Sermon: Second Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2025

Transcript

Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is to come, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. It's still Easter today. In fact, we are in the season of Eastertide. This season lasts seven weeks, which is one week longer than Lent, showing us that through Jesus' life conquers death and resurrection reigns.

Throughout the season of Easter, John's gospel is our storyteller, along with the book of Acts and the book of Revelation. We'll hear that Jesus' resurrection, what Jesus' resurrection meant to his disciples when they first met the risen Christ at the tomb, in a locked room, and on a beach.

The lasting impact the resurrection had on the early church will unfurl like the fronds of a fern, and we'll see glimpses of trees weighed down with 12 kinds of fruit and leaves for the healing of the nations.

A slaughtered lamb will stand tall, and there will be no more mourning and pain. The good news abounds in Eastertide as we see the earth waking up around us, blossoming into its springtime colors and fuzziness.

I'm sure you've all noticed that overnight it's like all these trees just exploded in blossoms. It's beautiful. It's as if all of creation is taking a deep breath, shaking off winters, malaise, and delighting a new life.

Jesus is risen and he's showing up in interesting places. time he appears, the pieces of the puzzle come together a little bit more for his people to see and believe. On the second Sunday of Easter, we always find ourselves in the locked room with the disciples in our gospel.

They're waiting for something. They don't even know what yet, and we're told Thomas isn't with them. Jesus first appears out of thin air as if he was beamed into the room with the disciples. I think that might be my favorite part of Star Trek when they beam onto another planet or into a room and scare everybody out of their wits.

But Jesus has the courtesy to calm the disciples by saying, peace be with you. Peace be with you. It's the first thing he says to his followers, who just days before denied and deserted him when he was executed on a cross.

Every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord creates what is spoken, and he, because he is the word, made flesh. So I imagine a calm spreading over the anxious bodies of the people huddled together in that crowded room.

This peace of Christ carries with it a deep exhale from all that the last week held, from the nailing and the bleeding, from the confusion and the running, from their bodies freezing when they didn't know what to do.

Their systems overloaded. Peace be with you. Those are the four words that hold the world together and shake the springtime loose for the disciples. When they see his indented hands and the gash in his side, they recognize a body that holds scars just like theirs.

A body that has the power to heal, but will always hold the memory of pain and suffering. It's a body who's been there and knows what bodies can go through. Jesus not only offers open-handed peace to the clenched fists of his followers, he fulfills his promise to send the Holy Spirit by infusing them with the breath of life, the breath of heaven.

He breathed on them and showed them the power they already have inside of them, a power to forgive and to let go. and to be free. And then Jesus sends the disciples, his closest followers, back out into the world, not to seek vengeance for Jesus' death, not to get even with the guards or take an eye for an eye.

He sends them out for the express purpose to forgive, to share the good news that not even death could hold our Lord back from reaching out and offering peace to his beloved children. That this peace which surpasses all understanding will be with us and guard our hearts and our minds all the days of our lives.

Our bodies and souls are not left to their own devices. They will not stay in the stress response of fight, flight, or freeze. They will be clear-headed and courageous. in the face of pain and suffering for ourselves as well as others.

With this gift of the risen Christ peace, we are liberated from crouching behind locked doors, from the terrors that hold us back from speaking and enacting this good news. When we're freed from finally this constant state of dread, we can breathe a sigh of relief.

We're able to let our shoulders relax and unclench our jaws, and we open our own scarred, calloused, imperfect hands to the needs of the world. We have all we need to be Jesus' hands and feet in our world, to share a wholehearted piece of shalom with all who are not able to feel that peace right now, who for all kinds of human reasons are unable to exhale, to feel the relief and release of Easter, people struggling to make ends meet, those for whom it's difficult to get out of bed in the morning, to have enough money to pay their car insurance and feed their kids, for all who wonder what the future will hold at a time when so much feels like shaky ground under our feet.

Into this and every reality, Jesus comes, stands among us, and gives us peace. No doors, no locks will ever hold Jesus back, and the world can take a deep and cavernous breath and lean into the springtime of resurrection hope together.

To him who loves us and frees us from our fears, be all the glory forever and ever. Amen.