Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
Alleluia!
Grace and peace to all of you in the name of the risen Christ. On
behalf of the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area of The United
Methodist Church, it is my honor and joy to welcome you to this
service of worship today. We rejoice together in the power of
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that knows no boundaries of time, or
distance, or even pandemic. As we gather together across time,
across distance, celebrating the words of the psalmist, that it
is good and pleasant, when kindred gather together in
whatever way they can, so that there is unity. In this
morning's worship service, we'll hear the story of the appearance
of the risen Jesus to the disciples as they gathered
together in a locked room. And especially his appearance and
his conversation with the disciple Thomas. We'll hear from
scripture readers and musicians, from storytellers and preachers,
from photographers, all about where they see the spirit of the
risen Christ breaking through walls today, just as he did in
that upper room so many years ago.
So come,
no matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter whether
you feel like you are sitting at the foot of the cross, or
whether you feel like you still are on a cross, come and be
refreshed. Come and taste and see that God is good. Come,
let us worship.
Let us pray. Holy one, we thank you for the gift of this day and
for the new life we experienced this Easter season. We thank you
for your grace which covers this entire world. We offer you the
broken shards of our lives, trusting that you will
reassemble them into a beautiful mosaic. We long to see you face
to face, even as we catch only glimpses of your goodness. As we
worship this day, help us to offer ourselves fully to you.
Transform our fear into hope. Break down the walls of our
hearts so that your light shines not only into our lives, but
through our every thought, word and action. We pray these things
in the name of your Risen One, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
A reading from John, Chapter 20, verses 19 through 31. It was
still the first day of the week. That evening, while the
disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid
of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He
said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his
hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they
were filled with joy. Jesus said to them again, "peace be with
you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you." Then he
breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. If you
forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven. If you don't forgive
them, they aren't forgiven. Thomas, the one called Didamus
one of the 12 wasn't with the disciples when Jesus came. The
other disciples told him we've seen the Lord but he replied,
"unless I see the nail marks in his hand, put my finger in the
wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side. I
won't believe." After eight days, his disciples were again
in a house, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were
locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, "Peace be
with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here.
Look at my hands, put your hand into my side, no more disbelief.
Believe." Thomas responded to Jesus, "My Lord and my God."
Jesus replied, "do you believe because you see me, happy are
those who don't see me and yet believe." Then Jesus did many
other miraculous signs and his disciples presence, signs that
aren't recorded in this scroll. But these things are written so
that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, God's Son, and
that believing you will have life in his name. The Word of
God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
These four walls.
After a year of the covid, 19 pandemic, and quarantine and
isolation, and staying at home, I have gotten pretty familiar
with these four walls. What used to be just a trip to the kitchen
to get a drink of water has become a field trip, for me,
seeing the other part of the house. If I'm feeling especially
adventuresome, I might even go all the way to the
living room,
where there's a couch, and a TV set.
These four walls are part of who I am.
But after a year, after this year, I can feel these four
walls starting to close in on me. When people go to prison, we
call the four walls that they're in a cell. But this is also the
word that ancient Christian monks and even monks and
contemplative Christians today use for their room. Go to your
cell, someone once said, and it will teach you everything. There
are some days that these four walls feel like a prison cell to
me. And there are some days that they feel like the cell of a
monastery, a place that is sacred, even though it's not
very fancy or big. A place where Jesus comes and meets me where I
am. And over the past year, I've been surprised almost every day
about how that's happened. Here in these four walls. Sometimes I
meet Jesus Christ when I look out the window and I see the
giant cedar tree in my neighbor's yard, and two or
three crows fighting it out for the top, top most branch.
Sometimes, Jesus makes his way into these four walls through
the screen of my computer, and the faces of all of the people
that I'm doing good work important work with, even though
they're really far away, and I really miss them. Sometimes
Jesus breaks into these four walls in the form of a text
message from someone I haven't heard from in a long time. It
says I was thinking of you today and wondering how you were
doing. Jesus breaks into the four walls of my cell in all of
these ways and so many more. For although these walls are
impenetrable boundaries to be boundaries that keep me safe
from getting sick. There is no wall, or height,
or depth,
that can separate me or any of us
from the love
of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. In the scripture you heard Mark
read today, the disciples are gathered together in a locked
room. It's shortly after the events of the crucifixion of
that early first Easter morning, and no one is quite sure what's
going to happen. All we know from the Scripture is that
they're afraid. They're afraid in particular of the
authorities. If that's what happened to Jesus, I think they
might be considering if that's what happened to Jesus, what
might happen to us? And so the disciples to are gathered afraid
in their four walls, when all of a sudden, in their midst
they see Jesus.
