The signs of credibility
Commentary
Last Sunday Mary Magdalene stood before us in her bereavement and met the Risen Jesus. Today the bereaved disciples are before us and encounter the Risen Lord at eventide. John 20:19-22 is a literary gem. With a brevity of words John mingles in one unforgettable scene the meeting of the disciples with the Risen Jesus, their commissioning, and the giving of the Holy Spirit.
In the second section of today's gospel reading Thomas, who represents all of us in our times of doubt, makes an appearance. The preacher has, therefore, a choice of focus in today's reading or the option to hold the meeting with Thomas until next Sunday.
In the next reading from Acts the infant church is beginning to collide with the ecclesiastical authorities who wield power in Jerusalem. In the epistle reading a Christian prophet probably associated with the Johannine community introduces his God-given vision which he has been commissioned to share with all the Christians now in harm's way as Roman authority begins to turn ugly.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Acts 5:27-32
Peter and the other apostles are called on the carpet by the ecclesiastical authorities for refusing to obey an order to cease and desist in their preaching and teaching activities. Peter responds with words that have challenged systems of domination down through history, "We must obey God rather than any human authority." It was widely believed in the ancient world that one should obey heavenly visions.
The intriguing thing here is that the opponents of Peter and the apostles also believe that they are obeying God. The later church in history would believe it was obeying God by silencing heretics, by death if necessary. We can get very ugly and hurtful with one another in the name of obedience to God.
Considering this passage in the context of Acts 4:1-31, 5:17-42 could be helpful in shedding some perspective on the way we react to one another when we find ourselves taking absolute positions on opposite sides of major issues. In this record in Acts it is Gamaliel who comes down on the side of restraint and good sense.
Revelation 1:4-8
I have two brief comments. The first is on verse 7 where John promises that even those who pierced Jesus (throughout history) will one day understand the dimension of their actions. I once asked Professor Paul Minear, who through his writing has done so much to illuminate biblical imagery for us, whether the wailing of those who pierced Jesus indicated the arrival of violent retribution. After a moment of reflection, he replied, "Wailing is a sign of repentance."
The second comment is on verse 8, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." In the beginning God, in the end God, this assurance gives us something to hang on to in between times. The Almightiness of God does not refer to his omnipotence, but a sure and certain victory in the end time.
John 20:19-23
As we enter this scene we find the disciples in retreat from the world behind locked doors, in need of comforting, dispirited. When we leave the scene they are about to walk through open doors into the world, as comforters among the public and fortified in spirit. These are the broad movements of the passage. A series of scenes unfold, each of which may provide a sermonic path or together comprise a general outline.
Scene 1:
The disciples are behind locked doors. They were bereaved. They had lost someone they loved. It was quite natural for them to gather for mutual support and comfort. When grief comes to us we turn to the loving support of family and friends. But more than grief, their hopes had been crushed as so many dreams get crushed today by tanks and guns. All they had now were sad thoughts of what might have been. They were also afraid. Of what? Of the enemies of Jesus, certainly! Was guilt in the equation also? "If we only had not let him down." This is the sort of brooding that leads nowhere and is often mingled with grief.
Scene 2:
Jesus is in their midst, greets them, and shows them his wounded hands and side. They may have wondered whose voice that was, but there was not doubt about it when they saw those scarred hands. John tells us the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Remember that with John seeing is perceiving. This is a moment of insight. Jesus is the Lord of Life not in spite of his wounds, but through his wounds. They are his visa into our lives and experience. They are his credentials.
What are the credentials of an apostle? Listen to Paul, "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" (Galatians 6:17). In his book, Christ On The Mount, E. Stanley Jones, one of the great missionaries earlier in this century, tells about an incident in the life of Adoniram Judson. Judson left Salem, Massachusetts, on a clipper ship in 1812, a newly commissioned missionary to southeast Asia. On shipboard he was converted to Baptist principles and spent his life in Burma. At one time in his career he was thrown into a Burmese prison for several months. When released he asked permission of the King of Burma to preach in a certain village. "I am willing for a dozen preachers to go," replied the king. "but not you. My people are not fools enough to listen to your words, but they will not be able to resist those scarred hands."
