Our message for today is to see Christ’s kingdom in our everyday items and moments and lives. And knowing that they too are a part of God’s kingdom. This is the way of Jesus Christ. It’s not always glamorous or glitzy. But it’s full of love, it’s full of grace, it’s full of the holy breaking through.
But God is always good. God uses yirah not to turn us away, but to draw us near and change us from the inside out. The Fear of the Lord does not mean to hide from God as if God is some evil tyrant ready to attack and destroy. It means instead to get ready, because you are about to see something extraordinary and your life will never be the same.
There is a treasure right here, right now. It is know God’s love and salvation not just some point in the future, but here and now. While I believe God’s salvation is for everyone, I also know that my relationship with Christ is a blessing for me right now.
Jesus stands on this beach now as the resurrected one, as one who has defeated death, as savior of everlasting life, conqueror over sin, Lord of heaven and earth. And with all that he has already won and accomplished and given for us, Jesus comes to this beach with a surprising, yet simple message. Jesus says, “Come and have breakfast.” Come and join me for a meal on this beach. Come and be around me. Together again.
For us today, we think of peace as the absence of war, as anytime there is not explicit violence. But for Jesus, peace meant much more than that. While this gospel is written in Greek, the word Jesus himself would have spoken was “Shalom,” in either Hebrew or Aramaic. Shalom means many things, including peace. But it also means Wholeness. Completeness. Reconciliation. Forgiveness. Right relationships, with others and with God.
Easter is not the end. It is the beginning. It is the beginning of a long journey of faith and discovery – of who we are as redeemed by Christ, of who God is as savior and king and destroyer of death, and of what salvation looks like, not just in the life to come, but here in our world today.
And the same is for us in prayer. Our daily lives are filled with so much noise and worries and thoughts, we barely pay attention to the present moment we are in. We don’t notice the smells, the sounds, the sights that are around us. We miss people and conversations. We miss the gift that I am alive and this day did not have to be.
We aren’t Christ. We aren’t the savior of this world. But people can see Christ’s love through you. People can see Christ’s grace through you. People can learn about forgiveness and mercy, welcome and love, God’s presence and peace and good news of grace through you.
This Sunday we get to hear who this message is for. And we find out that this message is for the Simeons and Annas of the world. It is for those who have waited and hoped for something better, something greater than what they know today. It is for those who have been forgotten, overlooked, and ignored. It is for those who have struggled, and hope that their struggle is not in vain. It is for those who still believe that God sees them and knows them and loves them.
Out of all the miraculous and wonderful places in this great, big universe, why did God choose to come down and be with us? The Franciscan priest Richard Rohr answers it this way:
“Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity… Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God.”