Note: You can watch this teaching on CrossWalk’s YouTube channel.

John 20:19-23 (NLT)

That [Easter] Sunday evening the [broader community of followers, not just the 11,] were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again, he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Pizza, Baby!  Many friends and family members can readily tell you that one of my favorite foods is pizza.  When my family visited my uncle’s home when I was 4 or 5 years old, they served pizza.  It was during that dinner that my family realized they had a legit progeny on their hands: nobody they had ever seen ate pizza with the same passion, skill level, and appetite as me.  My Uncle Jack nick-named me Pizza Baby.  My oldest sister still calls me that to this day.  Why pizza?  WHY NOT PIZZA!!!?  It is one of God’s perfect foods. Our elected officials in Washington a few years back even recognized pizza as a vegetable.  Note: this may have had more to do with large pizza companies with massive school-lunch contracts than science, but I think we’ve all learned by now that we can completely trust government officials to trust science over all else.  So, there you have it, pizza is a vegetable!  Praise God!

Tasty Heresy.  I like biblical research.  I take the Bible very seriously (yet not literally), not because God wrote it (God did not write it), but because it is a library of material representing the faith experience of mainly Jewish people from around 2000 BCE’ish through 100 CE’ish.  There is a lot there. One of the things the Bible says not to do is alter the text.  Nonsense!  For today’s purpose, I wonder if we might benefit some by trading out “Peace” for “Pizza”.  I can sense you nodding your head in complete agreement.  No explanation required, really. Yet I will anyway, if only to give me another opportunity to talk more about this food of the gods.

“Pizza be with you.”  Who wouldn’t want to be welcomed with such a lovely, generous greeting? We all know what it implies – the one offering the greeting wishes us to be fed with the most important delicacies known to humanity.  It is a statement wishing us to be well fed with a particular entrée, one that will delight any and all who taste it.  The peace Jesus speaks is like that.  Shalom is the Jewish word for peace, and is a rich, deep word that communicates to its hearers the sense of being satisfied, at rest, content, nourished, joyful, satiated, and more.  Shalom has always been the agenda of what/who we call God.  Shalom has also been the means to that end.  Shalom is so central to our understanding of the Jewish faith that you could nearly say that one of the primary characteristics of God is shalom, because it encompasses so much.  Love, grace, mercy, justice and more all are included in every slice of pizza.

Pizza Delivery.  Early in the Gospel of John, we are told – from Jesus’ mouth, no less – that “God loved the world so much that he sent his only son into the world so that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life.  God did not send him into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).”  Jesus wasn’t talking about getting to heaven one day.  Jesus was talking about living in the presence heaven that is already here and extends forever, everywhere.  He was saying that there is a way to live that is sourced in deep life for those who want it.  He also made it clear that the method of his ministry was not condemnation, but love.  You know what Jesus is talking about here, right?  Pizza!  Jesus came to bring pizza to the world!  Which means, obviously, that at the end of the day, Jesus was simply a pizza delivery guy.

Pizza for everybody.  Jesus was the ultimate pizza delivery guy.  He was willing to deliver pizza anywhere and to anyone who wanted a slice.  Some people traveled great distances to get some pizza.  Jesus himself traveled great distances to deliver pizza where there was none.  Sometimes Jesus even showed up in front of people who knew they needed to eat something new but had not been introduced to pizza yet.  Oh, what joy to be able to introduce people to pizza!  Can you imagine!  The look on their faces as their taste buds are resurrected from the dead with a savory mixture of ingredients that will surely overwhelm them.  There were some, of course, that turned their noses up at the pizza Jesus was delivering, thinking they had the real pizza.  They called what they were delivering pizza, yet a lot of people weren’t really evidencing the impact of eating great pizza.

Cardboard with sauce.  I made a terrible mistake awhile back.  My daughter went to visit her brother in SoCal earlier this year, which meant Lynne and I could indulge on something Laiken was just okay with (only because we ate it a lot).  Cauliflower crust pizza.  Two for $8.00. Pretty tasty.  Throw some chicken and extra cheese are you’ve got a completely healthy dinner.  Costco let me down, however – they were all out of our desired pizza!  So, I took a major risk. There before me was a box of four frozen margherita pizzas.  Four!  For $5.00!  Could this be a new heaven-sent revelation of incredible proportions? No, it was not.  Lynne and I ate one of the pizzas for dinner and looked at each other.  Sometimes you don’t need words.  We both knew that we would not eat this pizza again.  It looked like pizza, but it was so devoid of flavor that we are convinced that it was actually post-consumer recycled cardboard with red-colored motor oil and red and green rubber chips made to look like tomatoes and green pepper.  This was technically pizza, but so awful it was hard to really call it pizza.  Many people in Jesus’ day were hungry for good pizza and were given this.  Not satisfying.  Distasteful.  An offense to good pizza everywhere.  And overpriced. There was deep corruption on the part of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day that resulted in terrible abuse on the part of the leaders toward those they were supposed to serve.  Perhaps the grossest exaggerated example of their corruption was that they were so threatened by the pizza Jesus was delivering that they got rid of him.  They killed the pizza delivery guy. Yet the pizza was still being made. And it needed to be delivered.

