This Morning’s Gospel is a marvelous,
wonderful story. It is marvelous and
wonderful for the many things that are happening. We have the disciples hiding together in
fear. We have the Holy Spirit in action
and the countless possibilities that it manifests. We have sin and the forgiveness of sin that is
the inheritance of the church down through the ages since. We have doubt manifest in the attitude of
Thomas and seemingly inherent need for people to have proof in order to
believe. We also have the theme of
“believe” and how we are called to
believe despite the lack proof. There is
just an embarrassment of riches in sermon material.
Indeed I had a hard time deciding what
theme to use for my sermon. When I first
read it this week, the first word the resonated with me was “believe”. It is probably the obvious one as there is
the whole issue Thomas who demands proof if he is going to believe in the risen
Jesus who is now the Christ. There are,
or course implications for us who are not fortunate to have this kind of proof. We do have Jesus statement,” Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” In effect we are even more fortunate that
Thomas if we are able to believe without this kind of proof.
However, when I considered the Gospel
again what resonated with me was “fear”.
We are told, “19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the
week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for
fear of the Jews.” That is something
that we can all relate to. We can
appreciate why the disciples were afraid.
All their hopes and dreams and plans had come crashing down. All their dreams that Jesus was the messiah
who would bring about God’s kingdom on earth were shattered to smithereens.
Their friend and teacher and beloved leader truly was not the messiah—or so it
seemed to them. He was not the only
begotten son of God the Father.
All their efforts to follow him and
understand his teachings and his sometimes incomprehensible parables about
prodigal sons and fathers who acted in ridiculous, surprising ways; about those
outcast Samaritans being the good ones; or farmers who sow seeds
indiscriminately. Those were difficult
enough but then there was the completely incomprehensible one about the
dishonest manager whom Jesus seems to honour for his dishonesty. All that effort and work and all those trials
they endured seemed have turned to ashes in their mouths. And now here they were— afraid for their
lives; who knew what those temple authorities, not to mention the Roman
soldiers, might do?
They were not doing to be satisfied with
just executing the leader of a possible rebellion but would want to stamp out
anyone connected to that rabble rouser.
They cowered there in that room paralyzed by fear.
Where have you been overwhelmed by fear
in your life? Where have you let fear rule
you and prevent you from doing the things you knew you should do? I certainly have had times when fear has
ruled my life. I have let the fear of
how people will react prevent me from speaking the truth. I feared the
disapproval of others and was afraid that I would be not accepted by those from
whom I wanted acceptance. I have stood
by and allowed people to bully others for fear of becoming the target of their
bullying. I have let fear rule my life
in small ways and big ways. And I have
much to regret in that. However,
sometimes fear can be useful. It has
also prevented me from doing some things which would have been foolish to do
and would have had serious consequences with little benefit.
So fear is not a black and white
thing. We have the fear instinct because
it is a necessary part of the survival and probably if people did not have fear
as part of our being we would not have survived as a species. The challenge for us is to discern when fear
is appropriate and when it is not appropriate.
When do we pay attention to the fear/survival instinct and when do we
put it aside and plunge ahead despite the possible consequences?
The disciples were cowering in fear in
that room. If they had stayed there
waiting until the furor had died down and it was safe to return to their homes
and their old occupations as fishers of fish instead of people it all would
have ended there. All that they had gone
through could have been for not. Fear
would have triumphed and death would have won.
But it did not. They were able to
overcome their fear albeit with the help and assurance of the risen Lord. We are gathered here today because fear did
not triumph and death was not victorious.
What does that mean for us today? How does the fact that fear and death did not
triumph in that room two thousand years ago impact our lives today? Are we going to throw fear and even caution
to the wind and be the church that God intends us to be? Are we going to be the body of Christ here on
earth until he returns? Are we going to
speak the truth to power as the prophets did?
Are we going to proclaim the Good News of Christ crucified and raised
from the tomb? Are we going to love our
neighbours and our enemies as ourselves?
Are we going to feed the hungry, visit the sick and the shut-ins, are we
going to help the poor and demand that the poor are aided by the powers that rule
this world? We shall see. Amen
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