Sermon held on the second Sunday of Easter 2015 @Trinity Lutheran Church.<\/p>\n
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, \u201cPeace be with you.\u201d When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, \u201cPeace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.\u201d And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, \u201cReceive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.\u201d Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, \u201cWe have seen the Lord.\u201d But he said to them, \u201cUnless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.\u201d Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, \u201cPeace be with you.\u201d Then he said to Thomas, \u201cPut your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.\u201d Thomas answered him, \u201cMy Lord and my God!\u201d Jesus said to him, \u201cHave you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.\u201d Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
\n(John 20,19-31<\/b>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSermon<\/b><\/p>\n
Dear Brothers and Sisters, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.<\/p>\n
In its history, church has started early to name the Sundays when it celebrated the resurrection of Christ. This Sunday today is bearing the cute-sounding name \u201cQuasimodo\u201d which is short for \u00a0\u201cQuasi modo geniti\u201d. This Latin expression can be translated with \u201clike newborn children\u201d. It comes from a verse from the bible, St. Peter writes: \u201cLike newborn children, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation\u201d. He is writing this to newly baptized Christians – to people who are at the beginnig of their way in Christian faith. \u201cLike newborn children\u201d, that sounds very cute, doesn\u2019t it? Probably most of us have a very parental view when they hear that: Tiny little babies who need care and who still need to drink a lot of milk to become bigger and bigger. Our parental (or grand-parental) instinct is triggered, so we probably like this verse. I am of an age where many of my friends are starting to have children. And of course, they all seem to be very happy parents. The smile of a baby pays off for a dozen dirty diapers. So, that is the parental view on babies.<\/p>\n
But we should not forget to think about the newborn baby\u2019s view. The moment you are born is one of the most stressful moments of your whole life. Just imagine that! You are forced out of the warmth and the darkness and the coziness and the safety and the softness of your mother\u2019s womb into the cold and the hardness and the blinding light of the world. It\u2019s about a hundred times worse than getting up early in the morning and not having any coffee.<\/p>\n
Quasimodogeniti – like newborn children. Being newly born is a common image in the new testament to describe the beginning of your faith in Jesus. Do you remember the story of Nicodemus? He was a pharisee who visited Jesus in the middle of the night to talk with him in secret. At one point Jesus says: \u201cVery truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.\u201d Nicodemus asks in return: \u201cHow can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother\u2019s womb to be born!\u201d – Right Nicodemus, they can\u2019t. But that not only applies for old people: even a newborn child couldn\u2019t do that. No matter how much it would like to. Being born is irreversible!<\/p>\n
Nowadays Christians like to think about Easter as a victorious story. Death has been defeated by Jesus Christ – that is in fact the story of the greatest victory which any living being could think of. But when you look at the story of today\u2019s gospel, do you see the disciples celebrating? No, you don\u2019t! They have locked themselves up in a room because they are afraid of the Jews. You can easily replace the word \u201cJews\u201d with \u201cthe outside world\u201d. They shut out the outside world and want to be among themselves because they are so afraid of the world. The outside world has rejected Jesus and is still rejecting him and all of those who follow him. They have seen the empty grave and they have heard the witness of the women – but that did not make them brave. It made them afraid and confused.<\/p>\n
They have seen Jesus die and they have heard the eyewitnesses of his resurrection. But do they go out to proclaim the good news? Do they believe now what Jesus has been preaching to them during their fellowship? No, they lock themselves up. They have seen the new earth, a new reality enter the old reality. They have become part of the new reality by witnessing it, by following Jesus during his life time. They are reborn. But by locking themselves in, they try to return into the coziness and warmth and safety of their old world with which they are familiar. They want to go back into their mother\u2019s womb because they fear the new world they have just entered: where Jesus is risen, where death has lost its power.<\/p>\n
Only three days ago many people in the world remembered the 70th anniversary of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. To most people he is known as a brave man who stood up against the Nazi regime in Germany. He was involved in the assassination assault on Hitler which took place on July 20th 1944. It was his task to set up international contacts to support the planned new German government which should have been implemented after Hitler\u2019s death. The Nazis murdered Bonhoeffer on April 9th in 1945. But Bonhoeffer was not only a brave man who was killed for his firm convictions. He also was a remarkable theologian. I encountered Bonhoeffer\u2019s writings during my studies and he became a theological role model for me.<\/p>\n
In the 1930s he fought in the so-called \u201cconfessional church\u201d against the church party of the \u201cGerman Christians\u201d who were loyal to Hitler. They had already overtaken a huge part of the German Evangelical Church. Representatives of the German Christians held the majority in most of the synods. Bonhoeffer and the confessional church were in a very similar situation as the disciples in today\u2019s gospel. They were persecuted and they had all reason to be afraid of the leaders of the main church. They suffered from oppression and were forbidden to preach the gospel if it was directed against the regime. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in charge of the training of the vicars of the confessional church, even after the training had become illegal.<\/p>\n
