New

 

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
April 11, 2021

2 Easter B 

          For the last several months, as most of you know, we have been under construction at Christ Church.  Our Parish Hall has been completely redesigned and is not only more functional, but perfectly gorgeous.  The new restrooms will surprise and delight you.  The Memorial Garden will be more open and more easily used for outdoor services and functions.  And while we do not have occupancy permits yet so we cannot yet use our new space, the staff can now cut through the building rather than having to go outside to get from our offices in Beebe House to the restrooms in the undercroft of the church.  The challenge is rerouting our thinking about how we move about the building because the traffic patterns are definitely different.  We are up for the challenge!    

          While the new normal of our building is an external shift, we also enter a new normal as more and more people get Covid-19 vaccines.  This has been more of an internal shift for me.  Masks, hand sanitizer, social distancing, and avoiding large crowds are still part of our day-to-day life as CDC, state, and diocesan guidelines indicate and as we combat surges of virus variants.  But internally, I have to say, I have felt a shift, especially as we begin to regather for in-person worship.  I am filled with joy and hope as we look to a time, yet in the future, when we can gather, sing, hug, and even eat cake together, all without masks.  My internal life has begun a shift.

          The disciples are experiencing such a shift this morning.  The story begins on Easter evening, after they have heard from Peter and the other disciple that the tomb is empty and after they have heard from Mary Magdalene about her experience of the risen Christ.  The tomb is empty. Mary has seen the risen Christ!  Where are the alleluias?  The disciples are afraid and hiding.

          This passage is problematic because we are told that the disciples are hiding for fear of the Jews.  Passages such as this one have been wrongly used over the centuries to blame the Jewish people of Jesus’ time and the Jewish people as a whole through out the centuries for the death of Jesus.  The tensions between the early Christians and the Jewish people are certainly at play in this gospel, but John’s gospel is also clear that no one took Jesus’ life from him.  Jesus, a Jew, gave up his life for the life of the world as an act of love.  Any use of violence or hatred in the name of the God of love is simply wrong. 

          The real problem this morning is not who the disciples are afraid of.  The real problem is that the disciples are hiding because they are afraid.  The problem is with the disciples, not those they fear.  The tomb is empty, and Mary has seen the risen Christ, but neither the external nor the internal pattern of the disciples’ lives has changed.  They are hiding behind a locked door.  But a locked door does not stop Jesus.  Jesus enters and says “Peace be with you.”  Then Jesus says “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” and he breathes the Holy Spirit on them.

          Thomas  was not hiding behind a locked door on Easter evening.  He is probably out trying to get on with his life, despite his grief and disappointment.  We know he is not out witnessing to the risen Christ because when he catches up with the disciples in the locked room, he refuses to believe that they have seen the risen Jesus unless he, too, sees Jesus’ wounds. 

          One week later, having seen the risen Jesus, having been sent as Jesus was sent, and having received the Holy Spirit, where are the disciples?  Still in that same room.  Easter has still not changed the patterns of their life, either externally and gotten them out of that room or internally and transformed them into witnesses to the resurrection.  And yet, Jesus shows up in that room again, to offer proof to Thomas that Jesus is, indeed, alive.

          We know that the disciples were indeed transformed by the resurrection and the patterns of their lives changed, both internally and externally.  Our reading from Acts this morning and our readings throughout the Easter season testify to their powerful transformation from fearful disciples to dynamic witnesses to the resurrection and the power of God’s love.  

          On this Sunday after Easter, we begin to move into new pattens of life together at Christ Church as we begin to live into both our new building, which was a bold action of the vestry in the midst of a pandemic and economic uncertainty, and our regathering process, a process that is too slow for some and too soon for others.  Both actions are about moving forward into a new future rather than moving back into old habits.  Both are about living in the faith and hope of the resurrection rather than hiding in fear.  Even though both actions are about our coming together as the Body of Christ here in this place, both actions are really about our ability to live as sent people.  A year ago, when we were sent home because of the pandemic, we were actually sent out into the world in a new way.  Jesus sent us all kinds of new places over the past 12 months, taking our life together out into the world online and showing us new ways to serve the world.   Even in the midst of a pandemic, Jesus called us forward, not backwards. 

          We regather in-person for worship and we will gather in our new space, not as an end in itself, but to better nourish us to be sent people, transformed by the power of the empty tomb and the risen Christ.  The patterns of our life together will shift both externally in our building and internally in our spiritual lives as we live into both realities.  Jesus calls us forward into new ways of being sent people, ways we have yet to discover, but ways that we will discover together.

                                                                             Amen.