Scene 3:
Jesus commissions the disciples. "As the father has sent me, so I send you." What a strange time for an ordination. You'd think he'd hold their hands, sit around and comfort them. What an odd time to issue a challenge. But not so strange, really. There are times in life when we need to regress, be comforted. But eventually we have to get out and about among the living, lest regression be permanent. The comforter has to also issue commands.
Does John also have in mind the secret Christians? Is discipleship that stays locked up within a sanctuary a form of crypto-Christianity today? Someone has to prod the church to get out into the world. In his book, Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful, Alan Paton introduces a cautious middle class black man who belatedly joins the struggle for freedom. To a bemused white friend he explains, "When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, 'Where are your wounds?' And if I say I haven't any, he will ask, 'Was there nothing worth fighting for?' "
John 20:24-29
To be sure, John's intent is to deal with apostolic doubts and assure believers separated from Jesus by time and space that they are just as blessed as the original witnesses, but might not a sermon revolve around doubt? Thomas has often been maligned and this has conditioned many of us to feel a bit guilty about entertaining doubt. Yet, doubt has been a positive influence in history. What change has taken place in our own world because some within the communist orbit in Eastern Europe began to say, "We doubt this ideology"!
Check out the poem by the English poet of another day, Robert Browning, "Bishop Blougram's Apology." The poem deals with the strange mixture of belief and unbelief. Browning's intriguing suggestion is that we have two options in life; to live a life of faith diversified by doubt, or a life of doubt diversified by faith. In other words, as doubt is a problem for belief, so belief is a problem for doubt.
The gain? How can we guard our unbelief,
Make it bear fruit to us? The problem here.
Just when we're safest, there's a sunset touch,
A fancy from a flower bell, someone's death,
A chorus ending from Euripides --
And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears
As old and new at once as Nature's self
To rap and knock and enter in our soul.
This is a tremendous insight here that rings true to our experience. There are moments when doubt assaults doubt and prompts us to belief. Lucy in one Peanuts strip has been telling Linus all her doubts about Santa Claus. In fact, she flatly rejects his existence. She goes off to bed, but the last frame shows her in bed with eyes wide open and asking herself, "Did I just hear sleigh bells?" There it is. Rumors of angels can fall upon the ear in many ways.
In the second section of today's gospel reading Thomas, who represents all of us in our times of doubt, makes an appearance. The preacher has, therefore, a choice of focus in today's reading or the option to hold the meeting with Thomas until next Sunday.
In the next reading from Acts the infant church is beginning to collide with the ecclesiastical authorities who wield power in Jerusalem. In the epistle reading a Christian prophet probably associated with the Johannine community introduces his God-given vision which he has been commissioned to share with all the Christians now in harm's way as Roman authority begins to turn ugly.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Acts 5:27-32
Peter and the other apostles are called on the carpet by the ecclesiastical authorities for refusing to obey an order to cease and desist in their preaching and teaching activities. Peter responds with words that have challenged systems of domination down through history, "We must obey God rather than any human authority." It was widely believed in the ancient world that one should obey heavenly visions.
The intriguing thing here is that the opponents of Peter and the apostles also believe that they are obeying God. The later church in history would believe it was obeying God by silencing heretics, by death if necessary. We can get very ugly and hurtful with one another in the name of obedience to God.
Considering this passage in the context of Acts 4:1-31, 5:17-42 could be helpful in shedding some perspective on the way we react to one another when we find ourselves taking absolute positions on opposite sides of major issues. In this record in Acts it is Gamaliel who comes down on the side of restraint and good sense.
Revelation 1:4-8
I have two brief comments. The first is on verse 7 where John promises that even those who pierced Jesus (throughout history) will one day understand the dimension of their actions. I once asked Professor Paul Minear, who through his writing has done so much to illuminate biblical imagery for us, whether the wailing of those who pierced Jesus indicated the arrival of violent retribution. After a moment of reflection, he replied, "Wailing is a sign of repentance."
The second comment is on verse 8, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." In the beginning God, in the end God, this assurance gives us something to hang on to in between times. The Almightiness of God does not refer to his omnipotence, but a sure and certain victory in the end time.
