Second Sunday of Easter
April 19, 2020
Hand In Hand
1 Peter 1: 3-9
John 20:19-31
TEXT: "Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have come to believe.’ "
(John 20:29)
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- all four Gospels end with the Resurrection Story. All of the Letters of Paul are based upon the fact of the Resurrection. All of the sermons in the Book of Acts proclaim the Resurrection. And toward the end of the New Testament, we come to the First Letter of Peter, the Apostle who made so many mistakes; the Apostle who so many times said things off the top of his head that he later regretted; the Apostle who promised Jesus he would follow Him to the death, then denied Him, not once, but three times.
In his Letter, Peter focuses on one particular aspect of the Resurrection. Peter goes down to a deeper level and gets to the real root-cause of the Easter celebration. He says that this Jesus is more than the historical Person he had known and associated with. This Jesus, Peter says, is a Risen, Living Presence. What Easter Day does for us is give us the Living Christ -- the living, inner-Presence of the Christ Spirit of God. The innermost essence of God's Being is with us today. Christ Himself is here today in this gathering. Peter speaks to us now in his Letter, saying,
“Although you have not seen him, you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (I Peter 1: 8-9).
It is as if to say that you come here today, bringing with you everything that makes you you -- your joys and your sorrows, your duties and your responsibilities, your relationships with other persons, your hopes and your dreams. And Christ is here for you, the Living Christ is here to be with you at that point in your life. You can experience the Presence of Christ in your life now, in this very hour. No wonder the joy! No wonder the incredible joy of our continuing Easter celebration.
After several years of marriage, a Washington, D.C. couple - Janice and Carl - had just moved into a new house. The still unopened boxes were stacked up in every room. Janice asked Carl to open the box containing dishes and start washing them. Whereupon Carl loaded up the dishwasher, left the room for a few minutes, and when he came back, the kitchen was flooded. Janice came running in and was horrified when she saw waves and waves of suds coming out of the dishwasher and piling up all over the kitchen. Very meekly Carl said to Janice, "I wonder if I put in too much 'Joy.'" (It turned out that Carl had put three full cups of "Joy" into the machine.)
There are some things, I suppose, into which we can put too much joy. But our Easter celebration is not one of them. Again, in Peter's words, “Although you have not seen him, you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy -- "a joy so glorious that is cannot be described, because you believe."
In today's Gospel Lesson, it is the evening of the first Easter Sunday, and the disciples are fearful that they might be next in line for the kind of execution Jesus had suffered on Good Friday. Or could it be true that Jesus had risen from the dead as they had been told by Mary Magdalene. Suddenly, the Risen Christ appears in their midst, saying, "Peace be with you." Now it so happened that the Apostle Thomas was not there at the time. When he returned, the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." Thomas answered, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe" (Jn. 20:25). Eight days later, John tells us, Jesus again appeared to the disciples, and Thomas was present. "Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see My hands. Reach out your hand; put it in My side. Do not doubt but believe.' Thomas answered him, 'My Lord, and My God.' Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe'" (John 20:26-29).
How do we respond to the Presence of the Christ Spirit in our midst? Part of the difficulty we have in responding as God wants us to respond is that when we allow God's Resurrection Power to work in our lives, we change. And oftentimes it is a radical change. But we find change threatening, and it can be very painful and, as a result, we fail to sustain it, we give up on it. Think of how profound it must have been for Mary Magdalene to turn her life from despair to joy on hearing her name from Jesus! Think of the change that "Doubting Thomas" went through!
Mary Magdalene and Thomas had the privilege and the advantage of having Jesus close to them. But don't you see? So, do we -- not the physical presence of Jesus, but the Inner-Christ, the Presence Paul speaks of: "Christ in you as your hope of glory." You can trust in Christ who is in you to carry you through the painful changes that are part of this Resurrection process.
"Love one another as I have loved you," Jesus commands. Obedience to this command involves an ongoing process of change that often is very threatening and very painful even to the saints among us.
This is a true story about a man named Walter. He went to the hospital to undergo hip surgery. One night, when the curtain was around his bed, there suddenly was a lot of commotion in the room. Another man was being brought in to take the other bed. The man was angry -- cursing and swearing and resisting the nurses' efforts to get him into bed. The man's daughter was crying and pleading with her father to calm down and do as he was told. It seems that the man had been brought in for emergency surgery, and he wanted no part of it because he had scheduled an important overseas business meeting for the following day. Finally, amid all the turmoil and confusion, Walter's voice, calm but firm, rang out, "Sir, I am in the other bed. I would like to pray for you in the Name of Jesus Christ. Give me your hand." Then Walter's hand reached through the curtain. There was shocked silence. Finally, the man on the other side said, "I don't know you; I can't see you, I'm not even a Christian." And Walter said, "That's all right; that doesn't matter now. I can't see you either, but I love you as a brother human being and I want to pray to God for you. He is your God too." And there was that hand, still reaching out through the curtain. After a couple of minutes, Walter felt the other man's hand in his. Then, Walter prayed in the Name of Jesus Christ. And the story is almost too good to be true because just a few minutes later the man consented to the surgery. It turned out that he had gangrene and if he had delayed the surgery much longer, he might have died.
