(Back to Sermon Directory)

 April 23, 2006, 2nd Sunday in Easter, All Souls' Episcopal

Empowerment and Forgiveness
John 20: 19-30

Perhaps, the only thing harder than suffering is the fear of suffering. At least when you experience suffering, you can deal with it. You can name it, identify it, mobilize your resources, and, in so doing, can perhaps overcome it or even endure it. But……what cure it there for the dread of suffering? It gnaws at the soul. It doesn’t lead anywhere. It is wasted uncreated energy. It keeps you stuck between an intolerable present and an even more dismal future.

In other words, using our Gospel story, the fear of suffering keeps you closeted behind locked doors “for fear of the Jews” as was the case that Easter evening with the disciples of Jesus.  They dread the suffering that is to await them.  The imagination of their hearts beats to a paralyzing fear of suffering.  Will they be caught and crucified like Jesus?  Will the ghost of Jesus, reported to them by Mary Magdalene and by the two disciples who had encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus, would that ghost come and haunt them.  Where is Pilate?   What is Calaphas doing?

Yes, they had these fears, but their fear was also combined with remorse:  they had loved and lost—and probable concluded, contrary to conventional wisdom, that it was worse than never having loved at all.  Why had they followed Jesus so impetuously in the first place?  Why hadn’t the kingdom come in the way they had hoped? Why had they walked away from families and businesses….. For this?   To huddle together in a room full of faithless fugitives…..a room called failure and guilt permiated, perhaps, with a measure of self-pity? But, you know, we can empathize with the disciples, can’t we?  We can have compassion because, at times, this is a room we all know one way or the other, don’t we?   Our “humanness,” with our stumbles, our mistakes, our blunders draws each of us into this room at times. Well……..this is the dramatic setting for our Gospel story.

William Temples, the great theologian, has pointed out quite accurately that this Resurrection Story as recorded in John is not a mighty act, but rather “the quiet rising of the sun which has already vanquished the night.” (end of quote) Jesus comes among them. “How” Jesus comes among them, the text never says—just that He was there standing among them……..  quietly, like “the rising of the sun”.

So here in this room God’s infinite power is quietly unleashed into the disciples very beings—their hearts, their souls, their minds are face to face with divinity.  Let’s place ourselves in this room and observe.  What do we see, my friends?  Of course, we see MIRACLE…that’s a “given,” but taking all the events of  Holy Week into account—the betrayal, the denial, the lies…the crucifixion……and now, Jesus appearing among them on this electrifying night………. two resultant words come to mind here.  They are “forgiveness and empowerment.”  I would like to explore these words briefly.

“Forgiveness” in the Bible comes from the root stock meaning “a return from exile.”  It means “to come home.”  (It brings to mind the Prodigal Son story, doesn’t it?).  Here, for the disciples, forgiveness means returning  or moving from a toxic radioactive room called fear, regret, remorse, failure, to a new room that Jesus offers them called Resurrection….Reconciliation…. Hope ….Forgiveness.

Easter evening reveals Jesus, the Offended, calling the offenders home.  To miss this point is to miss the Gospel.  Just as Jesus had done with Lazarus when He had called Lazarus out of the room called death, He calls the disciples forth from an upstairs “morgue” of denials and weaknesses into the light of the new birth…new creation…forgiveness.  He didn’t have to do it, but He did. Grace with a capital “G”!!

But the disciples had locked their door out of fear. Fear does that.  It causes us to lock doors.  We lock the doors of our homes to protect our material belongings.  We also, at times, lock the doors of our hearts to protect our pride and keep out those who might reject us.  We even sometimes lock our mind lest someone change them. We especially bolt the door, at times, to honest criticism.

Now, on the flip side of this coin, it is true that locks protect, but they are also isolating.  If there is one major thread that runs through the Message of Jesus, along with how much God loves us, is that we are created to be brothers and sisters to one another.  But that does not work real well when we just insist on locking people out rather than inviting them in.

There is also another consequence of a locked heart or a closed mind.  Which of us has ever met a person who was personally locked up, unforgiving and peace-filled at the same time?   Being locked up and peace-filled mix about as well as oil and water….kittens and canaries.. and besides, most of us mature-types have learned that forgiving those who have hurt us is the true key to personal peace.

