Resurrection Life

 

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
April 16, 2023

2 Easter A 

          Donna Hart was my friend, my mentor, and my colleague.  She was born the same year as my mother-1932- and until her death in 2006, she was a fearless force to be reckoned with.  Donna had been betrayed by her husband while her three children were young.  She got a divorce and set out to rebuild her life.  She took on a fledgling and controversial domestic violence shelter in Springfield, Ohio and through sheer grit and determination she turned the shelter into a vibrant ministry that has helped countless women and their children rebuild their lives.  She knew what it was like to have to rebuild a life as a single mother and she worked hard to make that a better experience for others.  In the 1970’s, Donna had no problem showing up at the Statehouse in Columbus to speak the truth to power and advocate for laws that protected the victims of domestic violence rather than the perpetrators.  Donna also knew what it was like to be housing insecure and worked with the city through the Neighborhood Housing Partnership to provide quality affordable housing to those on low incomes.  As Donna aged, her health deteriorated to the point where we thought we would lose her.  But she fought her way back and lived several more years, during which time she became a deacon in the Episcopal Church.  Most Sundays, she could be found at the healing station in the church, much like ours, praying for those who knelt there.  Donna was able to take her own pain, her own wounds, and use them in productive and powerful ways to make a difference in the lives of others.

          I always think of Donna when I hear today’s gospel reading.  In fact, I chose this very passage for the gospel reading at her funeral.  On Easter evening, Jesus appears to the disciples who are behind closed doors, living in fear.  The problem here is not the Jews.  The problem is the disciples’ fear.  Having heard Mary’s witness that she has seen the risen Christ, the fearful disciples are hiding behind locked doors.  But neither a locked door nor fear stops the Risen Christ who appears to the disciples, breathes the Holy Spirit into them and sends them out into the world. 

          Thomas is not with the disciples, however.  Thomas is out moving on with his life.  While historically the disciple has been known as “Doubting Thomas,” I find that moniker to be highly unfair.  At least he is not in hiding!  And the story is not about Thomas.  The story is about Jesus.  But understandably, when the disciples tell Thomas that they have seen the Lord, he is skeptical.  Who wouldn’t be?  So he says “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.”  Thomas is really asking no more and no less than the other disciples had already experienced.  And Jesus complies.

          How do the disciples recognize the risen Christ in their midst?  By the wounds in his hands and his side.  The resurrection has not erased the wounds of the crucifixion.  Resurrection life is not about erasing the past or pretending like wounds never happened.  Resurrection life is about allowing God to transform those wounds and then using them to bear witness to the love of God.  The resurrected Jesus showed the disciples his wounds to bear witness to resurrection life.

          Peter’s message in the reading from Acts is similar.  Peter is speaking to the Israelites, his own people.  He is not an outsider criticizing the actions of others.  Peter is the one who denied Jesus three times in Jesus’ moment of need, so he does not have a lot of ground for criticizing others!  He is not casting blame for the death of Jesus but setting the crucifixion in the context of God’s plan of salvation.  According to Peter, God took the actions of those who killed Jesus and used those actions to bring about resurrection, freeing Jesus from death.  God took the horrible actions of human beings and created resurrection life.

          As followers of Jesus, of the Risen Christ, we are called to bear witness to resurrection with our lives.  As my friend Donna did, we are called to bear witness to our Easter faith that wounds and death do not own us.  Life and Love own us.   We may do that in a public way, as Donna did, or we may do that in a more private way.  Those who have known hunger may work at a food bank.  Those who have known housing insecurity may work with Family Promise or Habitat for Humanity.  Those who have known grief may walk alongside those who are grieving.  Those who have known addiction may walk with those who are struggling.  The opportunities to be resurrection people are endless.   The story of Thomas reminds us that the world needs to see what resurrection life looks like.  Resurrection life is not perfect and without scars.  Resurrection life is living, not like we belong to fear and death, but as people who belong to life and love.

                                                          Amen.