Scripture says he breathed his peace onto them. He breathed his
peace, isn't that lovely? He shows them his wounds in his
hands and feet and side, ones from the cross, that are now
transformed into something that's filled with new life;
wounds that in some way that they still don't understand,
haven't healed. Jesus breathed his peace, he shows them his
wounds, and he gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit. And he
tells them that they to have the power to forgive, the power to
set one another free. And if they use this power, that the
world will change. The disciples were all gathered together in
their four walls, but their friend Thomas wasn't there. You
know, Thomas, there's another adjective that usually comes
before his name, Doubting Thomas. That's not what he's
called in Scripture. But he's called that because he tells
them unless I see his side and the marks and his hands and his
feet, I won't believe and so Jesus does what Jesus always
does. He comes back. Jesus comes back through the walls, those
four walls into the room, where the disciples are with Thomas,
and he breathes his peace. And he shows his hands and his side.
And Thomas proclaims, "my Lord, and my God." Prince Jesus meets
us where we are. Even when we're in quarantine, even when we're
staying at home, even when we are afraid, like those early
disciples, afraid to move, afraid to risk, afraid that what
has just happened to other people might happen to us next.
Our fear is no obstacle for Jesus Christ. Jesus walks
through my four walls. He walked through walls for the disciples,
even for Thomas. And he walks through walls for all of us.
Thanks be to God!
We are at a moment
a year into this pandemic, where some of the walls that were
keeping us safe are starting to come tumbling down. There are
vaccines. There is a sense that things are getting
better.
That we're moving into the next phase of who we are called to be
and how we are called to live. And that people like me and my
family, who have stayed inside these four walls for so many
weeks, will finally get to reconnect with all of the
wonder and beauty that we know is waiting for us still outside
this place. At this point in history, the walls are coming
tumbling down. Thanks be to God. But I would invite you as
disciples of Jesus to remember that Jesus not only breathed his
peace on us Jesus not only shows us that wounds can be healed but
Jesus gives us the power, gives us the responsibility and the
constant reminder that we are to set other people free as we
ourselves have been set free. And if the pandemic has taught
us anything it has taught us that even
after the vaccine has made the virus an artifact of history and
that great – and glorious day cannot come soon enough – even
then there are those among us who are still imprisoned by
invisible walls. There are neighbors that we know who are
struggling with the walls of their addiction. There are
people who have spent the past year living in homes that are
violent and they're not sure they see a way out. There are
people who are told everyday by voices in this society that
because of their culture, because of their race, because
of who they were made to be by God, that they are less than
that their lives do not matter and are not sacred. And friends
it is lies like these that build up invisible walls around people
in this world.
What walls have been holding you in?
Where has Jesus set you free? And who is it in your life
for whom you
would be willing to walk through walls and say there is a better
way, and if you come with me we can follow it together? Who is
that person who set you free with the love of Jesus and who
is that person whose walls might be closing in on them a little
too closely right now? Jesus walked through walls for the
disciples even for Thomas who somehow missed it the first time
Jesus comes back and he walks through walls for all of us
still today. So my prayer for you is this:
May you feel Jesus breathing deep peace into your life.
May you trust, even after you've seen the horror of something
like the cross, may you trust that with God all wounds can be
healed. And may you accept the freedom and power that God gives
you to set others free knowing that as you do there is a love
that travels with you every step of the way, a love that is so
powerful
that it will help you walk through walls. Amen.
In this morning's reading, I'm reminded of how often fear and
doubts are responsible for the walls we seek to cover and hide
behind. Yes, the disciples had every reason to fear the same
mob that killed their leader. And to be fair to Thomas, he
wasn't there to see what everyone else saw. Nevertheless,
when fear and doubt get the best of us, we too retreat to
wherever we can take cover, lock the doors, and draw the
curtains. I remember doing precisely the same thing in
February 2012. That year was a challenging start of the new
year for me, vocationally. After 11 years of service as pastor of
a particular church in Tacoma, I resigned. And although several
things precluded my resignation, the bottom line is that I found
myself having to deal with immediate change and several
questions. To name a few. What will I do? Where will I go? And
how will I provide for my family? And you can add to the mix?
