Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
April 28, 2019 (Holy Humour Sunday)
Scripture: John 20:19-31
I want to invite you
to imagine yourself back to the time of the first Easter – the day when the
empty tomb was discovered. The first
disciples had moved through grief, confusion, fear, and wonder when they
discovered that the grave where Jesus’ body had been laid was empty.
They have been numbed
by grief, and stunned by the unexpected turn of events. And now they are hiding themselves away. All of the factors that were present in
Ancient Jerusalem before Jesus was crucified are still present have been
magnified. There is still the threat of
the Roman intolerance of dissent hanging over them. There are still mutterings of rebellion
blowing around them. But now all of this
is complicated by grief. All of this is
complicated by the fear of being discovered to be disciples of Jesus. Remember that Peter was so afraid of being
found to be a follower of Jesus that he denied knowing Jesus the night that he
was arrested.
And so with this fear
and threat hanging over them, and the unbelievable – literally beyond belief –
surprise of the empty tomb, it’s no wonder that the disciples had hidden
themselves away with fear. They have
locked themselves away for fear of being found, for fear of being discovered to
be followers of Jesus, for fear of what might happen to them next. They have locked themselves away, not quite
sure what their next step is to be.
Last Sunday I
mentioned that our story was a story of the empty tomb, not a story of the
resurrected Jesus. Well, this week the
resurrected Jesus finally makes an appearance.
Those disciples are hiding away behind locked doors, when all of a
sudden Jesus is standing among them. He
says, “Peace be with you.” He shows them
the wounds in his hands and in his side.
And it is only now that the disciples are able to shift to
rejoicing. Where there had been
uncertainty and fear, now there is only joy.
Not only is the tomb empty, but Jesus is alive, and Jesus is standing
among us.
As I was thinking
about Easter, and the resurrection, and this scripture passage, I came across
the same quote several times this week on FaceBook. You know, where someone takes an
inspirational quotation and puts in with either a beautiful or a dramatic
picture behind it. Anyways, this quote
read: “Resurrection means that the worst
thing is never the last thing,” and it is attributed to theologian and novelist
Frederick Buechner. “Resurrection means
that the worst thing is never the last thing.”
That seemed to fit
well with our scripture passage this week – after all, those disciples were
likely going through the very worst days of their lives, days filled with grief
and fear. But because of the resurrection,
the worst thing was not the last thing – there was still the resurrection to
come.
But I must be a
sceptic at heart; and I definitely never take anything I read on FaceBook at
face value (pun intended). Especially
when I see nice quotes attributed to famous people. So I started digging. Is it a real quote; and if it is, was it
written or said by Buechner?
Well, I discovered
that it is more of a paraphrase than a quote, and the actual quote from
Buechner, from his novel The Final Beast, reads:
“The
worst thing isn’t the last thing about the world. It’s the next to last thing. The last thing is the best. It’s the power from on high that comes down
into the world, that wells up from the rock-bottom worst of the world like a
hidden spring. Can you believe it? The last, best thing is the laughing deep in
the hearts of the saints, sometimes our hearts even. Yes.
You are terribly loved and forgiven.
Yes. You are healed. All is well.”
This actual message
goes far beyond the nice, inspirational, FaceBook-worthy quote. It says that not only is the worst thing not
the last thing, but that the best thing follows the worst thing, and that the
seeds of the best thing have already been planted. It says that joy, and even laughter are
already welling up and springing up even in the middle of tragedy and suffering
and despair. It says that healing and
love and forgiveness will follow, no matter how unlikely that may seem.
And that is what turns
our scripture reading about resurrection into a very appropriate reading for
today – Holy Humour Sunday. This is the
day when the disciples’ fear and bewilderment turns to joy and laughter. This is a day when we can sing and rejoice
because the risen Christ stands among us.
This is a day when we can laugh because death and suffering no longer
get to have the final word. The
resurrection is God’s great cosmic joke on the expected order of things.
This has been a
challenging week in many ways for our community and for our province. The river waters continued to rise through
much of the week, roads became flooded, water poured into basements for the
second year in a row, and an air of anxiety and uncertainty hung over things,
with the River Watch forecast changing from day to day. For many people, this week might have felt
like the worst thing.
And yet even in the
middle of the stress and anxieties of this week, those seeds of hope and joy
were planted and were welling up.
Volunteers from the community rallied and filled and delivered sandbags,
often to people that they didn’t know.
The military showed up and worked side-by-side with schoolchildren in
the sandpits across the province.
Individuals delivered sandwiches and baking to the volunteers, and
churches hosted meals to feed anyone who needed it. Love has been and continues to be shared with
neighbours wherever you turn.
And that fits with our
scripture story too, because Jesus doesn’t leave the disciples where he finds
them, hiding away behind locked doors.
He repeats to them, again, and again, “Peace be with you.” Jesus doesn’t want them to be afraid – Jesus
wants them to have peace in their hearts.
And Jesus breathes on them, and gives them the Holy Spirit, and sends
them out into the world with the Holy Spirit, God’s power of love, working in
them and leading them. And even when one
of the disciples, Thomas, laments that he was not present when Jesus appeared
the first time, Jesus re-appears so that all of them would be able to have
faith.
Jesus is alive, and
Jesus is among us. The seeds of joy that
were dormant in those times of stress and fear have sprouted to life, and the
laughter has swallowed up all of the shadows.
Peace be with you.
Receive the Holy
Spirit.
Now let us go into the
world, led by love and by laughter, so that God’s joy might reach to every corner.
May it be so.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment