John 20: 19-31
It was shortly after the resurrection. They were together in a nice big room, but they were all huddled together in one corner. They listened to the stories told them with wide eyes and dry mouths. They had recently eaten, but they felt hunger in their stomachs. Maybe not hunger, but something in the pit of their stomachs. Churning. Uneasy. They hardly noticed the sweet smell of spring on the breeze as it wafted in the window. They heard a noise. They stopped. Listened. Nothing. They laughed. Nervously. They were waiting - we've all waited. They were waiting and worrying. Like waiting for news of a loved one, the results of a biopsy, the auditor's report, the bar exams. What if.......
They had just heard a story of the risen Christ. They were excited. They were thrilled. But they were also afraid. Why? Were they afraid of the authorities - those who had crucified their teacher and leader. Probably. Were they afraid of what the future would hold for them, without Jesus to lead them? Possibly. I think there might have been another fear. Deep in their hearts, perhaps even unspoken, they thought, "What if it's true?" What if Jesus is alive?
What if the news was the worst - failed, malignant, dead - not risen. They would be devastated. Ruined. How would they go on? They had invested a lot of time, money, reputation in Jesus - what if it was all for naught. They were afraid.
But what if it's true? What then - they would be devastated. Maybe even more so...
If Jesus was really alive it would certainly change things - wouldn't it?
Things would never really be the same, would they? If it's true then there is no such thing as the end. Jesus was dead, but then he was alive again - if death isn't the end, then surely there is no such thing as the end. He was alive, then dead - the end. Then not dead - not the end. It would mean that single events are not definitive - people cannot be defined by single events - Jesus was dead - but it didn't define him, because if it's true that he's alive, then he isn't dead.
Now that may seem silly at first - kind of a "so what?" conclusion. Single events don't define people. But I'm telling you it's a whole new way to look at the world.
If Jesus is alive, then I'm not defined by my place of birth - by my skin colour - by my sex - by my abilities - by my challenges - by my past - or future - by my crimes or mistakes. Nothing can put an end to me or you. It makes labelling tough. Putting people into comfortable compartments doesn't work anymore.
- I know a young man who was beginning high school - first year. Do you
remember. Feeling akward, wanting to be "in" but praying that no one
would notice you. Meeting new people, feeling new feelings, but not sure
if they made you peculiar or similar. New girls. New boys. More
people. Gym classes.
This young man was not the tallest in his class - not by a long shot - he certainly didn't think that he was the smartest or the best looking (his parents might have thought otherwise) - he was no athlete. He liked school - but he didn't really have an intro into any of the crowds - no armour to gird his loins. But he had something of a wit and quick turn of phrase. You've met the type - the voice heard after the others were hushed - essentially he didn't really know when to shut up. But it made people laugh, and that was like fitting in.
One afternoon in class, the teacher asked the students to stop talking so that he could hand out the home-work assignment. Our young friend made a comment about homework. Someone laughed (one is usuall enough). He made another. The teacher asked again for silence - this time more directly. The boy couldn't resist one more crack. One too many. Some of us have had the expeience or witnessed it. The teacher (to maintain order) assesses extra homework for the transgression, or a detention - perhaps sends the student out of the class room.
This teacher told everyone to take out a peice of paper and to write clearly on the paper one word ot describe the young man with the sharp tongue. The only condition was that swearing was not permitted. He then collected the papers. Told the young man to stand up and began to read the adjectives aloud. In front of the class. Loud-mouth. Ignorant. Stupid. Shrimp. Obnoxious. Nerd. Geek. Loser. (Anonymity never seems to inspire kindness in high-school) The boy fled the class in tears. Humiliated. Destroyed. Immasculated. Abused.
He couldn't tell anyone about it. He didn't run home shouting for justice. He went home and cried and it took his parents two hours to learn the details of his afternoon.
Jesus was destroyed and then alive again.
This little boy was destroyed.... and will be alive again.
That's good new that we can all believe in. We can gather around the young man and hold him and cry with him and share with him and help to make him whole. We want to. We want to be part of that new life.
That's easy for the disciples to understand.....here's the hard part. The teacher cannot be defined by the single event either. There is new life for him, too. That's not so easy. It's comforting to villify the teacher, to hold onto anger - but if Jesus is alive then the teacher is a new creation as well. If it's true that Jesus is alive then we have to find room for the abuser as well as the abused. The wrong as well as the right. The ugly as well as the beautiful. It's a new way to see the world. And it sounds wonderful. But it's hard.
