Second Sunday of Easter 11th April 2021 Peace be with you

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER   Year B     April 11, 2021

• Acts 4:32-35  • Psalm 133  • 1 John 1:1-2:2  • John 20:19-31

Recently I happened to flick TV stations to an episode of Modern Family.  They were taking a vacation and all seemed wonderful and peaceful in the beginning.  The siblings and parents were all getting along and being kind to each other.  Before very long they were completely chaotic and tearing at each other.  The father of the family stopped the vehicle, got out and went and swapped stories with other men holidaying and having the same problem.  While he was out, something crazy happened with the fighting siblings; they confessed to the mess in each of their lives and an area where each had failed that they were hiding from the rest of the family.  In this act of confession, the family came together in support of each other and peace came to the situation – not peace like there was before, but a peace that was a lot deeper and more honest.

 

In our readings this week there are also some aspects of confession of sin for us to reflect on.  The first thing that we need to be aware of is the great cover up.  Just like in my tv story, it is not natural to confess our sin, but it is way more natural to cover up our sin.  I suspect that it is not terribly politically correct to insinuate that anyone sins, and yet we most certainly all do. 

 

1 John 1:8 tells us, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”  So, what is this “SIN” and why are we so uncomfortable with admitting to it?

 

The Bible actually tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Falling short of the glory of God is a given.  We are all fallen and none of us is perfect.  Failure is something that all humanity share – Except Jesus.

Another interesting quote about sin comes from Romans 14:12, “But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

 

Have you ever had doubts?  Well, doubt is evidence that you are human.  Doubt is natural and a normal part of humanity, but it shows us that we are not perfect and doubt is sin.

 

Sin, perhaps is best understood by the archery example.  Apparently, when the Archer shoots at the target, the bullseye is the mark that they aim for and anything outside of that bullseye is called sin.  Some might miss the mark just a bit and others might miss it by a long way, but it is all called by the same term, sin.  It literally means, to miss the mark.  In our Christian story, we all miss the mark of God’s perfect glory… we all fall short… we all sin, as we miss the mark of perfection.  The first step for us to take, if we are going to walk in the light is to agree with the word of God and admit that we all sin.

 

In our modern times I notice that we all want to down play this sin factor and say that things that are sin, are actually not.  This is not helpful.  In fact it is a lie, it is in disagreement with God and it is SIN.  What is more helpful is to take a very hard line with sin, but a soft line with each other.  To do this we need to start with ourselves and admit to every lack of faith… every sin, little or big it is all sin.  To walk in the light is to shine a spot light on these dark spots and bring them into the light. 

It is important.  Not so much because God frowns on our sin.  God is not surprised or shocked or dismayed… he has seen it all, understands it all and is bigger than all this and he has covered our sins with his love.  But admitting our sin is important because otherwise, we lie to God and wedge a barrier between us and God when we refuse to admit the truth of our condition.  Not only is our confession important for this reason, but … and I believe God is super concerned about this next point….  Our walking in the dark, ie. Refusing to admit our sin, drives a huge wedge between us and our community.

 

Much like the tv story, we will always find that a group of people can get along ok together while they are all pretending to be perfect and trying to be good.  Psychologist, M Scott Peck called this kind of group, Pseudo Community.  In his book, The Different Drum”, he explains that people try to cover up who they really are, but eventually they vent about their differences and enter the next stage of community – Chaos!  Chaos is not nice, and we see it a lot in groups.  According to M. Scott Peck, the next stage of community is emptiness and then after that, if they haven’t given up, they may come to true community.  Surely there has to be a better way to be community.  We remember all that Jesus exhorted us to be in relationship, telling us that they’ll know we are Christians by our love.  Love is the answer… but God’s true love, flowing from the honesty of our condition.

 

It is obvious that Jesus has given us directions for how to enter into eternal life by admitting our failure and accepting his sacrifice, but how amazing is it that our God is not just concerned about us getting into Heaven one day, but concerned about our relationships and the way that we get along, right here and now?  This call to admit our sins, should be the first step in us being able to be in a right relationship, not just with God, but with each other.

 

It isn’t that we go about in the community confessing our sins out loud, but that we need to have an attitude of honesty with God and ourselves, and humility with each other. 

 

Many years ago, an international Bible speaker confessed to us that he had a problem loving people.  The most amazing thing happens when we are aware of our weakness and readily share them with God, asking for his help.  Would you believe, the main thing I remember about that bible speaker was that he was a strikingly loving man.  He seemed to be loved by many and he had a way of speaking the truth in love that I had never seen before.  What was the key to him being so loving?  If it wasn’t something that he found a natural and easy thing to do, the only logical explanation is that GOD did something.  Through the confession of his weakness and in asking God for his help, a miraculous change occurred.

 

Often times, we in the church are labelled by outsiders as hypocrites.  In Shakespearean times an actor was referred to as a hypocrite.  It simply means someone who pretends to be someone else – an actor.  If we act as though we are people who don’t sin we only deceive ourselves.  Not that our sin is anything so drastic…. I’m sure…. But remember that sin is absolutely anything that falls short of perfection.  Remember anything that is not of faith is sin… so lack of faith and even doubt is sin. 