Cool uniforms included.  When Jesus told the disciples that they were being sent by God as he was sent, you understand what was happening, right?  The disciples were done with their training phase.  Despite their fear and lack of experience, they were given the cool hat, shirt, and car badging: ready or not, it was time to get some pizza delivered. Up to that point, the disciples knew they were in training.  They had some ideas about what might be ahead for them, but not really. Recognize how he framed it, though.  You are being sent as I was sent.  In the same way, for the same purpose, with the same approach.  The end goal: get delicious pizza delivered in a such a way that the recipients can’t wait to take a bite.  Their new job involved them, of course, but it was not about them.  It was about the pizza and delivering the pizza. 

Keys, car, gas.  When Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” it was Jesus telling the new pizza deliverers that they had everything that Jesus had to deliver pizza well.  They knew they were delivering pizza, and now they were given the keys to the delivery car, plus a card to buy gas.  This was a really big deal.  The book of Acts paints it quite differently, tying the moment to the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, which celebrated, in a sense, the giving of the pizza in a profound way to Israel.  The end result was the same: the sheepish disciples turned into shepherds.  People who were once simply fans of pizza were to now go deliver pizza to the masses.  The disciples probably questioned whether or not this was okay.  After all, to become a legit card-carrying rabbi in Jesus’ day required years and years of intense training.  Jesus was essentially telling them that they had acquired enough training.  The Spirit, which they likely thought was meant for only very few prophet-types, was now there’s as well.  They had a perpetually full tank of gas. Time to get some pizza to the world!

Pizza Variants.  The new pizza deliverers would discover that there would be challenges ahead.  They knew already that the pizza they had been served by the religious leaders from Jerusalem was technically pizza but had lost something along the way.  Jesus helped them recognize that great pizza comes from lots of different recipes reflecting all sorts of creativity and speaking to all sorts of different kinds of people.  I have grown to appreciate this reality as I have continued to learn more and more about pizza.  Growing up, there were very few options.  It was basic. Pepperoni, maybe some olives, thin crust.  Then Pizza Hut made deep dish popular.  The heavens opened up!  Over time I became conversant with a range of classic pizzas made in different styles.  Chicago, Detroit, and New York all boast great classic pizza, but made differently.  All delicious.  At some point when I was working on my Masters in the Chicago area, I ate at a California Pizza Kitchen and found myself in the middle of a crisis of belief. On the menu, daringly under the heading of “Pizzas”, they boldly included their Thai Chicken Pizza.  What?!  What are they thinking?  This is blasphemous!  Further down they also had BBQ Chicken!  Eventually they had the audacity to add all sorts of pizzas boasting flavors from many cultures.  Was this still pizza?  Yes, it was. New ways of expressing pizza from different influences are actually delicious.  It’s still pizza. One of the things I am really excited about is the upcoming series at CrossWalk which will feature Wakoh Shannon Hickey, Ph.D., who is a Zen Buddhist Priest and Chaplain.  She will be teaching us about four different religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam.  You’ll be learning how these different cultures got their pizza.  Sounds like a very tasty series.

Pizza Police?  At the close of this scene with the disciples-now-apostles, Jesus gives them an incredibly powerful instruction: whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, whatever you do not loose on earth will not be loosed in heaven.  The word forgive is often used instead of loosed.  This was a massive statement of power and responsibility.  Remember that Jesus told the disciples that they were sent as he was, and the same Spirit that empowered him was empowering them.  They were to mimic Jesus’s pizza delivering style going forward.  It was all about the pizza.  There were times when Jesus delivered pizza to some folks who the religious authorities said were not allowed to eat pizza.  Nonsense!  Jesus made sure everyone he met had the opportunity to eat pizza if they so desired. It was always available.  Pizza be with you is an ongoing reality, after all.  The Church, historically, got off track many times in their role as pizza deliverers. Enormous untold millions of people have suffered because of it. People were refused pizza because they wanted Thai Chicken instead of Margherita.  People were refused because of their gender.  Or because of their nationality.  Or culture.  Or skin tone. Or language. Or marital status.  Or sexual orientation. Or social status. Or education level. Or political power.  It is a very, very, very long and horrific list.  The Church in these instances offered a semblance of pizza, but they also allowed some other things to slip onto the menu that were not pizza at all.  There are all sorts of pizzas for all sorts of occasions and even types of meals.  Dessert pizza is delicious, and often has fruit or chocolate, or both!  Breakfast pizza might have fruit, or bacon and eggs. Sometimes a fried egg is thrown on a pizza just to mix things up.  But you still know you’re eating pizza.  You know the difference between a bowl of soup and a slice of pizza.  I’m pushing the limits of my metaphor a bit but let me simply remind us that we are about delivering pizza. Pizza is our thing.  The pizza should be delicious.  The pizza should be delivered to whoever wants a slice, just like Jesus.

