‘Jesus appears to his disciples’
Acts 5:27-32 & John 20: 19-31 (2nd
Sunday of Easter)
Last week as we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection, David
helpfully framed the outworking of this event with three points of reference.
I hope I am being faithful in remembrance and in
summarising them.
The resurrection discloses Jesus’ divinity.
The resurrection brings the possibility of personal
salvation.
The resurrection inaugurates a new creation with cosmic
implications.
I want to pick up on those points and continue to explore them and set them in the context of the Bible Project’s most recent set of studies on the Exodus theme which they describe as the way into slavery, the way out of slavery and the way into the promised land. And it interesting to note that the early Church was referred to as ‘The Way.’
I cannot commend this set of studies highly enough to
bring a broader, richer and fuller understanding of Jesus’ life, death and
resurrection and the new life that flows out and from this linked with the
theme of exodus.
Today we heard of another resurrection account in John’s
Gospel and some of the outworkings of bearing witness to the resurrection for
members of the early Church as recorded in Acts.
In the resurrection story we heard today we have the
intriguing story of Thomas, aligned with the unfortunate epithet of Doubting
Thomas, which in my opinion is not at all deserved.
However, it is not my intention to explore Thomas’ story
in any detail, but as I said, pick up on the points made by David and the
Exodus theme from the Bible Project and reflect on God with us, God loves us, collectively
and individually and that God has a plan and purpose for us collectively and
individually.
Continuing to ask what it means to say Jesus is risen and that
I acknowledge him as ‘my Lord and my God?’
Even if you have the sketchiest understanding of gods of
the ancient world, be they Greek or Roman and Norse gods there are some common
factors at play.
These gods are capricious, sometimes malevolent, they
require to be placated, sometimes with human sacrifice. In one account the gods
create humans to act as their slaves.
The Hebrew Bible offers a different account.
We have the one God bringing order out of chaos. We have
this one God then creating humans as image bearers and called to be co-regents and
work with God in the flourishing of the order wrought by God.
We have a story of an intimate relationship between God
and Adam and Eve. And then we have the
story of Adam and Eve choosing to follow their own way which leads back to
death, destruction and chaos, and into slavery.
But the story continues with God seeking out and selecting
people who will search after his wisdom and walk in his ways, a way that offers
life, abundance and flourishing.
It’s a long story with many twists and turns until we come
to Jesus.
In a poetic trilogy I wrote some years ago I imagined God as an artist and painting a beautiful creation. But the painting rejected and rebelled and drew its own dark and blood-stained painting on the canvas of human history. Try as he might, God couldn’t find anyone in the painting who would bear truly bear his image.
The third part of the trilogy reads,
The artist came, looked and wept,
His beautiful painting now turned ugly,
Torn, slashed, bruised and broken.
The artist came,
He laid down his paints,
He laid down his brushes and palette knife,
He took of his painter’s smock,
And was found in his painting.
Or in the words of a worship song…
‘You were the Word at the beginning
One with God the Lord Most High
Your hidden glory in creation
Now revealed in You our Christ’
Picking up and reflecting on the Prologue to John’s
Gospel.
That goes on to say in the prosaic Message translation…
‘The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighbourhood.’
An older and perhaps more accurate rendition is, ‘And the
Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.’
That is helpful when we consider ‘God being with us.’ It is through the tabernacle and then through
the temple that God comes and dwells amongst his people, his peculiar people,
the Jews.
And Jesus is revealed as temple, the place where God can
be encountered. ‘I and the are Father one, he who has seen me has seen the
Father.’
Even if you take a very cynical view of the story about
Thomas and even doubt the authenticity of the Gospel account, the question
remains, why would anyone put on the lips of Thomas the proclamation, ‘My
Lord and my God.’ Does this not give
evidence that Jesus is recognised by the early Christian community as both Lord
and God?
God comes amongst us and not only that but at our
invitation comes to dwell in the tabernacle of our human bodies.
