"WHAT DO WE DO NOW?"

S E R M O N CNR1063

EASTER 2b Mosman Uniting Church, 15 Apr 2012, 9.30am

Ps 133; Jn 20:19-31; Ac 4:32-35; 1Jn 1:1 – 2:2.

John 20:19-31

1 WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

1.1 When the bottom falls out

“What do we do now?”

It’s what we say when we’ve unloaded the groceries from the car

only to have the bottom of the bag give way

so that the milk and eggs and God knows what

have splattered over our feet and all over the ground.

It’s what we say when the bottom has fallen out of our lives.

We stand glued to the spot bewildered and confused and blurt out,

“What do we do now?”

1.2 Hopes nailed

It’s what the first disciples, our spiritual forebears, said

when they huddled together on the evening of the first day of the week.

On that dreadful Friday we now call Good,

the bottom had fallen out of their lives with their leader, their Messiah,

being put to a cruel death.

Nailed with him were all their dreams and all their hopes.

The bottom had fallen out of even their self-respect.

They’d all turned their backs on him, one way or another,

when he most needed their support.

They were not happy campers inside.

“What do we do now?”

1.3 And then Jesus came (v19)

Furthermore, the body of Jesus had gone missing,

but Mary Magdalene had seen him risen.

They had met to try to make head or tail out of these strange events.

“What do we do now?”

It was then that Jesus appeared with the greeting, “Shalom!”.

John’s Gospel makes it sound as if he had never gone away in the first place.

2 JESUS APPEARS

2.1 Beginning again where he left off (Jn 20:19)

Jesus appears to begin again where they had left off.

Among his last words before he’d left them were

“Peace I leave with you.” (Jn 14:27)

His first words on his return were “Peace be with you!” (v19)

He had previously told them,

“I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you.

Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.

In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (Jn 14:18-20)

This is a good time for each of us

to revisit that section from John’s Gospel chapters 13 to 17

in the light of this delightful reunion that John has pictured for us.

It will make sense in what now happens.

2.2 Jesus risen within the first disciples (Jn 20:21-22)

John has Jesus return not for the fun of it but for a specific purpose.

Jesus repeats his greeting and adds,

“As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” (v21)

Immediately, he breathes on them and says,

“Receive the Holy Spirit” (v22)

Jesus has his first disciples begin where he left off.

The church is born with the spirit of Jesus Christ risen among them

and now not so much with them as before but now within them forever.

3 THE PATRON SAINT OF SCEPTICS

3.1 Thomas pipes up again (Jn 20:24-25)

John’s Gospel now brings Thomas back into play.

Thomas had already featured in John’s version

when he had claimed in ch 11 that he would go with Jesus to Bethany

and die with him there.

He had also faced Jesus with the assertion in ch 14

that he did not know the way.

I was born on St Thomas’ Feast Day,

so I think I am getting more like him as I grow older.

I’ve heard a lot of words in my 72 years

and not all of them have turned into action.

I like to see things happen not just talked about.

3.2 Those who have not seen

Most of you know this story about Thomas like the back of your hand

longer than I have.

Suffice to say that the punch line is John’s words for Jesus,

“Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe?” (v29)

The crunch for us is that these words are not just written for Thomas.

3.3 Believing through their word

John’s Gospel is written for the many people

who didn’t get the chance to see Jesus in the flesh

let alone risen with his marks in the hands, feet, and side.

Remember the great prayer Jesus uttered in ch 17?

“I do not pray for these only,

but also for those who believe in me through their word,

that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you,

that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17:20-21)

When this gospel was written, nearly all these first disciples

in that room were already dead well before their time.

John is writing to people who have had no opportunity to meet anyone

with this first experience.

3.4 Standing in the long queue of time

That’s why the Gospels are so appealing

because we ourselves are standing in the long queue of time.

The breath of the risen Christ transferring his spirit

has been passed on from that room to others,

and from those others down the generations,

right down to us where we sit right now.

Consider the risen Jesus Christ appearing amongst us now,

coming to us with the words,

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

What do we do now?

AMEN

“DEATH AND RESURRECTION EVENTS”

Easter is a time when we commemorate death and resurrection. The second part of this we like but going through the first is the challenge. Reflecting on our lives, we recall death and resurrection events.

I’ve been attached to various churches during my journey and they have undergone such events. I started Sunday School at Rose Park Methodist Sunday School, SA in 1944. Last time I heard it was a combined Uniting Church-Churches of Christ congregation. I returned to Eudunda where the Methodist Church (built in 1888) was my spiritual HQ. Recently, I heard the building was past safe use so the Uniting congregation now meets in the local Health Centre.

My next church was the big old Wallaroo Methodist Church from 1951-1952. After church union, the buildings of the old churches fell into disuse but somehow somewhere a Uniting congregation still meets, I believe. My middle high school years were spent at Tusmore Methodist Church. After I left, a new building was constructed but recently a number of Uniting congregations have formed a more central congregation.

To cut a long story short, I was confirmed in 1958 in the Bagot Road Methodist Church in Subiaco, WA. Several churches in the area combined years later, and a few years ago a Coffee Shop venture replaced the buildings. My first appointment in 1961 was Midland Junction Methodist Church with Greenmount further up the hill. The Midland venue in time became a car park for Woolworths while the wooden Greenmount building was eventually transported and the surviving congregations now meet together in the newer suburb of Swan View.

My first post-training place was Mullewa now an outstation of Geraldton, as is probably Mingenew whose brick fence outside the bee-infested wooden building was stronger than the building. Brookton/Beverley doesn’t have its own minister now. Regional resource ministry is alive and well in rural WA. My Gosnells congregation (1978-1982) later moved to the former Salvation Army property.

I re-visited Dubbo in February where I was one of 2 & 3/7 ministers from 1987-1989 working out of 3 buildings. Now it is down to one building with a regional minister working out of Wellington. There you are, death and resurrection of congregations within three States during my lifetime… and it is still going on as we travel on new and risky paths.

Most of us have come to North Ryde Community Church from previous places to pool our experiences and resources, remembering the death and resurrection events that have led us to this present moment. We follow Jesus who had the death and resurrection experience to outdo us all.

None of us know what the future will hold for us, individually or as a congregation, although as a congregation we are better placed than so many we know of. Years ago, I met a visitor who came from Salonika in Greece, formerly Thessalonica of New Testament fame. As I suspected he belonged to a church named St Paul’s (why should we not be surprised), probably one of the longest serving churches in existence.

We cannot strive to repeat that kind of history. Our churches are more mobile than we know. Faith has come to us from many lands through centuries of death and resurrection. First has come the death of Jesus and his resurrection through his first disciples who became the Body of the Risen Christ. These disciples died but the Spirit of Christ within and among them has been continuously resurrected throughout each generation from then to now, and hopefully continues to those coming after us.

The sun sets and it is night but it always rises again to begin a new morn.