Late for Easter

May 1, 2011
Year A
Late for Easter
Acts 2:14, 22-32
John 20:19-31
Second Sunday of Easter


Introduction – How reputations get started
I recall a story my grandmother told of a man in west Kentucky around 1900. He never touched a drop of "Demon Rum" except for one memorable occasion. He got roaring drunk, stole a horse and buggy, and raced down the main street of Arlington, Kentucky, all the while singing at the top of his lungs the song, "There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!" For the rest of his life he was known as "Hot Time." One night and a reputation for a lifetime! It wasn't fair to call him "Hot Time". He never lived down that one night.

Thomas’ reputation
But you know, that is how we are about people. We love to associate people with our opinion of their reputation and not of who they really are. And have you noticed that we never ever think about whether that reputation is fair or not, we just keep on perpetuating it. We are quick to judge others.

That is how we know about the disciple Thomas – by his reputation. In one story in the whole bible, we heard that he doubted Jesus, and we have labeled him doubting Thomas.

That reputation is very prevalent; there are three stories in the bible that everyone knows about. People who have never picked up a bible in their lives, know three characters from the bible – the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, and doubting Thomas.
Everyone thinks Thomas was from Missouri – the show me state, all because he asked the resurrected Jesus to show him the nails in his hands. How did his reputation get so famous? We who have read the bible went around spreading the reputation of a fellow disciple.
When the truth is, Thomas did not ask anything of Jesus that the rest of the disciples did not already ask. We would have done the same thing.
Thomas did not do anything wrong, he was just late, late for Easter. All of the other disciples have already got the proof they were looking for. They did not believe that Jesus was alive either, until he appeared to them and talked to them. Thomas was not there at the time.
We like to give Thomas a bad reputation, because Jesus says blessed are those who don’t see and yet believe. But was he really talking about us? Are we really that faithful. If we did not see Jesus for ourselves, how many of us would be here now? If we didn’t have proof that Jesus was alive, would we be here? Probably not.

The relationship of fear and doubt
The real danger of this story is the relationship we give to fear and doubt. The relationship we give to fear and doubt. In order to make sense of this story we like to make them opposites. If you doubt, then you can’t have faith, and if you have faith you can’t have doubt. I hope that you know that is not true. We’ve all doubted something in our lives. We have all needed proof of something in our lives. We have all doubted God in some way. We all wonder whether this Christian life is all that it is cracked up to be. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t. And just as Jesus didn’t have a problem proving himself to Thomas, god shows god self time and time again.

The human need to doubt God
The humanist society was formed in 1955. It was designed for people who needed to deal with life, without having to resort to the idea that there was a God. They believed that science had an answer for everything in life. One year a distinguished scientist was asked to address the group. He explained that he was a Christian, and that he grew up in a Christian home. His parents were very religious. When he and his brother grew up, they went to college to become scientist. They became convinced that science was the answer to everything. To them religion was just some old folktale. That was until his brother died. His mother and father had the resources to deal with the unspeakable – the scientist didn’t. His mother and father had hope in the midst of pain, he didn’t. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet still believe.

It hurts to hope
We have all been in that situation where it just hurts too much to have hope. Hope just seems so far removed from our situation. The good news is that if you are ever in a situation where you can’t find God, just hold on and God will come and find you.
The disciples were upstairs locked in the upper room. Now there are not too many places in America where you can go, where you don’t lock the door. But in Jesus times, a locked door meant that you were doing something that you had no business doing. Not only did you not lock the door – you expected a spy to open your door and check on you at any time to make sure that you were doing the right thing.

God will come to you
It wasn’t privacy that caused the disciples to hide – it was fear, hopelessness, and defeat. Scripture says the doors were locked and Jesus came and stood amongst them. Here is what is so cool about that scripture. We don’t know how Jesus got in the door. Did he have the key, did he just walk through the door like a ghost. We don’t know. The point is that he got through the locked door. If you don’t know how to find god, god always knows how to find you. Just like faith and doubt are not opposites, neither are hope and fear. You can have hope in god, you can have fear – and either way God is still going to find a way to find you. Faith, doubt, hope, fear – all pathways to the same God.
Thomas was just asking for what all of the others already had. An encounter with Christ that would lead him to believe. He did say – my Lord and My God.
All Jesus was asking of Thomas was to believe in Jesus Christ are you savior. That is all Jesus asks of any of us. An experience that makes you believe….

Testimonies
Englewood will do testimonies……




Resurrection is the way we choose to live
Resurrection is not a story about Thomas being late for Easter, resurrection is a story about us, our lives, our faith, and the way we treat one another as people of faith.

3 gifts of Jesus
Jesus gave us three gifts in this story.
First he have peace, - the power to overcome doubt and fear
Second he have the Holy Spirit – the comforter that will teach you to love all
3 is the most important – the power to either forgive or hold onto the sins of others.



The power of forgiveness

Everyone has had an experience like this: You are walking through a shopping mall during a busy holiday season. People are everywhere. Shoppers are looking in stores, going into and out of shops, pushing baby buggies and carrying armloads of packages. Suddenly, and without warning, someone crashes into you. It might be just a bump, or full-on shoulder slam, but there it is. Your packages go flying; you may even lose your balance and stumble.
And then what happens?
The person who bumped you says, "I am so sorry I ran into you. I didn't even see you there. I guess I just wasn't paying attention. Please forgive me."
There it is, "Please forgive me." And of course, you do.
"Oh, it's okay. It was just an accident. Don't give it another thought."
That's the way it usually happens. But what would it be like if it happened differently? What would the reaction be if we did not forgive the accidental collision?
Imagine if the reply sounded like this: "No, I'm not going to forgive you. How could you be so careless? I could have been injured. You better hope none of my purchases are damaged because if they are, you are going to pay for them."
What would be the reaction of the person who bumped into you? Shame? Anger? Someone who already feels bad about an accident now feels even worse.
That is the deadly power of not letting something go.
And by the way, the biblical word for letting something go is "forgiveness."

Prescription or description
The key to understanding what Jesus means is to first determine if he is speaking prescriptively or descriptively.
If he is speaking prescriptively then, according to this text, Jesus has given us the power to forgive and retain sins. But if he is speaking descriptively, then the words actually serve as a warning.
It's as if Jesus said, "Be careful. You will collectively yield enormous power in the world as my followers. If you decide something is allowable, and you let it go, it will be let go. If you decide something is sinful and you condemn it, it will carry a condemnable weight. Be careful what you tell people. You may forgive something God doesn't, and you may retain something God forgives. But for the people you are forgiving or not forgiving, you may be their only access to God."

The power to let go
You can either hold on – or learn to let go. Forgive others, forgive yourself and live in the power of the resurrected Christ. But don’t be late for Easter.

Let us pray….