You are Not Dead, Either
Polk City UMC
April 7, 2002
Mark Haverland
John 20:19‑31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 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." 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." 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." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 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." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
I walked into Borders Book Store the other day to get a CD of The Messiah. AI=m looking for AThe Messiah,@ I asked the clerk. AOh, he just left. Lots of people are looking for him,@ the clerk dead panned. Well, it was no joke when the disciples lost their leader and began to wonder how to go on now that Jesus is dead. An empty tomb is not very encouraging. Only the one disciple reached the conclusion that the empty tomb means victory. The rest, unconvinced apparently by Mary=s account of meeting Jesus at the tomb, lock themselves up in fear, disarray and confusion. Now what? The followers of Jesus have known him only in one way, in the flesh. Now they struggle to know what it means to follow him in the resurrection.
This is not a struggle confined to those early disciples huddled into a locked room on the first day of the week following the death of Jesus. The disciples had learned just that morning of the empty tomb so it is no surprise that they thought their movement had died with Jesus. They have not yet caught on to the great surprise of Easter. But churches throughout the centuries have struggled with the very same challenge: AWhat do we do to catch the spirit of Jesus released from the tomb?@
We here at PCUMC are struggling to create a church as vital and a worship as inspiring as churches with many more resources. Can we find the living Jesus in a church which has no pipe organ, no large choir to lead us in worship, no stained glass windows to inspire us, no outreach program to engage us, just a tiny, though wonderfully staffed, Christian Ed classes, to instruct us and so forth?
Someone told me the other day that Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral said that the most important attribute of a church was an accessible, large, fully available parking lot. Well, we know from parking lots, don’t we. We’re pleased with what we have done in this regard and currently are negotiating for more. The disciples didn’t have a parking lot at all. They had no choir, no praise band, no printed bulletins, no fancy stained glass, no Christian education wing, no 300 seat sanctuary, no day care, no service projects, no dinner groups, no coffee and cookies. They had none of the accoutrements of a church as we know it, and yet Jesus showed up. They thought they were dead and most observers agreed with them. But Jesus brought life back to them, too. He arrived unannounced, unexpected, and even uninvited to say that he was no longer dead and neither were they.
As you know, we are in discussions with Bill Knapp to purchase some land adjacent to our property for future expansion. You may not believe this but I played the role of cautious, fiscal conservative in the meeting the other day, wondering about the huge cost to some of the options and about the difficulty and danger of obligating our congregation to more expenditures. The consultants on church finance would say that we are currently maxed out in this regard. What a hoot! Me, the fiscal conservative! Others on the committee were full of the spirit of abundance. God will provide. “Don’t underestimate the power of the Lord to work a miracle,” they chided. I felt like one of those disciples huddled behind closed doors. Frightened and hesitant to take any risks, I was Thomas, needing proof before I believed. Full of doubt, I want to touch the wounds before I believe that Jesus will bless this effort. Darrell and Greg and others were already confident of the abundance of Jesus, sure that the Lord would come into our midst and provide for the most daring options. This is a complicated decision for us and the outcome is unclear at this point, but it was fun to see the exuberance and confidence of faithful people sure that the Lord would enter through apparently closed and locked doors to provide a miracle.
I was doubly pleased because in most churches, it’s reversed. The pastor is pushing hard on a church reluctant to acknowledge the presence of the living Christ. Many churches try hard to keep Jesus out. Today=s gospel gives us a picture of such a church, so afraid that it locks its door to the outside world. It=s a picture of the church at its worst, closed up, concerned only with its own safety, lacking faith that God will provide abundance where it sees only scarcity. The first miserable little conglomeration of people ever to take upon itself the name Achurch” is a bunch of cowards.
Look at them! For long, painstaking chapters in John=s Gospel, Jesus has been preparing his disciples for his departure. He has gone over and over his commandments to love one another, to be bold, to trust him, to be ready to follow him at all costs. The crucifixion and return were no secret from the disciples. They just didn’t believe it. Either that or they weren’t paying attention. No sooner had Jesus been killed and they retreated like frightened rabbits behind closed, bolted doors.
They were supposed to be the ones walking confidently out into the world, full of the Holy Spirit, announcing the Easter triumph of God. But they held their first worship after Easter hunkered down, cowering, hoping that nobody in town will know that they=re there. “Here is the church at it worst C scared, disheartened, and defensive.@[i]
What kind of advertisement might this church put in the Saturday papers to attract members? AThe friendly church where all are welcome?” Hardly. Locked doors are not a sign of hospitality. AThe church with a warm heart and a bold mission?@ Forget it. This is the church of sweaty palms and shaky knees.[ii]
Could this even be called a church? Not only is there no sanctuary, no pulpit, no choir, no parking lot, more significantly it has no plan, no mission, no conviction, no nothing.
