The Rev. Kathi Johnson
Easter 3, Year B – 19 April 2015
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
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I’m going to be honest with you: it
has been a challenging week for me. Steve and I found out that some family
members are facing some serious health issues. We have friends who are actively
in crisis. We had multiple people in and out of our guest rooms this week. It
was a full week of ministry as the pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in
Grand Prairie, Texas. It has been a challenging week.
At the very beginning of this
challenging week, I was moving laundry from the washer to the dryer and I had a
thought: “Jesus is risen! …So what?” At that point of the week, doing something
as mundane as moving laundry from one machine to another, “Jesus is risen”
seemed to have very little meaning for me.
But as this challenging week began
to unfold for me a little bit more, the resurrection of Jesus began to take
hold of me, once again. I began to be grateful, again, for the resurrection of
Jesus, for we are people of the resurrection - we follow a risen Lord – and in his
resurrection, we find hope.
It is this resurrection hope that
sustains us when we are facing loved ones who are suffering. It is this
resurrection hope that sustains us when we are suffering ourselves, or when we
are weary. It is this resurrection hope that gives us hope to keep on going, to
keep on doing all of the things that we are called to do each day and every
day.
The disciples in today’s Gospel
lesson have also had a challenging week. As their challenging week unfolds,
Jesus is betrayed, arrested, put on trial, beaten, and crucified. His body is
buried. And then, his body is gone, and they don’t know how or where.
Then, little by little, they start
hearing stories. Stories of angels appearing at the tomb. Stories of Jesus
appearing in the garden near the tomb and on a roadway to Emmaus. And the
disciples are hidden away, and Jesus comes to them, and they are startled and
terrified, the text says – because they think that this must be a ghost.
Jesus reaches into their fear and
tells them to see and touch him – he is real – he is not a ghost. And, just to
prove it further, he asks for a little snack.
It is from the disciples at this
moment that we learn how – in the same moment – we can have joy, and we can
have doubt and wonder. And isn’t this how life often leaves us? We have joy,
but we also have doubt and wonder.
In our second lesson for today, the
writer of 1 John pleads with his readers to see how great is the love of God
for us: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God; and that is what we are!”[1]
Jesus is risen – so what? I am a
beloved child of God – that’s what.
Like the writer of 1 John, I plead
with you, too, to see what love God has given to us, that we should be called
children of God – for that is what we are. For all of our joy and doubt and
wonder, we are beloved children of God.
But this is not something that I
cling to, only for myself, like child clings to a toy and doesn’t let go. The
great love of God compels me to realize that I am not the only beloved child of
God – you are all beloved children of God and there are lots of people out
there who are also beloved children of God.
I wonder what would happen if each
of us began to think of other people as beloved children of God…? For that is
what they are.
Yes, our lives are full of the sin
of other people (to say nothing of our own sin, of course). But the love of God
compels me to see what love God has given to us, that we should be called
children of God. And “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”[2]
God didn’t wait for us to get our act together; Christ died for us while we
were still sinners.
If you look at the front cover of
your bulletin – under the name of the church – it says there that we are
“Growing in Faith, Hope, and Love.” We’re growing in our faith in God, growing
in faith that God does love us. As our faith increases, so does our hope. And
as Emily Dickinson wrote,
“Hope”
is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul –
And
sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all…
It doesn’t end there. It cannot
stop with our own faith and our own hope. The love of God compels us to love
others, to be witnesses. If we have seen what love God has given to us, that we
should be called children of God, we are then compelled to share that great
love.
“You are my witnesses,” Jesus says
to his disciples. And he says this to us, too.
Jesus is risen – so what? I am a
beloved child of God, you are beloved children of God, and they – out there –
they are beloved children of God. That’s what.
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