The Second Sunday of Easter
The Very Rev. Steve Lipscomb, Dean
Grace Cathedral
04/19/09

John 20:19-31

Now that Passover was almost over--and with the ghastly execution of Jesus at the hands of Pilate and the Jerusalem hierarchy etched on their minds forever, and the rumor of Jesus’ resurrection in the air--the disciples gather behind locked doors.  In a way only the fear of death can prompt, the imagination of their hearts turns them into a community of dread.  They are a shut up, locked up, restless group of people waiting, at any moment, for the crowd that chanted "Crucify him!" to change their tune to "Crucify them!"

In their mind's eye they can see a squad of Roman soldiers breaking down the door, slamming them up against the wall, dragging them through a jeering mob, and then slapping them into prison without so much as a phone call or even reading them their rights.

Still worse, Mary Magdalene has told them she has seen Jesus alive, so with guilty conscious’, they must wonder if the ghost of Jesus has returned to haunt them.

They gather behind locked doors amid a feeling of isolation and shame.  For they have all lived by the words of Ecclesiastes 9:4, "A living dog is better than a dead lion."  They are engulfed in the dismal consequences of living a life solely focused on self-preservation. But the irony here is that if they could deliver themselves, they would.  If they could actualize their way out of their fear and estrangement, they would.  But they can't.  They fear the world outside, but they can't face the world within.  They are, in the most literal sense of the word, stuck.

In his work, Short Meditations on the Bible and Peanuts, Robert Short refers to a scene that speaks to this sort of emptiness and restlessness and our inability to heal ourselves.  Lucy has set up shop where the familiar sign reads "Psychiatric Help--5 cents," and directly underneath, a smaller sign says, "The Doctor is in."  Charlie Brown ambles up to the booth and takes a seat.  A moment later, Lucy says to him, "It's too bad you're not a self-actualizing person, Charlie Brown .... Self-actualizing persons are free from fears and inhibitions and they accept others--they have self-esteem and confidence."   Charlie Brown thinks to himself a moment and then asks, "Can I become a self-actualizing person?"  to which Lucy replies in a flash, "No way!...Five cents, please."  Charlie Brown looks devastated, then lets out his usual big sigh. The cartoon ends.

Before it is a Gospel of liberation, the message of Christianity is an unflinchingly dark one. That is, on your own, you are a prisoner to sin.  It tells you that this once perfect, but now defaced world is going to deliver, one way or another, Lucy's painful admonition to Charlie Brown:  "No way!"

The disciples of Jesus, in the locked room, know such disappointment and are in it up to their necks.  How appropriate, therefore, on this Easter evening, that when the Risen Christ comes to them, he should enter into the disciples' floundering company from the outside. 

Likewise, it is only from outside of our sin-enslaved, sin-imprisoned worlds that the liberating love of God can come and; -finally, only this love can heal us and make us whole.  Neither we, nor anyone else (outside of God) can save our selves--can save us from ourselves.

So if saving grace comes from the outside, then what does it do on the inside?  The Risen Lord demonstrates.  The first thing he says to the disciples is not what everyone of us would have said with great relish--such as "Thanks a lot for leaving me in the lurch, guys" or "I just can't deal with your betrayal right now;  it'll have to wait.  In the meantime, just live with it for a while."  Nope. What he does is give them what the world cannot give them--nor take away--the peace which passes all understanding, the peace of God.

It is classic Gospel:  They deserve the worst; he gives them the best.  They live in death; he breathes in them life.  They deserve to be locked up (which they are); Jesus sets them free--sends them out.  Thus Jesus is raised not for wrath, but for restoration.  The Resurrection of Jesus stands as the highest expression of grace there is, and as the cornerstone of the Gospel.  --As Paul says, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins."  You are still locked away in the upper room.  But the Risen Christ invites you to come out, and to come into the Easter celebration.

And amid the euphoria and redemption and release the other disciples are experiencing, Thomas, that blessed disciple from Missouri, who wasn't with the others the first time the Risen Lord appeared, wants to make sure it's no hoax.  He wants to be sure that this "risen" Jesus is the same one who was crucified and died. The scars Jesus shows Thomas declare forever that grace isn't cheap, that the love of God is a suffering, bleeding, costly love; and whoever goes out in the name of Jesus better be prepared for sharing something of the same demanding, potentially scarring love that Jesus embodies.                                           

And that is both the wonder and the danger of baptism. It is wonderful in that it is the ritual action that makes visible God’s love and acceptance of us and our response to God as we say, “We love you too.” It is a ritual act that symbolizes our being cleansed from sin and our being made God’s very own. God’s beloved children.

But it is dangerous in that it calls us to give ourselves over completely to our God. Even if we’re too young to commit ourselves, there are big people, parents or guardians, offering us up to the life of Christianity—of following Christ. Are there blessings in that life? Oh yeah. Of course there are. But there is almost guaranteed, if we live the life we are called to live in baptism—as God’s people—as Jesus’ followers—there is almost assuredly heartache and hard times that await us, precisely because we share in that suffering, bleeding, costly, love that is none other than the incredible, undying, unmerited, unrelenting love of God. The world makes that love hard, but the world makes that love worth it.

And so today we rejoice, even as we commit these children to the impossible vocation—the impossible striving—of Christ-like living. Even as we renew our own baptismal vows to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. As surely as we know we will fail, we ask for God’s help to get us as far as we can go and to make us as good as we can be. And we give thanks for the grace and peace that saves us when we fall short.

That is the good news of Easter. That despite ourselves, and this broken and sinful world, we are made new in the death and resurrection of Christ.

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come."

Those disciples eventually got it. They traded their fear of the world might do to them for what the risen Christ had done for them. They knew like we know that the way of the cross is not a way without pain and sacrifice.  But the way of the cross is the only way to Resurrection. And baptism is the beginning of that way.

So, know this my Christian brothers and sisters—all who are baptized, all who are about to be baptized, all who bring others to baptism: If you go out into the world in Jesus' name, be prepared for the hurt and grief the world will give you--the world's "No way!"  But be assured of love and grace and power that God will give you to overcome that way for God's way--the Resurrection way.
Amen.