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2 Easter
April 3, 2005 Sermon
by Rev. Barb Hauck, Deacon
Readings
When I learned a couple of
weeks ago that I was to preach today, I must admit I thought, “Oh,
no! Not again so soon… I have so many other things to do… I don’t have
time to prepare a sermon!” I spent the week working, seeing lots of
people who came to St. Paul’s looking for assistance. I had a committee
meeting for another organization on whose board I serve, and out of that
came a very long “to do” list. Then we had a staff meeting where we
discussed all the things that were going on in preparation for the next
week – Holy Week. And, finally, Steve and I attended the last Via Media
session – where we had a great discussion about the kingdom of God with
the other folks who were there. Clearly, I was too busy to spend the
necessary time in study and prayer, much too busy to spend time
preparing another sermon. Well, let’s give it a go and see what happens.
In this gospel reading from John, we are reminded of the disciples’
humanity – for in the evening after they had discovered Jesus’ body was
missing from the tomb, they were back at the house, doors locked,
wondering – no, fearing what might happen next. Their fear was
well-founded… their beloved leader had just been crucified, and there
was every reason to believe that through guilt by association, they
could be next. Now some of you might have been willing to stand guard
outside the doors… but I think I would probably have been with the
disciples, knees knocking and ready to jump out of my skin if I heard
someone climbing the stairs.
But they didn’t hear anyone on the stairs… no longer subject to the
restrictions we human beings must face, Jesus simply appeared before
them, locked doors notwithstanding. A familiar greeting, Peace be with
you, and after being shown his wounds, they rejoiced that he was again
with them. But the purpose of this meeting was not reunion. Again, Peace
be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. With that he
breathed on them, saying Receive the Holy Spirit. Much as God breathed
life into the dust from which Adam was formed, so, also, the disciples
received the Holy Spirit…
Now what? Jesus said, If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven
them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. There was work
to be done. In the commissioning of the disciples – the community of
disciples, not just this one or that one – they were empowered to be
witnesses to the world of the saving power of Jesus.
But one of the community was missing… Thomas. And, despite the
disciples’ best efforts to convince him Jesus had appeared before them,
Thomas, like many of us, needed to see and touch Jesus for himself in
order to really believe he was there. (With his questioning nature, it
sounds to me like he may have been our first Anglican-in-the-making!)
Thomas had experienced disappointment before… and in his grief, he was
going to move forward slowly and carefully. Then, the following week,
with the doors firmly shut, Jesus again appeared to the disciples. Peace
be with you. Inviting Thomas to both see and touch his wounds, Thomas
made a profound declaration of his faith when he responded immediately
by proclaiming My Lord and my God! Apparently, for Thomas, seeing was
believing… and his heart was transformed.
Peter, in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, was bearing witness
to the Lord in his speech to the crowds in Jerusalem on the Day of
Pentecost… carrying out the mission given to him, and to the rest of the
disciples, by the resurrected Lord. Through bearing witness… in thought,
word and deed… the disciples of every age have brought countless persons
to Christ. Uh oh! That sounds too close to the dreaded “E” word, doesn’t
it? Evangelism. We Episcopalians get skittish when we hear that, don’t
we? But that’s one of the things I hear today’s gospel passage calling
us to do.
Listen to part of today’s reading from 1st Peter: Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a
new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the
power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time. Wow! How could we not share the joy that brings to our
hearts? By God’s great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
It’s an unfortunate reality that many of us are “dead to life” in a
variety of ways. We surround ourselves with “protection” – things
unheard of in the time of Jesus, but which we believe will secure for us
a safer, better life. We are bombarded with information… and the
overdose dulls our senses. We watch the news whenever we want… but too
few of the stories touch our hearts. We sit on the bus, remembering the
activities of the day… noticing neither the pain nor the joy in the
faces all around us. We get caught in traffic and our anger bubbles to
the surface… rather than feeling overwhelmed with love and compassion
for those who may have been involved in the accident which caused a
traffic jam to occur. We walk the streets downtown, encountering
panhandlers or others having trouble of some kind… and we step around
them or find some other way to avoid interacting with them. Before long,
some of us may find we have eyes but we do not see, we have ears but we
do not hear, we have hearts but we do not feel. Living, but dead… for
that’s what life becomes when we live without hope.
