Scripture Reading: John 20: 19-29 Click here to read scripture.
This sermon follows in a rather strange way upon last week’s sermon where we talked about expecting Jesus to break into our lives. This week I am here to tell you that even when you least expect it, God, out of great love for us, steps in and gives you a miracle. This is the message in the Gospel that we heard today. Now most of the time, people who preach on this passage focus on the second half, the section on Thomas and his doubts. And there is good reason to do that—people need to know that it is all right to have doubts, to be human as it were, to need the reassurance from Jesus that He is who He said he was. But today we will look at the first section of the passage, that miraculous, unexpected visitation by Jesus on His now fairly motley crew of defeated, depressed, terrified disciples.
Where do we find these disciples? We find them locked up in a house fearing for their lives. We can envision in our mind’s eye this picture…Here is a group of tired, frightened men and women huddled together, almost paralyzed with fear, without direction, and having no idea of where to go from there. Imagine, if you will, this group of folks, gathered around each other in fear and trepidation and contemplate their surprise when Jesus suddenly appears to them. See them leaping to their feet and surrounding Jesus in wonder and awe as He stands among them.
Notice that John does not record that the disciples were gathered together praying and seeking God’s direction. They, more than likely, were not. In fact, if they had the energy to speak at all, we can suppose they were engaged in variations on the theme of “what do we do now?” They were lost souls, adrift in fear and uncertainty and I, as I said last week, can identify.
We can only assume that these were lonely people. They had lost their teacher, their friend. They had heard from Mary Magdalene that Jesus was alive but we have no record that they had seen Him for themselves. One thing is evident—they were not out looking for Jesus. They were locked in a room, trying to figure out how to get on with life in the midst of what still seemed to them to be a tragedy. And how many times do we find ourselves in similar places? Life simply gets the better of us. We come undone, we, at least on the inside, huddle in fear and insecurity. People desert us or betray us, our bodies fail us, our jobs overwhelms us, our kids or partners break our hearts…We lose it….the assurance, the certainty that we will succeed, or live well, or have the skills and knowledge to do all that life demands. We are no different from those disciples linked together by the loss of all they held dear, in fact, all they had known for the past months.
And, then, seemingly out of nowhere, Jesus appears and grants them peace. Peace, that sometimes elusive, yet always desired feeling of knowing that everything is going to be ok. Now Jesus did not tell the disciples that the struggle was over, that life would be easy from here on out, or to go back to the safe, secure lives they had left behind when they answered His call to follow Him. What He said was this, “Peace be with you. As God has sent me, so I send you.” Now, let’s think this though…What did God actually send Jesus to do? Can you imagine what the disciples might have thought? Hold on…wait a minute…this Jesus, our friend, our teacher, our master, just died on the cross after being beaten by Roman soldiers, humiliated, scorned, and tortured. One would therefore assume that the gift of God’s peace (precious though it is) does not mean that the battle is over. But let me be a little clearer…
I believe that God gives to all people at least two kinds of miracles…the first kind is the more obvious…a great need arises, an illness occurs, or a grief explodes with the intensity of a sudden landslide. In our hour of despair, we turn to God for answers, or strength, or forgiveness, or health, in other words…a miracle. And sometimes, a miracle occurs.
The other kind of miracle is more subtle, and although probably more prevalent, and is more often missed. This is the miracle that happened for the disciples at that moment “when they least expected it” and Jesus appeared. And into our lives, even when we are not expecting it, our great and gracious God appears.
I have told you before that the theologian who has most influenced my thinking is Jesuit priest and scholar, Henri Nouwen. You may know that Nouwen was a world famous professor at Yale Divinity School. Nevertheless, he lived out his last years working almost anonymously with mentally and physically disabled persons in a community in Toronto. Speaking directly to those of us, and I mean all of us, engaged in ministry, he says:
“The great vocation of the minister is to continuously make connections between the human story and the divine story… Healing means revealing that our human wounds are most intimately connected with the suffering of God. To be a living memory of Jesus Christ, therefore, means to reveal the connections between our small sufferings and the great story of God’s suffering in Jesus Christ,…By connecting the human story with the story of Jesus, we allow our [lives] to be converted …, from a series of randomly organized incidents and accidents into a constant opportunity to explore God’s work in our lives. “
Is this not exactly what Jesus did when He entered that locked room and appeared to that ragged group of followers. Deserted, seemingly abandoned and in chaos, the disciples sat silenced in fear and uncertainty brought about by the utter brokenness and despair that descended on the disciples after the crucifixion of their teacher and friend. In Jesus’ commission to the disciples, though, He does exactly what Henri Nouwen says we must do. He connects his life to the life of the disciples when he says, “God sent me, now I’m sending you.” However the earlier connecting or bonding together of the apparent tragedy of the crucifixion is necessary for the connecting and bonding of the mission of Jesus with the mission of the disciples. They had to share the death and despair, if they were to share the life and victory of Jesus. And in the same moment that Jesus appears in their midst and grants them peace, He links them, and us, forever with His life and purpose. But they were not expecting any of this. And I say to you, today, that we must be willing to recognize, claim, and celebrate those miracles that happen when we least expect them. Being open to seeing God’s work in our lives makes miracles possible. And Jesus not only grants them peace, He breathes on them and they receive the Holy Spirit. This visible sign of the imparting of God’s peace caused God to be alive in the lives of the disciples…and in us. And they weren’t even looking for it…
Finally, what do the disciples do with this miracle? They pass it on—as we move past the Lord’s ascension and Pentecost, we will see the disciples move out into their world. They did not grasp tightly onto the miracle, and stay in that locked room. They and we are a people charged with passing on miracles and Open Circle gives us untold opportunities to do just that. The greater challenge, just as we saw last week, is staying open to the work of God in our lives “when we least expect it”…those gentle surprises, those “aha!” moments when it all suddenly makes sense, or when a friend meets your eyes across a table and you know you are loved. Just as importantly, it is also the challenge of being open to being used to bring unexpected miracles into the lives of others. This is the wonder of Jesus’ appearance to His friends and it is what He calls us to do for our friends and neighbors and ourselves.
We celebrate Easter again today because we are resurrected people and we are called to accept the miracle of new life through Jesus. Stay ready, catch the unexpected and when you catch it, drop it, quite by surprise into the lap of the person next to you…or the person across the street who won’t even see you coming. When we greet each other today, remember the miracles you give to those with whom you exchange God’s peace. And imagine the wonder of a life constantly open to seeing the work of god…imagine your life constantly open to seeing God’s work in it…imagine the miracle…Amen and amen.
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