Year B
Acts 4:32-35
Psalm 133
1 John 1:1-2:2
John 20:19-31<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s the second Sunday of Easter\u2026 and Eastertide lasts until May 23\u2026 until Pentecost\u2026 so we have several more Sundays to reflect on the paschal mystery\u2026 on the death and resurrection of Jesus\u2026 we are invited to consider the expectation-shattering reality of life… victorious over death\u2026 and what it means to be a community shaped by these events\u2026 by this victory which takes many forms\u2026 and finds one expression in our reading from Acts\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s tempting to ignore it though\u2026 it’s tempting to turn our gaze away from its radical narrative\u2026 because from our perspective as twenty-first century American Christians\u2026 it’s difficult to believe\u2026 that no one claimed private ownership of any possessions\u2026 but everything they owned was held in common\u2026 and that there was not a needy person among them\u2026 because those who owned land or houses sold them\u2026 and the proceeds were distributed to each\u2026 as any had need<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s tempting to ignore\u2026\u00a0 because this group of people had organized themselves into a proto-communist community\u2026\u00a0 and we can’t believe that this practice applies to us\u2026\u00a0 I mean Exodus 21:7 gives me permission to sell my daughter into slavery\u2026\u00a0 but that doesn’t apply any more\u2026\u00a0 selling a child into slavery would be akin to trafficking\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 it’s an economic system that confronts almost all that we believe in\u2026\u00a0 but apparently\u2026\u00a0 those who had much sold what they had\u2026\u00a0 so that those who had little didn’t have too little\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it wasn’t only those described in Acts who engaged in this practice\u2026 Isaac Villegas\u2026 pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship\u2026 writes\u2026 when the early Anabaptists lived into this same Easter call\u2026 they were persecuted… Swiss authorities condemned their lives of faith\u2026 with threats of punishment\u2026 and a 1527 suppression decree from Zurich claimed that their economic practices were heretical\u2026 since they held\u2026 that no Christian may either give or receive interest or income on capital\u2026 and that all temporal goods are free and common\u2026 and everyone can have full property rights to them<\/em>\u2026 and then\u2026 less than fifty years later\u2026 the Church of England denounced Anabaptists for their Christian economics\u2026 and this is even recorded on p. 876 of the Book of Common Prayer\u2026 in Section 38 of the Articles of Religion\u2026 where it states\u2026 The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common\u2026 as touching the right, title, and possession of the same\u2026 as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast<\/em>\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some practical considerations when property is held in common\u2026 like who gets to use the yacht this weekend\u2026 but I think we can also see its underlying spirit\u2026 which is about sacrificial relationship\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gospel narrative takes place over two weeks\u2026 the first week\u2026 Thomas isn’t there\u2026 we don’t know where he’s gone\u2026 but apparently\u2026 fear didn’t keep him locked up with the other disciples\u2026 so he misses the chance to see Jesus\u2026 who gets in even thought the doors were locked\u2026 Thomas misses Jesus’ bestowing of peace\u2026 he misses out on Jesus breathing on him\u2026 he misses out on Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second week\u2026 Thomas was there\u2026 and I wonder what the others were doing all this time\u2026 but Thomas was there\u2026 and Jesus appeared again even though the doors were shut\u2026 the translation says shut even though it’s the same Greek word that previously was translated as locked\u2026 so whether the door was closed and locked or just closed\u2026 Jesus reappears\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now this time\u2026 Thomas says nothing\u2026 but somehow Jesus knows what Thomas said when Thomas was alone with the disciples\u2026 and Jesus invites Thomas to do what Thomas said it was going to take for him to believe\u2026 we might wonder whether… when Thomas wasn’t looking\u2026 someone whispered to Jesus what Thomas had said\u2026 or whether it’s more like the story earlier in John’s Gospel\u2026 when Jesus transcends the limits of the five senses\u2026 and says he saw Nathanael sitting under the fig tree before Philip came to get him\u2026 but either way\u2026 underlying their interaction\u2026 is great tenderness\u2026 Jesus knows what Thomas needs\u2026 and he offers it without even being asked\u2026 and it is in this moment of offering\u2026 in this moment of vulnerability and tenderness\u2026 that a profoundly deep connection is made\u2026 that community is made\u2026 Jesus has sold his lands and his houses\u2026 and he has laid the proceeds at Thomas’ feet\u2026 and without even doing what he said it was going to take\u2026 Thomas proclaims\u2026 My Lord and my God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Martin Billmeier writes\u2026\u00a0 the skeptic in the crowd offers the loftiest confession of Jesus found in the four gospels\u2026\u00a0 for a Jew to confess a human\u2026\u00a0 even a resurrected human\u2026\u00a0 as God is dicey stuff indeed\u2026 think of the first commandment with its insistence that Israel not represent God in wood or stone\u2026\u00a0 nor attempt to portray God at all\u2026 \u00a0 except through the Word about God in the Torah\u2026\u00a0 under the Law\u2026\u00a0 to call a human being God is punishable by death\u2026\u00a0 yet Thomas sees the face of God\u2026\u00a0 in the face of Jesus\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we say that we want\u2026 what Thomas wanted\u2026 to know resurrection for ourselves\u2026 to approach Jesus\u2026 to touch his wounds\u2026 or at least to see them\u2026 and Jesus is willing to comply\u2026 even without us asking\u2026 but I think far too often\u2026 it’s we who make Jesus unapproachable\u2026 untouchable\u2026 because to do so\u2026 is like approaching the Burning Bush\u2026 it’s like standing on holy ground\u2026 is like having God’s law written on our hearts\u2026 and when we come face to face with the Great I AM\u2026 with the Ground of Being\u2026 then our behavior must change\u2026 both individually and collectively\u2026 we have a God who is willing to give us what we need\u2026 but sometimes we sin\u2026 because we support systems which don’t allow us to give each other and God what they need…<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Greek word from which we get the word sin\u2026 is hamartia<\/em>\u2026 it means… missing the mark\u2026 missing God’s mark for us both individually and collectively\u2026 and for a God who is all about unity\u2026 we sin any time we break relationship\u2026 and we can break relationship by the things we do\u2026 like saying hurtful things to those we love\u2026 or by the things we fail to do\u2026 like apologizing when we realize the impact we’ve had\u2026 that’s why the Ten Commandments\u2026 and the Two Great Commandments\u2026 are such powerful guides\u2026 because they call us out every time we treat someone in a way that’s different than how we’d want to be treated\u2026 when we pass laws that disenfranchise the marginalized\u2026 when we have an abundance of life’s gifts and others can’t even earn a living wage\u2026 when we who have much have too much\u2026 and those who have little have too little\u2026 it’s in these circumstances that we perpetuate sin\u2026 and we can see that when we understand that today’s reading from Acts embodies the second of the Two Great commandments\u2026 You shall love your neighbor as yourself\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Good News is that Jesus is known by his wounds\u2026 the wounded Christ is risen\u2026 and the risen Christ is wounded\u2026 he is known because he bestows peace on the friends who abandoned him\u2026 he is known by the church as a whole which adopts Mary’s proclamation and says\u2026 We have seen the Lord\u2026 he is known because he grants the Holy Spirit\u2026 he is known because he gives them the keys to forgive sins\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Good News\u2026 is that in this self-emptying\u2026 vulnerable\u2026 non-judgmental way… the risen Christ will not leave us alone\u2026 he will keep coming to us… whether we are locked away in fear like the disciples were\u2026 or are locked away from COVID\u2026 or locked away in the prisons of our minds\u2026 or we can remind ourselves how we have been healed from our non-physical wounds in ways that gave us new life\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Christ mystery\u2026 located in this material and earthly world\u2026 is the only world we know\u2026 it is inseparable from own bodies\u2026 and inseparable from the world that God created and loves\u2026 how can we love ourselves and the world just as much\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year B Acts 4:32-35 Psalm 133 1 John 1:1-2:2 John 20:19-31 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 It’s the second Sunday of Easter\u2026 and Eastertide lasts until May 23\u2026 until Pentecost\u2026 so we have several more Sundays to reflect on the paschal mystery\u2026 on the death and resurrection of Jesus\u2026 we are invited to consider the expectation-shattering reality of life… victorious over death\u2026 and what it means to be a community shaped by these events\u2026 by this victory which takes many forms\u2026 and finds one expression in our reading from Acts\u2026 It’s tempting to ignore it though\u2026 it’s tempting to turn our gaze away from its radical narrative\u2026 because from our perspective as twenty-first century American Christians\u2026 it’s difficult to believe\u2026 that no one claimed private ownership of any possessions\u2026 but everything they owned was held in common\u2026 and that there was not a needy person among them\u2026 because those who owned land or houses sold them\u2026 and the proceeds were distributed to each\u2026 as any had need\u2026 It’s tempting to ignore\u2026\u00a0 because this group of people had organized themselves into a proto-communist community\u2026\u00a0 and we can’t believe that this practice applies to us\u2026\u00a0 I mean Exodus 21:7 gives me permission to sell my daughter into slavery\u2026\u00a0 but that doesn’t apply any more\u2026\u00a0 selling a child into slavery would be akin to trafficking\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 it’s an economic system that confronts almost all that we believe in\u2026\u00a0 but apparently\u2026\u00a0 those who had much sold what they had\u2026\u00a0 so that those who had little didn’t have too little\u2026 But it wasn’t only those described in Acts who engaged in this practice\u2026 Isaac Villegas\u2026 pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship\u2026 writes\u2026 when the early Anabaptists lived into this same Easter call\u2026 they were persecuted… Swiss authorities condemned their lives of faith\u2026 with threats of punishment\u2026 and a 1527 suppression decree from Zurich claimed that their economic practices were heretical\u2026 since they held\u2026 that no Christian may either give or receive interest or income on capital\u2026 and that all temporal goods are free and common\u2026 and everyone can have full property rights to them\u2026 and then\u2026 less than fifty years later\u2026 the Church of England denounced Anabaptists for their Christian economics\u2026 and this is even recorded on p. 876 of the Book of Common Prayer\u2026 in Section 38 of the Articles of Religion\u2026 where it states\u2026 The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common\u2026 as touching the right, title, and possession of the same\u2026 as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast\u2026 There are some practical considerations when property is held in common\u2026 like who gets to use the yacht this weekend\u2026 but I think we can also see its underlying spirit\u2026 which is about sacrificial relationship\u2026 The Gospel narrative takes place over two weeks\u2026 the first week\u2026 Thomas isn’t there\u2026 we don’t know where he’s gone\u2026 but apparently\u2026 fear didn’t keep him locked up with the other disciples\u2026 so he misses the chance to see Jesus\u2026 who gets in even thought the doors were locked\u2026 Thomas misses Jesus’ bestowing of peace\u2026 he misses out on Jesus breathing on him\u2026 he misses out on Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit\u2026 The second week\u2026 Thomas was there\u2026 and I wonder what the others were doing all this time\u2026 but Thomas was there\u2026 and Jesus appeared again even though the doors were shut\u2026 the translation says shut even though it’s the same Greek word that previously was translated as locked\u2026 so whether the door was closed and locked or just closed\u2026 Jesus reappears\u2026 Now this time\u2026 Thomas says nothing\u2026 but somehow Jesus knows what Thomas said when Thomas was alone with the disciples\u2026 and Jesus invites Thomas to do what Thomas said it was going to take for him to believe\u2026 we might wonder whether… when Thomas wasn’t looking\u2026 someone whispered to Jesus what Thomas had said\u2026 or whether it’s more like the story earlier in John’s Gospel\u2026 when Jesus transcends the limits of the five senses\u2026 and says he saw Nathanael sitting under the fig tree before Philip came to get him\u2026 but either way\u2026 underlying their interaction\u2026 is great tenderness\u2026 Jesus knows what Thomas needs\u2026 and he offers it without even being asked\u2026 and it is in this moment of offering\u2026 in this moment of vulnerability and tenderness\u2026 that a profoundly deep connection is made\u2026 that community is made\u2026 Jesus has sold his lands and his houses\u2026 and he has laid the proceeds at Thomas’ feet\u2026 and without even doing what he said it was going to take\u2026 Thomas proclaims\u2026 My Lord and my God\u2026 Pastor Martin Billmeier writes\u2026\u00a0 the skeptic in the crowd offers the loftiest confession of Jesus found in the four gospels\u2026\u00a0 for a Jew to confess a human\u2026\u00a0 even a resurrected human\u2026\u00a0 as God is dicey stuff indeed\u2026 think of the first commandment with its insistence that Israel not represent God in wood or stone\u2026\u00a0 nor attempt to portray God at all\u2026 \u00a0 except through the Word about God in the Torah\u2026\u00a0 under the Law\u2026\u00a0 to call a human being God is punishable by death\u2026\u00a0 yet Thomas sees the face of God\u2026\u00a0 in the face of Jesus\u2026\u00a0 And we say that we want\u2026 what Thomas wanted\u2026 to know resurrection for ourselves\u2026 to approach Jesus\u2026 to touch his wounds\u2026 or at least to see them\u2026 and Jesus is willing to comply\u2026 even without us asking\u2026 but I think far too often\u2026 it’s we who make Jesus unapproachable\u2026 untouchable\u2026 because to do so\u2026 is like approaching the Burning Bush\u2026 it’s like standing on holy ground\u2026 is like having God’s law written on our hearts\u2026 and when we come face to face with the Great I AM\u2026 with the Ground of Being\u2026 then our behavior must change\u2026 both individually and collectively\u2026 we have a God who is willing to give us what we need\u2026 but sometimes we sin\u2026 because we support systems which don’t allow us to give each other and God what they 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