Readings: Revelation 1:4-8, John 20: 19-31
We pray:
Open our hearts and minds O God, that the light of the risen Christ
might shine in and speak to us in ways that both challenge and affirm us. Amen.
Someone said to me this week that it seems
unbalanced that we sit through 40 days of Lent, of sober thought and
contemplation, of awareness and repentance, of distress and mounting sorrow as
we move towards Easter – and then we seem to have one day to celebrate (even
thought there are officially 50 days of Easter) – one day only – when we can
lift our voices in absolute joy for the Easter Sunday happenings.
I wonder if it feels like that to you. That
in one week we can go from the joy of the risen Christ to the ordinary and
humdrum ‘business as usual.’ This Sunday is sometimes referred to as ‘Low
Sunday’, one reason being its relative unimportance after Easer day
Well how about today we try to find ways
that we can hold that joy and celebration a bit more to the fore and not just
for Easter day but for all days – a default position you might say from which
our lives can be lived.
To help us do that let us look at the story
of Thomas again – the man whom we quite unfairly know as doubting Thomas.
Unfair because? All the rest had seen, had experienced in
some way the risen Christ and Thomas had been absent – beyond the sight and
sound of God’s presence you might say – and Thomas wanted that experience too –
who could argue with that. In fact it
seemed not so much that he doubted Christ but that he was unwilling to accept
the word of his community without the personal experience of the presence of
Christ. Let us commend him for his
seeking rather than condemn because he wouldn’t settle for any less.
Slight detour there sorry. Let us get back to that week after the tomb
was found to be empty. What was that
like for Thomas do you think? Well whatever
else he must have found himself at slight odds with the others members of the
community – they were celebrating, he was holding back, he was questioning,
they were certain. They knew
resurrection, he wanted to know but wasn’t quite there. But when Jesus appeared to him, it seemed
that he no longer needed to touch, that it was enough to see and hear - that
the words of the risen Christ were enough. “My Lord and my God” was his reply.
And there is no sense of Jesus chiding him
for his doubt – no sense at all – rather there is a willingness to do what it
takes for Thomas and for every one of us so that we can be encouraged to
believe and, more so, encouraged to live the celebration of the risen One.
Why is this so important? Because it is our witness to the resurrection
life that defines who we are as Christ followers, and empowers our actions
(remember those words from the Peter Scholtes hymn – “they will know we are
Christians by our love, by our love”). God will do whatever it takes, with
infinite compassion and patience, to encourage and empower us to be the witness
of the living Christ in this world.
The reading from Revelation can be seen in
just this light – of encouragement and empowering. Because the writer of Revelation understood
how incredibly difficult it is to be an Easter people in the midst of the
realities of a cruel and challenging world.
He understood how quickly a ‘feel good’ moment can dissipate when faced
with overwhelming and perplexing ‘life’.
John of Patmos was nothing if not realistic. And so we hear from him words of reassurance
– just as Thomas did from Jesus – reassurance that in the midst of death there
can be life, that despite their being persecuted, the Christians of Asia Minor
could still live in the power of the resurrection.
It is powerful language, strong rhetoric in
Revelations, uncompromising certainty of the power and dominion of God over
evil, that the God is in control. It’s a
beautifully arrogant and confident statement of future– “So it is to be. Amen.”[1]
And yet the reality of life is still there:
the stressful job is still there, the difficult relationship, the hunger and
pain and injustice is still there – how do we bridge the gap between the
celebration of Easter and the kingdom yet to come where love is lived and
experienced by all?
Where does our confidence come from – in
understanding that, we might begin to understand how to keep the joy alive past
Easter Sunday?
Maybe first of all it comes from our
understanding of that enigmatic statement – “in the name of the one who is and
was and is to come.”[2]
Christ is doing this, Christ has done this
and Christ will do this. The triumph of
Easter Sunday is not an end, a solution, a holding pen till all shall be made
right sometime in the future but it’s a transformational moment from which we
can build the kingdom in confidence of a future. Christ is alive and with us, Christ is to
come again – however we understand that we are to know that Christ is working
in us and through us in this world towards a future that we can be sure
of. And this is another thread of
confidence that our Easter Sunday joy stays alive in our ongoing lives: that we
can rest in a knowledge, a hope for a better future. Charles Reeb[3]
suggests this is not unlike watching a movie with a happy ending. Those who have not seen the movie might have
a bit of a sense of fear and trepidation because the end is not yet known to
them. Those who have seen the movie
before watch it with a quiet confidence and a bit of a grin because they know
how it all comes together in the end. As
trouble befalls our world, Christians can go about their business of living in
the world and coping with life’s realities with some kind of assurance, because
they know who has the last word. (And
this confidence will make the discouraged curious and want to know what is
behind it!)
And our confidence in the joy of Easter Sunday,
in the triumph of love over hate, of life over death, of mercy over cruelty– it’s all around us if we but have
eyes to see. Just as Easter Sunday is
nothing without Good Friday, so our proclamation of the risen Christ is nothing
without the reality of life all around us.
Life in Christ does not mean life without pain or suffering – surely if
nothing else that is the message of this Easter time – but it is risen life
within that reality. It is where
compassion and love and mercy are to be shown, it is the understanding that
celebration and pain are both equally part of the Easter story and equally part
of our lives. So each time we comfort
each other, every time we challenge injustice or anything that causes hurt to
the vulnerable (which, let’s face it, is also each of us), whenever we forgive,
or open our doors in love, when we celebrate community and cherish the least
among us, every single time this happens we are living in the confidence of the
risen Christ.
Whether we are in the pain of Good Friday,
the long wait of Easter Saturday or the joy of Easter Sunday, we are living in
the way of the one who was, who is and who is to come. We, like Thomas, can be confident that Christ
is before us and with us. There is every
reason for resurrection joy and confidence in the midst of the very reality of
the maelstrom that is daily life and living.
And for this we say thanks be to God.
Amen
Margaret Garland