I've talked before about Jesus healing the blind. A wonderful thing to be sure. But I read an account of a man who was blind since birth and by the wonders of modern surgery was given his sight at the age of thirty. One would expect that he be elated upon first seeing light, seeing red, blue, flowers, faces. His reaction? He vomitted. He fell to the ground and could not get up. Eventually he found his balance and could walk - but he couldn't find his way home - his reference points were gone - they had been over-run by this new way of seeing the world. If it's true - if Jesus is alive - it's a new way of seeing the world and many of our references points must be over run, made obsolete by this new sense of living in God's world.
- Brennan Manning tells the story about touring San Francisco with a group of friends and coming across a man dragging a woman by her hair - she was snarling and fighting - he was yelling at her. It became clear that he had sold her into slavery. He was a pimp and she was a prostitute - and he was yelling at her, describing in great detail what he had done to her and what he was going to do to her. The touring group were stunned. "C'mon let's get out of here" they said and started away. Then Brennan turned back to the man and woman. "What are you doing?" they asked. "She's my sister," he said and he went to her aid. He confronted the man, who then retreated. He put his arms around her. And the people passing by stared at him. Sneered at him. Called him names. "whoremonger". They spat on him. She had been abused and he had come to her aid. But to the passersby, there was no room for these people. They didn't fit.
But if it's true that's Jesus is alive and that this is God's world - then they are both a new creation - they are not defined by the events of their lives - they are wonders.
This doesn't mean that we do not take responsibility for our actions and our lives - this doesn't mean that we take the Pimp home and feed him dinner introduce him to the family - this is my mother, my children, my wife, welcome. But we have to find someway to include him. And her. In God's world there are no disposable people - That's good news - we're not disposable, but neither is anyone else - so we had better find room. Room in our societies. Room in the work-place. Room in our schools. Room in our families. Room in our hearts.
- A little boy growing up had a mother who was illiterate - but she loved
the Bible. Every morning the boy would read the bible to his mother and
then they would listen to the news on the radio. This was a time when
radios were as large as, and weighed more than, our televisions. Amos
n' Andy, Gary Moore, and Jack Benny ruled the airwaves.
One morning they read the read the bible as usual and turned the radio on - but it wouldn't warm up. It wouldn't work. The little boy couldn't imagine what they would do - they couldn't afford a new radio - they couldn't afford a repair bill. The next morning his mother told him to get his crayons and some paper. Then she took the back off the radio and where there was a red wire she marked red on the paper, where there was a green wire, green and so on. In thirty minutes she had the radio apart and a schematic for putting it back together again. She found the two vacuum tubes that were faultly, sent the boy to the store with the tubes and a little money for replacements. When he returned she inserted the tubes and restored the radio. It worked. And the little boy thought, "Wow, my mom can fix radios and all they let her do is clean houses!"
Later he would struggle with math and his illiterate mother would demonstrate the most difficult concepts for him on the kitchen table with peas and match-sticks. And he thought, "Wow, my mom can teach math and all they let her do is clean houses!"
Later he became a minister and he studied theology and he read that Martin Luther had advised that true preaching is done with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, and he remembered his mother sitting with him in the kitchen reading the bible and listening to the radio and he thought, "Wow, my mom can teach theology and all they let her do is clean houses!"
No wonder the Bible says that when Jesus stood among the disciples they "disbelieved for joy!" It was truly a miracle - a wonderful miracle - but it changed things - forever.
There will be a time when the young boy stands up in his class without fear and trepidation and the teacher begins to read the messages on the pages handed him by the class and the words are, "Funny" "friendly" "smart" "clever" "loved" "my friend".
That day probably may not be today and it may not be tomorrow - but it will come, because Jesus is alive and we live in God's world.
What I've said so far is easy to say and hard to do. We look around the our world, we see the criminals on the front page of the papers, we talk about those people who embarrass us - and we think, well forget I just can't do it. I know the feeling.
The little boy in the high school story was my son - and I'm not over hurting yet - I haven't forgiven the teacher yet - but I'm getting there and I know that I will get there.
- Rabbi Kushner, the author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, was asked why it was important for him to believe in God. He answered, because there are so many battles that I know I won't see won in my lifetime - but because of God I know the battles will be won, I know my struggles are not in vain even if I don't see victory in my life time. Because they are God's struggles.
Peace be with us all - for there are no disposable people - only God's people. You and me and the other. Thanks be to God.
(Comments to Norm at norman.seli@sympatico.ca.)
Enniskillen & Tyrone United Churches
Ontario, Canada