“From Here to There” – Sermon on 4/15/12
April 15, 2012
Scripture
John 20: 19-31: 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.
Acts 4: 32-35: Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Sermon: From Here to There
By: Rev. Doreen Oughton
So last Sunday we celebrated Easter. Now most of you might believe that Easter is just a one-day deal, but you would be mistaken. Easter is a whole season in the Christian calendar. No, I am not talking about the pre-Easter shopping season for bonnets and baskets. The season of Easter goes from Easter Sunday all the way to Pentecost. So it is 50 days long, longer than it usually takes to find the last hidden egg, but at least in my house, not as long as the pink plastic grass will be around.
Easter season is a time to reflect upon the resurrection. What does it mean to us that the man Jesus was put to death, then broke through the chains of death and came to new life as Christ, the anointed one? In some of the readings from of this season, Jesus is praying for the disciples while he is with them, before his death, talking to God, asking God to care for them and protect them, to pass on to them the power that Jesus carried. He is asking God to live in them.
During the Easter season, the scripture readings always include something from the Book of Acts. This book details the building up of the earliest Christian community. These readings are meant to impress upon us the astounding acts of the leaders of this new movement. They speak with boldness, they confidently perform miracles, and thousands convert after witnessing these miracles or hearing the Word spoken. They are filled with the Holy Spirit and everyone knows that it is Jesus working through them, living in their hearts. The conversions truly change people, and they live, as our second reading tells us, as a community with one heart and soul, with no one in need, they sharing everything.
What powerful testimony. To me, this sounds like the Beloved Community, the Kindom of God. There is clarity about oneness, acknowledgment that we are all connected, responsible to one another. There is investment in the common good. And it sounds to me quite joyful. “Great grace was upon them all.” How I would love to get there, to live there. And it seems to me that we are so, so far from there.
But I would guess that when Jesus first died, his followers also felt so, so far from there. Perhaps they’d had a really exciting year or so traveling with Jesus, hearing his bold proclamations and preaching. witnessing his miracles and the conversions he brought about. But oh how stressful and confusing these last weeks must have been – the increasing hostility of the Jewish leaders, the things Jesus himself was saying about dying, the arrest and humiliating crucifixion. How could this possibly be the fulfillment of the promise of a new Kingdom?
In today’s gospel reading from John, a few days have passed since the crucifixion, and the apostles are in a house locked, we are told, for fear of the Jews. Please remember that Jesus and his followers were all Jews, so it was leaders of their own faith that they feared. What was the mood there? What had happened up to this point? The gospel accounts leave out lots of things that I am curious about. Have they been in hiding since Jesus’ arrest? What have they heard? What were they feeling?
Can you picture it? Let’s peer in at this scene: Ten men huddled in the upper room where they’d had their Passover dinner with Jesus before his arrest. They gathered there shortly after, and have been locked in for the past 3 day, windows shut against spying eyes, the air worse than stale. Some of the men are dozing, some sitting around, though no one is talking.
Imagine Simon Peter, pacing, pacing, like a caged lion. Matthew and James start talking, noting what a ticking time bomb Peter is – always unpredictable and rash, often a menace. Would he put them in danger now? Times are grim – Jesus gone, betrayed by one their own, marks on all of them by the Jewish leaders. When Andrew joins the conversation, he tells them how Peter saw the curtain in the temple torn in two. James is outraged. He shouts at Simon Peter, “Do you deliberately endanger us, or are you just stupid?” Peter is stunned. “What are you talking about?” “Another Judas, that’s what you are!” says James. There is a gasp from the others, and Peter snaps into fighting posture, “Explain yourself!”
“YOU explain YOURSELF! What were you doing in the temple when Jesus was dying?” Peter feels himself flush, heart racing. “Praying,” he says, moving towards James, “begging for forgiveness.” James is boiling over with tension, wants a fight. He braces himself and provokes him – “Get behind me, Satan.” Peter can contain himself no more and lunges at James with such fury in his eyes that the others fall away.
Can you imagine it? Not just sorrow, guilt, and fear, but anger, rage. All the stress of the last few weeks, of the previous days, replaying in your mind each part. Seeing in your mind your friend, your brother, Judas entering the garden with the enemy to have Jesus arrested, hearing the crowds calling for the execution of your friend and teacher, fleeing in fear for your own life. No, it is not too much of a stretch to imagine this scene. Was it into a scene of violence that suddenly, a beam of blinding white light split the room at its center?
And then it was no light at all, but the bright figure of a human, standing among them, standing directly between Simon Peter and James. And then the Figure was Jesus. He said. “Peace be with you.” The men are stunned, silent, awe-struck. Jesus looks at them, at all of them and at each of them. He opens his white robe and shows the scar in his side, the marks on his hands. The men begin to breathe again, “It is you Lord, you’ve come back!” Again Jesus said. “Peace be with you.” He goes to Andrew, and places his hands on the man’s head. Andrew smells myrhh as Jesus says to him, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus moves on to John, then James, Matthew, Simon Peter, Philip, breathing on each of them, blessing them with the Spirit. Throughout this gentle ceremony Jesus was saying: “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins will be forgiven. If you hold the sins of any, they will be held fast.” Then, Jesus departed, and no one tried to stop him. He returns the next week, to show himself to Thomas, to bless him with the Spirit, to call him to his ministry of forgiveness and healing.
