Sermon

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Reaction to the Resurrection

Often-times, many people witness the same event but have different reactions to it. For those who are hockey fans, last night our Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the New Jersey Devils. If you are a Lightning fan, you reaction to the game is undoubtedly positive. While if you are a Devils fan, there is a cause for concern. And if you don’t care at all about hockey, your reaction is, well, no reaction. And so an event that happened last night elicits different responses from different people.

The Resurrection of Christ, which we celebrated last Sunday, was no different. It elicited a different response from different people who were alive at the time. For the soldiers guarding the tomb, the response was to accept a bribe and tell a lie about what had happened to the body of Jesus (Matthew 28). For the women who were the first to arrive at the tomb early Sunday morning, the response was to flee from the tomb, both trembling and amazed, but saying nothing to anyone because they were afraid (Mark 16). Later Mary Magdalene saw the Risen Lord and she rejoiced and told the other disciples, who did not believe what she had said to them (Mark 16). We are told in the Gospel of Luke that Peter went to the tomb and found it empty and went home confused, wondering what had happened. We are also told about two other disciples who were walking to Emmaus that Sunday afternoon and who were discussing that they had heard also about the empty tomb but were skeptical. And finally in John’s Gospel, we are told that the disciples were gathered behind closed doors out of fear and Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and then they rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Thomas, however, was not with the disciples when Jesus came, and refused to believe until he had seen Jesus with his own eyes, and had seen the mark of the nails and placed his hand in His side.

So, as we can see, the reaction to the Resurrection varied, from accepting a bribe, fear, amazement, joy, confusion, and doubt.

One thing that each encounter had in common was that each elicited a response. Hopefully everyone in church this morning participated to at least some degree in the journey of Holy Week that was just completed last Sunday. And this journey has probably elicited varied responses in the members of this parish. For some there was renewal—I’ve heard from a lot of people this week who felt closer to God than they had in a long time last week. For many, there was joy—Lots of people have commented about how much they enjoyed the Holy Week services this year. For some, there was no response really—just another week on the calendar, another Easter come and gone, back into the real world and into the business of life this week. For some, there was undoubtedly some confusion—what did it all mean? Why the long services? For some there is sadness—we were in a special place a week ago, why couldn’t we stay there for awhile? And for many, if we’re honest about it, there is some doubt.

I’m not sure if it would be correct to say that doubt is a healthy part of one’s life as a Christian. Perhaps the more correct thing to say would be that doubt is something that probably creeps into each Christian life at some point. We see that people who were living at the time Christ walked the earth had doubts about events they were seeing with their own eyes. How much greater then are doubts about an event from which we are now almost 2,000 years removed.

Faith involves things that we trust but do not necessarily see. It involves things that we understand but don’t fully comprehend. And faith is the basis of what it means to be a Christian. Doubt is the enemy of faith, and the seed of doubt is planted in the human mind by the devil, because the last thing the devil wants is more committed Christians. So he plays on our human weaknesses and plants seeds of doubt in each of us.

How do we overcome doubt? The answer comes from the Apostle Thomas, whom we commemorate today in the Gospel reading. On the day of the Resurrection, the disciples, we are told were gathered behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” The Disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Thomas was not with the disciples during this encounter. Upon hearing the witness of the disciples, he still would not believe. Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered together. Thomas, this time, was with them. Jesus appeared to them and addressed Thomas specifically, “Do not be faithless but believing.” Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!”

One of the ways that our faith is built upon is through the witness of others. In this morning’s Gospel lesson, Thomas had the benefit of the witness of the other disciples. In our lifetime, we have the benefit of the witness of others as well—we have the witness of those who came before us—pious saints and martyrs for 2,000 years. We have the witness of holy people to this day. We have the witness of our fellow parishioners and friends who strive to live out a holy life.

