John 20:19-31
Easter is about encounters with the risen Christ. Jesus shows up to people and then people respond. Last week the reading we always do from John's gospel with Mary at the tomb we didn't read because we read Mark's ending. Fear is a response to the encounter though. They were afraid about their encounter, unsure what to do. Maybe its because its a man in a white robe and not Jesus, maybe this is why the encounter leaves them in fear. In John's account with Mary at the tomb the response is to hold onto Christ, remember he has to tell her not to hold onto him? Today the disciples have a response also, some is in receiving what is Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit. The other is in waiting until they are a complete community because Thomas is left out of the first encounter. Thomas' response is worship, adoration, proclamation, "My Lord, and my God."
Response is a very important part of our spiritual lives. Not all the time do we have encounters with Jesus, but there is something which brought us here. There is something which brought us to church, there is something which brought you to this place. We still have a response. A response to a love which sacrificed everything for us. A response to being a child of God, adopted because of love we can't even fathom. A response in faith where we want to show others the things we have encountered because of our own experience with being with the divine.
Response is written in the very DNA of who a Christian is. It is in our scriptures today, in every single one. Because responses take on different forms and shapes depending on where we are in our journey. The response of the community of faith in Acts is to hold everything in common and take care of one another. This is a very Jewish response, because God asked them to when they first entered the Promised Land. Take care of those in your midst, the widow and orphan, and even the stranger. Leave a portion of the field for those coming through who are without anything. So the first communities take up this radical care of one another in response to hearing the gospel, good news.
In first John the community is asked to respond in a different way. Maybe they were having a problem with people thinking because they had received the good news of Christ that they didn't need to do anything further. John's writer seems to be addressing the problem of people thinking they are righteous when they are still in sin. This destroys community. Because when we are not in right relationship with God we are not in right relationship with one another. We need to ask for forgiveness. This is what the letter is all about. Confessing and asking to be made clean, to walk in the light instead of the darkness.
This is why we do the confession every week. Not so we say it and say that is done. Notice the placement of it. It should be obvious right now. We just ended the season of Lent, where is the confession, right first thing in the service. During this season we are to remember our wrongs, what leads to what we celebrated last week and all of it. The whole of Holy Week. During Easter we drop the confession because we are forgiven by grace upon grace which we celebrate in Eastertide. We then pick it up again in Pentecost. It is placed just before the peace. Why? Because of this right relationship we should reestablish before we take communion. If we have not forgiven someone, Christ says in Matthew to leave your gift on the altar and go and reconcile, then come back to worship.
Then John's gospel tells us this story of the disciples response. Waiting in the upper room. The first gift is Jesus' peace and they receive this with the Holy Spirit. Receiving is a response. We can choose to receive something or not receive it. We can choose to recognize the gifts around us or ignore them. Look around you, what gifts are around you? What gift of relationship do you have with the people around you? Is it more than just at this church and in this pew on Sunday morning? It should be. Because this is the rest of the story. Thomas isn't there, the disciples don't leave the room for a week, and then Thomas gets his encounter. They wait, they wait for the community of disciples to be sent. They wait until Thomas can have the same experience they had. They wait because you don't leave the community behind.
In this day and age of the consumer is always right we have come to believe the church should cater to us. It is no more about working on the community as a community. You do what I want now or I pack up and leave. We have a communal God, at least this is what we believe in the trinity, one God in three persons. A communal God who loves community building, who loves when we can get along, work together and display community to one another. This is not a fancy or a political statement. This is the Bible and if you haven't read it maybe you need to look at it again. God doesn't choose Moses over the Hebrews in Egypt, God chose a community. God doesn't choose David over Israel, God chose community. This is what we see again and again. Twelve disciples and then the women included on Easter, communities of faith in Acts like Dorcas and Lydia. Communities which Paul wrote to. Communities which started things no one else had thought to do because they believed the encounter should go out beyond their doors. We've just forgotten it.
Come back to the response of community. Come back to see where community might lead us because this broken and divisive world needs this drastic swelling of community. Communities where nothing else matters but to care for one another. To be the response of faith, to wait for one another, to cry with one another to rejoice with one another, just as Paul tells us. What is your response of faith?
