Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter – 9th May 2021: Acts 4, 32-35 , John 20, 19-end

Deacon Christine Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

 

I speak in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit AMEN

Small children teach us an awful lot and hopefully, learn from us too and it is important that we teach and pass on our Christian faith. My granddaughter, just three, shows me all the time about love and trust. Take washing hands for instance, and we have been doing an awful lot of that recently, she will say, ‘Look my hands are clean, before I reply, but you can’t see germs. Wash them again please.’

During this past year or so of the pandemic fear and trust, two sides of the same coin have come to the forefront. Seldom have I heard and read so much about doubt, or conspiracy theories either although they were always out there.

So imagine how confused and vulnerable the disciples felt after Jesus’ death and now his resurrection. First the women, then Peter and John slowly encounter Jesus followed by the other disciples but- and a big but- we are told that Thomas was not present at the time. We need not concern ourselves with where he might have been or why that is not the gospel writer’s focus or ours – suffice it to say he was absent the first time and now he is present, huddled together with the others in the locked upper room. Fear was present too, the tangible and understandable fear of the Jewish authorities and the fear that they might come after the followers of crucified Christ. How important it was that the disciples all stuck together now after their traumatic experiences. How well we too can understand that, as we long to be physically present to each other in our apprehension and loss, in whatever form that takes for each of us individually and collectively.

 

Hear what Rowan Williams says from his collection of talks entitled Candles in the Dark in 2020 written and given at Magdalene College, Cambridge before he retired. ‘One of the things Easter declares that our world of time and change has been transformed by the event of Jesus’ resurrection.  When we say that Jesus is risen, Christos Anesti, we mean that there is no sense that he belongs to the past; his life is never over. The Easter stories in the New Testament suggest that again and again, the disciples are startled to meet Jesus. He turns up in unexpected places. I wonder where does he surprise you in your life?

Rowan Williams’ book has a strapline: Faith, Love and Hope in a time of pandemic and I do heartily recommend it- it is in bite size accessible pieces. The challenge of faith – among lots of other things of course, is not just to believe when life seems meaningful but at times when the climate is overshadowed, the temperature is low and the future obscured. We cannot predict where we will be in a year’s time.

 

Referring to this feast of St Thomas and the account in St John’s gospel, Archbishop Rowan goes on to speak of fragile trust, a phrase that resounds in these times but is for all times. Of the strange encounter with Doubting Thomas he says, ‘He doesn’t trust his fellow disciples when they speak about the resurrection- as if he suspects they are making something up to reassure themselves. After all, he knows as well as anyone else the fear and confusion they all showed when Jesus was arrested.

Jesus appears to him and tells him not to be mistrustful; you don’t have to see everything in order to believe; those who trust without seeing the full picture are called ‘blessed’ that is to say they are in tune with the truth, they are rightly related to God. He seems to be saying to Thomas and to us that we must learn to trust one another, get rid of that feeling of mis or distrust, If the resurrection is going to be credible, the witnesses of the resurrection must be human beings who are credible, who are not full of self importance and obsession.

 

Yes, we are fragile human beings and wobbly, wonky disciples just as the first ones were who were living in the shadow of the cross, the amazement of the resurrection and Jesus’ appearances and before the Ascension and Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Spirit. People start believing in the resurrection when they see joyful Christians who do not deny what is going on around them and in the world but fix their eyes on Christ and are spirit filled.

Perhaps we need to be surprised again and afresh by God so that our fear and nervousness slips away to be replaced by fluttering joy. Maybe Thomas’ problem was that when he looked at his old friends and companions, only a week after that first Easter morning, he saw that they were already slipping back into their old anxieties and rivalries.

But he needed Jesus to say to him: ‘Yes, those friends of yours and mine aren’t totally changed overnight. But don’t give way to cynicism. Like you and us, these are fragile folk who get things wrong and sometimes run away from the truth. But look at them again, they are still here with each other. Still committed to each other, still living in hope that they can grow and change further if they go on being faithful disciples and trustful with each other. We need to hear this today. We need to learn that our scars and trauma can reveal and lead to resurrection.

 

Children teach us all about scrapes or bummies as my granddaughter says. Trouble is we grow up and pretend to be invincible and without doubt. This last year has shown us our own and other peoples’ vulnerabilities and open wounds. No bad thing if we learn to lean and trust in God for healing.

In the account in Acts 4 don’t we almost fail to recognise the community of disciples as the early church operating together in unity bolstered by the Holy Spirit? We read how their ministry works practically and for the common good. Ην αυτοις παντα κοινοι. We learn we need to be spirit filled and to look forward to Pentecost. How in these times, with so many people struggling financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually do I wish we could realise this vision?

Do we dare to have a common vision and sharing? During the pandemic we are being asked this question again and again. Will the vaccine programme be rolled out justly across the world?

How do we ensure everyone has fair access to employment, food, health care and accommodation?

What are we doing about climate change which affects the whole planet and its population? How do we avoid future pandemics? I have no answers but this much I do know, that we have to work together. Luke’s phrase we heard in Greek describes the togetherness of community. We may not need to touch our own and others scars να ζυνθοθμε πληγες rub salt into the wounds but we do need to let Jesus  and his resurrection scars and scabs touch us. AMEN