7 April 2013

“’Group hallucination,’ claims absent disciple”
Easter 2C
Acts 5:27-32 / John 20:19-31
7 April 2013


A few years ago we had a Nativity Movie Night and showed “What the Bleep do We Know?” Maybe some of you remember it. For those who don’t know or haven’t heard of or seen it, this is a fairly deep movie about quantum physics, the interrelationship of all things, and, yes, faith … though coming at faith from an angle that could make the very traditional among us squirm a little.
One of my favorite scenes in the film portrays the day that Columbus’ ships first got close to land in America … right before he landed. The story goes, that although the ships were quite close in, and would have been obvious to us if we would have been there … the native people simply couldn’t see them, because they had never seen sailing ships before. The images entered their eyes but their brains couldn’t, wouldn’t process the information because it was unknown to them.
Finally, the spiritual man for the natives came forward … put his arm on their shoulders, one at a time, and pointed to where the ships were, describing them so that the natives would hear, and then see, and then believe that these ships were there, with white people on them, white people who would soon come ashore, speaking a strange unknown language, people who were so different from them that, without the help of the spiritual man, they couldn’t have believed they were really, truly, right there, in front of them.
Well, as I said, it’s a squirmy sort of movie, but that point … that faith, belief comes through hearing, hearing from another, hearing and then seeing … it’s a hallmark of John’s Gospel which we have before us these Sundays in the Easter season.
Last Sunday’s Resurrection Gospel certainly had that Word for us. Mary Magdalene saw dead Jesus, dead Jesus alive again-but-anew, and didn’t recognize him ... didn’t recognize him until he called her name, “Mary,” and then she heard, and saw, and believed it was Jesus before her. And so Mary ... not Peter, not the beloved disciple, who entered the empty tomb but only saw empty grave clothes ... Mary became the first to bring the news of the Resurrection to the others ... and from her, through their proclamation, to the world ... but not quite yet.
Not quite yet ... because this week, in our continuation of last week’s text, it’s evening of that same first Easter day, and Jesus’ closest followers are hiding away behind locked doors because they’re scared. Scared that what happened to Jesus will happen to them, soon enough, too. Mary’s words to them that she’s seen dead Jesus, except he’s not dead anymore; her words, true as they are, do not give them peace. Peace to be bold, be strong in faith.
Until peace himself walks in, through their locked doors and into their fear-locked reality.
Jesus comes in ... the Prince of Peace ... and he stands among them; and in the literal words of the text, says “Hey! Peace Is Here!”
Peace? In the midst of all their fear and foreboding about what might happen to them?
Yes ... Peace ... Peace in flesh and blood ... Jesus, there among them once again. And just like with Mary, the disciples hear the voice of the Lord to them, and see him, his scars and wounds and all, not a Zombie Apocalpyse but the Risen Lord before them .... and now, only now, can they rejoice because now they do believe the Word which Mary received and gave them hours earlier.
And then Jesus does something even more amazing.
He breathes on the apostles and they catch something from him.
It’s true, it’s true ... this is what the text says,

