A Reflection on II Easter All Saints’ Church,
Southern Shores, N.C.
April 7, 2013 Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
“Alleluia, Christ is Risen!” “Christ is Risen
Indeed. Alleluia!”
Today is the second Sunday of Easter, or what is
sometimes called “Thomas Sunday”, so named because of the Gospel story for today
about St. Thomas. I call this Sunday and the Sunday after Christmas “So what?
Sundays”. We have had a big celebration and now that all the decorations are
put away - “So what?” What difference
does it make in our lives?
Last Monday, as a member of the local Ministerial
Association, it was my turn to deliver a prayer at the beginning of the Board
of County Commissioners Meeting. My task
is to look over the agenda and in prayer ask for guidance on the issues
reflected - prayers for being faithful stewards of the environment on this
fragile ecosystem of the Outer Banks, for the avoidance of the traps of greed
and exploitation, for the honoring of the work of people who work for us in our
local government, for the care for our children and families. But I was struck with one item especially -
the Proclamation of Child Abuse Prevention Month.
I remember when the issue of Child Abuse changed the
way I looked at the world. I had graduated from college at the age of 21, and
my first job was counseling with high school drop-outs aged 16-22. Some of the
“kids” I was counseling were older than I was, but it was a job and I did well
in it, and I could go home after the job and the job had nothing to do with the
way I lived my life. Most of these kids lived in very poor neighborhoods and
most faced racial discrimination, and I lived in a nice little house on
Wrightsville Beach. After a couple years I got offered another job working with
the Juvenile Court and with abuse and neglect cases.
Child Abuse is created by three factors - #1, the
abuser, a person who is isolated and cannot use other people; #2, the child, a
child who is different or thought of as different; and #3, stress. I thought
that what I was going to do was rescue children from monsters, but what I found
was that I was working with real people overwhelmed with life. I realized that
the only things that separated me from them was the amount of stress I was
under and the fact that I was meaningfully connected to others. When my
daughter was born and she was teething and I was up half the night walking with
her and trying to comfort her, and I was just overwhelmed at how much baby
stuff cost, there were moments when I started to understand what it is like to
walk in their shoes. I started to understand that a response to stress and
isolation is fear and that fear causes people not to be monsters but to do
monstrous things. The world changed and I changed with it.
The Gospel story for today is about how the
disciples changed as the world they lived in changed. Before the Resurrection
they saw the world as locked in battle between the forces of Good versus Evil.
They saw the death of Jesus as the defeat that put them out of the battle, and
they felt isolated and alone. The other
side, the corrupt political and religious establishment, just seemed to have so
much power and, if the disciples stayed in the battle, they would all follow
Jesus into defeat in death and lose everything. However, when Jesus returns,
they know that they are not alone and recognize death as not the end but a door
through which to go. They no longer were able to see their opponents as “evil”
who must be destroyed, but as ordinary people who were terrified, who had fear
at the center of their hearts. The disciples understood that Jesus’ ministry
was not about hating and punishing the enemy but about making oneself
vulnerable so as to begin healing. Jesus greets them with the Peace of God which
drives fear out of their hearts, and he breathes on them God’s Spirit to connect
them to the power greater than themselves, sharing with them the strength not
to be overcome with their own fear.
Thomas has his “so what” moment the next week. He is
filled with sorrow at the loss of his mentor Jesus and thinks the other
disciples are undergoing a delusion. In order for him to believe he says he
must put the fingers in the wounds of Jesus’ hand and to place his hand in
Jesus side. Thomas wasn’t to wallow in sadness and anger over the wounds of
Jesus, harboring hatred toward those who caused those wounds. Jesus appears and
invites Thomas to touch the brokenness of the world, to enter into and
participate in the wounds inflicted out of fear. For Thomas the experience of
“belief” is not a mental abstraction but is about changing his understanding of
the world and what that has to do with the healing of his fear. Belief is not
what he thinks but how he lives his life and in whom he places his trust.
It is that healing which we see in today’s lesson
from the book of Acts. Here the disciples are hauled into court before the
council. The council members puff themselves up and act for all the world like
the character in the Wizard of Oz who
thinks that displays of power will threaten them and command fear. Peter and the apostles, knowing there is only
a fearful person behind the curtain, respond in essence, “Let us tell you “so
what”! You are not evil monsters but puny humans ruled by fear. What is the
worst you can do - kill us? We have seen how effective that has been.” They
say, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”
They do not respond to
fear with fear but with the strength of knowing that God’s Spirit gives all of
us the power no longer to be ruled by fear. Their enemies are only scared human
beings, prancing around like they are in charge. Yet the apostles know who is
ultimately in charge, and in that power greater than themselves they put their
trust. To obey God is not to respond in fear but to share the love which had
been given to them by God.
We see how this strength is passed on to further
generations in the section of the Book of Revelation for today where the peace
of God’s spirit is shared so that the churches need not be ruled by fear.
Before the Jesus experience, the people think that they have to earn God’s love
by doing good deeds. However, God loves us first when we respond freely out of
that love by giving it away.
Today at the 10:30 service we commission Gary Kimmel
and David Feyrer for their mission trip to our sister Diocese of the Dominican
Republic. They will do many things there like painting and building and will
tell you about them during the sermon time at a later Sunday, but the most
important things they will do is to help break down the isolation between our
two dioceses and to share the love and Peace of the Lord which passes all
understanding.
“Alleluia, Christ is Risen!” If Christ is not Risen
inside us and how we live in sharing love, than indeed, “so what.” But, let me
tell you so what; “Christ is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!”
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