Readings: John 20:19-31 and Acts 4:32-37
Why do people
like Mike Holmes? You know, the TV home
renovation guy.
He’s a good
guy. And he looks good. He’s got the image – from the crew-cut,
clean-cut physique to the overalls and workboots. And he knows what he’s doing. There’s no house so good he doesn’t find
something that could be better; and no house so bad, he can’t see its
potential. And he does the work
himself. Makes it personal. Gets his own hands dirty. He commits all he has to what needs to be
done, and suffers the injuries, scrapes and tired muscles that renovation requires. He cares.
And it’s not just
the homes of the well-heeled he cares about.
Beyond the bounds of his fairly affluent home-reno show, he also shows
up in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to help out the poor and destitute
who lost everything. And in Africa to
help create good homes and better lives for people there who have nothing. He cares not only about his own; he cares
about all the world – especially the world’s poorest and most needy.
As silly as it
may sound, he helps save the world one house and one home, one poor person and
one destitute family at a time. And that
resonates with something inside us. It
nourishes hope within us all.
And why do people
like Jimmy Carter? You know, the peanut
farmer who became a president.
He’s an honest
man. Open and openly compassionate. Taught Sunday school in a Baptist
church. And rather than being
holier-than-thou and impressed with his piety, he is open and honest about his
humanity, and his capacity for sin.
As president –
whether true or not, it’s easy to imagine Jimmy Carter as a president who
didn’t start any wars. Instead of
needing always to be strong, he was willing to risk his reputation and even
choose a position of weakness and vulnerability for his country, if it would
lead to a peaceful resolution of conflict, and a chance of peace for the world.
And he also gets personally
involved. He supports Habitat for
Humanity, and a few years ago in Winnipeg he fainted and fell at a Habitat
build while helping to construct a house for people who needed one. It was a scorching hot summer day, and
Carter, by then in his 80’s and hammering away, suffered heat exhaustion. So he lay down and rehydrated and rested, and
then the next day was back at work with the others. Because really what else is there of any real
value, than to spend your life – even give your life in love, for someone else’s
good?
He’s another one
whose hands are dirty – not from shady dealings in backroom or boardroom or
back-seat scandal, but from honest hard work, making some part of the world
good for others one step and one day at a time.
And we see something true, something truly human in him and through him
– something that helps and inspires us to be better at being human ourselves.
In the Gospel
reading this morning, when Thomas is told by the others that Jesus is risen and
they have seen him, he is too wise and experienced to believe them straight
out. He knows there are tricksters in
the world. Phony messiahs and too-good-to-be-true
wonder-workers. Smooth-talking snake-oil
salesmen ready and able to cash in on whatever people are hungry for at that
moment, feeding off whatever self-serving need or self-centred fear they are
feeling that day. And he’s not about to
sell his soul – or trade in the real and authentic Jesus for anyone like that,
no matter how shiny and bright they may seem, and what wonderful promise they
might be selling.
So he tells them
what he needs to see, and what they should have been wise enough to look for
themselves. He needs to see Jesus’ hands
– if they show the sign of the nails that pinned him to the pain of a cross
that he bore for others. And his side –
whether he still carries the wound of love that he suffered for others. Because the only one he is interested in
following from now on is the Jesus they all came to know along the way – the
Jesus who gets his hands dirty, lets himself be vulnerable and weak, and gives
his all for the world and for God one poor and needy person at a time.
And when it turns
out, the very next time the disciples gather, that this is who it is, imagine the
joy that Thomas and the others experience.
The deep peace that settles into his and the others’ hearts. The renewed purpose they feel in their lives
and their fellowship, as they let the continued and risen presence of Jesus sink
in to their tired and fragile souls.
And how can it not
change them? Not change us? Not change everything the world has ever
taught us about the meaning and purpose of life?
In their season
of Easter the disciples come to believe once again and more firmly than ever in
Jesus as true God and true man, true Blueprint of life and Future of the word; and
to see the way of Jesus – the way of self-giving love, of openness and
commitment to God and to neighbour, as the way of God in the world, the way the
world is saved, and the only way really to live.
And we see the kind
of life and fellowship that follows from their seeing and being open to the
risen Jesus. The Book of Acts is story
after story of how the disciples rise from the dead themselves. How they find courage to come out from behind
doors they have closed and locked, and out of their private, protected spaces. How they re-enter the world with purpose and
boldness, and turn the world upside down just by following the way of Jesus.
Through our season
of Easter we’ll be reading some of these stories – like the story today of how
the followers of Jesus begin to bring all they have and give it as an offering
for the common good. “The whole group of
those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private
ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in
common. They gave their testimony to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for
as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was
sold. They laid it at the apostles’
feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”
And why do they do this?
Is it because of their
personality? Are they just naturally
generous people, inclined to share all they have with others?
Is it their
politics? Have they read Marx or Mao –
or the first-century equivalent, and come to believe in some sort of socialist
state?
Is it their
religion? Has residual guilt at not
living the law of Moses and not giving more generously to God and to the poor
for so many years finally caught up to them, and been able to redeem them?
Or is it their
faith? Is it because they have been in
the presence of the risen Jesus, and been changed by the encounter? Come to see what real human life looks
like? Come to know the way of God in the
world? Come to embrace deep down in
their hearts the kind of love and kind of life that really does save the world
one need, one chance of sharing, one way of opening yourself to the call of God
at a time?
By living this way
of Jesus together, the first disciples become the church, draw others to them,
and change the world of their time. Not
because they are powerful or rich. But
because they give what they have for the common good. Offer what they are and what they have to God
and to the needs of others around them – one day, one month, one year, one life
at a time.
And any time the
church is strong, making a real difference for God in the world, this is part
of the picture.
What we have is
enough, and exactly what’s needed. The real and authentic tools of God for building
the kingdom and making over the world we live in, are the time, talent and treasure
we all offer together, and lay at God’s feet.
And it’s not a
dream or vain hope. Not a huckster’s
claim to bilk us of what we have. Not as
long as it’s the real and authentic Jesus we follow, and let ourselves be
inspired by.
And in the end,
isn’t it this – the way we live the life of Christ in our life, and bear the
marks of Jesus in our living, that makes us likeable? That draws others to us? That helps others believe? And that helps us, like Jesus, over and over
again to rise from the dead and bear witness to the power of God at work in the
world in our time?
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