Bright Sunday Sermon - "Keeping Up Appearances"

This is the sermon that I preached yesterday at Westminster Presbyterian in Austin, TX. This is the congregation where I have been interning all school year. I have learned a lot working with this congregation and they have helped me to grow.

Here we are the week after Easter. Back to normal, no brass filling the sanctuary, the lilies are gone. We celebrate Christ being risen from the dead, but wasn’t that last week? So now we can go back to normal. Or can we? It is easy to think of Easter as a single day, after all anything Easter related is up to 75% off at most stores now, but Easter is bigger than that. We have entered Eastertide, the “Great Fifty Days” as we move toward Pentecost. This is a season of the church year for continued celebration and to explore what it means for us to live as resurrection people. The gospel of John provides the experiences of several Bible figures who we have come to know well, Mary, the disciples, and Thomas.

We start on that first Easter day. Three days removed from the crucifixion of Jesus. Mary, the disciples, and Thomas are all struggling with grief, fear, and doubt. We enter the story with Mary. She has gone to the tomb and finds the stone rolled away. Scared, she runs back to find Peter, who with the beloved disciple, return to the tomb with her. They find the tomb empty. Then the men leave. They leave Mary, standing in front of the empty tomb. They leave Mary standing at the empty tomb weeping.

The stress of the last 8 days overwhelms her. A week ago she was with the crowd as they entered Jerusalem shouting “Hosanna.” Little did she know that by the end of the week she would see Jesus arrested and crucified. A wave of grief sweeps over her. This man was her teacher, her Lord. She had followed him for many months. A few days ago she had lavished pure nard on his feet and wiped it away with her hair. She could still smell the scent in her hair. All she wanted to do now was care for his body. Finding the tomb empty, she is hit by a flood of emotion. She is drained physically, spiritually, and emotionally. She is tired. She is scared. It feels like a nightmare, but she can’t wake up. All she can do is cry.

She peers into the empty tomb to see two angels in white who ask “Woman, why are you weeping?” Through her tears she stammers that she is looking for Jesus. She can no longer bear to look into the tomb. She turns, her head down, still sobbing. She notices someone standing there. He repeats the question of the angels “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She does not recognize the man. She is consumed with her grief and exhaustion. She responds to him thinking he is the gardener.

While Mary is weeping at the tomb, the disciples are hidden away behind locked doors.
They like Mary are trying to process everything that has happened in the last few days. They are afraid of being persecuted if they are identified a followers of Jesus. Their teacher is gone, what are they to do now? They sit in silence; they are spent. They are afraid. Fear permeates the room, it has paralyzed them. Then Jesus appears to them. He stands in their midst, they can’t believe their eyes. Jesus speaks, “Peace be with you,” but they have yet to recognize their Lord.

Later in the day we meet Thomas. He was not with the others but has heard their story.
He is skeptical of what they have told him. Thomas looks at them as if to say, “Yeah right, whatever!” 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.” Thomas is not one to be easily swayed. He needs proof.

When Mary, the disciples, and Thomas first meet the Risen Christ, none of them recognize him. Mary is consumed by her grief. The disciples are paralyzed with their fear. Thomas is filled with doubt. They cannot recognize Jesus on their own, they need Jesus to meet them where they are. Christ comes to each in a different way, but it is exactly what they each need in order to have faith.

For Mary, Jesus calls her by name. This is the moment when Mary encounters the Risen Christ. She hears her name, “Mary.” It is the voice that speaks it. She has heard this voice call her name so many times before. Soft and tender. Full of compassion and love. His voice finds its way through the tears, through the fatigue. It reaches the very core of her being and draws her back. Like a parent’s voice that breaks through the screams of a child’s nightmare drawing them out of their fear, finds its way through the tears. In calling her name, Jesus breaks through her nightmare of the last few days and she recognizes him. Because Jesus has met her and drawn her out of her grief, her spirits are lifted and she is able to set off to tell the others.

