come On, Come Out
Call to Worship "But wait ... listen ... Do we hear the news, the good news? He is not here. He is risen! Go, and tell Peter, and the rest of the world. (Invite the congregation to greet each other with "He is risen! He is not here!" Invite them to walk around the sanctuary bringing greetings.)
Greetings
Hymn Christ the Lord is Risen Today # 234
Childrens time - Holy week
Praise Songs Glorify Thy Name # 10
Worthy Is the Lamb # 230
Because He Lives # 238
Prayer O God, we have come to thank you that the Lord has risen, that the tomb is empty, that death is conquered, that love has triumphed. You are teaching us through the empty tomb that we are ordained for eternity. Our hearts are singing, "Christ Jesus lives today." Our ears catch the cadence of the footsteps of your people who have been changed by the presence of the living Christ. As we think of the multitudes of those who do not know you, we realize again that humanity has not yet finished its accounting with the resurrected Christ, who loves even those who hate him, ignore him, patronize him, ridicule him. So draw us now to the empty cross, to the open tomb, to the resurrected Lord, for we pray through Christ who died for us, and who lives with us. And, all the people said, (your favorite praise word).Our Father.....
Choir The Prayer of Jesus
Scripture Reading The Risen and Ever-Living Christ # 237
Hymn He Lives # 248
Come On, Come Out
John 20:19-31
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
28Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
29Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John's resurrection narratives are all focused on getting out of the tomb and that is usually our focus on Easter Sunday also. The gospel story of Jesus' ministry - the preaching, the teaching, the healing - is offered as a way to get all those listening to "come on" to Christ in faith. After Jesus' crucifixion, his followers fled and scattered, hiding themselves from the authorities, cringing from any consequences of their discipleship.
Then the resurrection, the miracle of Easter, changes everything. John's gospel insists that they "come out" - stop their cowering, keep believing, crawl out of their tombs of fear and get to work.
On that same day." Despite the fact that Mary Magdalene has reported to the disciples her encounter with the risen Jesus, they continue hiding out - fearing the hatred and hostility of those who would destroy Jesus' followers. If the disciples believed Mary's testimony, they also still believed with equal fervor that "lying low" was their best strategy.////
In John, the risen Christ's words of commissioning are imposing. He hands over total responsibility for his earthly mission to his disciples - "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (v.21). Nothing less than a full continuation of Christ's love and commitment is ordered, a tall order for fewer than a dozen terrified students closeted in a locked room.
Is the church today hunkered down for safety in some quiet corner of culture? It's not hard to feel that a "bunker mentality" might be appropriate. In every city you can find several big, beautiful, cathedral-style churches that harbor only a handful of worshipers each Sunday - then close up tight the rest of the week. In struggling urban neighborhoods, far more children are in gangs than in Sunday school.
At best, it seems the church has a kind of frumpy, musty, maiden- aunt/bachelor-uncle image - harmless, out-of-touch, and visited only once or twice a year on special occasions. At worst, the church is blamed for adding to the boiling cauldron of hatreds and prejudices that fuel so many human conflicts. So what are we doing about these false images, these churchist stereotypes, these lies? Far too often we take the disciples' earliest post-resurrection stance - hiding out, while waiting for the hostile hordes to come and break down our doors. Like the disciples we want a sign, a miraculous visitation all our own, before we dare to venture back out into the mainstream of life.
What would happen if we suddenly took the risen Jesus seriously when he proclaimed before Doubting Thomas and the other disciples: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe"? We have become steeped in the dictum of old, objective scientific methods that preach "seeing is believing." But the church of Christ is founded on a complete reversal of that hypothesis. First you believe, then you see. Believing is seeing. Believing provides the vision, the insight, the perception necessary to change things, to make things happen. I realized that reading these Easter scriptures my mind can’t always wrap around them and understand their validity - but my soul can - I can and do believe even when my mind stalls.
Physicist Fred Alan Wolf, of Taking the Quantum Leap and Parallel Universes fame, says that quantum physics boils down to this: Stripped of the arrogant metaphysical claims in such a statement, the fundamental principle of quantum physics in lay language : "You will see it when you believe it."
Faith in Jesus Christ changes the way we believe, which changes the way we see. Weren't the blind top candidates for Jesus' healing?
Ever hear the story about the two men who were sent by a shoe manufacturer to a remote country to sell shoes? One wrote back: "I have terrible news. This is a God-forsaken country. Nobody here wears shoes. I'm coming home." The other man wrote: "This is a wonderful country. I am so grateful you sent me to this territory. Nobody here wears shoes. Send me 5,000 pairs."
It is the ability to see that releases power in our lives. The wrong perspective is imprisonment; the right perspective is empowerment.
In fact, neurologists now tell us that one has to learn to see. They can't make sense of what they are seeing in this new and alien world. All the nerves and impulses are there, but they are mentally blind. Their habits, their behaviors are still those of their unsighted life; they have "unstable judgment of space and distance." (63). The physical and emotional impact of the gift of sight can be "almost shocking, explosive" (65). One reaction of the body to overload and overstimulation is a shutdown, complete blockage of the new visual world and return to the tactile world. Lots of patients "behave blind" and "refuse to see" even after their sight is restored. Marius von Senden, reviewing every published case over a 300-year period in his classic book Space and Sight (1932), concluded that every newly sighted adult sooner or later comes to a "motivation crisis" -and not every patient gets through it. There are plenty of people out there who are "seeing but not seeing."