His preaching and writing had one main objective: those who belong to the church are supposed to get up and to go out and to witness the true gospel among the people of their country. But many were too afraid to follow his advice to leave their relative security. Many – even in the confessional church – preferred to stay quiet, preferred to be moderate, they did not see the danger they were in and the necessity to be the salty salt of the earth and the visible light of the world. Bonhoeffer wanted people to \u201cdare\u201d their faith. They should dare to live their Christianity. They should learn to let their fear of the world be overcome by their trust in Jesus Christ. He writes: \u201cI believe that God will give us in each state of emergency as much power of resistance as we need. But he will not give in advance, so that we do not rely on ourselves but on him alone. Through such faith all anxiety concerning the future should be overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his times living your faith in Germany could mean to be an outsider, to be oppressed, to be mocked, to be persecuted, to be put into jail. Doesn\u2019t this also remind you of the situation of many Christians in today\u2019s world? Bonhoeffer and many of his friends had experienced that. Bonhoeffer finally even suffered death. With his life he had witnessed his faith and had become a martyr.<\/p>\n
Quasimodogeniti – like newborn children: not small, sweet and cute. But terrified, anxious about the new reality they have entered by just listening to and trusting in what we call the \u201cgood news\u201d. Desperate to return into their old world, into their mother\u2019s womb because of the cruelty and the unfaithfulness and the dangers of the outside world. This is how the disciples feel when they lock themselves up in their room.<\/p>\n
The gospel continues. We know that they didn\u2019t stay in their room but went out at some point and started to spread the final word of God. Otherwise we would not be gathered here this morning. What made them? What was that point? The outside world could not enter their room, they had shut it out. Just one was able to enter their closed function and drive them out of their secure cave: Jesus, the risen one.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t do much but two things. The first one is: He sends them out! Out they are sent. Out of that room where they desperately try to fence off their new reality so that it doesn\u2019t alert the outside people. Out into the world that had crucified their friend, brother and Lord Jesus. Out into the deadly and dangerous world where they are going to be rejected and persecuted.<\/p>\n
But Jesus doesn\u2019t send them unprepared. He does a second thing: He gives them the holy spirit and by doing that the power to forgive or to withhold sins. Can you imagine what a power that is? Even Superman didn\u2019t have such a power. He could fly and was strong and had that x-ray-view and everything \u2026 but to forgive or to withhold sins? Never. The forgiveness of sins makes it possible to live in the presence of God. What a power and responsibility it is to be a bearer of this power! And how many people have abused it during the history of church, claiming that they were speaking in the name of Jesus? Please don\u2019t abuse that power. In the bible none of the apostles ever curse anyone so that their sins were withheld – even when they are stoned to death. So you shouldn\u2019t ever try that for anything less.<\/p>\n
Finally, there is one apostle, Thomas, who had bad luck and missed the first visit of Jesus. Can you imagine what it must have been like for him? Maybe he had just been sent out for \u2026 I don\u2019t know \u2026 grocery shopping to the market. And when he came back everyone boasted at him about having seen Jesus. Poor boy, that must have been really annoying.<\/p>\n
By the way, did you smell the corpse flower at the Muttart Conservatory last week? I got there a bit late on Wednesday, so they would not let me in anymore. I felt a little bit like Thomas might have felt. Now I have to look for some other corpse flower that is about to bloom somewhere in the world. I hope that wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime-chance.<\/p>\n
Thomas was luckier than me. He only had to wait for eight days to get his second chance. And although everyone from the disciples had seen Jesus and had told him in the meantime about the encounter, he still would not believe them. He insisted that he would not believe in the resurrection just until he had put his hands into Jesus\u2019 wounds. So finally Jesus grantet him this opportunity, but not without one smart remark which is in fact directed to us today. He says: \u201cHave you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okay, now we are supposed to believe in Jesus, although even Thomas could not believe? Yes, we are. We are supposed to leave the walls of our church – after the service (and return next Sunday) -, walk out of our locked rooms of fear and live life in the joy of the resurrection? Yes, that\u2019s right. So, we shall not be embarrassed or afraid of not fitting into the old world as we pass on the good news – new<\/b>-s (still new after 2000 years) – of the new reality in Christ? Even though we remember people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who suffered and died by doing that just 70 years ago? Yes, that\u2019s right again.<\/p>\n
Quasimodogeniti – like newborn children. We become newborns by trusting the witness of those who have seen Jesus and have passed on what they had seen. Luckily, some of them have written it down, so we can find their testimony in the bible. Reading and hearing their witness is now our way to lay our fingers into the wounds of Jesus. Or as John states it: \u201cNow Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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