Welcome & Welcome Back - Easter 2B Sermon

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John 20:19-31

¹⁹When 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.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” ²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So 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.” ²⁶A 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.” ²⁷Then 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.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But 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.One week since

Well, fancy meeting all of you here!  But in the nicest way possible, may I ask, what are you doing here?  One week after the Easter story was proclaimed, what brings you back?  Last week the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty.  The angels proclaimed to Mary that that Jesus of Nazareth is not here, he is risen and he has gone ahead to Galilee to meet you there.  Remember? Alleluia, Jesus is Risen….he is risen indeed, alleluia!?

Now granted, not all of us were together in this space for worship last week, and if you weren’t here I hope that you were able to worship with a community of faith elsewhere for Easter.  But seriously, what are you doing here?

Christ is risen from the grave. God has fulfilled the promise of life over death.  

Sin and the devil are defeated. Jesus who was crucified has risen and gone ahead as promised. And we, along with Mary and the disciples were tasked with the responsibility and privilege of going and telling the world about Jesus!  Yet here we are.

Maybe your 1st week of Easter was packed with going and telling.  Perhaps you ran the streets like an ice cream truck singing the praises of God.  Shouting up Alleluia.  Serving anyone who was intrigued.

Maybe your 1st week of Easter was a moderate, more subtle week of proclaiming Christ is risen. Maybe you shared your Easter experience with someone in the office.   Called to check in on family and friends and catch up through conversations of faith.

Maybe you talked to a stranger about Jesus or even invited them to come and see for themselves. Maybe you helped a neighbor or someone in need...took intentional efforts to be a witness to the resurrection ...a light in the world.  

Maybe you were unmotivated, unchanged by the Easter proclamation. Maybe you were scared to talk about Jesus or afraid of what the Spirit might be up to.  Maybe you were sucked right back in to a routine that suppress the glory, joy, and energy of Easter morning.

Maybe some of you stood graveside with a loved one, experienced terror hatred.  Maybe some of us were reluctant to even care about Jesus at all because it feels as though Jesus has failed to care about us.  So why bother.

Whatever our experience of this first week of Easter, faith and the Holy Spirit have led us here; gathered together in this sacred and safe place.  Whether to have the flame of Easter fanned once more, confess a reluctance to embrace the call of going and telling.  Whether to ask hard questions about faith, seek clarification, or plea to God for a sign to help our unbelief...we are here again.  After the first week of Easter, Welcome to some. And Welcome back to others.  It is good to be together again.

The first week of Easter is precisely where we find the disciples this morning.  Mary returns from the tomb that first Easter morning proclaiming that she has seen the Lord.  

She went to the disciples as she was instructed by the angels.  Now either disciples believed her without question and were just waiting for Jesus to show up or her message feel on deaf ears.  Because Mary proclaims the Easter message and not a word was said in return to her.  

The disciples are hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews.  Their fear was amplified for various reasons, but mostly they were afraid that their proximity association with the supposed Messiah might land them in a similar situation.  And I suspect they were terrified because they had dropped everything to devote their lives to following Jesus hoping for him to be the Messiah and now that he’s dead they don’t know what comes next.  Their uncertainty leads to hiding.

And regardless of their fears, Jesus Does show up.  Alive. And Jesus offers them peace. Breathes on them the Holy Spirit and says, “as the father sent me, so now I send you.”  This is their Easter celebration.  The text says they rejoiced.  I imagine them shouting Alleluia and praising God.  Perhaps some high fives were thrown around. Friends leaning over to say “I told you so.”  Maybe they had an Easter brunch and enjoyed fellowship with one another.  Maybe some then took a nap.  But that was their Easter celebration.

And here is that crazy part. One week later they are still garrisoned inside this room, hiding behind a closed door.  For whatever reason, the Easter story was not met with a fervent and urgent response to tell the world what had happened.

So one week later, insert Thomas. Thomas gets a poor reputation for requesting proof. He’s faulted for his desire to see it for himself.  History labels him a doubter but the truth is he doesn’t necessarily doubt his best friends and their experience of Jesus. Thomas just wants his own experience with Jesus.  He wants the Easter moment to see and know that Jesus is alive.  

Thomas is simply a brother in the body of Christ eager to have his faith affirmed.  He’s willing and ready to believe, but he wanted be strong-armed or pressured into faith.  He won’t be argued or forced into believing. Thomas will not be shamed into believing. And too often history has mistaken his prudence for doubt.  

Our gut reaction is to appreciate Thomas because he validates our own hesitations of faith. Thomas embodies our own curiosities and desires to be met by Jesus. And while that’s true, perhaps Thomas’s story is more than just a validation of our own journey of faith.  

Perhaps Thomas is also a good representation of the world to which we are called to proclaim Jesus Christ.  Like Thomas, the world is desperate to meet and see Jesus.  They are aching for a sign or resurrection experience.  They’re willing to believe, but like Thomas, they won’t be strong-armed, bullied, or argued into faith. They simply want or need to experience Jesus for themselves.  This is what makes Thomas’s story so powerful.  

The reality is that we are called to proclaim Christ. To go and tell all the world.  And perhaps a greater reality is that people won’t always believe you. The world is not always so ready to believe and confess. The call is hard work, relentless work. After all, if 10 disciples couldn’t convince one of their own to believe after seven days of talking about their experience of the risen Christ, then how much more work is ahead of us.

A desire for clarification and understanding; a need for personal experience and encounter is a perfectly acceptable response to the resurrection story. And when our going and telling is met with what we perceive to be “doubting” it doesn’t mean we stop telling.  Just like Thomas’ 10 best friends kept on telling him, we too keep on telling the world.

Take heart that God is the one who confronts unbelief and hesitant faith.  God is the one who is appears behind the locked doors of our everyday lives. God is the one who gives a breath of promise when we’re grasping on to hope. We proclaim a God who doesn’t condemn what we perceive as doubt, but rather cultivates a faithful curiosity.  

Friends, I’m glad you’re back. Whether your first week of Easter was spent shouting Alleluia to anyone and everyone, or whether you lamented and despised anyone who was overly excited for Jesus. Welcome back. Whether it was a week of ceaseless praise, or uninspired prayer.  Welcome back. 

Because Here in this place, where some of us are wrestling with faith and all the curiosity, uncertainty, anxiety, and doubt that comes with it...and where some of us are telling our friends over and over our experience of Jesus.  God is surely present.  

The good news is that this is a safe and loving place for our moments of wrestling and our endless praising.  All are gathered and welcomed here because here in this place we are sure to meet Jesus.  In water and word, wine and bread.  Jesus and the breath of the Spirit graces us in worship as we are forgiven, nourished, and sent.  

And friends, as much as we love gathering together in this place, we are always reminded that Easter means we will always be sent.  Again and again. To go and tell.  To tell the story of Christ risen, from the perspective of doubt and uncertainty as well as a posture of confidence and assurance.   Either way the call to go and tell is the same.  And Jesus will surely be present.

© Preached by Pastor Daniel Locke on April 8, 2018 @ St. Mark's Lutheran, Jacksonville, FL