Grace Episcopal Church, The Rev Kate Ekrem, Rector
2 Easter- March 30, 2008
Acts 2:14a, 22-32; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31; Psalm 16
Today's sermon offered by the Rev. Dr. Katherine Mitchell, Deacon

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips. Speak, O Lord, for yours servants listen. Amen.

You may already be aware of this, and if so, I remind you, that today in our church year we celebrate the second Sunday of Easter. We are not celebrating the second Sunday after Easter for a very good reason. We celebrate this season of Easter because of the on-going and continuing story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Christ did not just happen last Sunday, on Easter Day; rather, the resurrection story is one that has been going on for over 2000 years, daily in our lives.
This Gospel reading about the disciples, and especially Thomas, is actually one of my all time favorites. The reason for this is because we, as listeners encounter up close, the so very frail and human conditions that challenged the disciples and continue to confront us today.

A brief synopsis of the reading reminds us that John is telling us about the first and second encounters the disciples have with the resurrected Christ. I imagine they were desperately trying to regroup after the sordid events of the past few days. We find them huddled, cowered together, with the doors shuttered and tightly bolted against the outside world, afraid of everything: afraid of those people- those civil and religious authorities that killed Jesus, afraid of their unknown and uncertain future, afraid for their own lives. And in their great fear, they also carried shame and guilt about their actions and behavior.

I don't think it at all difficult for us to imagine ourselves in that room with the disciples because we too try to keep the outside world away from us whenever we feel threatened or wounded. When our world has been turned upside down we all wonder
What will happen to us now?
Why me or us?
What did I or we do to deserve this?
And most certainly, where is God when we need God most?

And then suddenly, Jesus appears, just shows up, bearing the marks of his suffering and death, saying "Peace be with you." Jesus comes just as Jesus always comes… comes when we are full of fear, doubt and uncertainty, inviting us to draw closer to him and to know not only his suffering but also to know his peace as he brings his forgiveness.

The disciples are hiding out both in fear and shame. Christianity, as a religion, was born in shame, born in shame because of the crucifixion. Crucifixion was the most disgraceful and dishonorable experience that could happen to a person or his family because it was the primary way or means of dealing with lower class people who broke the law. So, it is believed that Christianity started out as a shameful religion of lower class, poor, uneducated people. It was, also in part, shameful because our Christian religion arose out of a leader who was humiliated as he hung on a cross.

As you remember, the disciples earlier in the Gospel account failed Jesus, betrayed and abandoned him at his time of most crucial need, just as surely as Judas did. Peter denies that he is a disciple, a follower of Jesus, not once, but three times. The disciples fail to defend Jesus and run away hiding in the darkness of the night when the Pharisees and soldiers show up to haul Jesus before the Pilate. And, just where are they when Jesus is taken down from the cross and buried in a tomb?
Jesus finds the disciples right where he had last seen them; still running, still hiding behind locked doors, still scared, even after Jesus has revealed himself to them as the Risen Christ. Therefore, Implicit in the reading is that the disciples are indeed in need of forgiveness.

But then, who can hardly blame these men and women? I mean, if you think about it, the disciples are being asked to believe something that their minds cannot comprehend. They are asked to believe something that defies all the laws of nature and science.

But then, if the truth be told, these are really just good excuses for the disciples internalized shameful behavior. Therefore, I suspect that just like you and me, in their human frailness, the disciples are filled with humiliation, disgrace, and shame in their multiple failures when Jesus reveals himself once more to them.

It is in this second appearance of Jesus that something happens and they finally, finally grasp the meaning of Christ crucified and risen.

Jesus has to come twice so that the scales can be lifted from their eyes, …lifted is the disbelief imbedded in their hearts and minds. Jesus, the Risen Christ, reaffirms all that he has said before - that our God is a good and gracious God, a God of Mercy, and because of this, the disciples can be reassured that they are indeed forgiven, forgiven for their human weakness, for their mistakes, their failures, their fears, their betrayal and abandonment, and even their doubt and disbelief in the Resurrected Lord.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, wrote: "there is no hope of understanding the Resurrection outside the process of renewing humanity in forgiveness. We are all agreed that the empty tomb proves nothing…. no amount of apparitions, however well authenticated, would mean anything apart from the testimony of forgiven lives communicating forgiveness."

There, we have it in a nutshell. The Resurrection was an experience of forgiveness, an experience of pardon and absolution of egregious offenses. The resurrection means nothing, nothing without forgiveness.
The disciples abandoned and failed Jesus, thereby becoming complicit with his murderers. It has been written that the antidote for guilt and shame is forgiveness, which is God's grace. The disciples, knowing and believing they are unworthy and guilty as sin, know that they themselves have been truly forgiven. Jesus forgives them, and in that forgiveness the disciples too are compelled to do what he did… that is to forgive.

We are just like those disciples, fragile humans and guilty as sin. The experience of forgiveness begins in recognizing our own guilt, our own failures, and our own sin. Then, and only then, can we know the wonder of being forgiven by a loving and gracious God.

Now, I am all too aware that the process of forgiving those who have harmed and wounded us is very complicated and not something that we can turn on at will. So, I know that my saying we must forgive others, or even that God has forgiven us, is extremely difficult to take in. So when we begin with our own sinfulness, this is at least a beginning for us to move forward and toward God.

When we at least have inkling, or even possibly recognize, that we have been freely and truly forgiven, we too are then compelled to act as Christ, to act as the disciples, to forgive those that have harmed us in some way.
It is only through God's forgiveness of our sins that we have the ability to forgive others, and it is for this very reason, we too must be a forgiving people. It is in forgiving others that new life begins for us and we too are raised from the dead. And that we too are resurrected with Christ.
Alleluia, Christ is risen! Amen!