Peace Be With You: From Locked Doors to Mission

For those who do not have ears, for those who cannot see, for those who are unable to walk up the church steps, or for those who fight invisible battles with their bodies or minds, God finds a way to appear even when the church and society erects barriers in the way. He doesn't like your closed doors. We try to shut him out like we shut out a cat on the wrong side of the door. We act like we don't see him, but Jesus is persistent. He keeps banging. He keeps coming through. And in our darkness, he appears with a shaft of light that's almost blinding, and he says, peace be with you. Amen. Amen. [00:50:53] (57 seconds)  #JesusFindsAWay

Jesus, had earlier that morning burst through a stone door, now appeared through a locked door and said, peace be with you. And that's not all. Since this is John's gospel, it's Pentecost there. Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into them, commissioning them to go out into the world and telling them they have the power to forgive sin from disciple to apostle in one breath. Talk about having to adjust to a new normal. [00:36:00] (34 seconds)  #EmpoweredToForgive

Thomas knew Jesus as a living, breathing human being, a human being who died. And now he is expected to adjust to a Jesus who can walk through locked doors just like that? It's no wonder that Thomas had questions for the disciples. Now it's a week later, and the doors were still shut. But Jesus? Jesus came anyway with a sigh undoubtedly, but he came. He came to show them what they needed to see just like he shows all of us what we need to see. Remember? That's the Easter proclamation. He is going before you, going back home, going to familiar territory, going to where you belong, where you live and work, and there you will see him. That's the promise. That's what they were offered. That's what we are offered. We will see him. [00:48:07] (58 seconds)  #WeWillSeeHim

Just to give you an idea of how awesome a responsibility forgiveness is in their culture, on the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur, everyone is supposed to examine their life, their deeds, their souls, and make amends for any wrongdoing. We're not talking about a simple, I'm sorry here. If I've hurt you, then I am to correct the damage and ask for forgiveness. You have to hear my confession and consider it, but you don't have to forgive me. If what I have done is too awful, too hurtful for you to extend forgiveness, then the sin is retained. Before I can go straight to God to ask for forgiveness, I need to come to you three times in an attempt to make restitution. [00:39:18] (52 seconds)  #MakeAmends

But wait. What about that blessed are those who haven't seen and yet believe part? What about that? Well, you know, I think he threw that in because he heard the locks turning on our own doors, and he wanted to pry them open. Maybe coming through locked doors was strenuous. Maybe it was painful. Or maybe he wanted to spare us the false security of locked doors and just be open enough to see him in our midst, showing us his wounds, the brokenness of this world, the suffering of Christ on the backs and sides and hands of our brothers and sisters, but also to see the grace and the forgiveness that is poured out even on us just when we're sure we won't get it, just when we are afraid we can't have it, and we turn to push the doors closed against the world too cruel to live in, too empty of him, or so we think. But he's there. [00:49:45] (68 seconds)  #FaithBeyondSight

So having his buddies tell him, we have seen the Lord, well, that really isn't enough to erase those horrible images from his mind. His problem isn't doubt. It's that his learning style is different. He needs to see and touch and feel in order to believe. Having gone through such tremendous trauma, he needs more than words to help him release his pain. When we label him doubting Thomas, we negate the experience he had and the process he needed to go through in order to heal. [00:47:27] (41 seconds)  #HealingTakesTime

Jesus didn't let Thomas's literal mindedness create a barrier any more than he let a locked door keep him away. If Thomas needed a special visit from his teacher, then Jesus was going to oblige because it was never about Thomas. It was about God coming to us no matter where we might be, no matter what we need to sustain our faith. Thomas needed to see and touch Jesus to find his faith. Maybe this simple story is to assure us that we don't need to see as well as a reminder that if we do, God will oblige. [00:49:05] (41 seconds)  #GodMeetsUsWhereWeAre

We sometimes close ourselves off because we are so afraid of getting hurt even by the very people we have just greeted with the peace of Christ. We don't always see when we hurt each other or when we hurt the world because we keep our eyes down and unfocused. We use words as weapons and assume that because no one got hurt, at least in a way we can see and hear that all is okay, except that not all hurts can be seen. Not all hurts involve guns in emergency rooms and funeral parlors, and some weapons leave deep unseen scars that cause pain for a lifetime. So instead of talking to each other, we just silently slip away, avoiding the hard work of reconciliation. [00:43:46] (47 seconds)  #SeeTheUnseenHurt

We blame others. We claim problems are the fault of others. We want God to forgive us, but we've forgotten that Jesus handled that ability, that responsibility over to us. Being responsible for the work of forgiveness is hard because it means we have to adjust to a new normal. It means opening doors and heading out into a changed world. [00:44:33] (27 seconds)  #WeAreCalledToForgive

Before Jesus showed up, the disciples were in deep grief. They had witnessed quite possibly the most horrid event they could imagine. They were terrified about what their future might bring. Would they too be roughed up by Roman soldiers? It's no wonder they're in hiding together. If they are ever going to unlock that door, they are going to need to make a major shift in perspective. On the other side of it is everything that they are afraid of, and Jesus has just told them to go there and forgive sin. [00:38:36] (41 seconds)  #CourageToForgive

