Easter 2

April 19, 2020
Easter 2
1 Peter 1: 3-9
John 20: 19-31
     
   As I read today’s gospel, I am immediately captured by the word “fear.”                                      
    I doubt that I have ever, truly lived in “fear.”  Now I am beginning to wonder.                   
   Since this pandemic broke, I occasionally think in terms of “fear.”  I also hear the “fear” in other people’s voices and stories.   
    I hear fear of the pandemic in general, fear for health, fear for relatives, fear of potential infection, fear of the future regarding lost jobs or potential for job loss, fear of how long this will continue.                                                                                      New and different things appear to be happening to us and others.   Recently I read an article entitled, “Why Am I Always Tired?”  The article went on to describe how trauma and worry and anxiety wear on the brain and the consequence is being tired.   So, we may be tired and fatigued, not because we have the Covid-19 virus but worn out with all the news and the focus on this virus and its consequences.                                                                                                   Our fears continue…..
     And then after this is over, will the fears subside?  We often are told that once this pandemic has passed there is going to be a “new normal.”   There might be A NEW normal which may create additional anxieties.   Can we cope with something new, something out of the ordinary which now becomes ordinary?  Yikes.                                                                                Lots of people are living in fear.                                                                                           On top of that, we are all in effect, living behind locked doors.   We are living behind locked doors, we are in isolation and into such a vacuum, sometimes our fears intensify.   This may be especially true for people who live alone; there is no one to talk to, there is no one to reassure them, there is no way to deal with one’s fears.                                                  All of this looks very familiar, as we read today’s gospel from John chapter 20.  
   The disciples of Jesus were living and meeting in fear.   They live in fear because their Lord Jesus has been crucified and buried.   They are fearful that they may suffer the same fate.                
     In addition, they discover the empty tomb on Easter Sunday and even though they have the witness of the women and of the angels that Jesus has risen from the grave, they are afraid of something that is beyond their comprehension.                                              As we encounter them in the upper room, in this gospel reading, we see that they too are behind locked doors; the disciples of Jesus are isolated.   As we encounter them behind locked doors, one wonders if that fear subsided.                                               Near the end of the gospel lesson we read that Jesus did many more signs in the presence of the disciples.  Maybe he needed to keep repeating these signs of his resurrection in order to allay their lingering fears.                                                              Regardless, if the fears were possibly lingering in the disciples in that upper room, they certainly were lingering in Thomas.                                               Thomas of course was not there when Jesus appears to his disciples the first time and as a consequence he continued to harbour his fears.  When he meets the other disciples, he hears of the risen Lord but he does not believe his colleagues.                                                                                 Thomas held on to those fears until he encountered the risen Lord and was able to get that sense and feeling of peace in the midst of his fears.                                                                               Not only was Thomas overcoming his fears, but he was then confronting THE NEW NORMAL.                                                                                     When Thomas confesses “My Lord and my God,” he is abandoning all his conceptions of “normal” and opening himself to a very different reality than he could have previously imagined.
   The resurrection of Jesus now made everything very different. Through his suffering, death and resurrection, God has conquered the fear and sting of death.  Through his sharing of the peace, Jesus extends the hand of forgiveness to his disciples.                       The new normal is that the grace and love and forgiveness of God are the centerpiece of life.   Eternal life and life in the future is secured.   Fears are real and they are acknowledged, but they do not dominate the life that Jesus extends through the resurrection.  The resurrection brings hope for the future, noting that even through the unknown and the fears, God is present through Jesus, breathing life into fearful lives.                                                     The new normal is that Jesus breathes upon his disciples and gives them the Spirit, the breath that will send them out into the world, to speak to the fears of the world and offer a word of life and hope.                                                                                This is the new normal that may have caused the disciples some anxiety as they stepped out into a new world with the good news of the resurrection of Christ.  But the peace of Christ would help them overcome that new normal that new reality.     
 
