Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ –
“So when they had come together, they asked [Jesus], ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Acts 1:6-9
Our Scripture readings from the book of Acts tell of a time of “going and coming”. On June 5, we remember Christ’s ascension, when Jesus was lifted up into heaven. We’re told that Christ went to prepare a place for his disciples, and intercedes for us before the throne of God. Christ’s “going” into heaven is followed by Pentecost, the “coming” of the Holy Spirit, which we celebrate on June 12. Christ and the Spirit, along with God the Father, make up the Trinity, which we’ll consider on June 19. One (admittedly greatly oversimplified) way of thinking about the Trinity is to think of God the Father above us, Jesus the Son beside us, and the Spirit within us – God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer - yet not three Gods, but one God in three persons. Through the Holy Spirit, God is present within us, giving us strength for facing our own challenges and for ministry to others.
Changing the topic a bit: In looking at the first two sentences from the Scripture that opens this newsletter, I’d ask us to think back to a spectacular prediction for May 21, 2011 that didn’t come to pass. Harold Camping and his followers proclaimed – via Camping’s “Family Radio” station on 106.9 FM, via billboards, via ads on the sides of buses, and via folks on the street handing out flyers – that the “Rapture” would happen on May 21. According to Camping, on May 21, all true Christians were to be snatched off the earth to meet with Jesus in the clouds, while all others were to be left behind. Despite the clear meaning of Jesus’ words to his disciples – “it’s not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority” and Jesus’ own words in Mark 13:32 and Matthew 24:36 that not even the Son knows the day or hour, but only the Father – Camping repeatedly proclaimed “Judgment Day – May 21, 2011” on his website “WeCanKnow.com” Camping has also proclaimed that on May 21st of another year, May 21, 1988 to be exact, the spirit of God left the churches, and Satan entered in. Camping repeatedly told his listeners “Come out from the churches – Depart out from among them!” My response is that perhaps Harold Camping’s arrogance had so completely inundated and overwhelmed the “ministry” of Family Radio that there was no longer time or space for God to get a word in edgewise. And, as Proverbs 16:18 states, “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” I’m not privileged to know whether God’s spirit has “departed out” from Family Radio – but I strongly urge our members and friends, if you’re in the habit of listening to Family Radio, to turn the dial elsewhere.
Harold Camping is only the most extreme of a whole parade of would-be “prophets” – Hal Lindsey, John Hagee, Tim LaHaye, on and on and on and on – who have ripped Bible verses out of context and pasted them together (sort of like a ransom note pasted together from single words clipped from a newspaper) to construct supposed timelines for the second coming of Christ. As 2 Timothy 4:3-4 states, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.” Sensational (but false) myths about the End Times will always outsell sound (but demanding and perhaps disagreeable) teaching about how to live as disciples of Christ in the present. But listening to these sensational but false predictions, these myths, is escapism, a way to run away from the life of discipleship to which Christ has called us, as Jonah tried to run away from God’s call for Jonah to preach to Nineveh. I think of the predictions of Camping, Lindsey, Hagee, LaHaye and company as “spiritual junk food”. Like candy or “energy drinks”, spiritual junk food such as the End Times “rapture” myths of Camping, Lindsey, Hagee, and LaHaye may taste good and fill our bellies for a time, but it won’t help us grow strong in the Lord. A diet heavy in spiritual junk food will stunt, not strengthen, our spiritual growth. And if we habitually overindulge our craving for spiritual junk food, we may not desire or even recognize healthy spiritual nourishment even if it’s right in front of us. Like the sugar high we get from eating too much candy, we may briefly feel ourselves spiritually lifted up, may for a time feel “special” because we in our hubris mistakenly think we have an “inside track” on knowing the mind of God. But, like the crash that follows overindulgence in candy or “energy drinks”, we will inevitably find ourselves spiritually depleted and let down when these predictions fail, as they always have, just as Camping’s followers – some of whom, sadly, donated their life savings to help Camping broadcast his wild speculations – these days are likely feeling depleted spiritually, emotionally, and financially, and wondering just what possessed them to empty their bank accounts on Camping’s behalf.
