Sunday, March 30, 2008 - Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 2: 14(a), 22-32 Psalm 16 1 Peter 1: 3-9 John 20: 19-31
Have you been aware throughout this past week…that we are still celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus? Christians are invited to spend the Great Fifty Days after Easter, rejoicing in the power of Christ’s resurrection to help us become new people, part of God’s new creation. The same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is available to each of us…right in the middle of all the stresses and wounds of our lives.
Every year, Jesus has more to teach us …about how his Risen presence can transform our lives and the brokenness of our world. I wonder, do you have a desire to learn and experience more of the gift God has given us in Christ’s resurrection.
Let’s invite the Risen Christ to speak to each of us in a fresh way right now as we look at today’s Gospel reading. The story begins on the evening of Easter Day. Jesus surprises his disciples by coming to visit them, walking right through the locked doors of the house where they were hiding. I love that picture. At times, you and I may be discouraged and grieving like those first disciples. We may try to hide from people. We may even try to hide from God. But Jesus can come to meet us, even when we try to hide, even when we try to lock him out. Aren’t you glad that we have a God who can walk right through the barriers we put up and come to meet us in our lowest places of fear and shame, despair and grief?
Then Jesus spoke to his disciples. Remember, this was the first time he talked with them after they had slept instead of praying with him at his time of need in the Garden. Peter had denied even knowing him. They all watched him be crucified.
The disciples must have felt a combination of shame and joy at seeing Jesus. What would Jesus say to them? Would he criticize them? His first words were, “Peace be with you.” “God’s shalom be with you.” What a powerful reassuring way to begin the conversation. After showing them his wounds, Jesus again said to them. “God’s shalom, God’s peace be with you.”
Whenever you talk with Jesus…no matter what has gone on in your life or what you might be feeling… the first words Jesus will always say to you are …God’s peace, God’s shalom be with you.” Peace is what Jesus always desires for us and offers to us.
When you feel most stressed at work, at home, on the road...in the worst moments of your life… it can be helpful for you to stop for a moment.
Take a deep breath…and picture Jesus coming to be with you, where ever you are physically and emotionally in that moment and saying to you, “Peace be with you. God’s shalom be with you in this moment.”
Then Jesus breathed his Holy Spirit on his disciples, like God breathed his Spirit of life into the first man and woman at creation. Peace, shalom, is a powerful gift, a holy life-energy God gives us. In our moments of stress and fear, we need to hear Jesus say, “Peace be with you”…and then open ourselves to allow Jesus to breathe a fresh transfusion of the Holy Spirit into our lives.
So, the theme of God’s peace runs through this story. The theme of wounds also runs through this story. When Jesus appeared to his disciples, after he said, “Peace be with you”, he showed them his wounded hands, feet and side. After he repeated his words of peace, he gave them a life-mission. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” As God sent Jesus to bring peace to the world, so Jesus sends us to bring God’s peace to the world, by the power of God’s Spirit of peace breathing in and through our lives. We are to help other people, to help our violent and wounded world experience the peace that comes from a relationship with Jesus.
Notice that Christ’s mission of peace involved suffering, wounds, even death. As we seek to live the peace mission Jesus gives us, we will also experience wounds. In fact, if you and I don’t have any wounds or scars from seeking to live as followers of Jesus, perhaps we need to ask ourselves, are we really following Jesus? There are always costs involved to living as Jesus followers. Jesus often calls us to go against the grain of our society and the expectations of others. Jesus calls us to live with the values, priorities and choices of God’s Kingdom – which are often different from our society.
As we talk with others about our relationship with Jesus, it is important that we don’t just tell the wonderful stories of the peace Jesus gives us. We also need to show others our scars, the wounds we experience from just living, and the wounds we experience from following Jesus.
Notice, in the story, Thomas was not there on that Easter Sunday night when Jesus appeared to his disciples. Thomas said, I won’t believe Jesus has risen until I see and touch the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side for myself. Many of our friends will not believe that the Risen Jesus can actually make a difference in their lives unless they can experience the Risen Jesus helping them in the wounded places of their lives.
Do you know people who reject Jesus and don’t believe Jesus can make a difference in their lives? We can’t argue people into faith in Jesus. We can tell stories of our wounds, our struggles and tell them how Jesus has helped us, bringing healing and new beginnings out of our wounded places. Thomas did not believe the stories his friend told about seeing the Risen Jesus…but Thomas did continue to hang around with his friends who had seen Jesus. Eventually, Jesus came to visit them again a week later, on the Sunday after Easter, and Thomas was there with them. Then Jesus showed Thomas his wounds. Jesus came to meet Thomas in his places of doubt…and by experiencing the presence of the wounded Risen Jesus, Thomas came to believe, to trust and to rejoice in the powerful presence of Jesus to continue to bless and guide his life.
What stories do you have to tell about how you have experienced Jesus meeting you in your wounded places and helping you find new life and trust in God?
Jim Munroe, Dean of our Cathedral, told a story this week about a young woman he visited at a Springfield hospital. She was recovering from a mastectomy. He left her hospital room knowing that his visit had not been very helpful to her. Later a nurse came into the room. The young woman began to pour out her fear and despair, ending with, “You don’t understand.”
The nurse didn’t say a word. Instead, she quietly and discreetly unbuttoned her blouse to reveal a double mastectomy. She smiled, took the patients’ hand and said, “I’ve been there.” A deep healing began to settle on the young patient’s spirit. The nurse’s wounds brought Christ’s healing peace and power.
Last January, Rebecca and I visited Liberia, a country which has been cruelly ravaged and destroyed by 20 years of war. This formerly developed nation now has no public running water or electricity anywhere in the country. Most families have lost loved ones and friends in the violence. Extreme poverty is everywhere. Yet, people told us stories of how Jesus guided them through the brutalities of war, poverty and suffering. They are people filled with amazing hope, because they have experienced Jesus guiding them through their Good Friday times and now opening up a season of new beginnings.
Last week, a parishioner in this diocese named Jack told me about his hospitalization at the end of last year. During an operation his heart was inadvertently ripped open. People don’t usually survive a wound of this magnitude. He was on the edge of life and death for several days. When he recovered enough to speak with the doctor who had done the surgery, Jack said, “Doctor, I can’t say enough to thank you for saving my life.”
The doctor said, “Don’t thank me, thank God. I really did not know what to do. You should have died. But that operating room was filled with angels. Obviously, God wanted you to live. Your recovery is a miracle only God could accomplish.”
Jack told me this story with tears in his eyes. He said, “My whole life has changed. I know God has a mission for me. Every day, I thank God for the gift of life. I look at life in a totally different way as a result of this experience.”
I invite you to close your eyes for a moment. What are the things that are stressing you most? What are you most afraid of and concerned about? What are the wounds you carry with you this morning. …Now imagine Jesus coming up to you looking at you with his eyes of love…and saying to you, with all that you are feeling… “God’s peace be with you.” Imagine Jesus breathing his powerful Holy Spirit into your body and mind…open yourself to receive Christ’s Spirit, energizing you with his wisdom, love and peace… Then listen for Jesus saying to you, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” What is the mission Christ is sending you to fulfill at this time in your life? What story do you have to tell about how Jesus has met you in your wounded places and brought you to a new chapter of life?
O Risen Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love, where there is injury, pardon, where there is discord, union, where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen