Sermon: Low Sunday 2009

Good morning. David is on holiday, Dick has a much-deserved day off from leading and preaching, Heidi and the usual musicians are absent, and today is called Low Sunday. It’s the week after Easter and it is called either ‘Low Sunday’ – often referring to the low that we feel after the celebration of Easter Day, or ‘Thomas Sunday’ because someone, usually a Reader, has to preach ‘yet again’ on Thomas and doubt.
Whichever way we look at it, this Sunday has a much lower profile than last Sunday. And yet it reinforces some very important truths, and reminds us of Jesus’ gift to us, our own free will and the choices we make.
How does this work in our readings?
Does anyone remember the opening sequence to the Star Wars films, where the words rolled past, and it looked as if we were being told the whole story before the film had even started? This morning’s readings are a bit like that for me, because so much happens in such a short space of time that we are in danger of missing it. Certainly we can’t explore everything in one go.
We’ve heard three stories this morning, and if we look at them in the order in which they happened then we see:
Jesus appears in the middle of a locked room, shows his disciples that he is alive, but still wounded and offers peace. He then sends them out in the power of the Holy Spirit and, breathing on them, gives them the authority, within their relationship with him, to forgive others. This is the ‘handover’ moment, a fore-runner of Pentecost, when believers are empowered to be church together.
In the second story Jesus appears again to Thomas – it’s a kind of mopping up operation, the same story again, but this time aimed mainly at Thomas, who wasn’t there the in the first story. Again Jesus appears in a locked room; again he shows that he is alive but still wounded, and offers peace, but this time he commands that we believe. This time there is a response that recognises his Lordship, and this time Jesus promises blessing both to those present, and also to everyone who believes. Because, after that time, the Church will include people who didn’t actually know Jesus personally, when he was on earth – just like you and me.
In the third story, from Acts, we can see that all the believers were united. They shared, they supported each other and they testified to other people about Jesus’ resurrection. They were being Church in the way that Jesus modelled for them, sharing and acting in unity.
For every choice there is a response. The disciples responded to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus with faith, and because of that faith they became one with Christ and were changed. That change led them to action; to behave differently, and we see that demonstrated in the reading of Acts, which shows the development of the early church. The believers shared their possessions and they acted together in unity.
How might that work in our lives?
Let’s start with Easter. We have the Good News. Jesus Christ is risen indeed. To which our reply, from wherever we are, is Hallelujah,.
Sometimes that can be difficult, as can our reading from Acts. We’d like to feel happy and celebratory, and we’d like to be in unity with everyone in the church and feel that we all have one mind and that everything is comfortable and cosy. But I do recognise that it isn’t always like that.
Dick has led two funerals this week. A child we have been praying for has died after a long illness, and people at this church have been affected by that. Other people are worried about their jobs, about illness and conflict in their families, about wars and injustice, and political unrest, and all sorts of things that we can’t control. We are all wounded in different ways. And we are being asked by the people who created the Easter liturgy – the words we use in our services - to say ‘Praise the Lord’ - ‘Hallelujah”? We are being asked to worship God, to celebrate Jesus appearing to his disciples. Maybe we just don’t feel like it.
But… and there is always a but, I’ve found that the times that I have been able to laugh most, to experience the greatest joy of life, even sometimes to worship in the most meaningful way, have been when other parts of my life seem darkest.
Laughter and worship and joy are points on a scale, and there is something about knowing the heights that makes the depths so deep, and vice versa. One of the great benefits of team-work, of community, of being in unity, is that someone else can do what I can’t. If I find myself unable to worship and praise, then maybe someone else can worship on my behalf. (Priesthood of believers) Rather like the believers, if I can’t feed myself, maybe someone else can – in this case in worship.
The other point about saying Hallelujah when it is difficult is that it helps us to see our own problems in perspective. There are things in my life that I wish were different, that I would change if I could, but which I just have to leave with God. I pray about them, sometimes I shed tears about them, but ultimately no amount of angst or worry on my part can make any difference, so I have to give it to God in prayer, and I choose to worship God in the desert paces as well as on the heights of the mountain..
That is my choice, and today is partly about choices and consequences.
Jesus chose to go to the cross, and when he returned he asked us to choose – to believe in him and to carry on his work. He comes out of the closed tomb, and into the locked room of our hearts to share his risen life with us. He understands our fear, and shares our wounds. He brings us his forgiveness and peace; he breathes the Holy Spirit into our lives. And then he waits for our response. We can choose to make no response, in which case we are stuck in disbelief and nothing happens. Or we can choose faith; faith that results in becoming a member of this priesthood of believers, faith which results in action, and is defined by our relationship of sharing with God and other Christians, a relationship of unity.
Finally, I must mention Thomas – if only because David said last Sunday that all preachers except David use today’s texts to preach about Thomas and doubt rather than about the start of the church.
We often refer to Thomas ‘Doubting Thomas’ because we interpret his statement, “Unless I see… I will not believe” as doubt. We warm to this story because it reminds us of our own questions – questions we can seek answers to if we have faith as our bedrock. In fact a more accurate translation of the words that we read as “Stop doubting and believe” is “do not be disbelieving but believe.” Thomas is asking for the same evidence that the other disciples have already had so that he can believe.
The background to this slide is a beautiful picture, by Caravaggio, of Thomas, placing his finger in the wound in Christ’s side, just before he makes the definitive statement of faith, “My Lord and my God,”
Thomas’ answer confirms what we believe, that Jesus Christ is resurrected, cannot die again, and that we who believe, even though we haven’t seen, are blessed. Our faith changes us and we act differently, we love as Jesus did, and that means that we are able to share our lives with others in the unity of Christ.
Jesus Christ is risen indeed. To which our reply, from wherever we are, is Hallelujah.