But even the witness of others is not enough. There has to be some personal connection with the Lord. And this is done really by God’s grace, which is given to us when we ask for it. When we cry out, as we heard in the Gospel lesson a few weeks ago, about the father of a boy possessed by demons, “I believe Lord, help my unbelief!” One very important lesson we learn from St. Thomas is that after his initial encounter with the disciples who were overjoyed that they saw the Lord, Thomas was not overjoyed. Rather he was filled with doubt and stubborn in his lack of belief. But rather than leaving the company of the disciples, he stuck around. And eight days later, he too saw the Risen Christ. And so here is an important lesson during those times when we have doubts. Stick around, stay in the area, continue to pray for God’s grace and for God to reveal Himself to you in some way. Continue to look for God’s energies in prayer, in nature, in the goodness of others, in the goodness of yourself, and eventually the moment of doubt will pass and will be filled again with faith and confidence. The problem in our world is that people are not staying in the area, they are leaving the churches, they aren’t asking for God’s grace continually, they are getting discouraged if God doesn’t reveal Himself on the first try they make, that people don’t pray, they destroy God’s nature, we don’t look for goodness in others nor do we make sure that there is goodness in us. That’s why it’s not surprising that there is doubt about Christ in the world. Because it seems that a growing number of people do not have faith, even though who do are beginning to doubt, in large part because of the sheer numbers of those who don’t. If you are in a room with 100 people and 95 percent of them have faith and you don’t, you’re more likely to question why you don’t and seek to be like the 95 who have it. On the other side, if you are in a room with 100 people and 95 percent of them do not have faith, you’re more likely to wonder if your faith is really true or correct, just because of the overwhelming peer influence of those who don’t have faith. The solution, immerse yourself in Godly things and be around Godly people, and it is more likely that your faith will become stronger and stronger.

I wanted to just make a brief comment about one other thing that was part of this morning’s Gospel lesson, and that is the foundation of two sacraments in the Orthodox Church: Ordination and Confession. When Jesus says to His Disciples, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” this is establishing the sacrament of Ordination. Jesus sends people out into the world in the same way that the Father sent the Son—to seek and save the lost, to baptize all nations, to call all people to repentance. The priestly ministry of the church is meant to be an extension of Christ’s ministry on earth.

Secondly, when Jesus tells the disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained,” this establishes the sacrament of confession, where a priest is endowed with the grace of the Holy Spirit and granted the gift of discernment, so that when he listens to a confession, and listens to the wounded heart, he can decide whether the sin he is hearing should be loosed from the person confessing or whether it should be retained. That’s why for those who come to confession, that’s why I keep my eyes closed, because I am listening for the pain in the heart to see if the sins should be loosed, and usually, just by saying the sin, it brings relief to the person confessing so that the sin can be loosed, forgotten by God, and forgotten by the person confessing. Sometimes, the sin is a more grave sin, or the person confessing is not ready to be loosed of the sin, because they cannot forgive themselves. This is when penance is used, which means a project of some sort done to make a person ready to have that sin loosed. Penance is not used very often, by me anyway. However, for confession to work, it involves the contrition of the person confessing, the ability of God to forgive that person, and the ability of the person to forgive themselves and move on. The ability of God to forgive is never in question. But when a person’s contrition is not sufficient, or they are not able to forgive themselves, then the sin is retained until the time when both of those elements are present, and then the sin is loosed.

So as you can, even though there are now Traditions involved in the sacraments of Ordination and Confession, both sacraments are based in Scripture and come from this morning’s Gospel reading.

As I said last Sunday, the Resurrection of Christ demands a response. Love must be met with love, not with indifference. And faith must be met with faith. Look at the faith and trust that God put in the human race. He came to earth to save us believing that at least some of the people would believe and respond. It is time for us to reward God’s faith in us, by continuing to grow in our faith towards Him. Faith is a daily struggle, and it is supposed to be bolstered with weekly worship. That’s why on a Sunday when many people do not attend church, after all, we just finished Holy Week and Easter, it is a joy to share this liturgy with you this morning. For as I said last week, Easter should not be seen as an ending, but rather as a new beginning. And that is the response we should hope to make each year to the feast of the Resurrection. A new beginning, with new energy and renewed faith and hope in the glory of our God and the promise of His heavenly kingdom to those who believe. Amen.