Any such feeling of spiritual let-down is not because God is a liar or the Bible is untrue, but is a direct result of relying on the false teachings of charlatans like Camping and Lindsey and Hagee and LaHaye and company. Paul responds to the “false teachers” mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 by offering the following advice or “sound teaching” to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5: “As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.”And here’s some more sound teaching: In Acts 1:11, two angels told the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” Setting dates or constructing timelines for Christ’s return is exactly, precisely what Jesus told his disciples not to do. Clearly, rather than standing around staring into the sky (or sitting on our Barcaloungers reading the latest sensationalized “Left Behind” novel) we are to be steadfast in waiting on the Lord through prayer and study of Scripture and active in serving God and neighbor. We are to receive the promised power of the Holy Spirit, and be Christ’s witnesses – perhaps not in Jerusalem, Judea, or Samaria (though our giving to the UCC’s special denominational offerings helps us to witness in these and many other places) – but (to put Jesus’ command in local terms) to witness in Bridesburg, in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and to the ends of the earth.
Make no mistake: Christ will come again. Christ could come again before I put this newsletter in the mail or on email. Christ could come again today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. Or Christ may not come until long after all readers of this newsletter, along with their children and grandchildren, have passed on to their eternal reward. Despite what Camping, Lindsey and company tell us, God simply hasn’t given us that information. As Jesus said quite clearly and plainly and definitively and authoritatively in our opening quote from Acts, it’s not for us to know. We must accept that God has both the authority and the right to keep God’s own counsel on the timing of Christ’s return. Christ’s final word on the subject, before his ascension: “Mind Your Own Business!!” No matter: until that day, whenever it comes, we at Emanuel United Church of Christ are to be about the ministry that Christ has given us here on this earth that God has created and in this neighborhood in which God has placed us. In the words of an old hymn (“He Who Would Valiant Be”, #296 in the E&R Hymnal):
“Since, Lord, thou dost defend us with thy Spirit, We know we at the end shall life inherit.
Then, fancies, flee away! I’ll fear not what men say; I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.”
May God be with each of us on our lifelong pilgrimage of Christian discipleship!
See you in church!
Pastor Dave
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Dinner With Friends
Scriptures: Acts 2:14a, 36-41, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35
If when you were young – or maybe not so young – you read Mark Twain’s book Tom Sawyer, you may remember the scene in which Tom and his friends walked in on their own funeral. Tom had gone fishing with his friends. Their raft had disappeared and was later found downriver, and those who found it assumed that Tom and his friends had drowned. So a funeral service was held, and the townspeople, who hadn’t previously had a whole lot of patience with Tom and his friends and their capers, listened to the minister eulogize Tom and friends right up to the heaven of heavens. How could they all have missed all the good that had been in Tom and his friends, that had been right before their eyes? Of course, by the time the minister has got everyone in the little country church, including himself, to sobbing, wracked with grief – why, right on cue, Tom and his friends, who had been up in the gallery listening to their own funeral, saunter down the center aisle of the church, to the wonderment of all assembled. As Aunt Polly and others smothered Tom and his friends in hugs, the minister shouted: ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow – SING – and put your hearts in it!’ And their singing of Old Hundredth, which we sing here each week as the Doxology, shook the rafters.
Mark Twain’s story has more than a little in common with our Gospel reading for today. Our Gospel reading takes place on the first day of the week, the day of resurrection, after Mary and the women had told the disciples of their encounter with the angel, and after Peter had gone to the tomb and come back, reporting that it was empty. Two followers of Jesus – we’re told the name of one of them, Cleopas; the other is unnamed – are leaving Jerusalem. Their teacher, Jesus, had been crucified. They didn’t know what to make of the idle tale that the women had told them, and in any case there was no longer any reason for them to stay in Jerusalem. Any memories of Jerusalem would only bring them grief – or so they thought. So they headed toward Emmaus, a small town about 7 miles northwest of Jerusalem. Here they could get some distance and perspective on their disappointment and grief, before returning to the lives they’d led before they had met Jesus.
