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Viewpoint from Rev John Kinchin-Smith 23/06/2023
Rev John Kinchin-Smith
Assistant Minister, St Andrew’s Church, Gorleston
On the first Easter Day evening, the risen Jesus came to his little group of frightened and grieving disciples, hiding behind locked doors. And his first words to them are “Peace be with you”. Those words were hugely important to the disciples, for through that gift of peace Jesus brought healing to their memories. Peter and the others had vivid memories of their time with Jesus. But not all of those memories were good ones. Among them were the events when they’d deserted Jesus and left him to face alone his trial and execution. And uppermost in the memory of Peter must have been the time when he’d denied any knowledge of Jesus, and had sworn and cursed at the mention of his name
 Yet now the risen Jesus was with them, meeting them in the same upper room where they’d met for their last meal together immediately before those acts of betrayal, desertion, and denial had taken place. Their memories aren’t forgotten or obliterated or blotted out, for they can’t be. Rather, they are taken up and healed to prepare them for a new phase in their lives. The shame and wretchedness of their past are eliminated, and they are offered the gift of peace, peace of mind and peace of heart so that they can move on
That experience of the healing of memories is so important. Many of us have memories of things we’d prefer to forget. People often speak of how we view the past through rose-tinted spectacles, remembering the good things but easily forgetting the bad. But for some the opposite is true. They find themselves haunted by memories of things they regret, times when they failed, occasions when they hurt someone, things they neglected to do or would love to have done differently
Some of those occasions may go back as far as childhood, and yet the older those memories become, the more vividly they’re remembered. This brings an inability to be at peace, or to embrace the forgiveness which is the only way to extinguish the effects of the bad memories to which we may cling. Sometimes it’s a matter of asking, not so much whether God forgives us, but whether we can forgive ourselves. For only then can we embrace the gift of peace which the risen Jesus offers to all
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