READINGS

John 20:19-31

HOMILY

First a note on the first reading.

You probably have noticed from the Acts of the Apostles that it said: the whole community devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

This is all we believed were together and had all things in common.

They would sell their possessions day by day as they spent much time together in the Temple.

They broke bread at home.

I’d like to bring that out that rather than the breaking bread being what they were doing in the Temple and then the sharing the word being at home, it’s the other way around.

In other words, it is what we’re doing now.

The word comes from outside, the breaking of the bread…

We are hosting Jesus and discovering that he is, in fact, hosting us in a transformation in the midst of our domesticity.

So that is something that we are genuinely living through this time of the lockdown of 2020 and we can’t go out to the temple.

But we can undergo the arrival of our Host in the breaking of the bread.

I got that out of the way.

Let’s look at some John’s Gospel.

We get these two appearances of Jesus, each one week apart.

It is very clear why we have this reading on the second Sunday of Easter, because the first appearance was last Sunday evening – the initial appearance of Jesus in the upper room that was closed through fear of the Jews – and then a week later we have Jesus appearing in answer to Thomas.

I just like to bring something out of what’s going on here.

I want to put the first appearance, the last Sunday evening appearance, in the background a second, bring out what’s going on with Thomas.

Thomas is the other side of the diptych with Mary Magdalene.

Do you remember last week her first reaction was: they have taken him away and we don’t know where they have placed him.

First, she says that to the other disciples who of course haven’t got the faintest idea, then she says it to the two angels, and then finally she says it to the gardener.

The gardener of course is Jesus, is the first Adam, and turns around and says to her:

Mary.

And she recognizes who he is in his voice, and so she says:

Rabbuni!

He says:

don’t touch me, don’t grasp onto me. I’m going to my father and your father, I haven’t yet ascended to heaven.

So what’s very interesting is that her longing is being answered, her longing to know what they have done with him, where have they placed him, is being answered.

But it’s being answered in a way that’s actually a slight deviation from a straightforward answer.

He’s saying:

Yeah, I’m gonna show myself to you, but in a way you can’t grasp. 

Don’t grasp me yet, because I’m going to be so much more for you than what you could imagine if you would have grasped me.

I think that’s very very important first move on this part.

Who is the crucified risen Lord?

What does it look like for him to appear to us?

Well, the first thing is that it’s going to shake up all our stories of that which we can grasp.

It’s a new story that we’re beginning to discover ourselves on the inside of and we don’t know where it’s going.

Flash ahead a week and we get Thomas who last week had turned up after the party and refused to believe.

He said: I want evidence. He wants something firmer.

And please notice that this second time Jesus is doing to Thomas exactly what he did to Mary Magdalene, saying:

Yeah, I get what your notion of what you want is. 

You want something that you could recognize that you can deal with. 

That’s fine okay, I’m gonna give you the chance. 

But actually, it’s not going to be what you think.

So he shows him the marks of his hand and the marks of his side, and he invites Thomas to come up and put his fingers in the marks, and his hand on the side.

And I hope you will excuse me if I indulge in one of my favourite pieces of scriptural allusions here: the Ark of the Covenant was carried by staves that were stuck through rings that were called fingerholds.

And one of the things that this was done was to prevent people from touching its side which is where the Covenant was supposed to be, because that would be sacred and would kill them.

So here Jesus is actually inviting Thomas to come up to him, to stand in front of him and be a mirror image, which is why I think probably the word twin became the nickname.

Be my mirror, stand in front of me, touch my hands, touch my side. 

You are now going to be me. 

And you are going to be the bearer of the Ark of the Covenant.

Actually, it’s easier for those who haven’t seen me because the those who haven’t seen me I’m not an object that’s in the way of them becoming me.

In other words, Jesus is doing the same to Thomas as he’s doing to Mary.

Yeah, I really want to help you move on… 

I recognize, I affirm your longing for something that makes sense to you, but even the thing that apparently makes sense to you is actually going to take you off on an adventure of becoming yourself, that which you think I am. 

That’s why I gave myself to you. 

I ran the risk of you making of me what you are going to make of me. 

You are going to bear the Covenant, you are going to be the one. 

So those two wonderful moments, if you like, of personal generosity, those appearances to help us get out of fixed stories and into unending adventure.

And then, in the midst of the absolute central part, which was what happened last Sunday evening, which we didn’t get in our readings.

Jesus on Monday evening appears in the room that was locked “for fear of the Jews”… and that’s clearly an ironic way of referring to the Holy of Holies of the old temple, which any reasonable Jewish person would be frightened to go into, only the High Priest could do that, but this has become a secular thing now.

Reality has escaped the cultic world.

And here is Jesus in our midst showing them his hands and sides, breathing peace on.

It’s no longer a terrifying figure, there is no longer a mysterious and tremendous sacred.

Having breathed, having given peace to them, they start to rejoice. They recognize him.

Then he breathes into them.

Our translation says ‘breathed on’ but the Greek is ‘breated in’, because it’s the same verb, as the one in Genesis, where the Lord breathes into the nostrils of Adam to make him a new creation.

So here in fact Jesus’s breathing into their nostrils, and making them the creation.

This is the account of creation in the New Testament.

Then he is also saying to them that any sins you forgive are forgiven, and what you hold back are held back.

And of course, our first temptation is to think about that in a moralistic way: we are super pastors to forgive sins.

No, something vastly more important than that: he’s opening up creation.

He’s saying:

Listen, now because I have gone to where I’ve gone, you are going to open up the of creation. 

It’s going to be your responsibility, as far as you allow yourselves to be forgiven and forgive other people. 

You’re going to open things up, you’re gonna take us to new places, and you’ll get to discover who are you in ways that you never knew before. 

That’s gonna be the whole dimension of creation from now on. 

Not a frightened holding onto a collapsing order, but a daring move into a quite new story of who you’re becoming, how you’re learning to love, how you’re learning to become a new ‘we’ with other people.

And it’s gonna be entirely up to you as far as you did. 

As far as you don’t do it, it won’t happen. 

But you are now the ministers, the heirs, the firstborn of creation. 

Please, where are you going to take it?

For me, what’s so exciting about these Easter stories, they are not happy ending, if you like.

They’re really a very weird and tantalizing beginning. Where are you gonna take this, it’s gonna be up to you.

It’s not gonna fit into all stories, it’s going to become something entirely different.

Please take me with you.