As they walked, they talked about all that had happened. And as they walked and talked, and sighed and hung their heads, a stranger joined them, who asked what they were talking about. They asked the stranger, “Are you the only one who doesn’t know what just happened in Jerusalem?” Today they’d have probably asked the stranger, “Have you been living under a rock for the past week?” And they unfolded their tale of woe. The stranger, whom the pair don’t recognize but whom we know to be Jesus, listened as they talked. It may have been a bit like listening to the eulogy for a funeral that had not been held, but perhaps Jesus wanted to hear their understanding of what they’d just experienced.
And then the stranger brought them up short, calling them foolish and slow to believe the prophets – and then the stranger began to unfold his own tale. He offered much better news, telling the pair that all that had happened had been spoken by the prophets, and that the end was not death, but glory. Perhaps the pair began to feel that they, not the stranger, were the ones who had been living under a rock. As the afternoon wears on, the two invite the stranger to the place where they were staying. And as the stranger blesses and breaks bread with them, suddenly they realize that they had been walking and sharing bread with Jesus – who at that moment vanished from their sight!
Last week we read John’s account of Jesus’ two appearances to the disciples, for one of which Thomas was present. Thomas had said he would not believe until he could feel the print of the nails in Jesus’ hands and the mark of the spear in Jesus’ side. We could say that for Thomas, seeing was believing. By contrast, the two disciples on the Emmaus road found that believing was seeing – their grief had blinded them to the presence of the risen Christ in their midst, and it was not until they had taken in all that the stranger had taught them on the road, that in the breaking of the bread, they recognized the stranger as Jesus.
Believing is seeing. It’s striking that, in effect, both the pair on the road to Emmaus and the stranger told the same story. The two travelers on the road told of the crucifixion of Jesus, and the stranger in their midst told of the crucifixion of Jesus. But the stories told of the crucifixion came from two very different perspectives. The two travelers spoke out of their immediate experience. The stranger on the road was able to take the pair’s story of the crucifixion and add context by tying it into the words of Moses and all the prophets, to show them that this was all within God’s plan.
Believing is seeing for us as well – or at least it can be. As Christians we are called to see, not only with our physical eyes, but with spiritual eyes, with the eyes of faith. Through the eyes of faith the cross - an instrument of torture and execution - becomes a symbol of God’s love. Through the eyes of faith, a splash of water, a cube of bread, a sip of wine become elements of the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, moments in which we encounter the Divine. Through the eyes of faith our weaknesses can demonstrate God’s power; through the eyes of faith our struggles and failures can be opportunities for God’s glory to shine through. Just as one of our Scriptures for two Sundays from now will tell us that the stone which the builders rejected – the stone that from their viewpoint belonged on the scrapheap – becomes the cornerstone, chosen and precious
But our spiritual eyes need to be open. We can go through life with blinders on, so caught up in our own daily routine, our own set of priorities, that we don’t give God a chance to break into our lives, or so wedded to preconceived notions of what God’s glory will look like that we can miss that glory when it’s right before us, but in an unexpected form.
Like Thomas, we can be so fixated on our need to see and touch that we allow no room for the mystery of God. For example, some listen to the History Channel explanations of how the parting of the Red Sea was due to an earthquake or a windstorm or such, seeking a computer model to give a literal explanation for this or that Biblical miracle. This approach turns Scripture into something flat, one-dimensional, linear. It turns the Scriptural narrative of our faith, the Great Story of God’s dealings with humankind and the cosmos throughout time and eternity, into a newspaper article. It leaves no room for the mystery of God, for the majesty of God. Such models may or may not tell us “how” something happened, but they have nothing to say on the more important questions of why it happened, or what its inclusion in Scripture tells us about God – about God’s holiness, about God’s love, about God’s justice, about God’s mercy. Or, if we are wedded to preconceived notions about where God is to be encountered – only on Sunday morning, only in church, only among church members – we may miss the presence of Christ in a chance encounter with the stranger we meet on the road.
The Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard said that “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” The two travelers on the Emmaus road, living life forwards, were engulfed in despair. Having encountered Jesus in the breaking of the bread, understanding backwards from that point, they could affirm, “did not our hearts burn within us as he opened the Scriptures to us.” And they acted on that understanding. Today’s Gospel ends with the two travelers retracing their steps, returning to Jerusalem, from which they had previously fled. Jerusalem, which had been a place of dread and despair, had become a place of hope, and a site to break bread with the apostles and do ministry among the masses.
