Sunday, April 19, 2020 – Easter 2

April 21, 2020  

Easter 2 2020

John 20:19-31

Our Savior’s La Crosse

 

We know what it is like to be afraid.

We know what it is like to sit in a room, in a house, in an apartment—behind doors, afraid of what lives outside those doors.

We know how that fear feels, we know what that fear does to our hearts, we know what that fear does to our minds.

I imagine my mother alone in her house, seeing no one but my sister or her husband when one or the other of them drops off groceries.

Recently widowed, I don’t think she imagined her life alone would be so alone.

I know her doors are locked. Are yours?

We are told to wear masks and (in some situations) gloves when we leave our homes, when we leave our current sanctuaries. The masks and the gloves are another level of protection, a level of protection hard for some people to come by because of shortages that only raise our level of fear.

For those of you who are deemed “essential,” fears don’t go away when you walk outside your locked door. They escalate. How much protection is enough?

Every time we enter or leave a place that isn’t home we rub antiseptic wash on our hands. We return home and we wash our hands, and we wash our hands, and we wash our hands. We wash the clothes we wore outside. We leave our outside shoes at the door.

After Jesus died the disciples gathered behind locked doors because they were afraid. They didn’t do this once. They did this day after day after day.

And then Jesus came and stood among them (John 20:19).

And then Jesus came and he stood among them and said, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19).

And the disciples rejoiced (John 20:20).

We just heard the rest of the story. Many of us already knew the rest of the story. We read the rest of the story every year on the Sunday following Easter. Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus stood among the disciples for the first time following his resurrection. Thomas didn’t believe the story of Jesus visiting the disciples in their locked room when he was told. Thomas said he needed to see Jesus for himself to believe Jesus was there. So Jesus came to them all again in their locked room, Jesus came to them when Thomas was with them. Jesus invited Thomas to touch the wounds in Jesus’ hands, to put his hand in the wound in Jesus’ side. Thomas did those things. Then Jesus said “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (John 20:24-29).

Those people are us.

We have not seen. We have not seen and yet we have come to believe.

That is why we gather where we do, in our homes with our cellphones or our tablets or our personal computers in front of us, worshiping together. Because we have not seen and yet we have come to believe.

We are blessed.

You may be in your homes…

You may be in a room alone or with others…

You may be behind locked doors.

You are not alone.

You are blessed. Because you have come to believe you are not alone.

Pastor Becky read to us a reading from the letter we call First Peter. The letter is said to have been written by Peter but it probably wasn’t. It was most likely written long after Peter died by some other leader of the early church. The letter was written to the first generation of Christians—to those people who had never seen Jesus, but who believed in him.

The writer of the letter told those first generation Christians that they were more precious than gold, and that, though they were suffering various trials, though they were being tested by fire—that they shared an inheritance that is imperishable, they shared an inheritance that is undefiled, they shared an inheritance that is unfading—and that they were protected by the power of God! (1 Peter 1:3-9).

The writer of the letter reminded those first generation Christians that they were baptized. They were reminded that the gift of their baptism was the salvation of their souls because they had forever been cleansed and pardoned.

Most likely, you are baptized.

As a baptized child of Christ you share an inheritance that is imperishable. As a baptized child of Christ you share an inheritance that is undefiled. As a baptized child of Christ you share an inheritance that is unfading. After all these years, after generation after generation after generation of Christian believers—you are blessed. Just as the believers of every generation have been.

These blessings we receive result in “praise and glory and honor when Jesus is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).

Jesus comes to us this morning. Jesus comes to us here, in this sanctuary. Jesus comes to you there, in the sanctuary of your homes. Jesus comes to us as we remember our baptisms and give thanks! Jesus comes to us as we hear his Word and we believe. Jesus comes to us as we pray the prayers Jesus teaches us.

We may sit behind locked doors. There are moments we may feel afraid. But we cannot let our fear conquer us. We are not alone. We have each other. We have our God.

And so we write on our doors, on our driveways, on our hearts…

“I believe in the sun, even if it does not shine.

I believe in love, even if I do not feel it.

I believe in God, even if I do not see [God].”

 Because we believe, even in these moments, in this time, we are blessed. Amen.