The Time is Fulfilled

Easter 2B; John 20:19-31; St. Paul’s, Smithfield, NC 4/28/2019

Jim Melnyk: “The Time is Fulfilled”

When it comes to faith there are four little words people utter that always give me pause. “No doubt about it.” Actually, those are the words. “No doubt about it.” Sometimes the Church can get so sure of itself that it treats doubt like a four-letter word – and those who doubt as people bordering on unbelief. And when we find ourselves doubting – well, we find all kinds of ways of chastising ourselves. Yet every year on the second Sunday of Easter we tell the story of Doubting Thomas – the disciple who wouldn’t accept his colleagues’ witness about the Risen Christ until he was given the opportunity to look upon, and touch, Christ’s nail-scarred hands and spear-torn side. And every time I get the chance to say a word regarding this passage from John’s Gospel I take the opportunity to remind us that Thomas didn’t ask for anything beyond what his colleagues had already experienced personally earlier that day.

            Tradition has labeled Thomas “Doubter,” but how is he any different from the others? Earlier in the morning Mary Magdalene meets the Risen Christ in the garden near his tomb. With great joy, according to John’s account, she becomes an Apostle to the Apostles, proclaiming Christ’s resurrection to those who had followed Jesus so faithfully. Their response – or rather, the response of everyone except Thomas – is to hide behind locked doors in fear of the leaders who had orchestrated the death of Jesus. For the disciples gathered that first evening, well, their doubt has been every bit as tangible as Thomas’ doubt – that is until they, like Mary, experience the Risen Christ for themselves as well.

            But that’s okay. Who among us, faced with the story of the Risen Christ, hasn’t wrestled with how such a thing can be? Who doesn’t wonder, at least from time-to-time, if the resurrection is more metaphor of faith than narration of historical reality? All too often we hide our doubts; perhaps being afraid that our doubts signal a lack of faith.

I’ve known folks over the years that swear to me they have never had a single doubt about their faith. In fact, I’m willing to bet there’s at least a little, if not a good bit, of Missouri Christian in all of us (you know Missouri – the “show me” state?). But that’s really not a bad thing! One of the first things we pray for folks who are newly baptized is for God to give them “an inquiring and discerning mind.” Our hearts are created to seek – created to question. We have always been, and always will be, a people who wrestle with God and with God’s call to us – just read the stories of our faith!

            Thomas isn’t such a terrible person – in fact, he’s been one of the most up-front, “let’s follow this Jesus even if it means death” kind of guy. Doubt isn’t such a terrible thing; rather it’s the very thing that causes us to engage the stories of our faith and our experiences of God. In fact, doubt can actually serve as an invitation into a deeper experience of faith. These are good things for us to know, but I think there’s more lurking in the shadows of this passage from John.

            If we take a moment and go back to the beginning of the earliest Gospel record – go back to the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel – we hear Jesus proclaim, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”[1] “The time is fulfilled.”

            It may be argued, I think, that the entire Gospel witness – the entire witness from all four Gospels – finds its impetus and its power – finds its challenge to us – in that simple phrase: “The time is fulfilled.”

            There is a sense of timeliness to the advent of Jesus – whether it be Matthew’s or Luke’s baby in Bethlehem,Mark’s young man coming out of a small town in Galilee to the baptismal waters of the Jordan River, or John’s Cosmic Christ – The Word Made Flesh and living among us. There is a purposeful sense to the timing of Jesus and his witness.

There is a time for Jesus to go about the towns and cities of Israel proclaiming the coming reign of God. There is a time for Jesus to challenge the powers that be. There is a time for Jesus to challenge the political and religious empires of his day – shaking their foundations, and helping both the powerful and the powerless envision the radical presence and purpose of the kingdom – or kindom – of God. Jesus’ willingness to stand in the midst of the empire’s armed encampment and proclaim good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom for those whom the world oppresses means that there is also a time for him to pay the ultimate price – his own life – as a witness to the power of self-giving love.

            And now, in an upper room, behind closed and locked doors, the time is fulfilled once again. It is time for those who struggled to understand the mission and message of Jesus as he walked the dusty roads of Jerusalem and Galilee – it is time for those who feared the reality of arrest and death – it is time for those who with fear and confusion heard Mary’s fantastic story of resurrection and new life – it is time for these followers of Jesus to become followers of the Risen Christ.