For the disciples hidden in fear, Jesus greets them twice with the words, “Peace be with you.” The second time he adds, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then Jesus breathes on them and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit. Just as God breathed life into Adam in Genesis, Jesus breathes new life into the disciples. The peace of Christ dispels their fear. Jesus sends them out into the world to offer the forgiveness of sins to the world. They are excited because they have just met the risen Christ. It is in their excitement, not fear that they talk to Thomas about their experience.

Thomas is doubtful of the story and wants physical proof. The next week the disciples are again meeting, but this time the doors aren’t locked, just shut, and Jesus comes and stands among them. He greets them with Peace again. Turning to Thomas, Jesus is relaxed and at ease.

He is not angry with Thomas, Thomas is just being Thomas. Jesus smiles, he knows Thomas well. Because he knows Thomas and he loves Thomas, Jesus says “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” We don’t know if Thomas touches him or not. But we do know Thomas’ response. “My Lord and My God!” Thomas is a believer.

In these stories, all of them believe in the end, when they have met the Risen Christ. Jesus meets Mary in her grief by calling her name; meets the disciples with the gift of peace and the Holy Spirit; meets Thomas with a physical presence. Jesus meets them where they are. He meets them as they have need. But these aren’t the only people who have met the Risen Christ.
Christ meets us where we are and gives us what we need for faith. The author of the gospel of John states that these stories are written down that others might believe. Scripture is one way that we are enabled to encounter Jesus. When we read about Mary, the disciples and Thomas, we can see ourselves in their stories as well. We have all known sorrow, fear, and doubt. Scripture is a reminder to us that Jesus meets us too.

While teaching the 2nd and 3rd graders a few weeks ago, we were walking through the timeline from Palm Sunday through the appearance stories. I asked the children as we read the Thomas story, if they would have believed the disciples even when Thomas didn’t. One of the girls said “Yes, but we know the story!” Her response struck me. She is right. We do know the story. We have been given Scripture that we might experience Christ that we might believe in the resurrection.

However Scripture is not the only way the appearance of Christ continues. Just as the disciples were sent we are sent too. We as fellow believers, as the church, are called to keep up the appearance of the risen Christ. We are called to reach out to people by name. People hurt. They grieve. We as church are called to speak their name. To remind them that they are beloved children of God. We do this every time we speak names of people we love and care about in intercessory prayer. We do this when we send cards and notes or call those who cannot be physically present with us. When we sit with someone in the hospital. It is amazing what being called by name can do. When we call them by name, they are remembered into the body of Christ. We keep up the appearance of our resurrected Savior.

We as a church are also called to bring the peace of Christ. In the midst of community, just as the disciples were gathered in community, we pass the “peace of Christ.” Think about the words of the liturgy. The peace of Christ be with you. And also with you. As we have been reconciled to God through our confession of sin and reminded of our forgiveness in Christ and assured of our pardon, we then share the peace that Christ brought to the disciples to one another. We are gathered together, reunited as the body of Christ. We keep up the appearance of our resurrected Savior.

We all have times of doubt; we have moments when we are Thomas. We need a physical presence. We need to be met individually. Seeing another who has struggled with faith, yet we can see the depth of their conviction. Watching one another live out their faith. We are the physical presence when we reach out to others in mission. I thought about this as storms rolled through Friday night. Northern Texas was hit hard, we are the physical presence with one anther in the midst of situations like the storm Friday night. We are physical proof to one another when we cry together, laugh with one another, and celebrate as the family of God. We are strengthened by the faith of others, we see Christ shining through them. They embody Christ for us. We keep up the appearance of our resurrected Savior.

These stories are given to us that we might have faith, that we would believe Jesus to be the Son of God and that we may have life in his name. We read the stories of the first Easter day and the week that followed, Jesus has met his followers in a variety of ways. He has given them what they need for them to believe. Christ still meets us today. Meets us through Scripture and through others that we too will have faith. As the Risen Christ lives within us, may we, the beloved children of God, be gathered as the body of Christ in our worship, so that as we go forth into the world we can embody the Risen Christ and keep up the appearance of our Risen Savior. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia!