Lectionary Readings for Sunday, March 30, 2008

Lectionary Readings for Sunday, March 30, 2008
Second Sunday in Easter

Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Psalm 16
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

Life has a language.
And Scripture has a word for us.

No matter what the Scripture, or what the season, when we turn to the Word we can't help but find life on all sides. We will find stories of connection, and with them the heart-breaking stories of disconnection. We will find stories of hope, and along side them stories of despair that tried, but then failed to claim the day. We will find the creation, and the recreation, of a new day that orders the chaos of night. We will learn how others responded to their call, and wonder how their experience might inform our own experience. At the end of the Bible study, and at the end of the sermon, we will inevitably count our blessings.

It is almost a cliché to say Scripture is a word of life. An exegetical approach to Scripture asks us to unpack the cliché. What does the word say? How is life speaking? How is the Word formative? To say there are many approaches to these problems would be an understatement. Are we using the tools of rhetorical criticism so beautifully honed by Phyllis Trible? Are we to lift the lens of history? Are we to take every word literally? Are we to delve into the depths of context? Yes, yes, and again yes.

As we bring the Leading Causes of Life to each week's Lectionary, our task is not to replace any one approach. Instead, the task is to nest them in the logic of life. When life speaks it connects, it organizes our thoughts, it demands change, it reminds us of hope and we take it all as a blessing.

This week's Gospel reading is a case in point.

The scene opens underscoring profound isolation. Disconnection has taken its toll.

One way or another the disciples had all disconnected from the man named Jesus. Judas disconnected once; Peter disconnected three times; the disciples fled into the night. Those who had not been afraid suddenly knew fear, and in that knowing they disconnected from the first words of so many angels, “Be not afraid.” In life it is astonishing how quickly fear finds friends. They may have gone their separate ways after Jesus' arrest, but they knew where to gather when they feared they might be the next ones on a cross. And so they locked the door, making sure nobody could enter their world. Had they decided to escape they would have found themselves surrounded not by light but by approaching night. In short nobody could come in . . . and there was no point in going out. They were isolated . . . disconnected . . . trapped by fear.

Their situation is not unknown to us. Over the past few years I have had the occasion to minister to and learn from many whose lives have been skewed by one insurance system or another. They have found themselves “resented” by the insurance company. How dare they make a request? They have sought employment only to find their gifts overshadowed by disabilities that present too great a risk. They have found themselves up against medical bills that are beyond the means of even the rich to pay. They have banded together to share their stories in hopes of finding a way to untangle the knots they did not create. In last night's news there was a story of Wal-Mart suing a family for over $400,000 in medical expenses their insurance company would rather not pay. The suit is legal. Fear always makes a legitimate claim. The disciples had good reason to be afraid. The question they faced as they met, and the question people living with disabilities face, is whether or not hope is sustainable and, if it is, what good can be done?

I dare say there is not a person in your congregation this week who is not acquainted with fear; who has not from time to time locked himself or herself in a room and wondered what the next day might bring. Sometimes disability locks the doors; sometimes finances lock them; sometimes injustice locks them; sometimes a relationship gone sour locks them. Whatever the cause, being “locked out” makes us realize we are “missing out” on life.

And so . . . what might God say?

With incredible poise, poignance, and grace, God finds a way to break right into the room. Those walls that look solid are actually porous. Wal-Mart made a decision but according to the news over a million people sent an e-mail saying, “This is wrong.” Remember the walls of Apartheid? They looked impermeable. But actually they were porous as life found a way to trump restrictive identity. The disciples huddle in fear . . . and then Jesus appears.

He has a word. “Peace be with you.” He then connects them with the Spirit; he speaks of his Father to link them with the divine family; he gives them a mission beyond the walls; and he asks them to engage in forgiveness—the fundamental work of connection. If we do not forgive we cannot connect—it is as simple as that. In like manner we can accept a word of peace or we can continue to live in the fearful waters of chaos. “Choose life,” God said to us through Moses. In the locked room of your legitimate fears choose life.

A famous Presbyterian pastor once began every Bible study with this question: Okay, where's the joy and where's the pain? In the ensuing discussion, sparked by the text, they shared the elusive and compelling gift of life. Picking up on his questions, a Leading Causes of Life exegetical approach reads the text and asks:

Where's the connection?
What's the meaning?
How is the text calling to you?
How can we name despair and claim hope?
And what's the blessing?

Ask those questions as you peruse the text that begins in fear, moves to connection and ends with a blessing for the ages.

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Blessings to you and your congregation.

I look forward to hearing from you, and learning from you, as together we decipher the language of life as entrusted to us in texts that guide our lives.



Larry Pray
larry@leadingcausesoflife.org
larrypray@gmail.com