            It is time for them to experience the Shalom of God’s reign – which means so much more than our translation as “peace” conveys. It is time for them to experience the wholeness of God’s grace – it is a time to experience the wholeness of God’s presence – it is a time to experience the wholeness of God’s power to bring about a change of heart and a change in direction for a world broken by the power of sin.

With the advent of the Holy Spirit in the disciples’ lives – whether this first Easter evening according to John or at Pentecost according to Luke – it is a time to understand that the shalom of God is meant to bring about a kindom of forgiveness, a kindom of reconciliation, a kindom of healing, which are signs of the love of God incarnate in the lives of God’s people.

It is time for the followers of the Risen Christ to proclaim the shalom of God, calling the people of God to “go beyond the mind that they have”[2] – to think beyond the boundaries of their everyday thinking – to envision their lives, and the life of the world, with the eyes and the heart of God. To finally find a way to stop shooting up mosques, churches, and synagogues!

            The Risen Christ stands among us today in the power of the Holy Spirit and calls us each to new ways of thinking and acting in this world – to new ways of envisioning the coming of God’s reign in a world where the power of empire still seeks to hold the grace of God at bay.

Our calling as people of God is to be open to the power and grace of God’s reign – to challenge the powers-that-be to “go beyond the minds that they have” – to be open to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus – good news that lifts up the lowly, the hungry, and the oppressed, and scatters the proud in their conceit.

At the end of his ministry Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem and not look back. “The Church, the Body of Christ, is to set its face forward and not look back. We have a vision before us of radical inclusion,” writes Brother Mark Brown. “Even the bitterest enemies are reconciled in [the kindom of God.]”[3] Imagine that happening in the midst of all the division our world knows today! Now that would be going beyond the minds our culture has shown itself to have.

            The challenge we face in the coming days and weeks, and throughout the rest of our lives, is this: to go beyond the minds that we have, and to see this world with the mind of Christ – and to live socially, politically, and faithfully as best we can; not with the moral dogma of stridently opposing religious beliefs, but with the mind of Christ. Because as Mahatma Gandhi reminded everyone, “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”[4] “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near…. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”[5] Amen.

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[1] Mark 1:15

[2] Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week, p. 25

[3] Brother Mark Brown, SSJE, Brother Give Us a Word.

[4] Mahatma Gandhi, quoted in Synthesis Today, 4/23/2019.

[5] Mark 1:15 and John 20:29b

 

Easter Day; Year C -- April 21, 2019, St. Paul’s

Jim Melnyk: “Egg Shells and Easter”

It’s the late 19th century in the Ukrainian village of Dobromil – my grandparents’ home town. And, like today, it is Easter morning. The villagers have returned home from their late night/early morning worship. They break their Lenten fast by eating hard boiled eggs – the shells of which having been dyed bright red. These eggs are called kryshanky, and have long symbolized new life and resurrection for the Ukrainian people.

            As the Easter meal comes to an end the women of the village gather the broken shells from the kryshanky and walk to the stream which flows past the village. Singing songs of Resurrection joy and praise to God, the women toss the shells into the stream’s rushing waters. They toss the shells into the water and sing the same songs their mothers sang, and their mothers before them – a tradition that dates back centuries because of the stories that have been told in Ukraine for centuries.

            The stories they tell are of a gentle, kindly people who live in a distant place. They are mythical beings who live far away to the south of Ukraine, on the banks of a quiet river. The river is fed by all the streams of the whole world and is known as the “Saturday River” by some or as the “Sunday Waters” by others. The mysterious people who live there know little of our world, but tradition tells us that they, like us, are among the beloved by God. Their world is an innocent place, and the beings there know little of the challenges of our world.

The women in the Ukrainian village toss the bright red shells in the flowing waters. They trust the current will carry the shells away to that distant land bringing word that Easter has come – that the great Paschal Feast has once again been celebrated by God’s people throughout the world. Upon seeing the brightly colored egg shells drifting past their shores, the gentle ones in this far off land will know it is time for them to celebrate the Feast of New Life as well.

            We don’t live in such a distant, innocent land – in a place which remains hidden from the often hard realities of our world. But sometimes it seems as though we do live in a world which is increasingly losing the ability to mark the seasons – to remember and tell the stories – and to recognize and celebrate the power and promise of Resurrection Life which is offered to all of God’s people.