What now?
These questions explain why I enclosed myself behind the walls
of fear, doubt and uncertainty. As our reading points out, the
walls and locked doors we choose to hide behind are no match for
our resurrected Lord. And despite the disciples fears and
doubts, notice how Jesus enters their world to settle their
hearts and calm their fears. Similarly, just when I needed
him most, Jesus broke through my fears and doubts to remind me
that he would see me through the change I was facing. And that
gave me the peace I needed to trust in God in the courage to
press on.
About a year ago,
I was in a very different spot that I was now.
Besides just feeling alone, being depressed, and being
isolated, I had lost the sense of what love was, and what
family was, a community was.
Christ whispered into my ear when they came through the door
at Trinity,
"Take a chance on this one."
I had no idea what God had in mind. It was impossible for me
to envision the deep friendship that would develop as we
discussed philosophy and theology, religion, and the
faith practices that each of us had grown up in. But seeing the
ravages of drug addiction in someone I cared about so much,
and who was so like me, was the journey I had never expected to
take.
In a lot of ways I see Christ in Ruth Marsh, because of the
unconditional love, the patience, and
compassion that
I never really understood. And so I got to, quite literally,
link
Jesus going through walls to the very walls of Trinity Church,
introducing me to, reintroducing me to Christ. And
I really couldn't be happier.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! God is alive in
you and me. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. For Jesus is
broken through a wall in my life is through maturing in faith,
and never giving up. First, life and death for me is the package
of our existence. We can't say no to it, but let us see it as a
gift. Every morning, as the sun comes up or behind those clouds.
Each one of us comes from different paths of life. And
Jesus has shown us all the possibilities, including showing
up beyond closed doors with his fearful disciples. As a church
planter in the past years, and still is. Jesus broke through
the wall in my life by meeting and listening to young adults,
collaborators in their community, organizing in the
Portland and Vancouver area, and what a church could look like in
a different setting. I have seen Jesus at work beyond the church
walls. I felt Jesus life when we met and prayed in IKEA, airport
meetings, Bible studies in the community room in the library,
and the texting back of prayers on Facebook. Virtual worships,
virtual Sunday school Zooms for a social justice, conversation
and education. These are the co-existence of our prayers
service witness. It is a different type of gathering with
the intention of deep listening to the source of the margins and
oppress. Above all, God be praised. And we persevere. Let
us all work as peacemakers in all the ways we can keep rising
and showing up siblings of Christ's and have faith.
I invite you to enter into an attitude of prayer. Take a
couple of deep breaths. Open yourself to the presence of the
Divine among us.
No matter how far apart we may be in this moment. In this time
of prayer, we are bound together with love. And together, let us
pray. For the people in our families and churches. For those
who are feeling disconnected, lonely and scared For those who
long for a human touch, and a smiling face, God in your mercy,
hear our prayer. For those who suffer and are in trouble, we
especially pray for those who have lost loved ones, for those
who have suffered from the pandemic, for those who continue
to suffer with chronic illnesses. We pray for the
imprisoned, the forgotten and be ignored.
God in your mercy, hear our prayer.
For the concerns of our local community, for elected officials
and first responders, for communities across the Greater
Northwest who are still recovering from devastating
wildfires, God in your mercy, hear our prayer. For the world,
its people and its leaders, for all people anywhere who feel
unsafe or unwelcome. For the millions of refugees, seeking
safety and a better life, God in your mercy, hear our prayer. For
the earth you have given into our care, we give thanks for the
striking beauty that surrounds us, and we lament that we have
not done enough to preserve your creation. God in your mercy,
hear our prayer. For the church universal, its leaders, its
members and its mission. May we strive to be a place of welcome
to all people. God in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
In communion with the saints have gone before us, we humbly
bring these prayers that we have shared aloud and the prayers
that we carry within our hearts to you, o God, our present hope
and strength.
Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the
kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen
Go forth into the world in peace, to love and serve those
who are still inside their walls, especially those to whom
love is still a stranger.
And as you go,
may the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and
the companionship of the Holy Spirit go with you this day and
every day of your life.
Go in peace. Amen.