"THE POWER OF RESURRECTION"

 ‘THE POWER OF RESURRECTION!”

Yesterday’s lectionary Gospel reading was from John 20:19-31, in which the Risen Jesus appears to the disciples on the day of resurrection.  He has already appeared to the disciple Mary Magdalene, and she has shared the great news that Jesus is risen from the dead.  The other disciples do not believe her, and in the reading from John, they are huddled in fear in a locked room, terrified that the religious leaders may come for them, as they did for Jesus.  The risen Jesus appears among them in that room, and they are amazed and full of joy.

Thomas the disciple, however, was not among them for that appearance.  When they tell Thomas that they have seen the Risen Jesus, he does not believe them.  Indeed, he tells them strongly and bluntly that unless he can put his fingers into the wounds on Jesus’ body, he will not believe.  He doesn’t feel the power of resurrection – he feels the power of death.

About a week later, Thomas is with the disciples when the Risen Jesus appears among them again.  Jesus seems to be appearing specifically to confront “Doubting Thomas” and to bring him along, so that he too will know the power of the Resurrection.  Thomas is convinced and responds, “My Lord and my God.”  Jesus is glad to have brought Thomas around, but he also adds some primary words for the rest of us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and who yet believe.” 

I grew up wondering about “Doubting Thomas,” but as I reached adulthood, I began to think of him as “Thank you, Thomas,” rather than “Doubting Thomas.”  I shifted because doubts have often filled my heart and my mind.  If Jesus is risen from the dead, why will 30,000 children die today of hunger around the world?  If Jesus is risen from the dead, why are the bombs still falling from the sky?  How can a mean narcissist like Trump be president of the USA?  Where is God in this crazy and scary world?  So, yes, I understand the doubts of Thomas very well, and I am grateful to the writer of John’s Gospel for including this story – it speaks to the doubts that all of us have. 

As I have written before, Caroline has helped me to understand the power of resurrection in this context of doubt and death.  When I was preparing for ordination exams in 1975, I asked her what she thought about the resurrection of Jesus.  She replied that she was not sure what happened to Jesus of Nazareth in the Resurrection, but that she understood the Resurrection as a doctrine that speaks to us not about what happens to us when we die, but rather what happens to us when we are living.  The power of Resurrection is that it calls to us to help us to find new life now, not in the afterlife.

In hearing this, I felt like the scales had fallen from my eyes, to borrow Paul’s description of his own coming to believe in the power of Resurrection.  I began to see that the power of Resurrection is not so much in our dying, as in our living.  I could begin to experience a new life in the midst of my captivity to racism, and I could begin to find some liberation in which I could see others not as enemies, but as sisters and brothers.  I could begin to experience a new life in relationship to the power of gender identity – women were daughters of God, not property of men.  The power of Resurrection is that the Risen Jesus is always appearing to us, asking us to have eyes to see and ears to hear about a new life, a new life based not in racism or sexism or materialism or militarism, but rather a life based in justice and mercy and equity.

In these Trumpian days, when we are being dragged back into the domination of the Army of the Patriarchy, we are asked to be on the lookout for the Risen Jesus appearing in our midst.  We are asked to open our hearts to the power of the Resurrection.  The Army of the Patriarchy does not define us – the Risen Jesus does.  The power to seek new life, to stand in resistance to the strong wave of white supremacy, the power of speaking up and acting out in solidarity with those on the margins  - these come from the Power of the Resurrection.  May we see it and believe and act on it in these perilous days.