all of us are witnesses

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!"                                                                                                          -John 20:26-28

detail, The Incredulity Of St Thomas, Frankish Miniaturist, Psalter, 1279

http://edgeofenclosure.org/easter2a.html

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This morning participating in morning prayer with the good people of St Paul's Tombstone lead by Deacon Heather Rose, as we recited the Apostles Creed, I thought of its unfamiliarity to Sunday morning worship in the days of weekly common Eucharist. (Other days and daily offices, sure.) And I thought of the affirmation of faith it contains that echoes Simon Peter's brave announcement to the assembled powers-that-be in Jerusalem, the very ones he feared so much during the trial of Jesus. 

He is not afraid and we should not be either. We are more likely now to face people who think it is all just a story, that Jesus did not live, that at best he is a good example of a moral teacher. But those powers that be - including Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea, who name and rank are chiseled into a stone stele found recently in Lebanon - did not crucify Jesus because of his resurrection. That is not what they feared, at least not yet. 

Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate because of how he lived: his faithful adamant witness to the truth, as the Gospel of John puts it so clearly. He confronts everyone with reality. It is not convenient. Just like his cousin John the child of Zechariah and Elizabeth before him, Jesus is quite willing to speak truth to power. And he is willing to tell truth to ordinary people too.

"What do you want me to do?" he asks a blind beggar. The response to the respect Jesus shows is immediate. Bartimaeus does not ask for something comfy. No, not at all. "That I might see!"

And see he does.

It is not always pretty.

And his fate, as a witness to the power of Jesus alive, is subject to the threat of the we-don't-want-to-hear-it people of his time.*

This courage Peter shows as well as he stands before the assembled authorities and bravely loudly proclaims the power of God manifest in the death, resurrection, and life of Jesus of Nazareth.

And now it is our turn. All of us are witnesses, now, to the power of God, the triumph of life, made manifest in Jesus. "Receive holy Spirit" Jesus said, as he breathed upon the disciples: it is this empowerment, this equipment, with the presence of the Spirit of God in us, that makes us able to stand up and testify, to be witnesses to the resurrection and power of God, in our own time.

Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery
established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all
who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body
may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

*Authorities in our own time did not want to hear it, and certainly did not want the news to spread and undermine their self-conscious authority, that there was a virus in town...

Second Sunday of Easter:

• Acts 2:14a,22-32
• 1 Peter 1:3-9
• John 20:19-31
• Psalm 16

Thanks to Deacon Heather Rose for her sermon this morning for the people of St. Paul's Tombstone.

https://www.facebook.com/stpaulstombstone/

https://stpauls.azdiocese.org/

locked rooms

There have been conflicting reports, you know, of what happened on Easter morning; who saw him first, or whom they saw, or what they said, or where they were. Be that as it may. The afternoon passed away. And what had been said or heard in the morning seems to have been forgotten, lost in the anxiety of the afternoon.

And that evening, gathered, afraid, disciples gathered, closed the doors of the house behind them, and waited, in a locked room, for they knew not what. They were afraid.

By the time John wrote his gospel, it was the people of their own nation that they feared; the ones who had betrayed their Lord, they thought, would tip the word to the soldiers and they, too, would suffer at the hands of Rome.

But it was not Rome that came. It was he, himself, alone, who appeared among them. And his first words were words of comfort, of greeting, and, yes, of challenge. Peace be with you.

Shalom be with you, it means. And shalom means the peace and the reign of God. That is comfort. It is greeting. It is also challenge. For their vocation, their business, was to proclaim that kingdom at hand.

That was his work, until then, and now it was theirs. And, after he had shown them that it was truly him, he spoke again. As the Father sent me so I send you.

And then he breathed on them: he breathed, and said, receive holy spirit. He breathed on them the very breath of God, that had enlivened Creation at the very beginning, in Genesis, when the spirit, the breath, had moved upon the primordial waters.

It was the same breath, by the way, that Ezekiel prophesied to, in the valley of dry bones. That was a vision Ezekiel had, that all of Israel was like a boneyard, a deserted battlefield strewn with the remains of defeated warriors, but that at God’s words those dry bones had come together again and with God’s breath upon them they were kindled again into new life.

And now Jesus, their Lord, their Master, was breathing that holy breath upon them, putting that same spirit into them, that they might find new life and share it, spread it, throughout the world.

Receive holy Spirit - and the breath came into them.

The once-dead man, Jesus, had brought them new life.

They had been given a message and a mission: to bring the world the news of the kingdom of God - and now they had the power to achieve it: to speak and to act, that God’s love, God’s reign, might be known in the world.

This meant that the kingdom of the power of love had conquered the kingdom of death. And the ones who followed his way were there to proclaim it.

But hold on there! What if I have not seen? Can I yet believe?

Not everybody was present that evening. In fact, one of the twelve, Thomas, speaks up on behalf of those who have not seen.

Speaking to comrades who were wrought with despair the last time he saw them, Thomas says I won’t believe it until I see it - and not only that, have tangible evidence in my own hands, my own body, that it is true. I have to see, I have to touch, before I can join you in your happy party.

Eight days later they are all together in the same house, doors closed again, and Christ reappears: Christ reappears, reassures, and reconciles the “doubter” Thomas to community. And Thomas, through his stupendous confession, returns and more than returns to fellowship. For it is not a return to how things were Before - this day begins a new relationship with Christ, and therefore in Christ with the other disciples.

Their whole relationship to each other, God, and themselves, is changed, made new by the transforming power of the resurrected Jesus: who is here among us today, in the reconciled community of the beloved-by-God.

God is with us! In the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers… he is here with us as we go forth into the world in the name of Christ.

What Christ gives us in this story of the locked-up house, and the freed-up disciples, is more than a new set of rules: it’s the good news of a living Lord, a life-giving breath. God is present with us, empowering us, enlivening us.

Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.

Jesus Christ our Savior, you have delivered us from sin and death. You have filled us along with your first disciples with the enlivening power of your spirit and made a new beginning; grant us strength and humility, love and courage, hospitality and faithfulness, wisdom and compassion, mercy and grace, to enter into life, and to welcome into the new life in Christ the stranger we meet who becomes our brother, the foreigner who becomes our kinsman, the enemy who becomes our friend, the opponent who becomes our teacher, the sorrowful who becomes a wellspring of joy: all the gifts of the Spirit we anticipate may we receive with abundance of grace, through your transforming love. Amen.

• Acts 2:14a,22-32
• 1 Peter 1:3-9
• John 20:19-31
• Psalm 16

"Breathe on me, Breath of God." #508, The Hymnal 1982.