So, yes, it is as simple as that….This is the miracle of Easter, as demonstrated by Jesus’ Appearance on Easter Evening, that whatever is locked, isolated, bound, enchained can be loosened, reconciled, liberated and freed through His forgiveness of us and our forgiveness and acceptance of others.  In fact if we do not exercise this God given and God-demonstrated capacity, our lack of action is not neutral.  Without forgiveness, we hold each other bound.  Without being forgiven, we cannot feel free….

There are certainly good reasons why we may be unable to offer one another the gift of forgiveness.  At times, it is anything but easy, but, as has been said, He who can not forgive breaks the bridge over which some day he himself must pass.  And if the wounding or the violation is of significant proportion, healing may take a long time.   Nor is forgiveness rightly given casually, as though the violation never occurred or was rightfully inflicted.  Genuine forgiveness cannot flow from one who thinks himself or herself to have been deserving of victimization, nor can it come from one who lightly excuses a victimizer.  Rather, forgiveness reconfigures relationships so that they might begin at a new starting point.  Not so that they repeat the past but so they can initiate a new future.  This is the example you and I receive on this Easter Evening as Jesus Comes…”as the quiet rising of the Sun.”

Also, it is a reminder of the awesome power you and I have to forgive and bring life…or to refuse such forgiveness and diminish life.  To really bring this home, let me ask:   Is there even a chance that someone who is not here today…at home or at work or in the neighborhood…or perhaps someone who is here, feels a little less than whole because we have used our power and locked them out  rather than being willing to forgive them as totally as God is willing to forgive us? ………which leads me to the other word that is epitomized in this drama……

The word “empowerment” comes to mind as I placed myself in this Upper Room.  Only once in the New Testament does the verb “to breathe” occur, and it takes place here.  Just as God had breathed life into Adam in the first creation, so now Jesus, the spirit giver breathes out the second creation.  Immediately after this holy air hits their lungs, the Apostolic Commission is given.  Empowerment is for purpose—not for the disciples to do their own thing, but in order to equip them to go forth.  Their divine commission to go to all nations.  You know, it is only honest to admit that there is a desire, sometimes, for a rather “soft” religion in most of us.  But it is clear that the way to internal peace is along the path of obedience and may lead to some very demanding places and some demanding actions on our part in relationships.

An apostle is one who hands over to another.  Apostles hand over to someone else what they have received.  And that is what Jesus commissioned them to do:  They are to hand Jesus over to the world.  To express His life in their example of personal living and decision making.  To forgive and to loose others from the bonds of hell, just as He had done for them moments earlier.  Apostle see, apostledo—that is the commission.  Bringing the exiles home to Abba in the power of the Spirit.  Through forgiveness, the chasm between God and humanity has been bridged.  The exile is over for all eternity.  Yes, Jesus forgave and empowered and loved His disciples, but here in this room the disciples—and you and I—received the power also to forgive others. This is the power—the empowerment of Grace.

Before we leave, the story of Thomas warrants a look.  He really was not that different than we are a good deal of the time.  It was difficult for Thomas to see how God could break through and make a difference in life now.  Like ourselves, he more likely saw no limit to what God could                 or would do in the heavens.  But he was not that convinced that the same God had the power to break through the locks with which we separate people on earth.  So many people exclude God today and seek only secular help for their problems and ignore the power and grace of God’s help…His gift to us His children.

So….Just as Jesus challenged the value of Thomas’s “My Lord and my God” He challenges our willingness to recite the prayers of our rituals without opening our hearts to the possibility of a God who is powerful enough to connect and reconnect us with each other….and to give us inner peace.

The message of forgiveness and personal empowerment…the message of reconciliation and courage and hope…has been given.  It comes in this Gospel story today.  It has come through One who is no longer dead.  It comes to you and it comes to me.  It comes from Jesus the Son of God and it is true.  He forgives us;  He empowers us.

Believe it, and use your power well !           
Amen

(Back to Sermon Directory)