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Third Sunday of EasterApril 26, 2009
Reverend Michael D. PowellJohn 29:19-31 |
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! It’s a glorious statement of faith, but what on earth does it mean? The unexpected laugh line of Easter Sunday was not in the written copy of the sermon. It was a spontaneous confession that after preaching Easter sermons for 32 years, I still don’t know what I’m talking about. I said that resurrection is a mystery that we don’t so much figure out in our heads as we simply live out in our lives - and we may never understand it.
We have a lot of questions, and that’s not a bad thing! We ask: Why did Christ have to suffer and die? What is resurrection? Is there a personal God? Is Jesus the only Son of God? Are all religions equally valid? Why is there so much evil in the world? Why do I have cancer? If God is love, why are the innocent allowed to suffer?” These are all good questions!
I personally feel that a place like Morningside United Methodist Church is meant to be a safe place, a place where we can celebrate our human capacity to grow and to become fully human by asking the right questions. Too often we religious types have been taught to disparage questions, in large part based on this morning’s text.
We’ve labeled Thomas, branded him as a one-dimensional character. You’ve heard it, he’s known as “Doubting Thomas.” Popular proverbial language has forever branded him as a doubter because of one brief sound bite in which Jesus tells him to “stop doubting and only believe.” But that’s terribly unfair. Jesus himself loved Thomas and embraced his questing spirit, even as the living Spirit of Christ continues to affirm our God-given ability to grow by asking the right questions.
Notice I said the right questions. The Bible does not contain the answers to all possible questions. There are things you won’t learn by reading the Bible, like auto repair, tap dancing or how to update the hard drive on your laptop computer. The Bible’s purpose is to save our souls, not replace our brains.
So, we gather to worship. But what does that mean? Easter is a mini glimpse of the heaven on earth for which we pray, but a glance at the headlines is enough to convince any thinking person that it still looks like hell. It’s enough to make you question, isn’t it? You and I are the modern day equivalent of Thomas, asking for credible, tangible evidence that life has conquered death, seeking some kind of personal experience that will provide a reason for celebration when all around us is chaos and destruction. Like Thomas and the other disciples, we have plenty of darn good reasons to question and to doubt, even to be hiding in fear behind locked doors. The downward spiral of terrorism and counter violence, of piracy, kidnapping, suicide bombings and retaliatory strikes, of death and destruction throughout the world continues. It’s enough to break your heart. It’s enough to make you doubt that we’ll ever learn. Is there an answer that will calm the restless, disturbing questions of our minds and hearts?
I’m here this morning to claim that there is an answer, but it’s not going to be found in reciting creeds or even in reading the Bible. It’s the answer that Thomas received, and it’s the only answer that ever works with any degree of certainty. It’s the personal experience that comes from asking for a personal experience, and then from being open to receive it.
For those of us who claim the Christian faith, not only Easter Sunday, but every Sunday must be claimed and reclaimed as a day of resurrection, of new life and the promise that darkness, destruction, despair and death do not have the last word. Every day we must wake up, greet the risen sun and reclaim it as an Easter day, as a gift and an opportunity to experience the rebirth of hope and joy. Every new day we must ask over and over the big questions that challenge our faith, provoke growth and lead us to that place where we can once again open ourselves to receive the personal experience of empowerment, of courage and the grace of wonder - of the human compassion and divine mercy that is able to sustain us in the midst of a dark and disturbing, dangerous and death filled world.
We live in a wounded and warring world of flesh and bone, a world where love is continually being bloodied. If you are human, your faith is going to be battered, if not broken. If you’re a part of the human family, aware of the suffering of your sisters and brothers, you’re going to inevitably suffer those dark times of doubt and despair.
There is peace, and there is comfort to be received as we open ourselves to receive the healing Light of the Risen Christ, but please know that Easter doesn’t mean you stay on that mountaintop where the Christlight is always shining, blissfully basking in the warmth of your own private little spiritual comfort zone. Nor does it mean that you opt for the imagined safety of staying cloistered behind the locked doors of your isolation and fear. What Easter means, and what Thomas experienced, is that the Living Christ continues to come, right here and right now, in the dark and uncertain, doubting and barren times of your life, bearing the wounds of love that demonstrate his solidarity with you.
And then, don’t miss this! After revealing his wounds, Christ breathed new life into his disciples, empowering them with the gift of the Holy Spirit, saying, “even as God has sent me, so I send you.” You are among the company of those disciples. God is even now breathing the life of the Spirit into you, empowering you with purpose. You are a part of the only body that Christ has on earth. You are being called to be an ambassador of Christ, an agent of reconciliation.
There is not a one of us here this morning who does not bear the scars of love. Like the disciples of old, we’ve been frightened. We’ve known doubt and despair. But, like them, we’re empowered by the Spirit of the resurrected Christ to be wounded healers, carrying on the work which he began, tearing down walls that we’re erected between people and between people and God, building bridges of peace and reconciliation, living and bearing witness as best we are able to the power of love. We gather this morning in recognition of the great Love that is God, in remembrance of the passion, and the compassion that is made known to us through the wounds of Christ. I have no question of that. Of that, I have no doubt. Christ is risen! Thanks be to God. Amen.