John 20. 19-31: Easter 2: 01 05 11
Blackburn Cathedral 9am & 10.30am HE
A week or two ago when I was speaking about
Stoke City, I was told that it seemed like the
beginnings of a sermon. The Potters have been
seen as simply a robust team, strong in defence
and set pieces. Yet now it’s realised that there is
more to them than that. Their manager Tony Pulis
has taken a number of players with a troubled or
unfulfilled past, and worked at wonderful
transformation. Of course, I’d like to celebrate a
first FA Cup Final win.
The Easter season is not only about celebration
of what God has done in raising Jesus Christ from;
it is also about the transformation of our lives.
The apostle Paul writing to Christians in Corinth
says,
“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory
of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are
being transformed into the same image from
one degree of glory to another.”
To the church in Rome he writes,
“Do not be conformed to this age, but be
transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
These are texts about the transformation of our
bodies and minds, and our life together, the
configuring of our lives to Christ, through his being
raised from death: they testifying to the life-giving
power of God in Christ].
Today’s Gospel reading is about transformation
[Yes, at the point of committal at graveside or
crematorium the priest says, “in sure and certain
hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our
Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our frail
body (in BCP ‘vile bodies’) into his glorious body.]”
Transformation through Christ’s resurrection is not
simply post-mortem or at the end of all things, but
in our lives and communities now.
The disciples are meeting behind closed doors for
fear of their Jewish opponents. We can imagine
that the room is hot and stuffy, and their minds
fearful and bewildered. Then Jesus appears before
them and says, “Peace (‘shalom’, the everyday
greeting, now filled with deeper meaning). He
shows them his hands and his side, and the
disciples rejoice when they see the Lord.
We have become so used to hearing of that story
of that first Easter transformation from fear to
joy. Yet our Gospel text presents us too with
opportunity of admitting own fears in the presence
of our Risen Lord who speaks his word of peace in
this Eucharist.
Jesus’ disciples are closed in on themselves, shut
up in a stuffy upper room. The Reformer, Martin
Luther spoke of sin as being the heart turned in on
itself. This can be true so easily not only of
individuals, but of communities and churches too,
not least in times of adversity.
How will further transformation take place?
Jesus again says to them, “Peace,” but adds this
time, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Here we see to his closest followers a clear mission
agenda. Their life will be renewed not only through
their celebration of the Risen Lord’s presence, but
also through their sharing in the mission of God, in
being sent ones, in going out. The transformation
of the heart and mind is no to be divorced from
the transformation of the world around us, even
the natural and built environment.
To people behind closed doors come the words,
“So I send you.” You could almost say that Jesus
believes that they need some fresh air.
As a sickly child I was given lots of medicine, but
one day Dr Talbot gave me a different prescription.
He said to my father, “take him up to the Cricket
Field – it’s the healthiest spot in the village.”
He knew for he lived near it. The colliery ground
was on the side of the valley, up above most of
the smoke and grime. Here I could take in fresh
air, and get my breath. Membership of the Cricket
Club from the age of eight played its part in God’s
work of healing transformation.
To make his point Jesus breathed on the disciples.
They were not yet ready to go out fearlessly; they
needed the breath of God, and Jesus said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The Spirit of life, through which Jesus was raised
from death, is God’s agent of transformation,
working God’s healing in our lives and
communities.
The ministry of reconciliation to which Jesus
commits his followers is through the power of his
risen presence. In the receiving of absolution and
forgiveness God’s transforming and renewing
of our lives takes place.
At times like Thomas we come with our doubts
too, and our questions, as part of our learning as
disciples. In the second part of the reading
Thomas turns from scepticism to worship.
This whole Gospel narrative tells how a bunch of
confused and fearful men and women are
transformed into a group of people willing to risk
their lives in testimony to Jesus crucified and
risen.
The Gospel of John was written with deliberate
transformational intent, as stated at the very
end of our reading – “that you may believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, and that believing you may
find resurrection life in him”.
Easter is a time for celebration, but it is also a
time to be open again to the transforming
presence of the Risen Christ in word and
sacrament, church and world, sacred space and
market place.
We are offered peace and the call to share in God’s
mission in the world. If we are open to our Lord’s
presence, we will find our lives transformed now
and beyond death, for he will renew our minds and
change our frail bodies into his glorious body, and
in the meantime we are invited to work together to
see our communities better reflecting the values of
God’s kingdom.