C S Lewis caught something of this in his book “The Great Divorce” when he said that, as Christ works in peoples’ lives, their self-understanding and their memories of their lives are reinterpreted over time. Faith in Christ provides context for all that happens in our lives. For those in Christ, their memories of even difficult times are transformed in the light of Christ, and they can see where God was present in their struggles. Their earthly lives become outposts of heaven.
Believing is seeing. So may our spiritual eyes be open to seeing the risen Christ in the stranger on the road, the chance encounter on the bus, the conversation at work, and even dinner with family or friends. May our hearts be strangely warmed by Christ’s presence in all we say and do. Amen.
If when you were young – or maybe not so young – you read Mark Twain’s book Tom Sawyer, you may remember the scene in which Tom and his friends walked in on their own funeral. Tom had gone fishing with his friends. Their raft had disappeared and was later found downriver, and those who found it assumed that Tom and his friends had drowned. So a funeral service was held, and the townspeople, who hadn’t previously had a whole lot of patience with Tom and his friends and their capers, listened to the minister eulogize Tom and friends right up to the heaven of heavens. How could they all have missed all the good that had been in Tom and his friends, that had been right before their eyes? Of course, by the time the minister has got everyone in the little country church, including himself, to sobbing, wracked with grief – why, right on cue, Tom and his friends, who had been up in the gallery listening to their own funeral, saunter down the center aisle of the church, to the wonderment of all assembled. As Aunt Polly and others smothered Tom and his friends in hugs, the minister shouted: ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow – SING – and put your hearts in it!’ And their singing of Old Hundredth, which we sing here each week as the Doxology, shook the rafters.
Mark Twain’s story has more than a little in common with our Gospel reading for today. Our Gospel reading takes place on the first day of the week, the day of resurrection, after Mary and the women had told the disciples of their encounter with the angel, and after Peter had gone to the tomb and come back, reporting that it was empty. Two followers of Jesus – we’re told the name of one of them, Cleopas; the other is unnamed – are leaving Jerusalem. Their teacher, Jesus, had been crucified. They didn’t know what to make of the idle tale that the women had told them, and in any case there was no longer any reason for them to stay in Jerusalem. Any memories of Jerusalem would only bring them grief – or so they thought. So they headed toward Emmaus, a small town about 7 miles northwest of Jerusalem. Here they could get some distance and perspective on their disappointment and grief, before returning to the lives they’d led before they had met Jesus.
As they walked, they talked about all that had happened. And as they walked and talked, and sighed and hung their heads, a stranger joined them, who asked what they were talking about. They asked the stranger, “Are you the only one who doesn’t know what just happened in Jerusalem?” Today they’d have probably asked the stranger, “Have you been living under a rock for the past week?” And they unfolded their tale of woe. The stranger, whom the pair don’t recognize but whom we know to be Jesus, listened as they talked. It may have been a bit like listening to the eulogy for a funeral that had not been held, but perhaps Jesus wanted to hear their understanding of what they’d just experienced.
And then the stranger brought them up short, calling them foolish and slow to believe the prophets – and then the stranger began to unfold his own tale. He offered much better news, telling the pair that all that had happened had been spoken by the prophets, and that the end was not death, but glory. Perhaps the pair began to feel that they, not the stranger, were the ones who had been living under a rock. As the afternoon wears on, the two invite the stranger to the place where they were staying. And as the stranger blesses and breaks bread with them, suddenly they realize that they had been walking and sharing bread with Jesus – who at that moment vanished from their sight!
Last week we read John’s account of Jesus’ two appearances to the disciples, for one of which Thomas was present. Thomas had said he would not believe until he could feel the print of the nails in Jesus’ hands and the mark of the spear in Jesus’ side. We could say that for Thomas, seeing was believing. By contrast, the two disciples on the Emmaus road found that believing was seeing – their grief had blinded them to the presence of the risen Christ in their midst, and it was not until they had taken in all that the stranger had taught them on the road, that in the breaking of the bread, they recognized the stranger as Jesus.
