John 20:19-31<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April 15, 2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For pastors, Easter is a busy time. We start with 40 days of Lent and conclude with a whole holy week with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, sunrise, and Easter Sunday. No wonder most pastors take the week after Easter off. I went to Disneyland, the happiest place on earth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all the fanfare of palms waving and Easter pancake breakfasts, it\u2019s time to reflect on the real meaning of Easter. It may be tax time according to today\u2019s date but Easter continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we all know, Christmas got away from us many years ago. Toys \u2018R Us stole it. Now I fear that Macy\u2019s and Honeybake Ham and Disney Incorporated want Easter as well. Remember scarcely before we put away the Christmas decorations that stores began decorating in pastels and eggs. \u201cOnly 40 more days of shopping left before Easter!\u201d the newspapers tell us as we begin the annual countdown to buy spring clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that Easter is over for commercial America, if you were to go into CVS today, you wouldn\u2019t be able to find a trace of Easter left. Now it\u2019s time to move on to Mother\u2019s day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The commercial world would like to make Easter as fun as Christmas. But we know that it will never happen. They will never make Easter as fun as Christmas; even as children, we know this. The Easter story just won\u2019t cooperate. Easter is not what we make out of it, somehow making this mystery relevant to our purposes; but rather Easter is God\u2019s supreme act of enlisting us in God\u2019s purposes and that\u2019s an adult matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We may try to reduce the resurrection of the dead Jesus to something more manageable, but it never works. Butterflies emerging from the cocoon or the return of the robin in the spring just are not sufficient for the large, cosmic, death-defeating mystery that unfolds before us in the resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the reason why Christmas is a bigger deal than Easter. Christmas tends to specialize in wonder, the innocence, the joy, and the spontaneity of children. Christmas is packaged and sentimentalized for children but Easter is distinctly a grown-up affair. Easter deals with the grown-ups and thoroughly adult concerns\u2014the sadness of life, the unfairness, the injustice, the pain, and the deep tragedy of death itself. In the middle of these big, desperate, adult concerns, we find Jesus, battle flag in hand, rising triumphant from the grave, defeating the final enemy of death victoriously. If it weren\u2019t for the Easter bunnies and Easter eggs, we probably wouldn\u2019t see any children coming to church on Easter. Easter is an adult event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fear Not!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter is about a war, not a party. Easter is political\u2014God Almighty going head-to-head with the powers-to-be. I think this explains why at the first Easter one of the first things that the risen Christ said to his astonished followers when he came back to them was, \u201cFear not!\u201d The angel said to the women at the tomb, \u201cDo not be afraid!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a way it is a curious thing for Jesus to say to them. Not saying that I am Christ but, rarely do I say, upon entering someone\u2019s house, \u201cFear not!\u201d If I did that you might call 911! I don\u2019t begin a conversation with you by warning you not to fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the predominant initial emotion, at the resurrection was not joy, but fear. The risen Christ did not say to them, \u201cMerry Easter!\u201d He said, \u201cFear not!\u201d Not, \u201cGod bless us everyone,\u201d but \u201cI\u2019m back and I\u2019ve got work for you to do, I\u2019ve got places for you to go and things for you to say before the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our passage for this morning, we read, \u201cWhen it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house were locked for fear of the Jews.\u201d The disciples were afraid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why on earth would they be afraid? Some people think that they were afraid of the people who crucified Jesus and thinking that they were next. Some people think that since the disciples forsook him and fled when the going got tough that they were afraid that Jesus after being raised from the dead would get back on them by punishing them for their infidelity and cowardice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Jesus had done none of that when he was with them. Why would he do that to them now that he had risen from the dead? The disciples were not afraid of punishment, but they were afraid of the resurrection. They felt fear because they, in that instant, saw the real meaning of Easter. Jesus Christ came back to them and is now summoning them to carry out his work. Jesus is on the move and if we want to be with him, we must move with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter Continues Now<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we are in the Second Sunday of Easter in 2012, what does it mean that Easter continues? First, we are given an assignment to never give up on anybody. We are not permitted to say, \u201cPeople never change.\u201d Now, even in the worst situations in life, we are not permitted to despair, to give up, to give in or to have no hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, in the resurrection, the face of God is revealed. God is on the side of life. God will get God\u2019s way in the end, no matter what. Since Jesus\u2019 death on the cross has been defeated by the empty tomb at Easter, God will continue to have victories in everything else in our lives and in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people think Easter is all in the future tense. One day, some day, we shall live forever; we shall be raised as Jesus was raised. One day we\u2019ll get resurrection. And why would anybody be afraid of that? No, Easter is in the present tense. It is about following Jesus now. It is about living as if God is victorious, unstoppable, and triumphant now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter is not so much, \u201cDo you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead?\u201d but. \u201cWill you dare to follow Jesus now that he rules?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where in our world today that we must not give up on? Who in our lives we need to tell that they must not have despair and give up or give in? I think about the youth and young people who are undocumented members of our country because their parents came to the United States illegally. These young people have been raised as Americans but because of our fear of being too relaxed in our laws, we are deporting our country\u2019s future back to countries that they can\u2019t identify with. Passage of the Dream Act and an immigration policy that recognize that we live in a global society that is increasingly seeing borders as artbitrary would mean that Easter is in the present tense\u2014not someday in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter Continues Even in our Doubts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When Easter continues with us, the second point is that we will undoubtedly have doubts. In our passage, we read about Thomas. In the Christian tradition, he is called \u201cDoubting Thomas.