When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

That word, receive, it literally means the same as when you’re playing with someone, throwing them a ball, and you say, “Here, catch.” That what Jesus does with the Holy Spirit, he says to the apostles, “here, catch what I have to give you. Catch the Holy Spirit. Come on!”
This is so important for us to hear, especially as Lutheran Christians.
Because historically, we’ve so prided ourselves on our Christian Education. Sunday School, Confirmation, Bible Studies, colleges and universities, theological seminaries.
We have worked very, very hard to TEACH THE FAITH TO PEOPLE. To make faith education a priority.
And that’s a very commendable thing to have done, and to keep on doing.
But sometimes, I wonder if we’ve forgotten Jesus’ point in these words from John’s Gospel.
“Come on, come on, catch the faith! Catch the Spirit! Be caught up in the love and joy and peace and forgiveness and hope of what it means to follow me!”
Faith IS meant to be caught. Oh yes, we can and should and do study the Word, learn the verses, hear the stories read, have the Word proclaimed to us in worship and in sermons. But hey ... let’s do it with Spirit, folks. Let’s toss the Faith around so that people can catch it with hope and joy and peace and love.
This faith, this life, was never, EVER, meant to be a dusty, dry, dogmatic exercise. Amen?
That’s why we lead Confirmation as we do with our youth and parents – “Faith Thinking” which is a relationship-filled happening event-time where we toss the faith to our young people. Ditto with Kids’ Church, and I hope that the participants in Adult Education can feel that’s what we’re trying to do there, too.
Faith is meant to be caught. Caught, catching the Spirit of joy from the One passing it along to us.
Now, yes, there will always be those who will take a little longer to “catch faith” and catch fire with the Spirit. That’s who Thomas is and represents in the second half of our Gospel story, and why, every year on the Sunday after Easter, we hear, not of his “doubts” – Jesus never uses that word here - but, literally, of his “not-faith.”
He’s not “doubting Thomas,” but rather “not-faith Thomas.”
There is a distinct difference.
Thomas wasn’t there with the others when Jesus appeared to them ... who knows where he was, maybe he went out for a pizza!!! He didn’t receive Jesus as they did, they, those closest to Jesus, they, those first charged with being sent out into the world to spread Jesus’ good news.
And Thomas ... Thomas simply believes that he must be in the same place, on the same level as the others as he has been all along, to be a full part of this Resurrection story going forward.
And so, a week later, Jesus comes to Thomas, too, and he – Thomas – also hears and sees and believes.
So don’t hang around, don’t cling to this portion of the text too long. Don’t use it as a club, against those who have their “doubts” about Jesus, about this faith, about the church.
For the face of Christianity in these latter days has certainly given the world much room for doubt ... especially with those who speak God’s name loudest, controlling the faith-stage with their sometimes scary, often angry speech and acts.
Thankfully ... this appears to be changing ... at least we see signs of hope. Pope Francis and his setting aside the trappings of his office, turning instead as Jesus does ... to the poor, reflecting Jesus’ words and actions. The “old mainline” denominations, Methodists and Episcopalians and Presbyterians and, yes, timid Lutherans, standing up for the world’s “least of these,” and speaking out too ... reclaiming the word “evangelical” from a partisan political label, to what it really means ... “people who bring Good News to the world.”
These times call for a bold faith.
As bold as it was in the early days of the church.
That’s why, during the Easter season, we set aside our Old Testament scripture readings to spend time in the book of Acts.
Here, today, in a scene not long after that which is before us in the Gospel, we see what the Good News of the Resurrection brings forth in the apostles ... including Thomas ... the text says “Peter and the apostles” so Thomas must be here too ...
... and what we see and hear from them is ... boldness. Action. Decisive faith.
Just hear Peter’s words as he responds to the religious leaders of his age, who had told Jesus’ followers to stop speaking of him:

We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus ... God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things ...

What the apostles ... Mary Magdalene, Peter, Thomas and the others ... what they have heard, and seen, this is no group hallucination ... it‘s the power of the Resurrection made visible to them, Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit, at work, among these men and women, witnesses of all these things.
And just look what the peace and power of the Holy Spirit brings forth in them. And wills to bring forth in us too ... yes, you and I, the latest in this line of those who follow Jesus.
Now that can be a sobering, even frightening thought ... if we really think about it. If we really believe the words we speak every week. “Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” “This bread, this cup, this Eucharist that we share, it is a foretaste of the feast to come.” “Go in peace ... serve the Lord ... remember the poor ... Christ is with you.”
And yet ... and yet the truth behind these words is the same truth that walked into the apostles’ midst later on that first Easter day. “Peace is here!” Jesus is present, present with us just as he was present with them then.
Not to frighten. But to bring his word of Peace and Power. To give us his Spirit, so that we can play “Catch the Faith” with en-Spirited enthusiasm, power and hope, into the world.
The author CS Lewis – yes, he of the “Chronicles of Narnia,” ... there’s a quote of Lewis’ which we use in our Faith Thinking confirmation classes, which goes quite well with this Scripture-word that’s before us today:

You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him, and kill him as a demon: or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.
We are faced, then, with a frightening alternative. This man we’re talking about either was (and is) just what he said or else a lunatic, or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that he wasn’t either a lunatic or a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem. I have to accept the view that Jesus was and is God.

The Resurrected Jesus makes people of power and peace ... peace to be and bring ... and power to proclaim ... into the world.
And YOU ... YOU ARE WITNESSES TO THESE THINGS. You see them here all around you. A little band of disciples, almost dead, ready to lock these doors tight and move on not that long ago ... now, alive ... alive and vital with the Peace and Power of God’s Spirit ... Christ’s Spirit among us ... flowing from here and here into us and then out these doors and into this community.
Is there anything ... anything ... our God cannot work among us, for his good and gracious will to and for the world? This God, who brings forth life from death itself?
And YOU ... YOU are witnesses to these things.
So what’s next, Nativity, people of new birth, people of new life?
Peace is here! God’s Spirit is here, leading, guiding.
Catch it ... catch on ... come, see and hear, go and tell, Christ is Risen! Christ is risen indeed!
Amen.