Sermons

“Sharing Is Believing”

John 20:19-31; Acts 4:32-35 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – April 8, 2018

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words that our faith might strengthened through our sharing of the good news. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Wow! We’ve got a lot to work with today! On Easter Sunday, we tend to just read the stories of the very first appearances of the Risen Christ and keep the focus on the wonder and joy of those initial moments. But you get to Easter evening and the next week, just a few verses later, or even just a few weeks after that, where we went in Acts, and the resurrection evolves beyond a wondrous event and starts having implications and consequences and specific applications.

To begin, we need to remind ourselves of the context of the verses we read from John, for ignoring that will lead us astray. First of all, we must mention that aside, where John tells us that “the doors were locked for fear of the Jews”. It is vital to remember that the disciples themselves were, at this point in the story, very much still Jews. But these words written about them came decades later, when distinctions were emerging and a conflict was erupting. So these words that give intimation of “the Jews” as dangerous need to be heard in a very specific context. Any attempts to pull their meaning forward into our own times or use them to justify fear-mongering of our Jewish brothers and sisters is irresponsible and counter to the gospel of love.

Secondly, did you notice the subtle substitute for Pentecost that happened in this passage from John? There wasn’t any rush of wind or tongues of flame; Jesus simply breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and told them that they were now empowered to carry on his ministry. Why is this important? Well, again, we need to remember that the gospel of John was written around the year 90, approximately 60 years after the resurrection. So the audience includes mostly people who weren’t around when the resurrection happened. They were mostly people who hadn’t known Jesus as a person. And that was a concern. The apostles were dying off. How could the church be sustained if those first-hand witnesses weren’t around anymore? Never mind what we might need 2000 years later; they needed reassurance that those of them born in 35 and later were followers of Jesus just as legitimately as Peter and James and John. Cue the Holy Spirit. This is how God is going to sustain the church. The Advocate, the Helper, the Paraclete, this Breath of Life and Power of Compassion would keep the divine presence around. There is an echo of this concern about legitimacy in the closing verses of the passage, when we’re told that those of us who believe without seeing are blessed. While this may feel like it’s there for our benefit, in truth, we’re more accustomed to the idea of not having seen Jesus in the flesh than John’s audience in the year 90 would have been. It was a serious concern for them, and here they’re getting it from Jesus’ own mouth that they don’t need to worry.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly for our study today, we need to remember that we’ve re-entered this narrative this morning in the middle of the story. Our Bibles and the lectionary have inserted artificial breaks and topic headings into the gospel, and though they’re helpful for finding our way around, they can keep us from making certain useful connections. In truth, the beginning of our story today, where it says “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week”, comes immediately after Mary Magdalene has returned from the tomb, declaring “I have seen the Lord!”

We see this connection emphasized in verse 25, when the disciples tell the missing Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!” This is a recurring pattern. Mary is the beginning of the story. She sees and believes and tells, but the disciples don’t believe her. Then the disciples see and believe and tell, but Thomas doesn’t believe them. And now we’re on the third cycle, and the question is, will we believe what we hear from those who saw and believed, without having to see for ourselves? Jesus tells us that if we do, we will be blessed.

The point here is that Thomas’ supposed nature as a “doubter” is vastly overblown in tradition. He didn’t do anything different than what the other disciples did; he just did it a week later. He’s just the second step in a transition the early Christian community had to go through, so that the church could emerge and thrive. This is a “third time’s the charm” story, much like the story of Peter and Jesus in the next chapter. And those turn-of-the-first-century listeners who desperately needed to know that they could be part of the body of Christ even if they’d never seen the human Jesus were the third time. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe,” Jesus said.

So then what happens? Once we’ve made this transition from being a church full of people who’d traveled around with Jesus and could sit together and reminisce about those times to becoming a church empowered by the testimony of resurrection, what’s next? If “seeing is believing” is no longer our standard, then what? I think if we turn to the verses we read from Acts we’ll see that it’s not seeing, but sharing that connects to belief. Is the situation of total harmony and complete absence of deprivation described in Acts 4 any less miraculous than the resurrection? They were “of one heart and soul” and everyone’s needs were met.

This is where we start to see that faith is a cycle. Theologians and educators would call this praxis, which refers the idea that we grow and learn most deeply through repeating cycles of acting and then reflecting on our actions. Faith is no different. If we step out in faith and take actions that reflect our faith, then we have experiences that strengthen our faith. Our faith calls us to share, to meet the needs of our neighbors. So we share. And when we do, we experience the Risen Christ, the love that is stronger than hatred and death, and it deepens our faith, encouraging us to future action. This is what was happening with those early disciples, and it’s what happens in our faith communities today too. Faith is not something we have; it’s something we do.

This cyclical, active faith is the faith of Jesus. It’s what was happening when he offered Thomas exactly what he’d demanded in order to believe. But did you notice what happened there? Despite declared that he must put his fingers in the marks of the nails in order to believe, once he’s actually in Jesus’ presence Thomas responds very differently. It wasn’t touching those wounds that changed him. It was Jesus’ invitation to do so, meeting him right where he was, that called forth Thomas’ declaration of faith, “My Lord and my God!” That’s the sort of sharing we are called to engage in, sharing that meets people where they are and offers them what they think they need, so they can receive what they truly need, which is pretty much just love. This is the kind of sharing that is transformative and miraculous. It’s how a community manages to live and be “of one heart and soul.” It’s how we make sure everyone’s needs are met. And when we live that way, our faith will continue to deepen and grow.

So what does that look like here? It’s what happens when we feed the hungry on a Saturday and learn their names and hear their stories and start to realize how not that different they are from us. It’s what happens when we’ve been giving and serving and doing for others for years, and suddenly, we’re faced with a situation in which we need the help of others to make it through. It’s what happens when we get tired of the news filling us with despair and resignation, and we look around and discover that fellow people of faith are discovering ways to change our world and are excited for us to join them.

You may not feel like your faith is all that strong. But if it’s strong enough to get you to act, changes are high it’s going to get stronger. Faith is a learn-by-doing thing. Sharing is believing. It’s not about whether you have doubts. It’s about whether you’re willing to step out in love and generosity despite of your doubts. What is it that gives us the courage to do that? Scripture tells us it’s the Holy Spirit. Like that first audience of John’s gospel, we have not seen. But we don’t need to see Jesus to know Jesus. We don’t need to have seen Jesus to share Jesus.   The way of blessing and life is open to us. Alleluia and Amen!