Missed church? Can't come due to reasons beyond your control? Don't let that worry you. We make our sermons publicly available for everyone! Below you will find a transcript of our most recent sermons.

 

Year C, Second Sunday of Easter; John 20:19-31; April 27, 2025
Today’s passage from John picks up the Easter story immediately after last week’s gospel
reading. Mary found the tomb empty, told Peter and the beloved disciple, then they all
three ran to the tomb. The men went home, then Mary saw the Lord and delivered the
Good news to them all, “I have seen the Lord!” And today’s passage is still narrating that
first day.
All this has happened, the Easter morning story, and today the Easter evening story, and
we hear the story that earns Thomas the moniker, “Doubting Thomas.” And the way the
disciples are hiding makes me imagine one of those scenes from the FBI shows where
folks are holed up in some hideout, just without all the guns and ammo.
And just as Mary saw Jesus in that early time between night and day, the space between
dark and light, so now too, the disciples encounter Jesus as the light wanes and day gives
way to night.
Listen for the Word of the Lord from John 20:19-31: When it was evening on that day,
the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were
locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with
you." 20  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples
rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21  Jesus said to them again, ;Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you. 22  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said
to them, ;Receive the Holy Spirit. 23  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven
them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
24  But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when
Jesus came. 25  So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." 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."
26  A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.
Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be
with you." 27  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out
your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28  Thomas answered him, "My
Lord and my God!" 29  Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
30  Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written
in this book. 31  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
This is the Word of the Lord; thanks be to God.

When we talk about the call of God on our lives, we often remember the words of Jesus
to those early disciples when he says, “Come and see.” Come and see. See for yourself
what this kingdom talk is all about.
And I think of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, and her invitation to others after her
encounter with Jesus. She says, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever
done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 1 And then they come and see for themselves.
Come and see is such a familiar refrain. And yet in today’s passage, we hear Jesus saying
to the disciples, “Touch and see.” “Put your finger here…reach out your hand and put it
in my side.” Touch and believe. Let these hands bring to you a change in perspective.
What we know is that what we believe or don’t believe is most easily affected by what
we experience. I remember as a child when my mother said, “That iron is hot. Don’t
touch it.” And what did I do? I had to see for myself.
But it all goes back to that basic fact of human nature—experience is the best teacher.
That’s why there will always be a tension between parents and children. Parents want
their kids to learn based on the parent’s own mistakes. Thus, the lecture is born. But the
truth is, kids have to learn for themselves. Lectures, most times, do not work. And
sometimes they have the opposite effect.
It’s like trying to be logical with someone who’s in a panic. Ever try to tell someone in a
panic to calm down? Not super effective. For me it brings up the image of the airline
passenger from the movie Airplane who’s having a nervous breakdown. Remember that
movie with Leslie Neilson? And folks just line up down the aisle to shake her and slap
her back into her senses, and as the line goes back, there are increasingly bigger tools for
the job: boxing gloves, baseball bats, huge wrenches, and so on.
And I feel like Jesus is doing just that very sort of thing here in this room with the
disciples. Bringing them back to their senses. Because these things are out of this world.
He comes to them and appears through locked doors. They’ve seen him brutally
murdered before their eyes on Friday, and yet he’s standing here and talking with them in
this locked room. These things alone are enough to throw someone into a panic. Am I
hallucinating? How can this be real?
And Jesus knows, they have to feel him. Touch him. Without that sensory experience,
they’ll just think they’ve lost their minds. Evidently Thomas thinks the rest of them have
lost their minds because he won’t believe any of it just based on their account. And he
doesn’t believe it until he can experience it for himself.

1 John 4:29, NRSV.

But Jesus’s response is not baseball bats. He’s gentle with them. Martin Copenhaver
writes, “[Jesus] was, and is, in the business of meeting people where they are.” 2
“Jesus appears in the locked room of fear and speaks his word of peace.” 3 Three times in
this passage. Three times, he says to the disciples, “Peace be with you.” And he breathes
on them. Feel the Spirit. Receive it.
If last week’s passage was about faith in the midst of confusion, this week’s passage
speaks of doubt in the face of proof. Fear in the midst of miracles. And speaking peace to
and through locked doors. Jesus is calling them to conquer fear with faith and peace. And
he calls us to do the same.
And though our lives are much different, our fears, our anxieties are different, than the
lives of the disciples in the year 33AD, the difference between fearful following and
courageous following then and now is pretty much the same. It’s not easy. But it’s what
we’re called to do.
And here’s what’s amazing about these very first encounters with Jesus. Jesus has spent
three years talking to the disciples, telling them outright sometimes, about what this
whole thing is all about. The way of the cross, suffering and death, where the real power
in the world is, and it’s not in the sword. He’s been telling them that he’ll have to suffer
and die. And after all that he has endured, Jesus is still, ever so gently, coming to them.
Meeting them where they are.
And what a comfort and a strength to know that even in stressful times, even dangerous
times, as they certainly were for the disciples, you can’t lock out grace. You can’t lock
out Jesus. Jesus appears before them, says, “Peace be with you,” and breathes on them
all.
That word “breathes” is the same word used in Genesis when God breathed into the form
of Adam. The same word used in Ezekiel that breathes life into the dry bones. 4 Jesus
breathes on them, and sends them out. And eventually, once they have wrapped their
heads around this new reality, they go out boldly.
May the same One who breathed life and strength and courage into the disciples, breathe
life and strength and courage into us this day, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

​