    In some respects, it is hard for us to imagine how that happened for Thomas and the rest of the disciples, how they were able to let go of their fears and embrace a new future.                    
     I was fortunate I think, in that I had a glimpse of it during Holy Week as I watched an old movie.  The old movie was entitled, Quo Vadis?                                  Quo Vadis? was made in 1951 and I saw it as a young kid in the 1960’s; during Holy Week I saw it on the Faith Channel. During one scene in the underground catacombs of Rome, the apostle Peter is preaching and relaying to the assembled, his experience of Jesus.  One of those experiences was the scene in the upper room when Jesus appeared to his disciples and said, “Peace be with you.”  
   In the movie, Peter talked about the fear that he and the rest of the disciples were feeling in that upper room and how the peace shared by Jesus, made him feel warm and calm.  
   As Peter is preaching in the movie, he is talking to Christians who had to meet in secret. The people in those catacombs were living in fear; they were meeting in secret so as to avoid the wrath of the Romans because they worshiped Jesus, the king of kings.   They worshiped Jesus who wished to establish the reign of God on earth, a heavenly based kingdom that would draw the ire of the Romans.   The early Christians were being persecuted, were living under suspicion. 
    But as Peter talked of his experience of Jesus, you could see that the worshipers too were filled with the warmth of the knowledge of Jesus.   They could feel his peace and their fears for a time being, were put aside. 
    In the midst of their normal and their fears, came the testimony of Peter and the rest of the apostles:   through the resurrection of Jesus, the old fears could be acknowledged, but put aside and the early Christians could stride into the new normal.
   This I think is reflected in the confession and the hope of the early Christian church as spoken by the writer of 1 Peter in our Epistle lesson for today:
 
    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, {4} and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, {5} who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. {6} In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, {7} so that the genuineness of your faith being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. {8} Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, {9} for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9)
 
   This is the witness that has been carried forward by the Christian church for the last 2 millenia; in the midst of fear and uncertainty, the peace of Christ creates a new normal. 
   In the gospel reading, when Jesus says – “Do you believe because you’ve seen…” – and then blesses later believers – “blessed are those who believe and have not seen” – Jesus is simultaneously challenging and inviting and blessing all of us to recognize that, in light of the resurrection, the fears have been dealt with and the future is always open.
   Because that future is open and promising we need not worry about the new normal but embrace it and see it as an invitation to be be free to do, to try, and be in this “new normal,” invigorated by the Spirit of Christ.                                                                                                                     Already I think we are seeing some of that new normal.   For sure we have closed our church to worship and other activities but we are connecting in amazing ways.                                    
 Many churches, including St. Paul’s are offering worship or sermons on YouTube.  We are communicating a lot by email and through Facebook.                                                                   We and many others are meeting using tools such as Zoom. By the way, do not refer to this as “virtual reality.”  New terms are being coined to explain how we are meeting via Zoom and it is not virtual any more, it is real.                                                              A wonderful gift has come about; there are people in our congregation who are phoning others on a regular basis.   These phone calls are well received and people who did not meet often, nor know each other well, are forging wonderful relationships.                              Another gift has come to life this past week:   Walking Reflections.   There are a few folks in our congregation who are walking and as they do, they are taking pictures and reflecting on their walks and what they see.   They are offering Bible passages to augment their reflections and they are providing profound thoughts.  You may have already noticed that I am posting those Walking Reflections on Facebook or sending them out on email.                                        These are new and wonderful things. 
           
    In the midst of our locked doors and our fears, the risen Christ is moving in our midst, breathing new life into us and creating a new normal.  Jesus is there amid the necessary changes and faithful adaptations, calling us forward, blessing us to believe though we do not see, and promising to be with us and for us forever.                                                                         The future is still open. God is still at work, allaying our fears, unlocking doors, creating, re-creating, and sustaining us to do things we could not have imagined previously.
     Thanks be to God. Amen.