Sermon Tone Analysis

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.