West Grove United Methodist Church
The Reverend Monica B. Guepet
300 N. Guernsey Road, West Grove, PA 19390
April 19, 2020
The disciples were gathered in the upper room. Together.
Their friend, Jesus had been crucified and died.
They were terrified that the Romans were coming after them as well. It was possible that the crackdown they had feared against the revolutionaries would come to be.
What would they do next?
In the meantime, they were together in the upper room when Jesus appeared.
Well, most of them. Ten out of the remaining eleven.
Thomas was not there.
Who knows where he was or why he was not there?
We know Thomas liked clarity and the concrete. He’s the one who challenged Jesus’ aspirational words about going on ahead of them, saying bluntly, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (John 14:5). And we know he has courage – he is, after all, the one who urges the disciples to go to Jerusalem with Jesus even if it spells their deaths (John. 11:16).
Which it is a possibility that Thomas had already moved on by that first Easter evening, or at least was attempting to, attempting to put things back in order and get back to normal. He can’t believe the witness of his friends. He had just seen Jesus crucified 3 days earlier with his own eyes. Their confessions of Jesus seem at first like out of touch with reality and aspirational pie in the sky dreams. I mean, how do you even talk about “normal” when someone has been raised from the dead? What was normal anyway?
In the Acts reading that Carol shared with us, the writer brings us a seasonal update on where we are: between the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
Wait.
Hold on.
And in the meantime. The writer Kaitlin Curtice of Glroy Happening calls us to this.
There are meantime things to be done.
There are quarantine things we are to do.
God who has provided, and does provide, will continue to provide.
Kaitlin writes about when she moved to her new hometown, how she and her family found themselves needing to believe where they could not see. She had a few pages worth of kindnesses that had been offered to her family from a cup of coffee to babysitting her boys, so she and her husband could go on a date to a new computer. Kindnesses that she could not exactly explain how they came to, but she knew that even though she could not see the God, her family was provided for.
Make yourself an actual list of where God has been a provider, so that you can look back and see. During this meantime, quarantine, in between time, make note of where you have experienced the presence of God caring for.
For sure, there are kingdom things that we cannot worry about – outside of us that we can not fathom.
The Spirit of truth and power will hold us and guide and move us throughout our lives. (1)
This Easter season, we wait liturgically in the meantime for the coming of the Holy Spirit with the disciples. We still have some good news in the resurrection, and we see it around us every day. The writer of 1 Peter calls it our inexpressible and glorious joy.
During these 50 days of Easter, from Resurrection to Pentecost, we will take this time together to look at how we spend our “in the meantime” time. While we are waiting for things to return to a normative way of being around us; while we are waiting for the Kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven; while we are waiting for God’s very own Spirit to come to us personally. What do we do? We celebrate some good news of resurrection.
Some of you will be familiar with Some Good News. The actor, John Krasinski has developed a weekly news broadcast viewed by millions of people on YouTube that shares good news in the face of COVID19. (2) This feel good web show has highlighted healthcare heroes caring for those afflicted with COVID-19 and encouraged one cellular phone service to cover the cost of mobile phones for health care workers for 3 months. As he opined about missing opening day in baseball, the Boston Red Sox, opened their stadium to a few medical professionals to throw out a ceremonial first pitch. This good news was rounded out with images of young and old playing hitting the ball in their own yards with their families, and in one case, a man, by himself, to keep up good social distancing.
My heart swells each time I watch it, and I am reminded that this is the good news of resurrection. Where there is good news of new life and creation in one place, it catches on and changes the space around it. The resurrection of Jesus changes our lives, and there is some good news every day. This is not only of THE resurrection, but of the ways we see resurrections and new life in our midst. In the meantime, we have seen the Risen Christ! We have seen him in the friends who left paper towels on our porch or who delivered music to our doors. We have seen in the faces of those who gave food for our food pantry, and those who courageously came for the first time after being furloughed from their job of decades. We have seen resurrection in those doctors and nurses who have danced as COVID-19 patients were discharged from the hospital.
We have not known this moment in time, before but we have known challenge and trial before. The hymn that we began our service with, Christ is Alive, was written by Brian Wren. He is a modern hymn writer. I heard him speak and sing at Moravian Seminary about nine years ago. He wrote Christ is Alive in 1968 two weeks after the death of Martin Luther King Junior. He wrote the following about it, “It was written for Easter Sunday, two weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I could not let Easter go by without speaking of this tragic event which was on all our minds. . . . The hymn tries to see God’s love winning over tragedy and suffering in the world. . . . There is tension and tragedy in these words, not just Easter rejoicing (3).” Again, this points us not to the tragedy of the death but the hope and the power that comes in the resurrection.
The eleven, they were gathered in that upper room when Jesus showed up. They had lived the resurrection, of course they believed it. They didn’t need to take anyone’s word for it. Thomas wasn’t there.
The resurrection is not just news for a few, but for everyone! It was a week later when they were gathered, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came among them. He invited Thomas to live the experience, too!
Put your hand in my side.
Put your fingers in the places where the nails had been.
Thomas was so moved, he cried out, My Lord and God! He knew and believed Jesus. Thomas is abandoning all his conceptions of “normal” and opening himself to a very different reality than he could have previously imagined because creation isn’t static but is still happening. Resurrection changes everything.
But the passage continues: Jesus did much more than even this. Jesus affirms but also stretches his testimony – “Do you believe because you’ve seen…” – and then blesses later believers – “blessed are those who believe and have not seen” – Jesus is simultaneously challenging and inviting and blessing all of us to recognize that, in light of the resurrection, the future is always open. The good news of the resurrection continues. Where is Jesus calling you to believe where you have not seen? Where you are being called to share some good news? What can you add to the list of testimony of how God has changed your life?
Share some good news, so that others may come to believe.
This is the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
(1) Curtice, Kaitlin. Glory Happening: Finding the Diving in Everyday Places. Paraclete Press: Brewster, Massachusetts, 2017.
(2) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOe_y6KKvS3PdIfb9q9pGug
(3) https://hymnary.org/hymn/GG2013/246
New Testament Lesson: Acts 1:7-8 (Message Translation)
He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
New Testament Lesson: 1Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Gospel Lesson: John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
But Thomas (who was called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, April 19 ~ Saturday, April 25, 2020
Sunday: “Jesus told them, “You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:7. God sent the Holy Spirit for the empowering of God’s people. Good news! God’s Spirit is with us!
Monday: “And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.” Acts 1:8. Pray for the world, from Jerusalem to Rome, New York City to Toyoko, Sydney to Moscow, that the healing hand of the Holy Spirit will be present as we pray together for a vaccine for COVID-19.
Tuesday: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3. Consider that your new birth came at a time of trial and challenge. Is God calling you into a deeper level of reliance and new birth now?
Wednesday: “and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” 1 Peter 1:4. Pray today for God’s presence to be known both here and now as well as then and there. May your inheritance be unfading, but your testimony be well-worn.
Thursday: “who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:5. As we await that time, in the meantime, we are called to share the good news of resurrection. You came to know God through resurrection and good news. Where can you share resurrection, so someone else can get to know God?
Friday: “In this you rejoice even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7. Pray for all those who are being afflicted and affected by COVID-19. God does not send trials to test you or others. Pray for all those suffering under the inevitable trials of life.
Saturday: “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8-9. Though you have not seen Jesus, you have believed. Where have you seen signs of resurrection around you? Where are the signs of God’s goodness?