Believing is seeing. It’s striking that, in effect, both the pair on the road to Emmaus and the stranger told the same story. The two travelers on the road told of the crucifixion of Jesus, and the stranger in their midst told of the crucifixion of Jesus. But the stories told of the crucifixion came from two very different perspectives. The two travelers spoke out of their immediate experience. The stranger on the road was able to take the pair’s story of the crucifixion and add context by tying it into the words of Moses and all the prophets, to show them that this was all within God’s plan.
Believing is seeing for us as well – or at least it can be. As Christians we are called to see, not only with our physical eyes, but with spiritual eyes, with the eyes of faith. Through the eyes of faith the cross - an instrument of torture and execution - becomes a symbol of God’s love. Through the eyes of faith, a splash of water, a cube of bread, a sip of wine become elements of the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, moments in which we encounter the Divine. Through the eyes of faith our weaknesses can demonstrate God’s power; through the eyes of faith our struggles and failures can be opportunities for God’s glory to shine through. Just as one of our Scriptures for two Sundays from now will tell us that the stone which the builders rejected – the stone that from their viewpoint belonged on the scrapheap – becomes the cornerstone, chosen and precious
But our spiritual eyes need to be open. We can go through life with blinders on, so caught up in our own daily routine, our own set of priorities, that we don’t give God a chance to break into our lives, or so wedded to preconceived notions of what God’s glory will look like that we can miss that glory when it’s right before us, but in an unexpected form.
Like Thomas, we can be so fixated on our need to see and touch that we allow no room for the mystery of God. For example, some listen to the History Channel explanations of how the parting of the Red Sea was due to an earthquake or a windstorm or such, seeking a computer model to give a literal explanation for this or that Biblical miracle. This approach turns Scripture into something flat, one-dimensional, linear. It turns the Scriptural narrative of our faith, the Great Story of God’s dealings with humankind and the cosmos throughout time and eternity, into a newspaper article. It leaves no room for the mystery of God, for the majesty of God. Such models may or may not tell us “how” something happened, but they have nothing to say on the more important questions of why it happened, or what its inclusion in Scripture tells us about God – about God’s holiness, about God’s love, about God’s justice, about God’s mercy. Or, if we are wedded to preconceived notions about where God is to be encountered – only on Sunday morning, only in church, only among church members – we may miss the presence of Christ in a chance encounter with the stranger we meet on the road.
The Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard said that “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” The two travelers on the Emmaus road, living life forwards, were engulfed in despair. Having encountered Jesus in the breaking of the bread, understanding backwards from that point, they could affirm, “did not our hearts burn within us as he opened the Scriptures to us.” And they acted on that understanding. Today’s Gospel ends with the two travelers retracing their steps, returning to Jerusalem, from which they had previously fled. Jerusalem, which had been a place of dread and despair, had become a place of hope, and a site to break bread with the apostles and do ministry among the masses.
C S Lewis caught something of this in his book “The Great Divorce” when he said that, as Christ works in peoples’ lives, their self-understanding and their memories of their lives are reinterpreted over time. Faith in Christ provides context for all that happens in our lives. For those in Christ, their memories of even difficult times are transformed in the light of Christ, and they can see where God was present in their struggles. Their earthly lives become outposts of heaven.
Believing is seeing. So may our spiritual eyes be open to seeing the risen Christ in the stranger on the road, the chance encounter on the bus, the conversation at work, and even dinner with family or friends. May our hearts be strangely warmed by Christ’s presence in all we say and do. Amen.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
A Divine Do-Over
(Scriptures: Acts 2:14a, 22-32
I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31)
This morning’s Gospel reading tells of one of the most famous of Jesus’ appearances after the resurrection, namely, his appearance to Thomas. In a sense, though, today’s account of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance is sort of a two-fer: buy one, get one free – because Jesus actually appears to the disciples twice. We’re told that on the evening of the resurrection, the apostles were all locked away behind closed doors, for fear of the religious authorities. For some unspecified reason, Thomas was not with them. Jesus appeared to them, showing them his hands, which bore the print of the nails, and his side, where the soldier’s spear had pierced. After this appearance, when Jesus was no longer with them, Thomas showed up. The disciples are all bursting to tell him “we’ve seen the Lord we’ve seen the Lord oh my goodness we’ve seen the Lord.” It was then that Thomas told the disciples “Unless I feel the print of the nail and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.” It is from this story that the disciple gets his nickname “doubting Thomas”. A week later, the scene repeats: same disciples, hiding in the same room behind the same locked door for the same reason: fear of the religious authorities. The only difference is, this time Thomas is with them. And once again, Jesus appears, and shows his wounds to Thomas as he had to the other disciples. Jesus invites Thomas to touch them, but we’re not told that Thomas actually did. Thomas cries out, “My Lord and my God.” It was then that Jesus says, “Do you believe because you have seen? Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.”
