Sermon - April 11, 2010

Year C - The Year of Luke - Easter 2

One of the last things I do at night is to lock the doors of the house. Now, I do not live in a particularly rough neighborhood. Other than the owls hooting at night, it is quiet where I live. However, I have noticed than when I lock the doors, I feel a sense of safety from knowing that the house is secure.

Today's Gospel is about locked doors. Since this Gospel begins with an emphasis on "...the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews," I want to do something different with today's Gospel.

The normal approach when looking at this text is to focus on the story of Thomas and the doubts he had about the risen Christ. That is a fine approach. However, there is more to the story than Thomas’ doubts. There are the other disciples who are huddled together on that first Easter Sunday.

The disciples are in a room; the doors locked, and they are afraid. Jesus has been killed, and they fear that what happened to Jesus may also happen to them. Earlier, they had been told a story about Jesus' tomb being empty; however, for the moment those words mean nothing to them. All they know is that the dreams they had a week before have all come crashing down.

The disciples had walked alongside Jesus for three years. They had been out in the public with him and engaged in his work and message. Then, the disciples who had spoken so confidently had deserted Jesus when it mattered most. They not only deserted Jesus, some even denied they knew him.

Someone once pointed out to me that when the disciples locked the doors, perhaps there was more than fear at work in the eleven. It is likely that they were grappling not only with fear, but also with guilt, scorn, ridicule, anxiety, a sense of failure and, worst of all, a sense of shame over the way in which they ran and hid. Maybe what the disciples were doing was not so much shutting out the world, but locking themselves in.

When John wrote his Gospel, he was doing more than compiling a record of the life of Jesus. John wanted to use those events and those of Jesus' disciples to tell his readers something about who Jesus was. John wanted also to tell everyone something about what it means to believe in Jesus. Belief, or faith, or trust in Jesus is a theme that runs throughout the Gospel of John. It is so central to the John that it leaves many to think that when he was writing this Gospel, there may have been a crisis of belief taking place in the early Christian community.

Consequently, when we read this account in John, we can see this gospel text as more than a resurrection account to eleven frightened men locked away in a remote room on some back alleyway of Jerusalem. John is also telling us something about our lives as Christians and the fears we face. John is talking about what belief says to those fears. In a real way, St. John is speaking to future generations while he also wrote to a young struggling, persecuted church.

Every person has fears, anxieties, and uncertainties; some of our worries are worse than others we have. Never the less, we all have things that make us anxious or ashamed. If you do not think so, then try to imagine every person knowing your secrets.

The truth is that most of us have things of which we rightly should be ashamed; such a feeling can be described as recognizing our sins. Shame does cause us to bolt the doors. However, we are really shutting ourselves in. We become a prisoner of our own sins, shame, and self-perceptions. This is one of the reasons that John has given us this Gospel reading for today; John is showing us the key that opens those doors.

Jesus appears in the locked room. The first thing he does is not scold the disciples. He does not say, "Where were you when I needed you?" Instead, the first thing Jesus says is a word of peace.

John's Gospel always focuses on the importance of belief. John wants his readers to know that belief in Christ is what brings peace and destroys fear and shame. Belief in Christ is what unlocks the doors behind which we hide ourselves. Belief in Jesus means belief in his resurrection, forgiveness, and salvation. We no longer need to pretend that we are not sinners. We are free to confess it. We can admit that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. To confess this with belief in Christ is to open ourselves to the peace he gives.

The Easter story is the culmination of Good News. In the midst of the disciples’ fear, anxiety, and shame, Jesus comes and stands among them. He restores them with the gifts of his peace and the Holy Spirit and charges them to carry on his ministry, his mission of reconciliation.

“To forgive,” in Greek, also means “to set free.” It means to release from bondage and captivity. When Jesus stands among the disciples in a room with a locked door and announces, “Peace be with you,” he is saying not only are “You are forgiven,” but also “You are free.”

At the center of the gospel is the proclamation that Jesus Christ has come looking for us – even behind closed doors. According to John’s text, he walks right through the locked doors to find us. He shows us his wounds, which are the marks of our forgiveness. Then he says, “Peace be with you.” You are forgiven, peace is restored to your troubled soul, and you are free.

We receive the same charge given to the disciples. We are to be about the ministry of reconciliation. We are to be about the ministry of unlocking the doors to people’s hearts so that they too can experience the freedom and healing of God’s love in Christ. We are called to set people free by pouring out on them the same forgiveness we have received. We are to be Christ’s disciples in the world, forgiven, restored, reconciled, and freed from sin and death.

Through Christ, fear is changed to faith, anxiety to peace, shame to restoration, and the locks on our hearts have been opened and we are free. Amen.