 

And now we come to Thomas.  Poor Thomas.  He is known as doubting Thomas, but let’s explore his story because there is a great truth and some incredible Good News to grasp.

 

In John 11:16 we read this about Thomas; “Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.””

This is a statement made by Thomas, who understood that if Jesus travelled to see Mary and Martha, there was a possibility and even a probability that the Jews who were trying to kill Jesus, would do so.  Thomas was so dedicated to our Lord that he was prepared to go with him into danger and death.  Thomas was a loyal friend.

 

Thomas did not witness Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples and confesses his disbelief in the resurrection.  His doubting can well be seen as a sin.  If the others had not seen Jesus, I’m pretty sure that they’d have been guilty of that sin also.  Thomas could easily have gone along with the crowd, given in to peer pressure and cried “He is risen indeed, alleluia”, while harbouring his doubt deep in his heart and keeping it to himself.   – but that would have made him a hypocrite as well as a doubter.

 

In confessing our sins and admitting to the reality of our condition in perfect honesty, we give Jesus the opportunity to act.  Jesus did not leave Thomas to continue in his doubt for too long, but instead, understanding Thomas’s weakness, Jesus does something amazing.  He not only shows himself to Thomas, but allows Thomas to touch him.

 

Our message from Easter shows us that Jesus makes the way for us to be in uninterrupted relationship with God.  HE atones for our sin – He makes our paths straight – not us… our job is only to be honest and receive the gift.  Jesus creates a way of new life for us and this new life is not only eternal, but abundant and full, and begins here and now.

 

We can call sin, sin, and not be offended because it is something common to us all.  What’s more, sin no longer has the same sting because Jesus has taken that sting and defeated death.  In our relationships, we have a great equalizer…. We are all sinners and we have all been treated with the immense love and kindness of God by having Jesus redeem us.  All we need to do to enter this relationship and all the gifts that God has for us, is to believe….. To believe God’s word about our fallen condition, and to accept the gift of Jesus.

 

Modern society is struggling.  There are so many factions, and so many at odds with family, friends and colleagues.  We, the church, are called to be the salt of the earth… to bring good to the earth by showing a better way.  Jesus breathed on those early followers and declared, “peace be with you”.  Is there peace in our own communities, and are we an example of God’s design for relationships?

 

The answer is not to pretend we all get along.  The answer is to be honest-   firstly and foremostly with God who can miraculously turn our lives and witness around. When we can admit to God and ourselves that we need God’s help and that we are not perfect, we will have more compassion for others who are also imperfect.  We find true community by accepting that we are all very different… all fallen and all so very loved by God. Each of us is so loved that Jesus died to redeem us.

 

The very Good News is that we are free from the power of sin.  Just as Thomas honestly confessed his doubting, Jesus can turn our weakness around.  He does not treat us as we might think we deserve.  Our weakness is no surprise to him and he has already dealt with it, but the power of our story is in allowing Jesus to act on our weakness and turn our lives around.  Will we let him?

Some thoughts for Easter Sunday 2021

 

From the time I was little, I’ve been a fan of poetry.  One of my favourites is “Christmas is really for the children”, by Steve Turner.

 “Christmas is really
for the children.
Especially for children
who like animals, stables,
stars and babies wrapped
in swaddling clothes.
Then there are wise men,
kings in fine robes,
humble shepherds and a
hint of rich perfume.

Easter is not really
for the children
unless accompanied by
a cream filled egg.
It has whips, blood, nails,
a spear and allegations
of body snatching.
It involves politics, God
and the sins of the world.
It is not good for people
of a nervous disposition.
They would do better to
think on rabbits, chickens
and the first snowdrop
of spring.

Or they’d do better to
wait for a re-run of
Christmas without asking
too many questions about
what Jesus did when he grew up
or whether there’s any connection.”

 

Is Easter relevant in our contemporary society?  Unfortunately our society has turned Easter into well… Easter – a pagan festival.  My Italian friends Easter greeting is “Buona Pasqua” – Pasqua being the Italian word for Passover.  I rather like the phrase.

For us to understand Easter we really need to understand the Jewish Passover.  Passover was the festival celebrated to remember the great deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, to the freedom and joy in the promised land.  Passover was the festival being celebrated at the time that Jesus was taken and crucified.  During the Passover, a lamb would be sacrificed and during that first Passover the blood of the lamb, placed over the door way, saved the people from the Angel of death.

Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of God, whose shed blood is over the doorway of our lives, saving us.

But today is resurrection Sunday.

In our second reading Saint Paul tells us; “For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… “

Note that he tells us this is of FIRST importance.   A little later in that same letter we discover that though this group of Christians readily accepted the message of the cross – in that they understood that Jesus died for our sins…for the sin of the world, there was a growing trend that didn’t really believe in resurrection.   