Thomas has the reputation for being a doubter, but I think it’s actually a bad rap. While the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke just name Thomas as one of the disciples, with no other information given, John’s Gospel fleshes out our picture of Thomas a bit. Thomas pops up two other times in John’s Gospel, once when Jesus was returning to Judea to visit Mary, Martha and Lazarus – Jesus had just escaped a crowd that wanted to stone him, and the disciples were questioning why Jesus would ever want to go back there, but Thomas bravely said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” And at the Last Supper, Thomas’s question about the way to where Jesus was going led to Jesus’ declaration, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” So in John’s Gospel at least, Thomas wasn’t any kind of problem child disciple – he’s shown to have courage and to be theologically engaged with Jesus, willing to risk asking a question if Jesus is talking over his head. And in today’s reading, Thomas essentially had the same encounter with the risen Christ that the other disciples did – it just happened a week later. While this Scripture has a very explicit lesson for the readers of John’s Gospels – essentially, blessed are those who read this book and believe and are willing to stake your life on what’s written there – I think there’s also a subtle lesson about the nature of God’s love.
Jesus could very well have limited himself to just that first appearance to the disciples, the one when Thomas was absent. He could have left a message with the disciples for Thomas: hey, you had your chance, but you were out to lunch when I appeared. Or maybe you’d gone fishing. Or maybe you needed your beauty sleep. You snooze, you lose. But that’s not what Jesus did – instead, Jesus patiently waited a week and did a do-over of his earlier appearance, just for Thomas. The wording of the gospel is the same in both appearances, except for Jesus’ additional words to Thomas. In golf, if you take a really bad swing and your fellow golfers are forgiving, they may allow you to do the shot over, to take a mulligan. And in a sense, Jesus allowed Thomas a mulligan. God allowed a divine do-over of the appearance of Jesus just for Thomas’ sake. That’s how much Jesus loved Thomas, and that’s how important Thomas was to God’s plan for the disciples.
How about us? I think all of us need a do-over, a mulligan, now and then, not only in golf, but in life. Sometimes we’re not where we need to be when God is doing a great work. Sometimes we miss the boat. We don’t always understand immediately or get everything right the first time – far from it. But we worship a God of the second chance, a God who welcomes seekers whether they come early or late in life. We know so many stories: the parable of the prodigal son, coming home to ask his dad for another chance. Paul on the Damascus road, his life turned around to witness to the Christ whose church he had earlier tried to stamp out. God patiently waited for Paul to be in the place where God could reach him with a vision of the risen Christ. God seeks out the lost sheep and the lost coin, and when found brings them home rejoicing.
People come to Christ in different ways and at different times in their lives. Many – I suspect most of Emanuel’s long-time members, were raised in the church, were brought to Jesus as children and blessed. Fifty years ago, that was the norm. But not today. But not everyone finds Christ in that way. Some come to Jesus via a conversion experience, via a prayer for salvation that emerges out of some deep crisis. Some come to Jesus as a way to find deeper meaning to life or connection with others. Some come to Jesus early in life, and some come later. I’ve experienced that myself, as a fifty-year old answering a call after I’m already midway into a career in health care finance, well into middle age, sitting next to 20-somethings just out of college, responding to that same call. But nobody comes to Christ, whom Christ does not call first. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” And when God chooses us, God waits for us, waits until we are ready for an encounter with Christ – be that in infancy, in childhood, in adulthood, in old age, or even on our deathbed. And we as Emanuel Church need to be ready to welcome those whom God chooses, no matter where they are on life’s journey when they find us.