To the community of fear-filled disciples Jesus said, As the Father has
sent me, so I send you. And, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.” Doubtful as he was, Thomas quickly and
unequivocally professed his faith. Notice I said the disciples were
“fear-filled”… Thomas was “doubtful”… nowhere are we told they were
without hope.
We heard in the gospel last Sunday that Mary Magdalene had seen the
Risen Lord and she quickly followed Jesus’ first post-resurrection
command: go and tell. It’s a wonder she didn’t suffer a case of whiplash
– for moving from the usual “tell no one” to “go and tell” must have
been jarring to her. Even so, Mary wasted no time in doing as she was
told. “I have seen the Lord,” she said… and then told them the rest of
the story. The disciples may not have understood all of what she
described, but they had heard it – and in the midst of all their reasons
for despair that day, they were given the gift of joy-filled hope.
For some of us, like Thomas, seeing is believing… But Jesus had clearly
known throughout his earthly ministry that if the world was to learn
from his example, the world would learn it from the witness of others.
Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Thus
commissioned, disciples of that day through ours have been empowered to
help others come to understand that “believing is seeing.” Our belief in
Jesus Christ affects how we view one another, how we view our world, how
we view life itself. Whether we feel “fear-filled,” “doubtful,” or
something else entirely, our belief in the resurrected Lord transcends
what we can see or touch – and our belief fills our hearts with hope.
Some would, and do, see Jesus’ death as the end of the story, but for us
the joyous hope Easter morning brings is a new beginning.
When we promise in our baptismal covenant to seek and serve Christ in
all persons that means I promise to seek and serve Christ in each of you
and in everyone else I meet on my road through life. And it means you
promise to seek and serve Christ in everyone here (even me!) and in
everyone else whose path you share. I believe that when we really do
that, we see the risen Christ, too. And if we’re seeing Christ, we, like
Mary Magdalene, must respond authentically and with joy not unlike what
she probably felt – and we must “go and tell” others I have seen the
Lord!
Our belief in the Risen One means we, as individuals and as a community
of faith, no longer fear death… and that we stand ready to take that
proverbial “leap of faith” and risk living life fully. Risk living life
fully, 24/7. With hope dancing in our hearts, we can minister to the
outcasts of our society… those who have become invisible because of
fear, theirs and ours. We can lift our voices together… on behalf of
those whose voices have gone unheard for far too long. We can bridge the
divide between cultures… offering the reconciling love Christ offers us.
We can bridge the divide between peoples… offering the unconditional
love we know heals the most devastating wounds. We can offer our time,
talent, and treasure to do Christ’s work in our community and throughout
our world. We can and we must, in the words of today’s opening collect,
show forth in our lives what we profess in our faith.
I’ve already admitted to you that when I learned a couple of weeks ago
that I was to preach today, I thought, “Oh, no! Not again so soon… I
have so many other things to do… I don’t have time to prepare a sermon!”
The busyness of my life at that moment left no time for this (or so I
thought), and, in my humanity, I whined about it. But you know that
saying, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans!”… It
appears that in preparing for this sermon in the midst of all that
busyness I learned more about myself, my beliefs, and my life in Christ
than all that busyness, itself, could ever have taught me.
Yes! Believing is seeing. Jesus said, “Peace be with you… Peace be with
you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Clearly, we won’t find
Jesus at the tombs of our own deadliness. Jesus is with the living, the
doubters, the questioners, and yes… even those who lock the doors of
their hearts in fear.
With eyes, ears and hearts open, may we each seek and serve Christ in
all persons, ready and willing to quickly proclaim, I have seen the
Lord! And as we show forth in our lives what we profess in our faith,
may we witness to the world – in thought, word, and deed – the saving
power of Jesus. Our family history has taught us that when we do that,
the world is transformed and life will never be the same.
Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia!