THE 2nd SUNDAY OF EASTER - AS MANY TIMES AS WE NEED

The liturgical season of Easter has begun. Lilies and tulips placed around the altar make it beautiful, but soon they will fade and be replaced by the green plants we usually see up here. And although the colors of our plants return to green, our liturgical color remains white—the color of Easter. Our burse and veil on the altar and my vestments continue to be white for this Sunday and for five more Sundays—during the 50 days of the Easter season. The 50th day will be Pentecost Sunday when the liturgical color becomes red symbolizing the coming of the Holy Spirit after Christ's return to God. 


Except for the season after Pentecost, the Easter season lasts for more Sundays than the others. It represents the time Christ appeared to the people who had followed Jesus to prepare them for what God wanted them to do. First, they needed to understand what Christ's resurrection meant. Then, they had to be empowered to go out to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ to everyone who would listen. Our readings for the season of Easter follow this pattern as well. The meaning of resurrection is explored. The Risen Christ's interactions with his disciples are recounted. Jesus's teaches his disciples about his relationship with them and with those who will come after, receiving faith in Jesus Christ from those who knew Jesus.


Fred Borsch, formerly Bishop of Los Angeles, and now a seminary professor, writes about the meaning of Jesus post-resurrection appearances: “These are, indeed, wondrous and challenging stories in which Jesus is at first often not recognized. But there must have been something in the timbre of his voice. They see his scars. They know him in the breaking of the bread—in the sharing of bread and wine. The Spirit of Jesus is alive among them! God's love overcomes even the mighty power of death. . . [Jesus] not only spoke the words of God to them, he himself is God's Word of new life to all people.”


So today we heard an account from the Gospel of John telling of the Risen Christ's appearance to some of Jesus' disciples—and especially to Thomas. This account must be one of the most famous of these post resurrection appearances—so famous, in fact, that any of us could preach on this passage without much preparation. Our theme might be the nature of doubt—or Thomas as an “everyman,” a typical person—or the nature of faith: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Another theme might be the coming of the Holy Spirit to them through the breath of Jesus, and Jesus' sending the disciples out, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”—a sort of precursor of the coming of the Holy Spirit after Jesus' return to God in that very familiar account in the book of Acts we will hear this year and every single Pentecost Sunday. In fact, part of the gospel reading today will be the gospel reading for Pentecost Sunday two years from now.


And then there is that statement from Jesus about the forgiving or retaining of sins. Another theme then could be how we understand our responsibility as a Christian community to exercise the power in Christ's name to forgive sins. I understand our corporate confession of sin and the priest proclaiming God's forgiveness or absolution of sins in the midst of the assembly on most Sundays (but not in Easter) as flowing from this statement of the Risen Christ.


But of all the amazing themes that a preacher—or any one of us—can pull from this passage, a very powerful theme for these disciples and for us is the theme of our God coming twice—and if you take all the post-resurrection accounts in the New Testament—the theme of our God coming to the disciples as many times as they needed God to come until they understood and were ready to be sent out to spread the Good News. But not only to proclaim the victory of Jesus over sin and death, but also to agree, as Peter was asked by Jesus later in John's gospel, to feed and tend his sheep. Thomas did not understand and was not ready. Jesus came back to provide what Thomas needed—affirmation of his right to question what he had been told by his fellow disciples. For some reason Thomas did not trust them enough to believe they had seen the resurrected Jesus. Jesus came back—but not just for Thomas.


Had the disciples been empowered enough to lose their fear and go out to spread the Good News? The fact that they were back at the house where they had been hiding out implies that the other disciples needed more encouragement. John reported that Jesus continued to do signs in the presence of his disciples that John did not record. For John the signs that he chose to report, beginning with changing water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, revealed who Jesus truly was—the Messiah of God, although fully human, as well. As John wrote in the prologue to his gospel: “And the Word became flesh . . ."


Jesus didn't get angry with Thomas or the other disciples, because they needed to continue to learn from him. He stayed with them until he knew they were ready to become apostles—no longer students, but people ready to be sent out to preach, teach and heal. I find comfort in Jesus' readiness to reach out again and again to those less than perfect disciples—for I am so much like they were—I also have felt unready and anxious at times about what God may be calling me to do. But as an observer of how our Lord treated Thomas, I can worry less, knowing that God will reveal God's self to me as God knows I have need of such a revelation. Each of us can ask God for the assurance we need—as Thomas did—confident there will be revelation in a way we can understand, so “that through believing [in Jesus, we] may have life in his name.” And for this we can say, “Thanks be to God.”


Frederick Borsch, Introducing the Lessons of the Church Year 3rd Edition, New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2009, pp. 107-108.