From our Gospel this morning…
‘Again,
Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am
sending you.” And with that he breathed on them
and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.’
(Note the trinitarian reference here.)
God’s Spirit that hovered over the waters of creation,
God’s Spirit that settled in the tabernacle and then fell upon Solomon’s
temple, that very same Spirit now comes to abide with us as we become living
temples.
1 Corinthians 6.19-20
‘Do
you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in
you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at
a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.’
Note, ‘you were bought at a price.’
‘For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall
not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’ John
3.16-17
I would like to make one particular plea here.
As we reflect on Jesus’ vocation, of his sacrifice, of his
embracing all the sins of the world, of this most amazing outpouring of love,
as we consider all of this, it seems to me that sometimes we over emphasise the
individual response, focussing only on personal salvation.
Many contemporary worship songs focus on individual
salvation, of God cleansing me of my guilt, sin and shame. All very good, all
very important.
However, this most famous of verses, John 3.16 states that
God so loved the world.
Paul writes in Romans 8.19…
For the creation waits in eager expectation
for the children of God to be revealed.
Therefore, a question to be asked is, what is our response to this call of creation to enter into a knowledge of salvation?
What does it mean for the world, the created order, along
with peoples of every tribe, nation and tongue, what does it mean for them to
be freed from slavery to sin and to follow the Way to fullness of life, love,
hope and flourishing?
What does it mean as we are now see major geopolitical
shifts and globalisation breaking down. What does salvation look like in a new
era that is fraught with uncertainty and yet offers the space to shape the
future as Resurrection Good News People called to help create a civilisation of
love as a signpost of the new creation.
Well, first and foremost the world needs to hear this Good
News, that there is way out slavery and bondage to decay and death.
From our Gospel reading…
‘Again
Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am
sending you.”
This is exactly what is happening in the story we heard
from Acts, remember Jesus’ words, As the Father has sent me, I am
sending you.”
The ‘sent ones’ are now delivering the Good News. They are
outlining the way in which Jesus, as a faithful Israelite, has become the means
and the way out of slavery to sin wrought by his sacrificial death and
resurrection. This is Good News for all people and for the whole of creation.
God is with us, God loves us, and God has a plan and a
purpose for us all, individually and collectively.
With the resurrection we have new creation beginning as
God indwells his people. A way is open, the curtain has been torn in two,
access is available to all, and we have a Gospel to proclaim.
We are invited to receive the Holy Spirit and be sent out,
even if at times we might be filled with doubt, we are to look to Jesus, to the
cross and to the resurrection.
“Because you have seen me, you have
believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Michel Quoist in his book ‘The Christian Response’ writes,
‘You are a unique and irreplaceable actor in the drama of human history, and
Jesus Christ has need of you to make known his salvific work present in this
particular place, at this particular moment in history.’
As we step out into the week ahead let us consider this, God is with us, we know this through the indwelling Holy Spirit moulding and shaping our lives so that we become more like Jesus and do the things that Jesus did. We may have our moments of doubt, but in faith and trust we acknowledge that have been bought with a price and invited to step out of slavery onto The Way and to participate with God, collectively and individually in making real the new creation inaugurated at the resurrection of Jesus.
‘Jesus appeared to his disciples’ – and still does by
faith.
(Pope Francis, Easter Vigil Homily, 2014)
The Gospel of Easter is very clear: we need to go back
there, to see Jesus risen, and to become witnesses of his Resurrection. This is
not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our
first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world
and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth.”
Therefore, let us ask ourselves this simple question as
the people called by God to this place at this moment in history when so much
is changing across the world, ‘just what am I doing for God’s sake?’
A Prayer
O Christ in the Synagogue at Nazereth;
O Christ in the pulpit of our Churches;
O risen and cosmic Christ;
O voice of the compassionate and righteous God -
Give us no peace until we become workers for your Gospel. Amen
Thus the Summons is....
https://youtu.be/-1yndf881Cs?si=_1fznXnG_qOsWKDL
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