St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes, Vicar
Second Sunday of Easter/Year B: John 20:19-31
April 11, 2021
Lord, take our minds and think through them; take our lips and speak through them; take our hearts and set them on fire—Amen.
I try to avoid making assumptions. Yet, there are some assumptions that can be made which may ring true for most people. I assume that at some point in your life, you have known what it feels like to be left out. You know when you’re with your group of friends, who all nod in agreement around the dinner table as they reminisce about a memorable time they shared. Everyone is in agreement, except you—the one person who was missing that day. And, I assume that most of us have, at some point, when we ask to be filled in, received a dismissive, “It’s okay, you just had to be there.”
In our gospel passage in John, the resurrected Jesus came through the locked doors of the disciples’ usual meeting place, stood among them and spoke to them. But, the disciples did not speak back, not even to ask for proof of Jesus’ identity. Jesus understood the human connection between seeing and believing. Think about the signs Jesus did which helped people come to believe that he was the Messiah and the Son of God, so Jesus knew how important it was for the human senses to be engaged. This resurrection appearance helped the disciples to deepen their existing belief in Jesus as the Messiah, as Jesus voluntarily showed his wounded hands, and his pierced side.
In response, the disciples rejoiced and recognized the risen Christ in their midst. In that moment, those gathered disciples had become owners of that supernatural encounter with Jesus and it would be, forever, something that they shared and held in common. Well, all of them, except Thomas, who had not been present. The other disciples told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas replied, “Okay, you’ve seen him, but until I see him and touch him, I will not believe.” I imagine that Thomas, may have experienced from his brothers the unspoken, “Sorry, man; it’s hard to describe. Guess you just had to be there.” The disciples could never duplicate such an experience.
One week later, all of the disciples were again gathered in a room behind closed doors. Jesus, for the second time, came and stood among them. Jesus knew about Thomas’ unbelief, and spoke directly to him. Thomas, “Put your finger here, see my hand, put your hand in my side.” Thomas did both. As I think about Jesus’ first resurrection appearance to Mary in the garden, when she recognized him only when he called her by name, I wonder how the very sound of Jesus’ voice, along with seeing and touching Jesus’s wounds, caused Thomas to recognize him, and powerfully exclaim, “My Lord and My God!”
The intimate encounter between Jesus and Thomas took place with the other disciples witnessing it because they were right there with them. Jesus could have appeared to Thomas alone to get him caught up with the other disciples’ experience, but that would have left the others out. What is so powerful about Jesus’ second appearance to the disciples, with all of them gathered, is that all of them experienced the risen Christ at the same time. Those gathered disciples had become owners of that supernatural encounter with Jesus and it would be, forever, something that all of them shared and held in common. It is this shared experience that would give them the foundation to be sent out into the world, as apostles, to boldly proclaim the truth of the risen Lord. I like to think of Jesus’ second appearance to the disciples, as “No disciple left behind.”
This concept of owning the shared experience of the risen Lord and holding it in common points to our first lesson in Acts today, “…The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul…everything they owned was held in common.” (Acts 4:32). The disciples were owners of their shared experience of the resurrected Jesus. And, while they possessed that shared experience, we share also share in that visitation because we, the Church, are included in the “whole group of those who believe;” those who are of one heart and soul; and for whom the shared experience of the risen Christ is held in common.
In our Nicene Creed, we state what is known as the four notes, or characteristics, of the Church: “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church” (BCP, p. 359). Our apostolic tradition means that we hold in common the faith that Jesus’ chosen apostles received through his teaching, his death and resurrection—a faith which has been preserved and delivered to us in the present day.
Within the Church, the Holy Spirit maintains the apostolic tradition, and expresses it through our worship; our transformational mission work in the world; and the unbroken continuity of faith which can most clearly be witnessed in the apostolic succession of bishops in the church, as a “…sign…of the church’s basic continuity with the apostles and their time.” When we say that the Episcopal Church has ancient roots, we mean that we are rooted in the foundational faith and witness of Jesus’ own disciples, whom he sent as his apostles to deliver the message of his resurrection, in “…Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
With this gift of the apostolic foundation, rooted in Jesus Christ himself, the ancient Church as the body of Christ, shares in the Church that is ever-new, as the body of Christ, of which you and I share through our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, our connection to the apostles is woven into our Baptismal Covenant. At a baptism, when we are all gathered together and asked all at the same time, “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?” Our affirmation of, “I will, with God’s help,” identifies us as a whole group of believers who co-own a precious, shared experience with Christ, held in common through the Church.
Week by week, in the breaking of the bread—we see, touch and taste the sacraments of Christ’s body and blood. And, it is in our shared experience of Holy Communion that the real presence of Christ penetrates the “locked doors” inside our hearts to come among us and to stand with us in times of darkness, fear, anxiety and uncertainty.
Today, as you partake of the Holy Communion, taste and see, as the hymn says, “The goodness of the Lord.” Let that sweet aroma of Christ cover you so that when you leave this place, to go “out there,” people stop you and ask you about that sweet aroma. You can tell them, “Well, it’s hard to describe; you just have to be there.” And, then, you invite them here where they will share, with
all of the gathered faithful, in that supernatural encounter with Jesus who comes to stand among us and dwells within us. Amen.
