomfortable relationships. When we are consumed by guilt.

What are we lacking? The peace which passes all our understanding.

The peace that is only to be found through confessing, as Thomas did,

Jesus as "My Lord and my God."

When Jesus said, "Peace be with you" it was a deliberate exhortation to those he loved.

When our lives are in a swirl, we often forget to tap into that, but it is there for the taking.

"Let not your hearts be troubled….neither let them be afraid," says the Lord.

"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven."

When we say, "Peace be with you," Jesus calls us to forgive and make peace with our selves and those around us. To his disciples it was as if he was saying, Quit feeling any guilt or remorse about Friday, you guys. I am sending you out to do the Father’s work and you need to get past all your guilt and shame and trauma if you are to be any good at it at all.

The question bears asking --- what have you not made peace with?

What is getting in the way of that peace that passes all our understanding?

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The people who endured that dark time in our history cannot change what happened to them. But those who survived, and thrived, made conscious choices to forgive and move on. I remember when I met my high school roommate’s aunt. She had us to dinner and during dinner, I noticed a number tattooed on the front of her forearm. When she saw me looking at it, she explained that she had been in a concentration camp in Warsaw during World War II and that her captors had tattooed her. But then she said something that has stayed with me ever since. She said she knew when she came to America that she had two choices. She could live in the past and become an embittered victim, or she could move forward into a new life, never forgetting her past – it happened, she said – but changing how she reacted to it.

"I will never forget," she said, "but I will not let my past consume me.

You forgive, and you move on."

We say we are Easter people……….

But being Easter People means not living in the Good Fridays of our lives.

Never forgetting, but always keeping our eyes on the Risen Lord.

Because freedom in Jesus Christ requires that we make peace – and move on.

This is the great message of Thomas. Not his doubts.

With peace, Thomas was able to confess boldly,

"My Lord and My God."

As we enter the great 50 Days of Easter, let us be people of the Peace.

Never denying the Good Fridays, but always keeping our eyes focused on the risen Lord.

It is only then that we too, can drop to our knees and proclaim:

"My Lord and my God!"`

The Peace of the Lord be with you.

Amen."

http://users.anet.com/~stcharles/sermon041804.htm
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Life is life. BE STRONG GOOD PERSONS!!!! thank you