Refused.  Some of you have been refused pizza for some of the reasons I mentioned.  I am so sorry.  There is no excuse.  Somehow those deliverers forgot about being sent like Jesus, with the same Spirit empowering and informing.  I hope you know you can have a slice anytime you want, with no conditions attached.  Pizza be with you.

Refusing.  Jesus’ mandate, however, begs some really important questions for us to consider as we think about what it means to be representatives and deliverers of pizza.  There are some things that are not on the menu.  Ideas, actions, and policies that turn a blind eye toward justice, that abuse certain people but not others, or in negligence allows suffering to continue toward others or creation itself are not pizza.  I think it’s okay to state what is pizza and what is not.  The challenge for us who are deliverers is to be very cognizant of how we define pizza, and how we chose to come to our rubric for defining pizza in the first place. We are all biased.  We are all married to our paradigms.  What a horrible tragedy when we are more wed to our way of seeing the world than we are the pizza we are called to deliver.

Pizza Chef.  We are not the pizza creators, even though sometimes we think we are. When we mistake ourselves for the creators of the pizza, we can cause some real damage.  Some of you have been told that since you are a single mother, or LGBTQ, or divorced, or fill in the blank, you are in sin.  Sometimes we say things that we are not authorized to say about the pizza.  You aren’t changing heaven for that person, but you are severely limiting it.  When we restrict God from people because they don’t fit our understanding, we are keeping them from God.  That is why Jesus’ statement is so powerful and why it must be treated with incredible care.  We already do this quite naturally and often terribly.  Don’t ask yourself “if” you do this, ask yourself “how” you do this, because if you are human, you are very likely restricting pizza from people who are really starving for it.  Similarly, when we see something in front of us that is clearly not pizza and we allow it, we are also perpetuating the horrible problems that plague us.  Massive problems around race, immigration, economic disparity, education, health – all of the whoppers – will not change if those who see what is happening remain silent.  It takes great courage to call things “not pizza” when they are actually soup.  Sometimes other well-meaning pizza deliverers are delivering pizza, but they’re also including “not pizza” and we get confused.  Call pizza and “not pizza” thoughtfully and courageously.  Real lives depend on it.  Indigenous Americans were brutalized by “not pizza”.  Africans were taken from their homeland and sold like cattle because of “not pizza”, and African Americans today still are a long way from equality and equity because we who do not look like them can’t see the “not pizza,” let alone call it out. It’s a long list, and it is complicated and messy, and it is also part of our role as pizza deliverers.

Pizza Piggies.  Some of you were told that being a Christian is mainly about eating pizza.  You were told wrong.  You are certainly invited to become growing aficionados of pizza, no doubt!  Keep exploring and learning about pizza!  Yet you were not called to simply sit on the couch and enjoy pizza while the world around you starves.  Please don’t see this as a reprimand but rather as an invitation.  You get to be pizza deliverers.  Not in a force-it-down-peoples-throats kind of way – that’s not reflective of being sent like Jesus.  Like Jesus, however, we can enjoy the pizza and let the joy of pizza permeate our entire being so that pizza just wonderfully and naturally comes out of our pores.  Those early pizza deliverers captured the attention of those around them because they were such fans of pizza and were willing to share pizza with everyone.  The world would surely be a better place if we did.  This is your wonderful, life-changing and world improving invitation.  

May you fully embrace the pizza that is freely offered you without condition.

May the pizza bring you deep satisfaction.

May you hear the wonderful invitation to become a pizza deliverer like Jesus, fully equipped.

May you have the humility and courage to recognize “not pizza” in yourself.

May you have the humility and courage to call out “not pizza” in the world.

May you relish and celebrate as you see hunger satisfied by Great Pizza, energy restored, the smell of great pizza wafting through the air as worship to God, for that is precisely what we are called to do.

Pizza be with you.