Jesus is with us now, reaching out to us with His hand, as He did with Thomas. "Peace be with you," He is saying. "Reach out your hand...Do not doubt but believe...Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
John 20:19-31
TEXT: "Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have come to believe.’ "
(John 20:29)
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- all four Gospels end with the Resurrection Story. All of the Letters of Paul are based upon the fact of the Resurrection. All of the sermons in the Book of Acts proclaim the Resurrection. And toward the end of the New Testament, we come to the First Letter of Peter, the Apostle who made so many mistakes; the Apostle who so many times said things off the top of his head that he later regretted; the Apostle who promised Jesus he would follow Him to the death, then denied Him, not once, but three times.
In his Letter, Peter focuses on one particular aspect of the Resurrection. Peter goes down to a deeper level and gets to the real root-cause of the Easter celebration. He says that this Jesus is more than the historical Person he had known and associated with. This Jesus, Peter says, is a Risen, Living Presence. What Easter Day does for us is give us the Living Christ -- the living, inner-Presence of the Christ Spirit of God. The innermost essence of God's Being is with us today. Christ Himself is here today in this gathering. Peter speaks to us now in his Letter, saying,
“Although you have not seen him, you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (I Peter 1: 8-9).
It is as if to say that you come here today, bringing with you everything that makes you you -- your joys and your sorrows, your duties and your responsibilities, your relationships with other persons, your hopes and your dreams. And Christ is here for you, the Living Christ is here to be with you at that point in your life. You can experience the Presence of Christ in your life now, in this very hour. No wonder the joy! No wonder the incredible joy of our continuing Easter celebration.
After several years of marriage, a Washington, D.C. couple - Janice and Carl - had just moved into a new house. The still unopened boxes were stacked up in every room. Janice asked Carl to open the box containing dishes and start washing them. Whereupon Carl loaded up the dishwasher, left the room for a few minutes, and when he came back, the kitchen was flooded. Janice came running in and was horrified when she saw waves and waves of suds coming out of the dishwasher and piling up all over the kitchen. Very meekly Carl said to Janice, "I wonder if I put in too much 'Joy.'" (It turned out that Carl had put three full cups of "Joy" into the machine.)
There are some things, I suppose, into which we can put too much joy. But our Easter celebration is not one of them. Again, in Peter's words, “Although you have not seen him, you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy -- "a joy so glorious that is cannot be described, because you believe."
In today's Gospel Lesson, it is the evening of the first Easter Sunday, and the disciples are fearful that they might be next in line for the kind of execution Jesus had suffered on Good Friday. Or could it be true that Jesus had risen from the dead as they had been told by Mary Magdalene. Suddenly, the Risen Christ appears in their midst, saying, "Peace be with you." Now it so happened that the Apostle Thomas was not there at the time. When he returned, the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." Thomas answered, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe" (Jn. 20:25). Eight days later, John tells us, Jesus again appeared to the disciples, and Thomas was present. "Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see My hands. Reach out your hand; put it in My side. Do not doubt but believe.' Thomas answered him, 'My Lord, and My God.' Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe'" (John 20:26-29).
How do we respond to the Presence of the Christ Spirit in our midst? Part of the difficulty we have in responding as God wants us to respond is that when we allow God's Resurrection Power to work in our lives, we change. And oftentimes it is a radical change. But we find change threatening, and it can be very painful and, as a result, we fail to sustain it, we give up on it. Think of how profound it must have been for Mary Magdalene to turn her life from despair to joy on hearing her name from Jesus! Think of the change that "Doubting Thomas" went through!
Mary Magdalene and Thomas had the privilege and the advantage of having Jesus close to them. But don't you see? So, do we -- not the physical presence of Jesus, but the Inner-Christ, the Presence Paul speaks of: "Christ in you as your hope of glory." You can trust in Christ who is in you to carry you through the painful changes that are part of this Resurrection process.
"Love one another as I have loved you," Jesus commands. Obedience to this command involves an ongoing process of change that often is very threatening and very painful even to the saints among us.
This is a true story about a man named Walter. He went to the hospital to undergo hip surgery. One night, when the curtain was around his bed, there suddenly was a lot of commotion in the room. Another man was being brought in to take the other bed. The man was angry -- cursing and swearing and resisting the nurses' efforts to get him into bed. The man's daughter was crying and pleading with her father to calm down and do as he was told. It seems that the man had been brought in for emergency surgery, and he wanted no part of it because he had scheduled an important overseas business meeting for the following day. Finally, amid all the turmoil and confusion, Walter's voice, calm but firm, rang out, "Sir, I am in the other bed. I would like to pray for you in the Name of Jesus Christ. Give me your hand." Then Walter's hand reached through the curtain. There was shocked silence. Finally, the man on the other side said, "I don't know you; I can't see you, I'm not even a Christian." And Walter said, "That's all right; that doesn't matter now. I can't see you either, but I love you as a brother human being and I want to pray to God for you. He is your God too." And there was that hand, still reaching out through the curtain. After a couple of minutes, Walter felt the other man's hand in his. Then, Walter prayed in the Name of Jesus Christ. And the story is almost too good to be true because just a few minutes later the man consented to the surgery. It turned out that he had gangrene and if he had delayed the surgery much longer, he might have died.
Jesus is with us now, reaching out to us with His hand, as He did with Thomas. "Peace be with you," He is saying. "Reach out your hand...Do not doubt but believe...Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