John 20:19-23
As we enter this scene we find the disciples in retreat from the world behind locked doors, in need of comforting, dispirited. When we leave the scene they are about to walk through open doors into the world, as comforters among the public and fortified in spirit. These are the broad movements of the passage. A series of scenes unfold, each of which may provide a sermonic path or together comprise a general outline.
Scene 1:
The disciples are behind locked doors. They were bereaved. They had lost someone they loved. It was quite natural for them to gather for mutual support and comfort. When grief comes to us we turn to the loving support of family and friends. But more than grief, their hopes had been crushed as so many dreams get crushed today by tanks and guns. All they had now were sad thoughts of what might have been. They were also afraid. Of what? Of the enemies of Jesus, certainly! Was guilt in the equation also? "If we only had not let him down." This is the sort of brooding that leads nowhere and is often mingled with grief.
Scene 2:
Jesus is in their midst, greets them, and shows them his wounded hands and side. They may have wondered whose voice that was, but there was not doubt about it when they saw those scarred hands. John tells us the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Remember that with John seeing is perceiving. This is a moment of insight. Jesus is the Lord of Life not in spite of his wounds, but through his wounds. They are his visa into our lives and experience. They are his credentials.
What are the credentials of an apostle? Listen to Paul, "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" (Galatians 6:17). In his book, Christ On The Mount, E. Stanley Jones, one of the great missionaries earlier in this century, tells about an incident in the life of Adoniram Judson. Judson left Salem, Massachusetts, on a clipper ship in 1812, a newly commissioned missionary to southeast Asia. On shipboard he was converted to Baptist principles and spent his life in Burma. At one time in his career he was thrown into a Burmese prison for several months. When released he asked permission of the King of Burma to preach in a certain village. "I am willing for a dozen preachers to go," replied the king. "but not you. My people are not fools enough to listen to your words, but they will not be able to resist those scarred hands."
Scene 3:
Jesus commissions the disciples. "As the father has sent me, so I send you." What a strange time for an ordination. You'd think he'd hold their hands, sit around and comfort them. What an odd time to issue a challenge. But not so strange, really. There are times in life when we need to regress, be comforted. But eventually we have to get out and about among the living, lest regression be permanent. The comforter has to also issue commands.
Does John also have in mind the secret Christians? Is discipleship that stays locked up within a sanctuary a form of crypto-Christianity today? Someone has to prod the church to get out into the world. In his book, Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful, Alan Paton introduces a cautious middle class black man who belatedly joins the struggle for freedom. To a bemused white friend he explains, "When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, 'Where are your wounds?' And if I say I haven't any, he will ask, 'Was there nothing worth fighting for?' "
John 20:24-29
To be sure, John's intent is to deal with apostolic doubts and assure believers separated from Jesus by time and space that they are just as blessed as the original witnesses, but might not a sermon revolve around doubt? Thomas has often been maligned and this has conditioned many of us to feel a bit guilty about entertaining doubt. Yet, doubt has been a positive influence in history. What change has taken place in our own world because some within the communist orbit in Eastern Europe began to say, "We doubt this ideology"!
Check out the poem by the English poet of another day, Robert Browning, "Bishop Blougram's Apology." The poem deals with the strange mixture of belief and unbelief. Browning's intriguing suggestion is that we have two options in life; to live a life of faith diversified by doubt, or a life of doubt diversified by faith. In other words, as doubt is a problem for belief, so belief is a problem for doubt.
The gain? How can we guard our unbelief,
Make it bear fruit to us? The problem here.
Just when we're safest, there's a sunset touch,
A fancy from a flower bell, someone's death,
A chorus ending from Euripides --
And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears
As old and new at once as Nature's self
To rap and knock and enter in our soul.
This is a tremendous insight here that rings true to our experience. There are moments when doubt assaults doubt and prompts us to belief. Lucy in one Peanuts strip has been telling Linus all her doubts about Santa Claus. In fact, she flatly rejects his existence. She goes off to bed, but the last frame shows her in bed with eyes wide open and asking herself, "Did I just hear sleigh bells?" There it is. Rumors of angels can fall upon the ear in many ways.