When we ask ourselves what we want and value in a church, we say things like Afriendliness; bold, interesting preaching; spirit filled worship; enthusiastic outreach.@ Or as our motto says, Reaching Out, Growing and Serving in Christ! We certainly do not have in mind locked doors and frightened members.
Here is a church with absolutely nothing going for it except for one thing: Jesus shows up. When this church gathered, in spite of its best efforts, the risen Christ pushed through the locked door, threw back the bolt, and stood among them. Jesus appeared even to the most pitiful church imaginable. In spite of itself, Jesus comes to them and blesses them. Jesus has a powerful message for this little struggling church: “You are not dead, either!” These people thought their hopes died with Jesus. But Jesus appears to them, as he appears to us, to say, “No, you may think you’re dead. The world may think you’re dead. But they couldn’t kill me and they can’t kill you either.”
Maybe that=s every church. Even First Church of the Big City with its orchestra, huge choir, electronic visual effects, or Plymouth Congregational UCC with its world class pipe organ, virtuoso music and organist, dedicated outreach and spiritual development ministries, not to mention our little congregation with its committed straggle of well-intentioned but over-whelmed volunteers and part time minister C left to our own devices, all of us are nothing, nothing more than a huddle of confused, timid, cowering failures to follow Jesus. When Jesus enters the room, however, the lights go on, we sit up straight, our eyes clear, our brains function. I have always loved the dinner prayer which starts out “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest…” We really are blest with Jesus as our guest. Jesus brings us back to life when he is in the room. I hear this over and over from people who have lost their way. Jesus finds them and brings them home. Unexpected, unannounced and uninvited, Jesus shows up anyway.
You are well aware that Christians are asked to give a welcome to the stranger. This is because, the Bible tells us, often the guest is God in disguise. Indeed, Jesus said that when we welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the imprisoned – that we do these things for him. He is the stranger, knocking at our door. When I was in Germany as a young person, I came to know and enjoy the friendship of the monks at a Benedictine monastery in Trier, Germany. The monks of Benedictine monasteries are required to welcome strangers who knock on their doors, giving them food and lodging. I was such a stranger and I can attest to their generous hospitality. The monk is instructed to open the door to a stranger with the greeting, “May I have your blessing please.” When we welcome a stranger into our midst, we are the ones who receive the blessing for God is in that stranger.
You know, I’m sure, that I agonize over the worship services here at PC UMC. I try hard to get music that is inspiring and uplifting. I want the prayers and responses to speak to us of timeless truths; the sermons and meditations to invite the Holy Spirit to touch our hearts. My greatest fear is that the computer will fail us again, which it seems always to do, and ruin worship for us all. I know that I am imperfect at this, at best. I know that I will always overlook something. The one part of the service which I don’t preview will be the one with the most glaring error. My prayer before each worship service is this one: Come, Lord Jesus, and be our guest – let this worship be more than we expect and deserve. Or, as one pastor I heard about puts it: “Please, blessed Jesus, this Sunday let something happen to us that is not in the printed bulletin. May we be surprised by your startling presence as we huddle here.” Sometimes, by the grace of a living God, the Holy Spirit slips through our closed doors, our meager worship service, and actual worship does take place, worship not of our own creation but worship as a gift. Sometimes Jesus walks through the walls and allows us to touch him and receive the assurance that though dead, he is not gone; though he is no longer physically present, we are not leaderless; though the tomb is empty, the savior is alive, though we think ourselves moribund, we are not dead, either.
The truth is that it was to a church which was hardly a church at all, just a pitiful huddle of timid souls hanging on to one another behind locked doors, that the living, risen Christ came saying just this: ALook at me. I’m not dead, after all and neither are you.@ Into this busy, buzzing void there was a voice, a presence, bringing them back to life.
I think now of the Catholic Church and how besieged it must feel. Many think the recent scandals will finish them off, a church already struggling under decreasing numbers of priests and increasing dissent. But every church has problems. I don’t know why God allows us Methodists to survive, for instance. We also have trouble remaining faithful. But God will bring the Catholics back to life somehow. They can’t hide from him for long. Neither can we. Neither can anyone.