Our world surrounds us with glorious signs of springtime and the newness of life, and yet much of our world struggles on at the same time in fear and anxiety, brokenness and pain: self-centered and self-absorbed, unaware of each other’s suffering, and unaware of God’s promise of New Life in Christ. Some have never experienced the rising to new life which Easter celebrates.

Some have given away that promise – squandered or traded it away like true prodigal children. And some have had the hope of resurrection torn from their hearts by others – those who make choices at the expense of family, friend, or neighbor. And this morning we grieve for the more than 200 souls lost in the Easter Day bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, and for the many who are injured and afraid.

            We live in a world that desperately needs to hear the message of hope which springs forth with new power and new life in every generation. We live in a world desperately in need of transformation and changes. As God’s people we are called to remember, and to make present in our lives, the witness of God’s saving grace in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who is the Christ of God. And so, we tell the story once more...

            It is early morning after the Sabbath...the first day of the week is dawning. Mary Magdalene, her friends Joanna and Mary, along with several other women, approach the tomb to finish anointing the body of their friend and teacher, Jesus. In other accounts of the story the women wonder aloud who will roll the stone away for them so they can complete their task.

            To their amazement, the stone has already been rolled back...and Jesus is not there! Two young men, dressed in dazzling clothing, are suddenly beside them outside the tomb. His description, however sketchy, is reminiscent of Old Testament visions of angelic messengers. They ask, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” Don’t you remember what Jesus told you?

            Later, Mary and her friends will meet the risen Christ. Resurrection Reality will sing out with the morning star! And Mary’s life – and her friend’s lives– will be changed forever. Eventually even Peter and the men who followed Jesus will begin to understand this incredible moment – though for the life of me I still cannot understand Peter’s response – he just went home.

And yet despite the confusion of that first morning, the world will never be the same. The whole world is transformed by that one Resurrection moment. Life and yes, even death, are transformed by that one Resurrection moment. This is the power of God to make all things new seen once again in all its mystery – the love of God finding a new way to bring forth new life out of death – finding yet a new way to heal – a new way to restore – a new way to make the whole world new! Easter is God’s great “YES!” that drowns out the world’s most powerful “no!” Easter is the loving, liberating, and life-giving love of God breaking forth and giving this present age hope – our present age – the power to transform all of our todays.

            “The message of the Resurrection is that this present world – [this present time] – matters [to God]…the problems and pains of our world today matter; [The message of the Resurrection is] that the living God has made a decisive [claim] in this world through God’s healing and all-encompassing love; [the message of the Resurrection is that in the name of this great love of God,] all the injustices, and all the pains of this present world, must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice, [mercy,] life, and love have won the day!” (Synthesis)

            This is the story which must be told time and time again – in every generation – in every time and place. Our world will never stop hungering for the hope and promise of God’s Easter Grace. Despite the violence of this age, ours is a story of hope and consolation for those who are oppressed and in need of God’s love in their lives. It’s a beacon of light for those who have lost their way and cannot find their home in God. Ours is a story of incredible light – a light that is meant to shine in the hearts of all, and meant to mend whatever brokenness abides within us. It is comfort and it is strength even for those who know the story, but have forgotten how to tell the tale. And it is a story of challenge and transformation for those who oppress or cast aside their sisters and brothers, or for those who have simple lost the desire, or the ability, or the will, to believe in a God of compassion and grace.

            As the egg shells tossed in the village stream brought tidings of Easter joy to the gentle people at the ends of the earth’s waters, so we are to bring tidings of Resurrection Joy to the people whose lives we touch every day. We are the People of God who are called to tell the story – and to live the story – a people who are called to touch the lives of family, friend, and stranger, as living reminders of God’s great love for all people for all time. We are called, and given power, to be bearers of resurrection life – to help a world remember how to mark the seasons; to help a world turn from its brokenness and celebrate new life.

            We proclaim our faith in Christ on this most holy day, through the hearing of God’s Word, through the prayers, and in the breaking of bread. We gather at the holy table this morning and take into ourselves the body and blood of our risen Lord! We leave this place and go out into our homes, our schools, our work places, and our communities – each one of us a part of the body of Christ given for the world. Each of us celebrating the new life we continue to receive in Christ Jesus.

The risen Christ brands us with the story of God’s saving grace – burning it upon our hearts and tending that blaze deep within our souls. We are an Easter People, my friends. And because of that we have been called to live as a people who have been raised with Christ – people given the grace and love and power to be People of God.