2EasterC 2024
Forgiveness and Mission
Ever since Jesus’ death on the cross
Those who made up his community
(John uses the term DISCIPLES for everyone…never Apostles…never the 12)…
Everyone is having trouble RECOGNIZING him
…BELIEVING that it’s him
Which…I think you will agree…is perfectly understandable
Our Gospel text begins…
On the evening of that first day of the week…
So it is still that first Day
The same day that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone was rolled away
The same day she ran back to tell the Others
The same day that Mary and Peter and the “Other Disciple” went to see for themselves
They saw, they investigated and still they were covered with confusion and misunderstanding
Mary couldn’t tear herself away from the tomb
And after the others left
She looked again inside the tomb
And She saw 2 angels…one at the head…one at the feet of where Jesus had been
-Why are you weeping?
-They have taken him…I don’t know where they have laid him.
-She turns and sees Jesus…but thinks he is the gardener
-Jesus asked her “Why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?
-“Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him”
AND THEN he calls her by name…MARY
I imagine that he had a way of saying her name…she couldn’t misunderstand
NOW she can go back to the gathered disciples and say
“I have seen the Lord!” ------ In John’s Gospel, Mary is the first.
Which brings us to today’s text
Which narrates the 2nd and 3rd scenes of recognition.
They are behind Locked doors out of fear
Understandable
They have been following an enemy of both Rome and some powerful Jewish Leaders.
Peter has denied Jesus
They all fled the scene in fear
And what does Jesus say first?
There is no “Where were you?”…no condemnation or rebuke
Just “Peace”…”Peace be with you”
[gesture this]
He puts them sat ease with his PEACE
He showed them his wounds
Confirmation
It is Him.
Then the second part of our reading
It is a week later…Thomas was not there a week earlier.
Maybe the trauma was just too much
Maybe he felt like the Dream…the dream which turned into a nightmare…is over
And the best I can do is move on
Move on quickly
Sounds reasonable…no worse than trembling behind locked doors
A week has passed
Now Thomas IS with them
The doors are again locked
Again, Jesus appears with the words “Peace be with you”
And then Thomas’ GREAT confession
The only full understanding uttered in the Gospel
“My Lord and My God”
Thomas just wanted an encounter
He just wanted what the others had
He gets it and proclaims “My Lord and My God”
But let’s rewind a bit
on that evening of the first day of the week
At the 2nd appearance
Something else happened.
At the end of the Easter season
On the Feast of Pentecost
We celebrate LITURGICALLY
The birth of the Church
And we read Luke’s dramatic telling of the Pentecost story
---you remember the one with the tongues of fire and everyone speaking and understanding different languages?
But today
We read from John…
John’s version of sending the Holy Spirit
And giving a commission to the gathered disciples
“As the father has sent me
So I send you
And when he did this,
He breathed on them
“Receive the Holy Spirit”
And what is this COMISSION that Jesus gives?
It sounds like the theme of it is Forgiveness.
The line…
“whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Is simply a terrible translation…this is not disputed.
And there are historical/contextual reasons why…if you are interested we can talk further at coffee hour
But that second clause (the one about retaining sins)
…in the Greek doesn’t contain the word “sins” at all
and the word translated to mean retain means retain as in “keep close” or “embrace”.
So this my friends is IMPORTANT…
It hits very differently as a mission to say:
“Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them;
those whom you embrace…
those you bring into the community, those you hold fast are held fast.”
This is our commission too!
Be a people of Mercy
Forgive and embrace and hold the community together.
This mission has to do with forgiveness
Which makes sense
Jesus was a forgiver
He didn’t seem to be concerned with numbers
Jesus is inviting us into a NEW world…a new way of being.
It is not a world of COUNTING sins
It is not a world of putting our sins on the back of a scapegoat
and slaughtering the sacrifice to get on God’s good side.
There is no violence in God’s name…not anymore!
In the resurrection
We leave that world behind
And we enter into a new community
It is a community beyond
“Wow Look how much God Loves us!”
Or
“Look how strong God is”
It is a world
Where we are animated by the Breath of God
SO THAT
“as the Father sent Jesus
He also sends us”!
We share the mission
Forgiveness is our way of being in the world.
Forgiveness as a way of being
is different than forgiveness as part of an equation
It's not
I’ll forgive after you express appropriate contrition
Forgiveness is in the Lead
God’s Love…God’s Mercy…God’s care for every hair on our heads comes first
RECEIVING THAT
(which isn’t always easy)
receiving that…receiving that breath of God and letting it make us into a new creation…is how forgiveness becomes a way of life
And the sign…the clue…that we are forgiveness people
Is Peace
Peace
I have been a part of this community for 10 years now
This is my spiritual home
Even though…because of my vagabond life…I find myself in other churches on many Sundays
This is where I find that PEACE …Peace that renews and sends.
Our mission outside this church is nourished inside this church
Inside a believing community
But believing is not easy
I get Thomas
Maybe when “unbelieving is creeping in and stealing my peace”
When I find myself pointing out all the sin and sins around me
And as I (almost without realizing it) transfer them to my hidden ledger in the back of my soul…
Maybe that’s when your surplus of faith works on my behalf?
and maybe on other Sunday’s when the same is happening to you…
My surplus might work on your behalf?
So…
Whenever I take Dad to church
And he is 92 so he has some pre-vatican 2 gestures/habits that I was never taught
At the consecration…I believe that is when
He whispers…loud enough for me to hear and with his fist to his chest
“My Lord and My god”
Until now, it never occurred to me how powerful this confession can be
I mean actually repeating Thomas’ words
It’s like saying
Yes, I see you
You are here
You are in this community that gathers in your name
You are here in the beauty of your creation
You are here in this encounter with a stranger who helped me
You are here in this encounter with a stranger who needed me
Wherever there is peace offered
Wherever there is love that doesn’t count
Wherever there is brokenness being tended to
“My Lord and My God”
It is you…you are here
Like many of you
I have been thinking a lot about Ken and Peggy
And I am so grateful for Peggy’s sharing with us…sharing Ken’s progress and his challenges
And I found myself praying each time an update came
For Ken, and Peggy, and all the clinical staff…
Peggy,
as she included us in her deepest concerns
Offered us, as a community, an opportunity to care alongside her.
This doesn’t just happen
It is the fruit of this community being a place of peace and hope and grace
Of true forgiveness…
Easter is 50 Days…
50 days of asking ourselves…
What does it mean to be an Easter People?
What does it look like to live in the light of the Resurrection?
To be disciples breathing with the breath of God?
It looks like us at our best
When we gather together
We are upheld
We can say as we lean on each other: “My Lord and My God”
We are nourished over and over again…toward being an Easter People.
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