Second Sunday of Easter

Wu7yyythelcome Statement

Good Morning everyone. Today’s Good News is that Christ is still risen. Liturgically through our Lectionary and traditionally in Church History, Easter is actually a celebration of 50 days, a season, in the life of the Church, where we celebrate Christ’s continuous work through his Church and the lives of everyone apart of that Body. In the old days of the Patristic era, this was a time when new disciples were prepared through Catechism, which is a fancy word of learning the history and doctrines of the church, to prepare for baptism. This was a time when baptisms typically happened since it aligned well with the idea of new life and being made new through the Resurrection.

This is the week when the newness of what we learned, can become old very quickly. We can get back into our old groove, back to the everyday realities that our senses tell us. The reality is, Christ isn’t done, we see where even after the initial sighting, the apostles were still terrified of being persecuted by both their brethren, as well as Rome. This fear is shown in our reading today in John 20:19-31. In here we will see the fear of their brethren, the religious authorities, kept them locking their doors in fear of persecution. Then something unexpected happens. Let us read that now.

New Testament Reading - John 20:19-31

John 20:19–31 NRSV

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Peace Be With You

As I recalled last week, the first time the apostles see Jesus, he gives a very plain welcome, nothing elaborate, he simply says “greetings”. Here he says , peace be with you. In Hebrew the phrase was Shalom aleichem. This meant “peace upon you”, This is a common greeting you hear even today in the middle east.

So Christ enters the house here, with a simple greeting, but there is also something more significant being said. He is inviting the apostles to peace, not fear, he is also showing that this faith, this new creation, this Kingdom, is the new normal. No longer are we stuck in the pain of our past, we are now looking towards a hopeful present and future.

He is also hinting back to what he said in John 14:27 at the last supper.

John 14:27 NRSV

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

He is reaffirming this. The apostles here are confused and shocked at the sight of jesus. It is not clear if the Emmaus disciples first saw Jesus or the 10 locked in the room here, but what is clear is, not everyone had met Jesus post-resurrection, so there would still be fright and confusion. Many struggled such as Thomas here. However, Thomas is not condemned, he is encouraged to see what is real. Thomas is me, I am Thomas. The reason I say that is, my heart as it aches wants to see the Risen Christ today, physically here and now. There are times in my own life, in College, where I rationally questioned if God was real. It was not College that did this, it was my own growing up and starting to analyze everything the way an engineer would, I needed concrete proof of everything. That is why I relate to doubting Thomas. I too relate to Peter in this same token, because he is own denial of Christ, is something I have done, and I am sure many of done, maybe not in so obvious ways, but more like in our silence. For myself, there were times I was in a crowd or a group of people I would not be comfortable sharing my faith with, or even wearing my faith so to speak. Nowadays I don’t care so much, if people find it weird, so be it, I think I get to have an excuse as a minister. But it points out to something, we desire affirmation from our friends and others, that Christ can come at the expense of that. Thomas’s own doubts robbed him originally of a faith that was held in the truths he already knew. He needed proof, but even those who saw the pillar of smokes in the old testament could hold onto faith the same way Abraham did. They saw the Egyptian army swallowed up by the sea, yet they still groaned to Moses. By this same token, I imagine this is not the last time the Apostles struggle or wrestle with their faith. Faith isn’t just a one time conversion experience, it is an ongoing fight, a fight where we are already told the story’s ending, of victory, but we still must wage the battle, because we want to put our two cents in into Christ’s Kingdom.

We start to realize through this scripture what the word is. It is a living word. The Eastern Orthodox have a concept called Amnesis which is Greek to remember something from before. In Plato’s philsophy it is something to remember from a previous existence. In our case, if we take that literally, we recall the Resurrection, however in Christianity this concept is a bit more than that. It states that in our liturgy, it is not just recalled but embodied, lived out. Words in a bible, become the living word when spoken, when received, when lived. If the Bible simply sits on our bookshelf, It is just a bindment of paper.

If I hang up the 10 Commandments on the wall, That is a good reminder, but the question becomes do I receive the scripture I put up on my walls, do I reflect on them? Do I grasp their signifance? Do I grasp the red letters of Jesus? When I sing a hymn, do I actually pay attention to what I am theologically declaring? That is the wrestling we are called into,

Old Testament Point #2

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New Testament Reading - Book 1:1 ABC

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Closing Statement

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Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, We Thank you for the truth of your Resurrection, that you chose to dwell among humanity to redeem us from our sin. Lord, we thank you for the example of Thomas, that we might have the same ache for you, but as Thomas was, gently correct us when we demand the unreasonable, show us the truth and then point us back towards the Kingdom just as you did for Thomas. Lord, mvoe us as you moved the early church to tell your story. Help us to let the story spread into our communities, and our everyday actions in life. Amen.

Doxology / Benediction / Closing

As you go out this week back into your lives, remind yourself, the Easter story is not over, it is technically a story we celebrate 365 days a year, It is the entire reason for our faith. Christ is STILL risen! If you ever feel yourself in the same shoes as Thomas, know you are in good company, our faith is not one of a single, static conversion experience, but a continual sanctification of finding further evidence of God in our lives through deep reflection and grace. As it says in Psalm 77 Let Christ into your hearts this week as you reflect on this Good News.

May you Have a Blessed Sunday, and rest of your Week! Amen!