The Second Sunday of Easter, April 7, 2013 -- Year C
Text: John 20:19-31 -- Tinh Huynh+
-----------------
In the Name of God: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
-----------------
When we left Vietnam in 1975,
my father did not.
He was 75 years old at that time,
and he was a retired pastor.
In those years, there was persecution of the Church in Vietnam.
In some places Christians were allowed to meet,
but pastors had to register with the local government,
and had to get permission to preach.
--------------------
My father was invited by a congregation to deliver a sermon on a Sunday morning,
and he preached without permission.
-------------------
The next day security called him in.
The officer asked him why he preached without permission.
My father said that he thought it was all right to
speak of God's love and salvation,
and that he believed that he did not do anything wrong.
----------------
I don't remember all the details of the conversation,
but, obviously, the communists let my father go
because of his age.
He was about 77 when that happened.
What the interrogator said to my father on that day
was quite interesting.
He said that he read the entire Bible,
and that of all the books in the Bible,
he found the Book of Revelation impossible to understand.
-----------------
How in the world
can a communist in South East Asia understand
the Book of Revelation?
How can he who reads the Bible,
in order to find fault with the faith
of those whom he persecutes,
understand the writing that
even the believers struggle to understand?
Believers simply believe what they believe,
and sometimes they don't need to understand it fully.
Perhaps,
the essential ingredient for understanding
is the encountering with the Christ
whom the book speaks about.
-----------------
The Book of Revelation was written in the first century,
most likely by the same author who wrote the Gospel of John.
It was about a dream,
in which the author saw himself at the heavenly court,
and the blessings of the faithful,
especially Christians who were persecuted under the Romans.
In the dream, the author also witnessed the final destruction of evil,
and the enthronement of the Lamb that was slain,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
------------------
The words of the Revelation passage that we read this morning are full of confidence:
"John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you
and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come...
to him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood,
and made us to be a kingdom,
priests serving his God and father...
Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him..."
--------------------
How could the early Christians and the author of the Book of Revelation
embrace the mystery of faith?
How could they proclaim that
"Christ has died,
Christ has risen,
and Christ will come again"?
--------------
How could they have such confidence?
You and I are in church today
proclaiming the presence and love of Christ,
whom we do not see.
We get together,
we sing praise of him,
we read stories about him,
and we pray to him.
In today's collect,
we said that a new covenant of reconciliation
was established,
in which we have been reborn
into the fellowship of Christ's Body,
and we wish that
in our lives we may show forth
what we profess by our faith.
How did we come to have this faith?
----------------
When we were young, faith was something we received.
We were brought to church and were taught about God and Jesus.
--------------
When we got a little older,
we might have become active in a community of faith,
perhaps in the youth group and mission trips,
or the yard sale and the feeding of the homeless.
We joined our peers in proclaiming what the Church believes.
Our faith was then affiliative.
--------------------
Then, later, when we faced issues that all adults face --
such as uncertainty and death --
we might start asking,
"Is this what I believe?"
This could begin a journey of seeking
until "owned faith" is found, which is
the moment when we could say, "This is what I believe."
----------------
The search may be endless.
It may last a life time.
If you always seek to understand first,
chances are that you will never come to believe.
Saint Anselm once said,
"I believe, in order that I may understand."
---------------
Does this mean blindly holding on to a set of beliefs?
---------------
Again, the essential ingredient for understanding
is the encountering with Christ.
The search, therefore, is not for understanding alone,
but for the Christ himself.
---------------
In the gospel story that we read this morning,
Thomas was surrounded by the other disciples
who said they had seen the risen Lord.
Thomas said that he would not believe unless he met him.
Deep in his heart, Thomas was an honest seeker.
He did not deny his disbelief.
He was still wondering about the mystery of Jesus.
He wanted to believe, and yet he
could not, because he had not yet seen the Lord.
----------
Remember that Jesus once said, "Seek and ye shall find"?
------------
Jesus appeared to Thomas
when Thomas was searching,
and when he was deeply hurt.
Jesus did not appear to Thomas when he was alone.
Jesus appeared to Thomas when he was with his friends.
Shall we say that an individual's claim of his or her encountering with Christ should be examined and affirmed by the community?
Anyhow, the encountering with Christ changed Thomas.
Later, according to church tradition,
he went as far as India
to preach the Gospel of Christ.
-------------
"Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have come to believe."
Those words are for us.
One may not be blessed merely because of blindly accepting a set of beliefs.
The blessing is in the encountering with Christ himself.
-------------
Are we not praying that Christ himself comes to us?
The meeting with the risen Lord always brings challenges.
It always calls for transformation.
The encountering with Christ always calls for spiritual growth.
The Lord does not want us to remain children for ever.
He wants us to become grown-ups,
to be mature and strong enough to put into practice
the beautiful things we say about our faith, our hope
and our love. (1)
-------------------
The collect for today reminds us
of the great challenge:
"Grant that all who have been reborn
into the fellowship of Christ's body
may show forth in their lives
what they profess by their faith." Amen.
____________
(1) Is there still a hidden anger or bitterness against someone that you cannot get rid of?