Easter II, 2016 Holy Family Church

Transcription

1 Easter II, 2016 Holy Family Church Today s Gospel contains two important stories... The second one is the most famous because it is the story of the original Doubting Thomas... You remember it... one week after Easter... in other words today... Thomas is with the other disciples in a closed room and they are telling him about seeing and talking with the Risen Jesus... And he says he won t believe it till he touches Him with his own hands! Then...as he does during these great forty days... The Risen One suddenly appears among them... Shalom, He says, and then invites Thomas to put his fingers in his wounds... And Thomas does... And feels Christ s body... And exclaims: My Lord and my God! And Jesus says: So you believe because you ve seen me. Blessed are those who haven t seen me and yet believe! So Doubting Thomas becomes a way of calling someone a skeptic or a spoil-sport pessimist... Not quite fair because when you get right down to it... Which one of us...really...hasn t doubted... Or doesn t doubt the resurrection?

2 But Thomas character is not what John is interested in here. John wants to make two serious theological points. First:... Jesus Resurrection body is a mystery because: A...it doesn t behave like other physical bodies It appears and disappears...it comes and goes through locked doors, ands so forth...but B...it is not a ghost...it is not made of ectoplasm. The Risen Christ is...somehow...the same person who was born of Mary and lived and died. And since to be truly our individual selves we must have our own bodies...so Christ has His own earthly body...except it is perfected. And so, John implies, will it be with us! The Second point John is making is who Jesus IS... After touching Jesus wounds...thomas...in adoring amazement cries out: My Lord and my God! Thomas is a Jew... For him there can be only one God... That is at the heart of Judaism... That is the center of Jewish Faith... Seh ma Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echod! Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is ONE! The Christian confession that Jesus is in fact the One God... The basis of the Trinity... That is revolutionary... And John wants to establish it beyond doubt! 2

3 This is such a memorable story... With such important meaning... That the first part of today s Gospel can get missed. It is evening of Easter Day... The Disciples are in a locked private dining room... Trying to make sense out of the reports some of them are making about having encountered the Risen Lord... Some are skeptical as Thomas will be... Some are vibrating with joy... Some are simply confused... Don t know what to think or do. And suddenly...jesus is standing there among them... Shalom! As the Father has sent me, so I send you Then...he breathed on them... As God breathed over the waters at creation... As God breathed into the nostrils of the little man made out of mud and the little thing became a LIVING BEING... The Breath of God...the wind of the Holy Spirit... Which creates LIFE... Jesus BREATHED on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained! Now that is heavy stuff! You remember early in Jesus career the 3

4 Pharisees criticized Him because he dared to forgive sins... Only God can forgive sins... And here Jesus seems to be passing on this divine power to the Disciples. This is, of course, one of the places in Scripture that the Church...from the beginning...has taken as the warrant for the ordination of Priests to act for the Church to declare God s forgiveness... It is, in other words, the warrant for the Sacrament of Reconciliation... Which has, over the years, evolved into private confession to a Priest of the Church who has the power to absolve and reconcile sinners. You can find this rite in the Prayer Book on pages And I have heard enough confessions in my life to know what a marvelous and real thing this sacrament can be in people s lives! How wonderful and joyful and freeing it is to hear: Go in Peace, the Lord has put away all your sins! Part of the idea of Apostolic Succession in the Church is that the Disciples who were here ordained to pronounce forgiveness... Ordained others to do the same, And they ordained others... 4

5 And down through the ages to the present day. And as real as that interpretation is... Yet this story is about even MORE than the Church s Sacrament of Confession... It is about the Christian LIFE! And the Christian life is...finally... About life and joy and... Freedom from the power of sin... Let s look at what Jesus says... As the Father sent me...so I send you... The word sent is apostolken...as in apostle... And an Apostle is one sent with a mission. And so Jesus sends His apostles. But sends them to do what? He then breathes on them...gives them the Holy Spirit... Gives them God s power...to do what? Whose ever Sins you aphete...that is... Whose ever sins you send off or let go of... They are sent off And whose ever sins you kratete... Whose ever sins you hold on to... Those are held!. In this Greek... Sins seem a little like things or even demons... Like stuff that we have a choice about either keeping or getting rid of... Even like a sickening contamination that we 5

6 have a choice about... Let me tell you a story... It s a true story, but I have changed some details to...as they say on T.V. To protect the innocent. 25 or 30 years ago when I had a psychotherapy practice in a large Buckhead psychiatric clinic... A middle aged woman came to see me. She was about 45 or so, attractive, very well-dressed... Very depressed and very angry... She was a nurse and had met and married a young physician when he was a resident...they had two healthy children. He was a brilliant doctor and business man and was in a very high-paying specialty... By the time he was in his late 30's he had a large reputation and a specialty clinic... By the time he was 40...he was a multimillionaire... He opened a second clinic in Los Angeles. Went to California to oversee it... And sued for divorce! Turns out he had a thirty-year old girlfriend...and wanted to be with her... What followed was a very nasty, very expensive divorce in which she won a mansion in Buckhead, a condo in Florida, custody of the children and three or four million dollars. That had been finalized a year before... 6

7 And she was still depressed and angry. Medication was of very little help. She was generally reclusive... She had quit playing tennis... She no longer went to Church... (After all...how could God let that slime-bag get away with this?) Her old girl-friends had stopped calling her since she rarely accepted invitations for lunch or outings... Her daughter in college in Florida used the condo some, but she declined to visit. She had been asked out on dates several times...but always refused... We worked together...twice a week for about 6 months... She worked hard in therapy... She wanted to understand... And she finally came to the point that she could see and say very clearly what was at the bottom of it all..., It was cosmically unjust that this man who she had loved... Whose children she bore and raised... To whose career she had devoted herself... Should be allowed to...as she said: Get away with this! 7

8 As we talked, she clarified that she knew she had taken him for a punishing amount of money... But that was not enough... He was still out in sunny California with this Bimbo of his and probably enjoying life. He had not been punished... He needed to suffer as she was suffering... Somehow she had the sense that her suffering should make him suffer too... That he should feel real GUILT. I agreed, but pointed out that it seemed that the strategy was not working... There was no indication that he was feeling any guilt... I agreed that this might well be a character flaw in him...but it didn t change the situation. She said that if she felt better... If she came out of her shell of depression and began to live life again... It would be as if she were saying that what he did...what he was doing... Was really not so bad! And she couldn t do that. One day she exploded at me... You haven t exactly said so...but I know what you want me to do...you want me to forgive him! Well I can t because that s letting him off the hook! 8

9 I said: So you will make a career of being miserable and he will go on enjoying life... You want me to forgive him! I said: To forgive means to give what is before you... It means to let go of whatever is keeping you from having your own future... He is your disease...letting him go is your cure... Holding the anger...however just it is... That is your disease. Her face softened... She looked at me with a tear in her eye... I think you are right...thank you for all you ve done...but...i can t do it. I can t forgive him... So there s no point in coming back, is there? I said: that s up to you. We shook hands... I wished her luck and said I would be there should she want to talk again... She thanked me and walked out... Out into her own hell. I was sorry. I still am. She was ordained by the Risen Lord and sent as He was sent... To forgive and to live a life free of clutched bitterness. I pray often that God s grace has enabled her to Forgive... and Live! The Risen Lord is still calling... and will never give up! 9

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