Saint Paul addressed this group saying;   I Corinthians15:17-19    “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”    Clearly, the resurrection is highly important.

In fact a renowned Bible speaker once said, “Christ did not die to save us from our sin” - - and if he’d have stopped there it sounded like heresy…  but he continued to explain…  “Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we might have LIFE…  dying for our sins needed to be accomplished in order to bring us life”. 

Many times we stop short of the purpose of God.  We acknowledge the sacrifice of Jesus and we are grateful, but often times we stay there and forget that God’s desire is for us to have LIFE.  WHAT does this life look to you?

The life Jesus brings us is not just any life, but abundant, transformed, spirit filled life.  AND… not just after we die, but right now.

Many times in the Gospel readings we hear that Jesus proclaimed that he forgave sin.  It would have been an easy, though, unless you were God, heretical thing to say, “Your sins are forgiven”… Anyone can say it to anyone, but is it true?  In order to prove that it was true and that Jesus had the power and authority to forgive sins, miraculous healings followed.

 Jesus experienced separation from the father on the cross, so that we don’t have to be separated from the father.  He paid the price for our sin, so that we don’t have to.  Jesus proclaimed that he had power over sin and death, and the followers of Jesus have passed this message on.  It is an easy thing to say…  Anyone can say that Jesus has authority over sin and death, but where is the proof?  We celebrate today the proof that all Jesus said, is true.  He showed his power over death and sin because he rose from the dead.

In our Gospel reading, John 20:9, there is this curious sentence  “for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”  What scripture is our reading referring to? 

There are a few Old Testament writings, but in particular from Psalm 16:10 “because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.”

Now… the disciples of Jesus were not the only ones acquainted with the scriptures about the Messiah rising from the dead.  The religious leaders were also well aware and wanted to prevent any allegations of Jesus rising from the dead and so they asked that guards be placed at the tomb site.  Please realize their predicament; They put Jesus to death… they passed judgment on him, therefore, there is no way that they could ever admit that Jesus was the Messiah and rose from the dead even if there was a miraculous earthquake and the body nowhere to be found.

 

What would you think if it was you at that tomb side.  Jesus had told his disciples that he would rise from the dead and when the body was missing, they believed – but what did they believe? 

Mary Magdalene remains at the tomb side weeping, and there she is comforted by someone she supposes to be the gardener until he says her name.  Now, I’m assuming she was initially blinded by tears and possibly half turned away, too consumed with her own misery to see the truth in front of her.  What was it that she believed?  It seemed that she believed someone had taken the body away.  It is the physical and logical explanation.

 

How are we also like this; too consumed with our own misery, our own worries and concerns, to see the truth in front of us?  We need to turn and see the risen Lord and realize the abundant life that God has given us.  L. I. F. E. 

 

What do we believe about the resurrection?  Jesus was very truly dead.  All his blood was shed and when the soldiers pierced his side to ensure his death, they found that a little blood came out followed by water… all his blood was shed.  He was dead.  That was Friday… but Sunday was coming.

 

Jesus shed all his blood.  The blood represents the life… he gave it all for us.  In our baptism we unite with him and spiritually we die and rise with him.  Simply by believing and receiving, are given the spiritual life with which Jesus rose from the dead.  What this means is that our eternal life, begins at the time that we unite our life with his.

 

Sunday, the body was gone and Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.  A lot could be said about the fact that he appeared to women.  He elevated the status of women by this and many other things he did in his ministry… You see how he not only showed all that he was there to impart life… the essentials… the needs, but he went beyond the needs and wants to LIFE,… L.I.F.E life, and gives not just survival, but abundant and eternal life.

 

Empowered by that extravagant reality, these early disciples and apostles went on to endure hardships and death.  The importance of the message of abundant and eternal life was THAT important.  They needed to ensure that others received the message, the GOOD NEWS… the truth.    This is a truth that sets the captives free.

 

What is it that we are held captive to?  Are we held captive by beliefs that rob us of the life that Jesus brought us, bought with the cost of the crucifixion?  The price of separation from the father, the cost for every sin in the world, past, present and future, has been paid in full and Jesus proved it to be true by rising from the dead.

 

When Jesus rose from the dead he was truly alive.  He rose, not just in spirit but his body as well.  He rose with a life that could no longer die.  He is still alive.  He did not die again.  By his spirit he communicates with our spirit.  He declares victory over sin.  He declares victory over death.  He declares our eternal life begins now.

 

The grave is empty.  We are not to be living in remembrance of a man who once lived, but in the reality of the Good News of the resurrection, and in relationship with him, through whom we have L. I. F. E.  LIFE IN FULL ETERNALLY.

 

The grave is empty…. Will you accept that there is but emptiness in the tomb where our sins, our doubts, our hurts and failings were crucified  - because of Jesus rising from the dead, they are gone.  We need not dwell on our past failings… Our sin was crucified with Christ.  There is nothing but ourselves standing between us and the abundant, eternal life. Will you, with joy, embrace the abundant and eternal LIFE of our risen Lord?