Jesus told the disciples that he had chosen them so that the would go and bear much fruit. And, indeed, Thomas was more than faithful, more than diligent on this point. While we don’t read much more about Thomas in the Bible other than a brief mention in the book of Acts, there’s a very strong tradition that the Apostle Thomas brought the Gospel to India, specifically to a community of Jews living in a part of India called Kerela. Most Indian Christians trace their faith in some way through the Apostle Thomas. And we have two such congregations in Philadelphia affiliated with the United Church of Christ, including one whose members all came from Kerela, where Thomas was first said to have brought the Gospel. So the outcomes of Jesus’ calling Thomas to faith are not just long ago and far away, but are alive, to this day, in the UCC, in Philadelphia.
There’s one other point in our reading from John’s Gospel, a powerful point, but mentioned so briefly that we can miss it while we’re waiting to hear about Thomas. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, John tells us, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In essence, these words, brief as they are, constitute John’s Pentecost story, John’s story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the conferral of apostolic authority on the eleven disciples. In contrast to Luke’s account of the sound of a mighty wind and tongues of flame and the disciples speaking in foreign tongues, John’s account of the conferring of the Holy Spirit is quiet, possible to miss if you’re not looking for it. In fact, this sentence “Receive the Holy Spirit” is part of the sacrament of baptism, but again, it can go by so quickly we can miss it.
Today we will be celebrating both Sacraments – baptism and holy communion. May we be attentive for God’s presence, during this holy moment in our church’s history.
*****************
Feel the need for a do-over in your relationship with God? Join us for worship at Emanuel United Church of Christ on Sundays at 10 a.m. We're on Fillmore Street (between Thompson and Almond). www.emanuelphila.org
I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31)
This morning’s Gospel reading tells of one of the most famous of Jesus’ appearances after the resurrection, namely, his appearance to Thomas. In a sense, though, today’s account of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance is sort of a two-fer: buy one, get one free – because Jesus actually appears to the disciples twice. We’re told that on the evening of the resurrection, the apostles were all locked away behind closed doors, for fear of the religious authorities. For some unspecified reason, Thomas was not with them. Jesus appeared to them, showing them his hands, which bore the print of the nails, and his side, where the soldier’s spear had pierced. After this appearance, when Jesus was no longer with them, Thomas showed up. The disciples are all bursting to tell him “we’ve seen the Lord we’ve seen the Lord oh my goodness we’ve seen the Lord.” It was then that Thomas told the disciples “Unless I feel the print of the nail and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.” It is from this story that the disciple gets his nickname “doubting Thomas”. A week later, the scene repeats: same disciples, hiding in the same room behind the same locked door for the same reason: fear of the religious authorities. The only difference is, this time Thomas is with them. And once again, Jesus appears, and shows his wounds to Thomas as he had to the other disciples. Jesus invites Thomas to touch them, but we’re not told that Thomas actually did. Thomas cries out, “My Lord and my God.” It was then that Jesus says, “Do you believe because you have seen? Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.”
Thomas has the reputation for being a doubter, but I think it’s actually a bad rap. While the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke just name Thomas as one of the disciples, with no other information given, John’s Gospel fleshes out our picture of Thomas a bit. Thomas pops up two other times in John’s Gospel, once when Jesus was returning to Judea to visit Mary, Martha and Lazarus – Jesus had just escaped a crowd that wanted to stone him, and the disciples were questioning why Jesus would ever want to go back there, but Thomas bravely said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” And at the Last Supper, Thomas’s question about the way to where Jesus was going led to Jesus’ declaration, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” So in John’s Gospel at least, Thomas wasn’t any kind of problem child disciple – he’s shown to have courage and to be theologically engaged with Jesus, willing to risk asking a question if Jesus is talking over his head. And in today’s reading, Thomas essentially had the same encounter with the risen Christ that the other disciples did – it just happened a week later. While this Scripture has a very explicit lesson for the readers of John’s Gospels – essentially, blessed are those who read this book and believe and are willing to stake your life on what’s written there – I think there’s also a subtle lesson about the nature of God’s love.
