Author and theologian N.T. Wright wrote:
"What Easter does is open windows of the mind and heart to see what really, after all, might be possible in God's World". (Surprised by Hope pg.69)
The hope he speaks about is the Easter message that God is bringing us to life even now. Our common purpose is rooted in Jesus, who teaches us, walks with us, eats with us and sends us out into the world.
Our Gospel for the second Sunday in the Easter season speaks of locked rooms and closed doors. This was the initial response of the disciples after the death of Jesus. They locked themselves in a room - likely for fear of further persecution from the Roman authorities. Here with the doors bolted the disciples stayed in fear and depression. Fear that they too would be caught and punished; and depression in that the death of Jesus meant, for them, a wasted 3 years. All their hopes and dreams for Israel's Messiah were gone.
Not a great way for the Church to begin - closed up behind locked doors in fear and depression.
John's gospel, however, demonstrates that it is in this exact moment - the height of their fear and depression, that Jesus draws them together once more. Into this locked room, Jesus appears and says: "Peace be with you!" Then he breathed on them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit". In that moment, the disciples changed and the church was born. Disciple means to be taught, this life they now leave behind. They have become apostles - ones who have been "sent".
Their living behind locked doors was a sign of death - that they themselves were already dead. It is a reminder of the 19th century poem The Buried Life, by Matthew Arnold which states:
"But often, in the world's most crowded streets,
But often in the din of strife,
There arises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life;
A thirst to spend our fire and restless force
In tracking our true, original course;
A longing to inquire
Into the mystery of this heart which beats
So wild, so deep in us - - to know
Whence our lives come and where they go!"
The buried life - that life which we live but is dead already - dead because we miss the significance and power of the moment - living lives built on "getting to where we want to be in life" and "creating the life we want to have". While we focus on making our lives to be what we want, we miss the life we have. We miss living in the moment - in the now. It seems we, like the disciples, get caught between the now and the not yet. The disciples looked to the day that God's kingdom would set Israel apart from the other nations once again and because they focused so heavenly on what they wanted the kingdom of God to be like, they missed the kingdom that Jesus had brought into their midst. And so they sit behind closed and locked doors, with the knowledge of their buried life.
But Jesus changes this. Locked doors will not keep him from coming in or his good news from going out- it was time for the Church to be born.
In smaller churches, we often wonder where the people are? Why don't they come to church? Truth be told, we spend all our energies on fundraising events to meet the church budget, clawing back on expenditures that seem unnecessary and frivolous and we miss the moment. Sometimes we complain that people stay away from the United Church because we're too wishy washy with our moral teachings, too controversial on our social teaching, or too liberal in our theology. That is not the case. We are losing members because we don't know how to spread the good news - we're living behind closed and locked doors - nothing in - nothing out. We have the most fantastic news - news as N.T. Wright says shows us what is possible in God's world.
We are a lot like the early disciples, living in fear behind locked doors. Do we trust God? Do we trust God enough to open the doors? Do we trust that in being Lord of the world, Jesus is also Lord of the church budget, the hymn book, the Council meeting, the worship service, the presbytery? Do we really believe what we say in the creed: "We are not alone, we live in God's world"?
The Easter challenge, for all of us, is to open the doors of our minds and hearts so that we might open the doors of our churches. The Easter challenge is new life in the midst of death and destruction. The Easter challenge is that we might take one more step forward in our lives of faith and really believe that something new is happening in the world - something that began that first Easter long ago - and we are called to be a part of the ongoing transformation of God's good earth.