And so it begins. This is the story of the movement for the disciples from here to there, from a place of fear , sorrow, guilt and anger to a place of boldness and joy and harmony. It begins with a blessing, a blessing and a call for peace. “Peace be with you.” Peace be between you and among you. The first thing Jesus does in his call for peace is to show up. Imagine what this means to the disciples, those who denied him and abandoned him. Jesus came to them, and came in peace. He still loves them.
Then he showed them his wounds. Even after suffering betrayal, physical torture and death, he calls for peace. He forgives without hesitation. “Peace be with you,” he says again. Peace be within you. He touches them, each, individually, and lets them know that he is as near to them as their very breath. And as he symbolically gives them his breath, his spirit, he repeats to each of them that any sins they forgive are forgiven, and any sins they retain are retained. Such a powerful phrase.
This is sometimes read as evidence that Jesus has assigned agents to determine which sins will be retained, and which will be forgiven. You confess and seek absolution from a spiritual authority, empowered by God to decide if your sin is forgivable, and God will go along with whatever decision is made. I don’t believe this. I believe Jesus is instead encouraging, urging his disciples to LET GO. If they are to be effective messengers of peace and love, they must forgive each other and forgive themselves. They must open themselves more fully to the power of God’s love. The retention of sin is an obstacle to that love. If they retain the sins of any, those sins are retained in THEIR hearts, interfering with THEIR peace, THEIR growth, THEIR love. I don’t believe it means that the sin is retained by God. God’s love and compassion and mercy are so far beyond our comprehension that we can only take in glimpses. And Jesus is encouraging his apostles, and us, to take in as much as we can.
I’m not sure why forgiveness is so hard, but I know that it is. I know I have to shake my head in wonder when I hear stories of forgiveness. I think of the Amish community who immediately extended forgiveness for Charles Roberts who shot up a classroom of 10 young girls, killing five before taking his own life. The Amish community reached out to the wife, children and parents of Mr. Roberts, offering comfort and love. So hard to take in such forgiveness, such a focus on love. Part of me is so uncomfortable with this that I sometimes think, That’s crazy! But I read John’s gospel, and I wonder if it is was just Jesus in the wounded flesh saying “peace be with you.”
And then there is Aba Gayle, whose daughter was brutally murdered at the age of 19 by Douglas Mickey. Gayle waited years for the conviction and death penalty sentence of Mickey to make her feel better, as she was told it would. But it didn’t. She spent years consumed by rage, hate, and despair. She found her way to a spiritual home and spiritual study, and after four years heard a voice tell her it was time to forgive, and it was time to let Mr. Mickey know she had. She wrote to this man who had taken her daughter from this life, offered forgiveness and wished him peace. When he wrote back, she agreed to meet with him. She stayed connected to him, and when he was executed by the state, she says she knows she lost a friend. Jesus in the wounded flesh, saying “Peace be with you.”
Most of us, fortunately, don’t have the opportunity to forgive on such a big scale. But can we start practicing it on a small scale, in the day to day episodes of our lives? If the person on the road with us drives thoughtlessly, recklessly, can we extend forgiveness instead of cursing them? What is retained is retained in us. When our child lashes out at us, can we hold the line with love? What is retained is retained in us. When the teen-ager smashes our mailbox for sport, can we find a healing way to let go? Can we show our wounds and call for peace?
Sometimes, like Simon Peter, our unrest is over our own sins. As hard as it is to forgive those who have hurt us, it can likewise be hard to let forgiveness in. It is no easy task to look at the wounds we caused. It can be hard, when we’ve messed up, bumped up against our shortcomings and limitations – hard to accept that we are beloved children of God, that God lives in us and Jesus is as near as our very breath. In our distress over our limits, we can limit ourselves even more.
The blessing of peace that Jesus offers and calls for is not an easy peace. It is not the kind of peace that smoothes over the rough places, but instead goes to the trouble of digging things up and sifting through them. It is not the kind of peace that ignores suffering and injustice, or offers hollow comfort in the promise of a better afterlife. No, it calls on us right now, right here, to align our hearts and souls as one, to work and play in harmony, to extend forgiveness and allow it in. Forgiveness doesn’t mean we have to remain in close relationship with someone who has hurt us, but we do need to acknowledge their humanity. We do need to be willing to move forward.
Through all our fear, anger, our guilt and sorrow, can we recognize that our common humanity? Can we see ourselves as one family? It is not easy, but it is possible. Jesus has prayed for us as well has for his apostles. He has asked God to live in our hearts, and is as near to us as our very breath. So let us be messengers of God’s great love. Let us help each other do so. Peace be with you.
