Page | 1
Easter 2a 2011
1 May
Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Ps. 16
I Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
Jack Hardaway
BELIEF
“I have seen the Lord!”
Those are the words of the first proclamation of the Gospel.
Mary Magdalene made that first proclamation, making her the apostle to the apostles, the Gospel bearer.
And what did the disciples do? They hid behind locked doors in fear.
Not afraid of Jesus, but afraid of the religious authorities. Mary’s proclamation of the Gospel had no impact. They were lost, locked up in the house of fear.
That is where we pick up the story today.
We begin in fear and unbelief and locked doors, with rumors of strange sightings.
Have you ever locked yourself away?
How do we escape from behind those locked doors?
The Christian Gospel is that God is always getting involved, never willing to just leave us alone, never willing to let locked doors get in the way.
Jesus breaks in. It doesn’t say how. Only that the doors were locked and that Jesus arrived physically and stood among them. Somehow he broke in.
And they rejoiced.
Then he breathes on them, the Holy Spirit, the power to forgive, the power of forgiveness, the power of freedom. Freedom is only found in forgiveness.
He breathes on them like the wind, the wind that blew through the valley of dry bones, giving life and breath to those who were dead. As ole Ezekiel said, “Prophesy! Prophesy to the breath, prophesy!-Come from the four winds , O breathe, and breath upon these slain, that they may live!”
The breath enters them. They believe in the resurrection and the power of the resurrection to transform not only their lives but creation itself.
From fear to joy.
From unbelief to belief.
From locked doors to freedom.
From death to resurrection.
And the same thing happenes all over again with Thomas when he comes in late, from unbelief to belief, from fear to joy, from locked doors to freedom, from death to resurrection.
God wouldn’t leave Thomas behind, “Put your fingers here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.”
And then Thomas makes the great proclamation of faith, the declaration of who Jesus is, “My Lord and my God.”
This Gospel passage isn’t about doubt or the importance of having a questioning and inquisitive faith. This is about God bringing life to where there isn’t any. It’s about what God does and what happens when Jesus is around, a supernatural abundance of the things that make for life, things like fish and bread and wine and sight and healing and light and today we see belief added to those gifts that Jesus brings about, belief in the resurrection, and the power to forgive.
How do we come to faith?
It is a miracle, a gift, a grace.
It is an encounter with the risen Lord.
How do we cross over from fear into joy, from unbelief to belief, from locked doors to the freedom and the power of forgiveness?
Does the proclamation “I have seen the Lord!” move us to the power and the freedom of forgiveness or do we lock our selves away, hidden behind closed doors?Where is the joy? Where is the freedom? Where is the forgiveness?
Belief is made to look easy, like God just turns it on at a convenient time. But belief, true belief, the kind of belief that leads to joy and freedom and forgiveness is often perhaps usually a struggle. Jesus has words for us too, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Unlike Mary Magdalene, the disciples and Thomas who saw Jesus and touched him and heard him we have to meet the risen Lord in ways that are often hidden and obscure, it is a struggle, but it is a blessed struggle. We are like detectives looking for evidence, following a trail that hints of such things as joy, and forgiveness, of freedom and the breath of mysterious winds, rumors and sightings of God, of unusual and unexpected abundance where once there was only scarcity and death.
So we pray, and we prophesy, trusting that we are heard, that there is the God who listens, the God who walks through closed doors.
Prophesy to the breath! Prophesy that that these dead bones may live. Breath on us Lord Jesus that we may know your joy and your freedom. Amen