Jesus could work with people who had to see first in order to believe. That is what his post-resurrection appearances are all about. But for those who believe without seeing, Jesus offers something special - blessing. When Thomas finally comes to belief after viewing the risen Christ face-to-face, Jesus acknowledges his faith, but offers no special blessing. It is to future believers, to those who will only hear about Jesus, yet who believe and in turn pass the gospel on to others, that Jesus bestows his special blessing.
We are those disciples - at least the most recent generation of them. The church is made up of all those who have believed without seeing. We are the recipients of Jesus' special blessing. We have also received the breath of the Holy Spirit to empower us as we go into the world. So what's stopping us? What's keeping us hidden away?//////
Part of the problem is that we have let what we believe become separated from the way we act. But what if we let Jesus' dictum "first you believe, then you see" spill over into all our life - not just "the religious part?" If we believe that God is in the midst of a great work today, that the best days of the church are in the future, not the past - then we can begin to see it.
Of course, between believing and seeing is a lot of hard work. Believing isn't the same thing as wishing. Believing takes grit and guts, blood and sweat. It also requires enthusiasm, energy and zeal. To get from believing to seeing takes two kinds of leaders, two kinds of action - and they are the same two types that John's gospel highlights.
First, there are the indigenous Christians - those in our midst who really do "get it," who see the vision. Indigenous Christians believe and communicate that the church today can be as vital a body of the risen Lord as it ever has been. These are the faithful who call others to "come on."
The author of a respected equestrian study guide tells what is required to become adept at jumping horses over tall fence barriers. In describing how the rider overcomes his own hesitation, the writer states, "Take your heart and throw it over the fence and then jump after it."
Second, there are the indignant Christians - those who scold the church and the culture for their doubting discipleship and fearful followership. While indigenous believers enthusiastically call others to "come on" to Christ, indignant Christians challenge the church with a "come out" emphasis.
Today more than ever, we need indignant believers to stand up in the midst of their congregations and silence the nay-saying, deep-sighing, gloom-and-doom attitudes that pervade our churches.
What happens when the spirit of an indigenous and indignant faith takes hold; when "come on" and "come out" become our watch-words; when believing is seeing?
- Churches with shrinking attendance don't move into smaller, "more manageable" quarters. They redesign their space to meet the diverse needs of a 21st century Christ body community.
- Churches with unmet pledges don't slash their budgets. They make the needs known to the whole community and expect surprising, even supernatural results.
- Churches that find their urban locations have become "war zones" don't immediately cry "retreat" and head for the suburbs. They send out scouts with provisions to see what the opposing forces are doing and what the church can offer as an alternative.
- Churches with that "silver-haired" look don't mourn the loss of their youth. They start a special "Third Age" (i.e., 60 and over) ministry that takes full advantage of the gifts of wisdom, courage, experience and time of these aged, sage members of our community.
- Churches that can no longer communicate to all their members and their neighbors in one language don't fracture into separate congregations. They raise up and train indigenous leaders from their midst who can speak the variety of languages the faithful utter.
The Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis told about the monk who had long planned to go to Jerusalem to see the Holy Sepulchre. He finally began with the money he had saved over 40 years. Soon after he left the monastery, he passed a field where a pale, emaciated man was digging roots out of the ground, and he said to the monk, "Good morning, Father. Where are you going?" The monk replied, "I am going to Jerusalem to see the Holy Sepulchre, where Christ was buried, and I am going to march around it three times and pray." The man in the field said, "That trip will cost much money." "Yes," said the monk, "all my life's savings." Then the man suggested, "Father, why not march around me three times and give me the money so that my wife and children might have food." And the monk did.
The monk never saw where Christ was buried. But he saw where Christ was alive and living - in other people!
"In this moment, we begin again. How does the empty tomb affect your daily life? How will you allow the risen Christ to direct your thoughts, words, feelings, behavior, from this day forward?
Hymn Christ Arose! # 235
Benediction
Religion leads, not to life, but to death. Christ leads us through death, death of the old self, motives, attitude, behavior, to life. The risen Christ empowers, energizes, enables us to face life today, tomorrow, with his church, body, family of strugglers, as joyous, not defeated humans; as winners, not losers; as lovers, not haters; as victors, not victims. Alleluia! Amen!
Benediction Song Easter Song # 244
The special peace Jesus brings is repeated once again, but this time in connection with the commissioning sentence he utters over the disciples. Just as Jesus' peace engulfs them in that safe, closed little room, so Jesus' peace will go with them as they go forth to continue his ministry (v.21). But it will take more than peace alone to enervate and animate the mission work Jesus has in mind for his disciples. Thus, as predicted by John the Baptist and repeated by Jesus at the Last Supper, he now fulfills his role as the unleasher of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer changes us.
Prayer changes others.
Prayer changes "things."
Prayer changes the church.
Prayer changes the world.
Too many Christians are "one-prayer members" (as someone has described them) of the church, living off of prayers prayed long ago or a single prayer prayed over and over.