Title: “We See Him With Our Hearts”
Scripture: John 20:19-31, I Peter 1:3-9
4/3/05 Second Sunday of Easter, Year A
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
In the reading from I Peter we are told that we are like the disciple Thomas just after Christ's resurrection - “we have not seen Jesus, we did not see him then and we do not see him now.” And just like Thomas, we long to rest our eyes upon his face and touch him that we might know for sure that this Easter joy is truly real.
The Gospel of John tells us that Thomas did get to see the Risen Jesus and touch his wounds and feel the Easter joy rise up in his heart so full that he cried out the words: “My Lord, and my God!”
I Peter also states that “though we have not seen him, we love him; and even though we do not see him now, we believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.”
So, perhaps we do see the Risen Lord today - but not with our eyes so much, as with our hearts.
Like the disciples who experienced the manifestation of Jesus Christ in varied ways after his resurrection, these next few weeks in worship, we will consider how the Risen Christ is in our midst today.
First, a little theology about the difference between Jesus the man and Jesus, the Risen Christ.
Jesus was different after his death and resurrection. Today's scripture and the ones we will read over the next few weeks tell us that his disciples did not recognize him at first until he spoke or acted in a particular way. In today's reading from John they are sure to tell us that all the doors were locked yet he appeared and showed Thomas his wounded hands and feet. He was somehow different in substance but not in Spirit, it was a resurrection, not resuscitation.
It is after his death and resurrection that I understand him to have become “the Christ” and not just Jesus. He is now what I would call a presence rather than a person and now more divine than human. Speaking from my own personal understanding, the Risen Christ is not God but is “of God” and is an affirmation of God's promise that love is more powerful than loveless power, and that death is only a passage way and not a separation from God or love.
The Risen Christ is a Divine Presence that seems to be most experienced when we are hurting or when we are reaching out to someone who is hurting.
The disciples were afraid and had locked themselves in a room for fear of being killed them selves. The Risen Christ found them in that dark place, breathed new life into their frightened spirits and unlocked the door to their future, sending them out to share this new life with others.
The Risen Christ also seems to be most experienced when we are awake to the blessing of community, to the reality of our need for one another and the interconnectedness of all creation.
Yes, we can experience God in the woods or as we walk along the shore at the beach - but the Risen Christ is more likely experienced where “at least two or three are gathered”.
New Testament professor Barbara Rossi reminded me in my studying this week that when we read the word “you” in the New Testament we must not think for a minute that it is a singular “you”. It would be better if in our reading we would say one of my favorite words from my youth, “y'all” - because the word “you” in the scripture is almost always plural.
If one of your friends or neighbors asks you if YOU have been born again - as in you, singular, as in you, a date, time and place - you can say to them - “Why yes, WE have been born again! We were ALL born again the day of Christ's resurrection! New life burst forth for all creation, not just you or me.”
The Risen Christ is concerned with community - with how we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and with how we show hospitality to the stranger. The human Jesus and the Risen Christ is not concerned with setting us apart but in bringing us together.
Communion is no doubt the most central act that we share to remind us not only of the human Jesus that sat with his disciples at the table before his death and broke the bread - but whose Risen Presence was also recognized in the breaking of the bread.
Communion is a communal act. Communion is about community, Jesus and now the Risen Christ, is about community.
Have you ever tried to have communion by yourself?
I honestly believe that our hearts would NOT be TOUCHED in the sharing of the bread and the cup if we did it by ourselves.
Thomas needed to touch the Risen Christ, he needed to be assured that he was not alone, that love had survived the cross.
We too need to touch and be touched.
In the sharing of communion, in community with one another, we symbolically touch the Risen Lord and are assured that we are not alone and that love will survive the crosses of today.
Communion is one of the central rituals of the Christian community where we can see WITH OUR HEARTS, the presence of the Risen Christ in our midst.
Today we are going to remain seated for communion and it can seem awfully private as we pass the bread and the cup without speaking to each other. So today I invite you to look in the eyes of the person sitting next to you as you pass the elements and say these words: “The Risen Christ is in our midst”.