Jesus came. That's what John says. The doors were locked and Jesus came. How did he come in? Don't know. John doesn't say. He just came in. Peace be with you. He had to say it twice because the first time they didn't hear it for fear of something. And he sighed. Must have, and showed his hands and his side. Then John says, then they rejoiced. How long did he stand there banging on the doors hoping someone would let him in? [00:35:25] (34 seconds)  #PeaceBeWithYou

I can just see it. She probably crossed her arms and turned to Peter and John who were trying really hard to be interested in the pattern of rushes thrown on the floor. You were there. You came running in like your shorts were on fire and dashed into the tomb. What did you see? The silence hung in the air behind the locked doors. Nothing. They saw nothing. Not what they expected to see. Not what they hoped to see. They saw nothing. Now they sit comforted by nothing, afraid of everything, hoping locked doors would save them. They didn't. [00:34:43] (42 seconds)  #LockedDoorsDontSave

for these disciples, extending forgiveness is a big, all capital letters, big responsibility. And now Jesus has given that ability to the disciples and onto us. If that responsibility isn't taken seriously, well, okay. How would you feel if I forgave someone for hurting you without asking you first? The potential for hurt and abuse is immense. [00:40:12] (38 seconds)  #ForgivenessIsSerious

They saw, but it seemed sure they didn't believe. Not enough to open a door anyway, not enough to venture out. Seeing isn't always truly believing. Or maybe there is seeing and there is seeing. Seeing with our eyes doesn't always lead to seeing with our faith. Let's think a bit about what made Thomas's situation different because the lesson behind that difference can help us today. Going back to that new normal concept, when something completely drastic, perhaps traumatic happens in life, altering the course of your future, you have a couple of ways of coping. You can cry and lament about how horrible it all is, or you can deal with the new conditions of your life still recognizing that something horrible happened, but without looking back and dwelling on it and being morose about what life could have been. Instead, you can look forward. [00:37:24] (72 seconds)  #SeeWithFaith

You know, we still do this hiding thing in the church and communities and society. We stay behind our closed doors, keeping inside anything remotely private, spiritual life, personal life, and especially our messy family stuff. I'm not talking about because of COVID quarantine. I'm just talking about how we share with people. Now we'll let out things we consider public domain, especially if it's civic, social, political, economic, and especially if it's something we can be publicly passionate about. The stuff we keep inside, though, and I don't mean just inside the walls of the church or our homes. We we keep it hidden deep inside ourselves. [00:42:59] (48 seconds)  #StopHidingYourStruggles

But right now, what occupies our thinking are those doors. On Easter evening, they were locked. Locked for fear, John says, but they were locked up tight. The disciples were locked in behind doors, behind piles of furniture too, perhaps. Blinds may have been drawn on the windows, and nobody moved much in case someone below heard the footsteps on the floors. They were huddled, hunkered down, hiding behind the doors. [00:32:52] (35 seconds)  #LockedInFear

Thomas had a problem. He had a good memory, and he needed to see things to believe them. Unlike the other disciples who had seen Jesus, who had had Jesus breathe the Holy Spirit into them, Thomas only has his last memory of Jesus. What was that memory? Was it the arrest in the Garden Of Gethsemane? We can't know for sure. It is generally assumed that the disciples fled and hid. What if they were hidden among the crowd? Imagine if you can, Thomas, alone in the crowd. He's pulled his shawl over his face and ducked his head. He has no idea where his friends are in the throng of people. As he is jostled along, why doesn't he try to do something to stop this atrocity? Perhaps he's so overwhelmed with fear that he can't think. Maybe he has a bit of understanding about what Jesus meant in that upper room. In any case, to be able to do nothing in the face of evil is a horrible trauma to experience. Just ask anyone who has seen a family member or a friend being unjustly abused. [00:45:08] (71 seconds)  #TraumaShapesBelief

Maybe less, maybe 10, maybe a few more. We don't know. And if the women were there, did they try again? Look, Mary of Magdala says. It was him. He's alive. Yeah. Sure, Mary. Maybe your demons have come back. Just saying. And didn't you think it was the gardener? You have no idea who it was, do you? It was early. You were up all night. None of us slept. You must have been dreaming. No. It was him. He said my name. When he said my name, I knew it was him. [00:34:10] (32 seconds)  #HeSaidMyName

And then there are those curious verses at the very end of the gospel reading that that seem to open the door to all kinds of stuff. Like like, maybe it is possible that Jesus kinda sorta wants us to think for ourselves sometimes, that we've got to take his life and teaching and apply it to stuff he never took the time to tell us about, Or that John and the others didn't take the time to write down about what Jesus said about hedge funds and immigration? You think? Maybe? Well, okay. Someday we'll come back and cover that too. [00:32:16] (37 seconds)  #ApplyFaithToLife