Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 1 May 2011 by the Rev. Dr. John LeMond. The scripture readings that day were Acts 2:14a, 22-32; 1 Peter 1:3-9 and John 20:19-31.


The disciples are alone
Very alone.
Scripture says they are afraid of the religious leaders
Afraid that they might have to suffer the same fate as Jesus
But we have to wonder about their fear
After all, Peter and one of the other disciples
Have seen the empty tomb
And Mary Magdelene has actually seen Jesus himself.
And she has reported this event to the other disciples
But they obviously are not convinced
Or at least, they are not convinced that enough to venture outside
Fear can have amazing power over us
We don’t want to be humiliated
We don’t want to loose our health
We don’t want to suffer
We don’t want to die
The thought of these things cause such fear in us
It is not the humiliation, or the suffering or the death that binds our hearts
It is the fear of these things.
And our world can become immersed in fear.
I received some emails from an old friend recently
And she was explaining to me her fear of Muslims
Following the tragedy of September 11, 2001
And then the war in Afghanistan
And then the war in Iraq
With bombings and terrorist attacks being reported daily in the media
With increasingly stringent security checks at airports
I think I can safely say that she has been overcome by fear
She is afraid that all Muslim people, or at least a good percentage of them
Have only one thing on their mind
The destruction of the United States
And the imposition of Islam on all American citizens.
She fears not only for herself,
But for her children and grandchildren
In a sense, she has locked herself in a room
Hoping that the people she fears will not find her.
We may not have experienced fear to this degree
But we know what it is to fear
So we can identify with the followers of Jesus
As they hid themselves
Or more precisely…as they allowed fear
To lock them away.
But the Gospel of John tells us simply:
Jesus came and stood among them,
No grand entrance, no knocking on the door
Just his quiet presence
And he said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Then he showed them the holes in his hands and his side
And he said again, “Peace be with you.”
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Interestingly, we are not told how the disciples reacted to Jesus’ presence
Nor are we told how they reacted to his commission to them.
It must have been a shock
They must have felt great joy
They must have been confused
They must have rejoiced
We don’t know for sure
But one thing that must have remained even after Jesus’ visit
Was their fear
Jesus had just given them an assignment that,
If they thought about it seriously
Would not only not ease their fear
But might in fact increase it.
Peace be with you
Look at the holes in my hands and side
These wounds are the result of my Father’s will for me
Now…just as the Father sent me
So, I send you into the world
Before the appearance of Jesus in this little room
They were afraid,
But there was a chance that they might escape the religious and Roman authorities
There was a chance that they could go back to living ordinary lives
Lives that centered on doing the ordinary things of life.
If they could remain hidden long enough
Things would die down
And they could walk away…blend into the local scene
Deny they ever knew Jesus
But now even that slim possibility was denied them
Jesus had not come to them with a plan for escaping to a safe haven
He had said to them, in effect
Leave this place
Unlock this door and leave this place
Go out into the world
Meet people; eat with them; drink with them
Make friends with them
Become one with them
Enter into the most intimate, and difficult and common aspects of life
With a message of peace
And I can tell you now
If you do this
This will be your reward:
And he showed them his hands and side.
Peace be with you.
Now…Jesus’ friends had no choice
Running away was no longer an option
If he was really alive…and he was.
If they decided to continue to follow him…and they did.
Then they knew at that moment what their future would be.
They knew, from that moment, that they would suffer
Even while they were proclaiming a word of peace
They knew that they would die
Even though they spoke a message of life
And in that moment, perhaps,
Fear ceased to have power over them
Fear of the unknown was eliminated for them by Jesus’ words
They knew what would happen
The fear of death
Was replaced by a certainty of death
So fear lost its power.
Jesus comes to us when we are least expecting him
When we want more than anything to control our world
When we want more than anything to protect ourselves and our loved ones
When we want not to die
And says to us: Peace be with you!
Share this good news of peace with world
And in doing so…
My mission is now your mission
My wounds are now your wounds
My death is now your death.
And as the writer of the Gospel of John concludes:
Believing this, strange as it may seem
Fear and death are defeated
A resurrected life is ours as well.
Peace be with you.
Amen.