Easter is about encounters with the risen Christ. Jesus shows up to people and then people respond. Last week the reading we always do from John's gospel with Mary at the tomb we didn't read because we read Mark's ending. Fear is a response to the encounter though. They were afraid about their encounter, unsure what to do. Maybe its because its a man in a white robe and not Jesus, maybe this is why the encounter leaves them in fear. In John's account with Mary at the tomb the response is to hold onto Christ, remember he has to tell her not to hold onto him? Today the disciples have a response also, some is in receiving what is Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit. The other is in waiting until they are a complete community because Thomas is left out of the first encounter. Thomas' response is worship, adoration, proclamation, "My Lord, and my God."
Response is a very important part of our spiritual lives. Not all the time do we have encounters with Jesus, but there is something which brought us here. There is something which brought us to church, there is something which brought you to this place. We still have a response. A response to a love which sacrificed everything for us. A response to being a child of God, adopted because of love we can't even fathom. A response in faith where we want to show others the things we have encountered because of our own experience with being with the divine.
Response is written in the very DNA of who a Christian is. It is in our scriptures today, in every single one. Because responses take on different forms and shapes depending on where we are in our journey. The response of the community of faith in Acts is to hold everything in common and take care of one another. This is a very Jewish response, because God asked them to when they first entered the Promised Land. Take care of those in your midst, the widow and orphan, and even the stranger. Leave a portion of the field for those coming through who are without anything. So the first communities take up this radical care of one another in response to hearing the gospel, good news.
In first John the community is asked to respond in a different way. Maybe they were having a problem with people thinking because they had received the good news of Christ that they didn't need to do anything further. John's writer seems to be addressing the problem of people thinking they are righteous when they are still in sin. This destroys community. Because when we are not in right relationship with God we are not in right relationship with one another. We need to ask for forgiveness. This is what the letter is all about. Confessing and asking to be made clean, to walk in the light instead of the darkness.
This is why we do the confession every week. Not so we say it and say that is done. Notice the placement of it. It should be obvious right now. We just ended the season of Lent, where is the confession, right first thing in the service. During this season we are to remember our wrongs, what leads to what we celebrated last week and all of it. The whole of Holy Week. During Easter we drop the confession because we are forgiven by grace upon grace which we celebrate in Eastertide. We then pick it up again in Pentecost. It is placed just before the peace. Why? Because of this right relationship we should reestablish before we take communion. If we have not forgiven someone, Christ says in Matthew to leave your gift on the altar and go and reconcile, then come back to worship.
Then John's gospel tells us this story of the disciples response. Waiting in the upper room. The first gift is Jesus' peace and they receive this with the Holy Spirit. Receiving is a response. We can choose to receive something or not receive it. We can choose to recognize the gifts around us or ignore them. Look around you, what gifts are around you? What gift of relationship do you have with the people around you? Is it more than just at this church and in this pew on Sunday morning? It should be. Because this is the rest of the story. Thomas isn't there, the disciples don't leave the room for a week, and then Thomas gets his encounter. They wait, they wait for the community of disciples to be sent. They wait until Thomas can have the same experience they had. They wait because you don't leave the community behind.
In this day and age of the consumer is always right we have come to believe the church should cater to us. It is no more about working on the community as a community. You do what I want now or I pack up and leave. We have a communal God, at least this is what we believe in the trinity, one God in three persons. A communal God who loves community building, who loves when we can get along, work together and display community to one another. This is not a fancy or a political statement. This is the Bible and if you haven't read it maybe you need to look at it again. God doesn't choose Moses over the Hebrews in Egypt, God chose a community. God doesn't choose David over Israel, God chose community. This is what we see again and again. Twelve disciples and then the women included on Easter, communities of faith in Acts like Dorcas and Lydia. Communities which Paul wrote to. Communities which started things no one else had thought to do because they believed the encounter should go out beyond their doors. We've just forgotten it.
Come back to the response of community. Come back to see where community might lead us because this broken and divisive world needs this drastic swelling of community. Communities where nothing else matters but to care for one another. To be the response of faith, to wait for one another, to cry with one another to rejoice with one another, just as Paul tells us. What is your response of faith?
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