First after Easter
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
John 14: 15-24
15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.”
“Get out of my head!”
We said it at the same exact moment. But that’s how we are supposed to say it. Together. If we had been younger, you might have heard us say ‘Jinx, freeze jinx, you owe me a coke!’ Leslie and I were walking down one of the aisles at Food Lion this past Friday, and somewhere along the running commentary and conversation that we were carrying on, we both had the same thought at the same time, and it resulted in saying the same thing at the same time. It is not an uncommon occurrence, but it is rare enough that sometimes it catches us by surprise.
Jimmy, my brother who was visiting last weekend, and I found ourselves doing that when we shared an apartment in Louisville after I got back from Spain. We’d be fixing a meal in the kitchen, and would be doing different parts of the preparation, and it was almost eerie sometimes, how much we could read each other’s thoughts. I’d be at a certain place in the preparation, and realize I needed a particular spice, or was ready for the next ingredient, and Jimmy would be a little further down the counter, and without saying a word or even looking at each other, he’d reach for the needed item and hand or toss it to me. A couple of times, it was so in tune that we just looked at each other, shook our heads, and chuckled.
We experienced an echo of that during his visit last weekend. We were in Richmond eating supper, and Judson asked Jimmy if he had a pen to write with, so that he could draw on the placemat. Jimmy and I were sitting across from each other, with Judson on the end between us. Jimmy’s answer to Judson was that he didn’t have a pen, and before I could interject the smart-aleck comment about him being an academic, here with his PhD in Literature, and not be carrying a pen around, for Pete’s sake, he went on to say that he usually does carry a pen around, except when he is on vacation, which he was, and looked at me, and smiled. And we knew that he knew something I was getting ready to say.
Have you ever had that happen and it feels right? Have you ever heard it somewhere inside you, where knowing someone so well - or being known by someone so well - that they are able to read or anticipate your face or your thoughts is a comfort rather than an intrusion?
Last Sunday was the ‘High Holy Day’ for Christianity Worldwide. Easter is, besides Christmas, the day you expect to see the most people in church. It is a given among regular church goers that on those two Sundays you are likely to see people whom you do not see the rest of the year. It goes to show that even for those who have a passing familiarity with the faith; Easter still has a lot to say about what it means to be a Christian.
So what exactly DOES Easter say about the Christian faith? Simply this: Christ lived, Christ was crucified, Christ died, Christ was buried, and most importantly, Christ arose.
I use the term ‘simply’ in the broadest, most comprehensive sense of the word. To put it another way, the Gospel, and that is what those five statements make up, is at the same time simple and incredibly complex. It is simple enough for a child to understand, and yet complex enough to have provided fodder for theologians for the last 1800 years … but the question is not strictly an academic one. In fact, it is academic only in a secondary sense.
If we believe the Easter Gospel, believing entails more than simply attending church twice a year. It involves more than simply paying lip service on a semi-regular basis to what is, at least in this part of the country, a socially acceptable Sunday pastime. Believing the Easter Gospel means that we hold to be true the radical notion that after having died on the cross, Christ arose from the dead, and was again seen among hundreds of his followers for 50 days, and at the end of that time, he ascended into Heaven. It means that for several decades after that, there were people living and walking on this earth that had seen and heard, and spoken to the risen son of God. They were firsthand witnesses to his presence among them.
But does the Easter story mean anything different to us now, today, almost 2000 years later? Can we, as people living in the post-enlightenment age, approach and fully understand the meaning of the resurrection like the disciples did right after it happened? I think we are not that far removed from them.
Last Sunday morning, for the Sunrise Service, I referred to a passage that comes later in the book of John. Specifically, chapter 20, beginning in verse 24:
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
That’s where we come in.
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
For those of you who are here today who were here at that service, I’ll be repeating a little bit of what I said. I trust you’ll agree with me that it bears repeating.
Why do we believe this Gospel? Paul speaks of it as ‘foolishness to the gentiles’ … we believe because on some level, we have experienced God in our lives, whether as individuals, as a family, or as a larger community, God has touched our lives in such a way that we are compelled to believe that what the Gospel says is the truth. We have seen God move in our midst, we have felt him move in our LIVES, we have experienced the love of Christ in such a way that there is no other explanation BUT that the Holy Spirit is alive and moving in us today.
So we are blessed because we have not seen, and yet have come to believe. Have we TRULY not seen? If we are talking about seeing the actual physical body of Jesus of Nazareth, then the answer is no, we haven’t. So if we believe then the fact that we are blessed does indeed follow.
However, if we are speaking of whether or not we’ve seen the risen body of Christ in the broader sense, that we have touched his hands, or tended to his wounds, or washed his feet … then the answer is a resounding YES!
To see him, all you need to do is look around you. Look into the eyes of your neighbor, your brother, your sister. Reach out, and in that moment, you are touching the risen body of Christ. Paul speaks of us as the body of Christ. Jesus spoke of us in similar fashion in the passage that I read from at the beginning of the message:
"Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
Christ has promised us that he will make his home with us, if we love him and keep his word.
So what does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church?
Are we living our lives … are we living our life as a congregation as though we are following a nice set of moral principles or as though we are following a risen savior?
Are we doing what is acceptable in the world’s eyes, or are we surprising the world with how we respond to it?
Can we catch a glimpse of the places where God’s Kingdom is breaking into the world, and is one of those places here, among us?
Do we know the risen Lord in such a way that we can anticipate his next thought, his next move? Do we know him in such a way that we can open our mouths and HIS words come out? Does he know us in such a way that we can catch ourselves looking at each other and smile and simply shake our heads … in communion so close that words need not be spoken, where actions are the mode of communication that speaks louder than any word, but at the prompting of a still, small voice?
Let’s pray.
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