Jesus is Here in Our Midst
Rev. Charles Lewis John 20:19-23
April 13, 2007 Psalm 118:14-24
Snohomish PC
Introduction to John 20:19-31
This first Sunday after Easter, has been known as “Low Sunday.” Everybody seems to crowd into churches on Easter for the glorious music, the gorgeous flowers, the gregarious spirit. But the numbers plummet everywhere on this Sunday, making some of us want to rewrite the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” to “Where Have All the People Gone.” But crowds are not needed to remind us that this and every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection. We’re reminded of that as we read today’s gospel of the first Easter where there are no great crowds, no flowers, no banners, no brass quartets or bells or angelic choirs; nothing but the risen Lord standing with his disciples… nothing but Jesus, which is everything.
(Read John 20:19-31)
Sermon
“Then Jesus came and stood among them.” If you want the heart and soul of the whole resurrection experience in John’s Gospel, you have it in these seven words… “Then Jesus came and stood among them.”
Last Sunday, we
walked with Mary Magdalene as she made her way slowly toward the tomb in the
dark early morning hours to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. She had
observed the customs of her day - resting on the Sabbath, preparing spices to
anoint Jesus’ body, then heading to the tomb the first
day of the week to make the body ready for burial. She went to the tomb,
as had Peter and John after her, believing she would find his body, certain
with every other reasonable person that dead people stay dead. The problem was
the disciples were not dealing with people—but with God—and God does not always
stay where we put him.
When a
non-Christian friend tried to explain the story of the resurrection to his
six-year-old daughter, the little girl looked at him quizzically and said,
"That's silly, Daddy. Dead people don't get up and walk
around!" But we forget. We’re not dealing with people here - but
with God – and God does not always stay where we put him.
God has a way of
rambling around in life, walking in and out of closed doors, overcoming great
barriers, weaving his way into the nooks and crannies of hearts and minds that
have shut him out.
In 1918, the new Communist commissars fanned out across the
Russian countryside to preach the gospel of Karl Marx. They did so with
evangelistic zeal, with one of the gatherings in
When he finished, an elderly priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, who was seated in the front of the room, asked to speak. Disdainfully the commissar said, “Yes, you may speak. You have two minutes, and not a second more.” The old priest said, “This will only take five seconds.” He stood, turned, and looked out on the mass of people gathered there, and in a loud voice, he said, “Christ is risen!” and two thousand voices shouted back, “He is risen indeed!”
The sequel to that came seventy years later in 1988, when Mickael Gorbachev, then chairman of the Communist Party,
whose mother was a member of the Russian Orthodox faith community, reopened the
churches of
No one can keep God locked out forever. God doesn’t stay entombed where people try to put him. God has a way of walking in and out of closed doors, surmounting great obstacles, weaving his way into the nooks and crannies of hearts and minds (and even nations) that would try to shut him out.
The disciples had gathered together behind a closed door in the upper room on the first night of the week. Discouragement, dejection, and despair hung in their air, as they shut themselves off from the outside world, locked in grief and doubt. But that wasn’t enough to keep God out. He showed up anyway. They put God into a sealed tomb and expected him to stay there, but they couldn’t confine God to that tomb any more than we can reduce God to the Church, safely tucked into our tradition with no access to daily life in the public market. They couldn’t confine God to that tomb any more than we can limit God’s work to the customs of Sunday Sabbath or Easter, keeping the door closed at all other times. They couldn’t confine God to that tomb any more than we can relegate God to the end of life to take us to heaven without giving him power in the midst of this life to bring a bit of heaven to earth. No. The God who raised Jesus from the dead will not stay put. God has a way of rambling around in life, walking out of sealed tombs, poking into check books and calendars, showing up in relationships, offices, schools and sometimes even churches. God won’t stay put. [1]
God has a way of showing up in our lives at any and all times and at any and all places. And why shouldn’t he with the long history he has. Just look, for example, at all the stories in the New Testament where Jesus shows up, weaving his way into the nooks and crannies of our hearts, into those most vulnerable places in people’s lives. When a leper no one else would touch with a ten foot pole is in need of healing who should show to reach out to touch and heal him, despite the man’s leprosy? Who should show up, but Jesus. When a man born blind happens to cross Jesus’ path, who should pop up to restore his sight but Jesus, so that when the man was asked by religious authorities who did this, the once blind man would say, “I don’t know. I simply know that I once was blind and now I see.” Or when the disciples are caught in a storm on boat on the lake and frightened, who should show up to calm not only the storm without but the storm within, bringing them peace of mind…who but Jesus. When Lazarus dies, who should arrive with his resurrection power but Jesus to restore life and hope and peace. And on a road to Emmaus, who would come out of nowhere to walk incognito alongside two disciples, making himself known to them as Scripture is recalled and the bread broken together? Who but Jesus. So given his life and ministry, is it any wonder that he won’t stay put when there’s work to be done?
Jesus would come to his disciples in the upper room not only on the first day of the week, but again on the eighth day while they are again behind a closed door, saying as he said the first time, “Peace be with you,” and sending them on their way as the Father had sent him on his way, out from behind their locked doors and into the world. Over and over again God refuses to be stay put, confined by any of our tombs or expectations. He’s always on the loose. God can’t stay put and neither can we.
Jesus said, “the Spirit blows where it wills and you cannot contain it.” It cannot be limited to expected traditional places like church and prayer, but is to be found in the people who need us. The sick, the hurting, those who are broke, in prison and in trouble. He said that what we do or do not do to such people we are doing or not doing to him. When God steps out of your expectations or mine, as God will do, that is one of the places God goes: into the people who need us. And from the sealed places where we left him, we can find our Lord too when we get to the end of our rope, the limit of our resources, the horizon of our understandings and at the edges of our certainties. God simply will not stay in tombs or traditions, channels or churches, our piety or our politics. That is what Easter reminds us. He’s on the loose. He won’t stay put.
There is something in each of us that would prefer a more predictable God, one who stays where we put him, not disturbing the carefully crafted tombs we put him in, not rambling into our agendas, and pushing us out the door of our comfort zone; one who is content to have us visit when custom requires but does not draw us out to our limits and edges, pestering us with people in need. But what we know from the Easter story is that God is not confined to tombs of any kind. God is out and on the loose and exactly where he said he would be: at the limits of our resources; at the edges of our understanding; in the lives of those who need us. Go there and see if you don’t find Jesus coming and standing there among you.
God does not always stay where we put him. God has a way of showing up in our lives in all times and places, pushing us out of our closed upper rooms and into office board rooms, hospital waiting rooms, school classrooms, a neighbor’s living room. Are we ready for it? If we are then may we be blessed, as were the first disciples, by the reassuring words of our Lord: “Peace be with you, for I am with you. As the Father sent me so now I send you.” Christ could not stay put…and neither can we!
Prayer: Almighty God, in raising your Son, Jesus from the dead, you restored life into his disciples as he blessed them with his Spirit and empowered them to be his people in the world. May we too be his Spirit-filled people, alive and dedicated to Christ’s great work through the power of love you have set loose in the world. Amen.
[1] Easter sermon by Rev. Dr. Francis H. Wade, St. Alban’s Parish, Washington, DC April 11, 2004.