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We had a wedding this week. “What a pretty church you have!” someone said. “Yes, it is,” I replied. “Thank you.” And I thought, how sweet those lilies smell! It sure does feel like Easter, when everything smells and looks so good! Is it STILL Easter? Does it still feel like and smell like Easter to you? Or has Easter come and gone? All those big crowds at church, all that special music, all the Easter bonnets – they’re all gone this Sunday. It’s so easy to go back to “business as usual.” But it’s NOT. It’s NOT business as usual today. It’s STILL Easter. Yes, it’s true, every Sunday is a little Easter, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about Easter the season. Easter is a 50-day-long season. The “Great 50 Days” start with Easter itself and end with Pentecost, the day that marks the coming of God’s Spirit. Today’s story from John’s gospel is kind of a combination of Easter AND Pentecost. Unlike the story St. Paul tells, the one in the Acts of the Apostles, it has Jesus appearing and breathing God’s Spirit of peace on everyone. And then, he comes back and does it again. Yes, there are TWO resurrection appearances in this story. Jesus first appears without Thomas. Then he returns a week later, when Thomas sees him. Now in most churches, today, the Sunday after Easter, the second Sunday in the Easter season, is often called Doubting Thomas Sunday. We might think that it’s all about Thomas. I might even think that it’s all about Thomas (!). But it’s NOT all about Thomas. It’s much more about the disciples. We know how Thomas responds: first, NOT believing and then, when he sees Jesus, he has a conversion experience and believes. But what about the rest of the guys? How do THEY respond? Well, first, the disciples closed and locked the doors. They were scared. Confused. Even despondent, I suspect. After all, the one they called Master, the one they loved, the one they thought would change the world is dead, apparently beaten down by the system. But they were still hoping, still looking and longing for God. And then, it happens. Jesus comes THROUGH the locked doors. They see his wounded body. They know it’s him, and they rejoice. But maybe they still don’t get it, even after THEIR conversion experience. It’s interesting that when the disciples met a week later with Thomas – the Sunday after Easter – they still closed the doors! Now, maybe they were remembering what Jesus taught them about prayer: “When you pray, go to your room and lock the door” (Matthew 6:6). But maybe, there’s another reason. Maybe they’re afraid to keep the doors open, even after seeing the risen Christ. At one church, on the day after September 11, a banner was made and stretched out on the church lawn, for all to see. It read: OPEN FOR PRAYER. A few years later that church had become known around town as “the church with the banners.” Every day a different event had a banner broadcast – a concert, a speaker, a health fair, a special service of worship. The church’s leaders began to line up, competing for precious banner time. Eventually, a calendar emerged, helping the church staff’s director of communications to remember what day and what time to put which banner up next. There was even a line item in their budget for banners. All this happened, because the church unlocked their doors, opened them and then began to TELL folks all the ways in which they were “open for prayer.” “A chronic temptation for the church,” one scholar says, “is to stay behind closed doors.” (D. Cameron Murchison, Feasting on the Word, p. 400). He was thinking of a seminary study from ten years ago. He reports that, with the exception of African–American pastors, “few religious (leaders) were on the ‘must call’ list of community members concerning matters of importance in the civic domain…many churches are still living on the other side of Easter, staying safely behind closed doors” (ibid., p. 404). Some churches keep their doors locked, except on Sunday mornings. But NOT All Saints’ Church! This morning we’ll hear from two of our leaders, Joey Romagnoli, who will speak about our Rebuilding Together project coming uo this Saturday (April 25 th), and Nancy Hennessey, who’ll tell us about the folks at Advocates for Homeless Families speaking to us at the next Adult Forum (Aoril 26 th)). They’ll tell you why they want our church to have open doors! It’s not easy living into Easter for a full fifty days! But we don’t have to do it alone. Together, we are the risen body of Christ, in this community and in this world. Because this story is not about Thomas. It’s not even about the disciples. It’s about Jesus and what his resurrection does for us – if we would only open our doors. Even when we DON’T open our doors. Let us pray. Jesus, please keep coming to us, like you did to those first disciples. Please keep offering yourself to us again and again, until we get it. Jesus, help us. Help us to help you. Help us both to reach out to others and to welcome others in. Help us to open our doors and keep them open, for prayer and for care. Help us to BE the body of Christ in the world. In your name we pray it. AMEN. The Rev. Thomas A. Momberg |
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