Jesus could very well have limited himself to just that first appearance to the disciples, the one when Thomas was absent. He could have left a message with the disciples for Thomas: hey, you had your chance, but you were out to lunch when I appeared. Or maybe you’d gone fishing. Or maybe you needed your beauty sleep. You snooze, you lose. But that’s not what Jesus did – instead, Jesus patiently waited a week and did a do-over of his earlier appearance, just for Thomas. The wording of the gospel is the same in both appearances, except for Jesus’ additional words to Thomas. In golf, if you take a really bad swing and your fellow golfers are forgiving, they may allow you to do the shot over, to take a mulligan. And in a sense, Jesus allowed Thomas a mulligan. God allowed a divine do-over of the appearance of Jesus just for Thomas’ sake. That’s how much Jesus loved Thomas, and that’s how important Thomas was to God’s plan for the disciples.
How about us? I think all of us need a do-over, a mulligan, now and then, not only in golf, but in life. Sometimes we’re not where we need to be when God is doing a great work. Sometimes we miss the boat. We don’t always understand immediately or get everything right the first time – far from it. But we worship a God of the second chance, a God who welcomes seekers whether they come early or late in life. We know so many stories: the parable of the prodigal son, coming home to ask his dad for another chance. Paul on the Damascus road, his life turned around to witness to the Christ whose church he had earlier tried to stamp out. God patiently waited for Paul to be in the place where God could reach him with a vision of the risen Christ. God seeks out the lost sheep and the lost coin, and when found brings them home rejoicing.
People come to Christ in different ways and at different times in their lives. Many – I suspect most of Emanuel’s long-time members, were raised in the church, were brought to Jesus as children and blessed. Fifty years ago, that was the norm. But not today. But not everyone finds Christ in that way. Some come to Jesus via a conversion experience, via a prayer for salvation that emerges out of some deep crisis. Some come to Jesus as a way to find deeper meaning to life or connection with others. Some come to Jesus early in life, and some come later. I’ve experienced that myself, as a fifty-year old answering a call after I’m already midway into a career in health care finance, well into middle age, sitting next to 20-somethings just out of college, responding to that same call. But nobody comes to Christ, whom Christ does not call first. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” And when God chooses us, God waits for us, waits until we are ready for an encounter with Christ – be that in infancy, in childhood, in adulthood, in old age, or even on our deathbed. And we as Emanuel Church need to be ready to welcome those whom God chooses, no matter where they are on life’s journey when they find us.
Jesus told the disciples that he had chosen them so that the would go and bear much fruit. And, indeed, Thomas was more than faithful, more than diligent on this point. While we don’t read much more about Thomas in the Bible other than a brief mention in the book of Acts, there’s a very strong tradition that the Apostle Thomas brought the Gospel to India, specifically to a community of Jews living in a part of India called Kerela. Most Indian Christians trace their faith in some way through the Apostle Thomas. And we have two such congregations in Philadelphia affiliated with the United Church of Christ, including one whose members all came from Kerela, where Thomas was first said to have brought the Gospel. So the outcomes of Jesus’ calling Thomas to faith are not just long ago and far away, but are alive, to this day, in the UCC, in Philadelphia.
There’s one other point in our reading from John’s Gospel, a powerful point, but mentioned so briefly that we can miss it while we’re waiting to hear about Thomas. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, John tells us, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In essence, these words, brief as they are, constitute John’s Pentecost story, John’s story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the conferral of apostolic authority on the eleven disciples. In contrast to Luke’s account of the sound of a mighty wind and tongues of flame and the disciples speaking in foreign tongues, John’s account of the conferring of the Holy Spirit is quiet, possible to miss if you’re not looking for it. In fact, this sentence “Receive the Holy Spirit” is part of the sacrament of baptism, but again, it can go by so quickly we can miss it.
Today we will be celebrating both Sacraments – baptism and holy communion. May we be attentive for God’s presence, during this holy moment in our church’s history.
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Feel the need for a do-over in your relationship with God? Join us for worship at Emanuel United Church of Christ on Sundays at 10 a.m. We're on Fillmore Street (between Thompson and Almond). www.emanuelphila.org
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