Year B
John 20:19-31
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Easter People
Welcome to the Second Sunday in the Easter Season, commonly referred to by many as Low Sunday and Doubters Sunday. Did you know, though, that the name given to this Sunday, Low Sunday has really nothing to do with the fact that attendance typically is sparse on the Sunday after Easter? In reality, it has to do with the fact that this Sunday falls within the eight days after the great Easter festival making it the lower of the two Sunday’s. There is no doubt though that the crowds gathered on Low Sunday are often smaller and reminiscent, perhaps, of the disciples huddled in the upstairs room after the crucifixion and no longer bolstered by the throngs of Palm Sunday.
Yet, on this Sunday after Easter the faithful still join together to worship, to share their gifts, to serve and to be in fellowship with one another in Christ’s name and to learn how to live into the reality of the resurrection. For the next fifty days, until Pentecost, the church does just that. It lives into the reality of the resurrection, of what it means to be a community shaped by the dying and rising of Christ, by the shattering reality of life victorious over death. The paschal mystery, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the centerpiece of our Christian faith and should be a reality that we live into not only in the Easter season but every day of our lives.
In 1972, Richard Avery, a Presbyterian pastor, and Don Marsh a songwriter wrote a song titled, “Every Morning Is Easter Morning From Now On.” The song suggests that every day is resurrection day, and that the people of God are called to be an Easter people who proclaim with their lips and with their lives that the living Jesus Christ has transformed their relationships. They are to be a new creation which meets each new day in the power of the risen Lord. Resurrection is more than an event in the long ago and far away; it becomes a present experience in the heart of the believer that transforms all of life!
The lessons for today provide us with an opportunity to describe in very practical terms what the new life in Christ should be like. The reading from the Acts of the Apostles sets the tone for our theme. The resurrection has become the new reality in all of its glory and mystery, and Luke is now focused on the emergence of the early church. If you have ever taken a class in communication you would have learned the importance of body language — those gestures, postures, and facial expressions send a message that is even stronger than the words we speak. The reading in Acts gives us a glimpse of the body language of the first Christian community. Those Easter people have been touched by a source of power that has transformed their relationships with God, with one another, and with the world around them.
They are a spirit-filled body who demonstrate by the quality of their life together that they are continuing the same ministry Jesus began in his earthly life. From them, we learn that Easter people share a common loyalty to Jesus Christ that unifies them into one community of faith. That community expresses the love of Christ by sharing everything they own with all who were in need, which then drew others into its fellowship because everyone could see the power of God at work in their lives. According to Luke, who wrote the Gospel and the book of Acts, the most dramatic sign of resurrection power is a community where “there is not a needy person among them.” The church through the centuries has always strived to be a resurrection community that reaches out to all who are in need and we do a pretty good job of helping, but we are still a work in progress.
The writer of the first letter of John, believed to be John the apostle, using the images of light and darkness, describes what it means as Easter people in practical terms to “Walk in the Light.” God is the Light we need for our journey through life. The light and God’s truth is the road in which Easter people are to walk. The Light of God exposes the darkness in which we have lived, but we discover that our companion on the road is none other than the source of the Light. We discover that God is on the side of truth and openness. To walk in the Light does not mean that a human being is sinless or flawless, but John insists that Christ’s costly sacrifice, the cross, has opened up the possibility of a relationship with God and with others in a whole new way. We receive and give the forgiveness of the risen Lord.
The gospel reading provides us with yet another window into the life of God’s Easter people. John’s account of the appearance of Christ to Thomas is more than just another resurrection story; it was meant to be the climactic conclusion to the entire gospel. Of all the people Jesus meets in the post-resurrection world of John’s Gospel, none has left a stronger mark on Christianity than Thomas. We discover through Thomas that even Easter people experience doubts, but that our doubts can play a positive role in the journey of faith. John broadens our understanding of Easter by insisting that doubts can lead to an even deeper faith in the living Christ. Thomas’ ultimate confession becomes the highest and most mature form of belief in Christ.
The real power and Easter miracle of the gospel today is that it is a story about God’s coming to us, wherever we might be. When doubt crowds out hope, we can be confident that Jesus will come to meet us where we are. Just as he did again and again to those scared and confused disciples. The disciples did not warrant a second visit, the first should have been enough to expel their fear, but they get one, and a renewed gift of Christ’s peace. Thomas is given exactly what he needed-a chance to see and touch the risen Lord for himself. The whole point of this story is Jesus’ offer of himself, over and over again, to people who long to see him. With no questions asked the risen Jesus offers himself and gives the repeated gift of his presence and peace.
Neither Thomas nor the group of disciples is unusual for being afraid, wanting more, needing more. The Easter gospel turns the world upside down, but we live out our days in right-side up realities. This is why it is so important that we hear again each year about Thomas and the disciples and how they went from hiding behind closed doors to living out the Easter reality as God’s Easter People. Because Easter is real, not simply in the celebrations of Easter Sunday, but as it unfolds in the lives and stories of disciples through the generations who in words and deeds show that Easter is real. We weren’t there for the first Easter—only a handful were but we continue to have, those moments when the presence of the risen Christ is made known to us; so like Thomas, as God’s Easter people we will be able to say: “My Lord and my God!”
What this says about Faith is that when God comes in those moments we will recognize God’s presence when peace is offered, when life’s most brutal violence is honestly acknowledged, and when, in the midst of this bracing honesty, we realize we are not alone but have, in fact, been always, already found. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Blessed are those Low Sunday, Doubter Easter people who walk in light and truth for He is risen! Alleluia! He is risen indeed and lives in you and me. “Every Morning Is Easter Morning From Now On”.