\u201d Thomas insists on seeing what the others have seen. A week later Jesus appears among them and he invites Thomas to touch his wounds. Thomas sees and believes, though he does not seem to have touched Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas believes because he sees, but all the more so are those blessed who have not seen and yet believe. Thomas represents every one of us who hears the gospel on the Second Sunday of Easter and wonders what really happened on that Easter morning. If only we had seen what the women saw, or what the disciples gathered in that locked room saw, or what Thomas saw. If only we had seen Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But do you know that no one sees the resurrection? Mary sees an empty tomb and mistakes Jesus for the gardener. Jesus is recognizable in his body to his disciples, yet twice he enters a room through locked doors. From the beginning we are dependent on the witness of others to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The epilogue addresses believers of every time. This book, which we call the Gospel of John, was written that we may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, whom God raised from the dead and promises us life in his name. While we know that God\u2019s revelation is made visible to us, believing in Jesus Christ does not depend on seeing him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas is a model for people who struggle to believe. If you are having trouble believing you are not the first or the last and you are not alone. Jesus was rebuking Thomas not for asking for evidence, the same evidence Jesus had already granted to the others but Christ was focusing on his biggest problem of refusing to trust the witness of sisters and brothers. Thomas wanted a private, personal experience; a revelation of his own and he doubted the witness of the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wouldn\u2019t it be great if each and every one of us could have a personally tailored revelation from Jesus Christ himself so that we might believe? The Risen Christ challenged Thomas for doubting that the church has faith and wisdom to give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The church is the fellowship of believers by the grace and power of the Spirit, edifying one another in strength and supplying one another who lacks. The company of disciples learns to pool the gift of faith while eagerly inquiring into and trusting each other\u2019s experience of God. The church is ever building thereby a storehouse of small faith encompassing the great, the new, and the seasoned as well as the questioning and the searching. It is from each other that we borrow and to which we lend, generation after generation, until Christ comes again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you remember the testimonies that our new members gave three weeks ago? They shared about the many people, the company of disciples, the fellowship of believers who were present in their spiritual journey. The new members may indeed had their personal relationships with the Risen Lord but for the most part, they too borrowed and inherited the witness of the risen Christ from others who believed in their hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter Continues in our Commissioning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter isn\u2019t only a great, grand truth about our ultimate destiny in God. Easter is also an assignment from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Jesus appeared to the disciples, he said, \u201cPeace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.\u201d When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, \u201cReceive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news is that Easter continues. The Easter story is not over for us, just as it was not over for Thomas. Thomas exclaims, \u201cMy Lord and my God!\u201d Eventually he follows his Lord through those closed doors, bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter is a gift from God, to be sure. But Easter is also an assignment for us. Easter continues in our commissioning. The women who came to the tomb on Easter are not only told that Jesus is risen from the dead; they are given an assignment. They are told \u201cGo\u201d and \u201cTell!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clarence Jordan is one of the great preachers of the church who not only talked about the gospel but lived it every day of his life. Jordan bought a farm in rural Georgia and invited others\u2014both black and white\u2014to join him in a communal Christian venture. Though frequently harassed by the Klan, the Koinonia Community persisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jordan said that it was one thing for him to endure such threats, but quite another thing to ask his young family to bear threats as well. One day, his little daughter came in from school crying. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDaddy, some of the kids are mean. Bob Speck, when he sees me coming down the hall comes up and knocks me down. He says ugly words to me too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jordan\u2019s heart went out to his daughter. \u201cHoney, you\u2019ve got long fingernails. Why don\u2019t you scratch his eyes out?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And she said, \u201cWell, I thought about that, but I heard you say in your sermon that Jesus said we\u2019re supposed to love our enemy, so I thought I shouldn\u2019t scratch his eyes out.\u201d He said, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll tell you what I\u2019m going to do: tomorrow I\u2019ll go to the school and I\u2019m going to ask Jesus to excuse me from being a Christian for about 15 minutes while I beat the daylights out of that Bob Speck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDaddy, you can\u2019t do that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy not?\u201d Jordan asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His daughter replied, \u201cYou can\u2019t be excused from being a Christian for 15 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter continues today. Jesus has defeated death and returned to us, commissioned us, breathed his Holy Spirit upon us to do his work. Easter continues. We can\u2019t be excused from following him for 15 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Easter is not about bunnies, eggs, pastel colors, and honey-baked hams. Christ is with us now in life, in death, in life beyond death, for all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merry Easter to you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord Jesus, in your resurrection you not only defeated death and triumphed over Satan, you also returned to us, breathed your Holy Spirit upon us, and empowered us to follow you all the days of our lives. Continue to return to us and strengthen us in our manifold weakness. Continue to empower us. Continue to call us and to raise us from our deadly enslavement to sin and death. Let the good news of new life continue with us. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John 20:19-31 April 15, 2012 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. For pastors, Easter is a busy time. We start with