The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for Sunday, April 19^th
Acts 4:32-35
Ps 133
1Jn 1:1-2:2
Jn 20:19-31

The Shepherd’s Voice – Sermon Audio

A lawyer was on his deathbed in his bedroom, and he called to his wife. She rushed in and said, “What is it, honey?”
He told her to run and get the Bible as soon as possible. Being a religious woman, she thought this was a good idea. She ran and got it, prepared to read him his favorite verse.

He snatched it from her and began quickly scanning pages, his eyes darting right and left. The wife was curious. “What are you doing, honey?” she asked.

He responds “Times running out, I’m looking for loopholes!”

Last Sunday, we once again heard about how Jesus performed the greatest April Fools joke or story on record against the devil. Jesus went to the grave, died to make the story as real as possible for his disciples, his followers, and for us, but then out from the grave he arose.

Not everyone is happy with this story. Not everyone believes this story. The lawyer is looking for loopholes. Thomas said, “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.” What do you say?

Some people diminish those around us who doubt. A famous British Philosopher – Francis Bacon 1561-1626, once said: “In contemplation, if a man (person) begins with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”

I hope you come wearing your skeptic’s hat today. I think skeptics or people who are willing to ask questions should be given a special place in heaven, not hell. Their ability to spawn learning and create discomfort is essential to all mankind, albeit at times it makes us all a bit uncomfortable.

Our Gospel story is one, not only highlighting Thomas’ doubt, but it reflects the doubt all of the disciples had after Jesus’ death on the cross. Look at verse 19 “the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews.” If they had a true, strong faith in Jesus as the Messiah they would NOT be behind locked doors. If they were true believers they would be rioting in the street. They would be yelling about the rigged trial. They would be looking to hire a special prosecutor to find out how this travesty of justice could have taken place.

But no, the were behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. The Greek here for fear is φόβος, phobos, which means panic fear, such as causes flight, terror. They were not even in a fight mode they had completely moved into the flight mode. Get me out of here I can’t stand the heat.

Many years ago now my family and I went to New York. I owned my business, there was a real estate appraisal show in town, and I was presenting at the show. Josh and Wendy were about 11 or 12. We were all a little naïve as we walked around the city. Walking around Irvine, I found is a little different than walking the streets of New York. We decided to see the sights, the sounds, the smells, the stores, and just experience what Manhattan was like. As we had walked we gradually noticed the stores were changing, but we didn’t see anything too radical.

Finally, we came across a street that looked interesting, lots of lights on it so we started to walk down 42nd street. We went by 4 – 5 storefronts; all of a sudden a man brushes by me, almost knocking me over running into me, he grabs another man by the front of the shirt and pulls out a knife, puts it up to his neck. My heart starts beating in over-drive. I steer my family quickly away from the scene telling them we have to get out of here, now! We try to flag down a cab, no cabs to be found. We see a sign for a bus line so we go inside as quickly as possible to get off the street. By now all our hearts are pounding. The whole family feels panic and we just wanted to get away from the action. Perhaps the disciples were feeling a little like this. They couldn’t take what was happening on the streets any longer.

Why else would Jesus appear to them and His first words be, “Peace be with you.” They appeared to be a bunch of scared rabbits. Fear does this to people, all of us suffer from fear. It’s real, it’s palpable, it’s debilitating. The hard laws of life make us fearful.

And yet, Jesus brings them good news saying, “Peace be with you.” After saying this it says Jesus showed them His hands and His side, probably again to assure them that He was alive, He proved to them that He had died and rose again just like He told them He would.

Thomas, who was not there, was not convinced. Thomas as I mentioned earlier said, “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.” For us, like Thomas, perhaps this greatest of all April Fool’s jokes is a bridge too far.

Martin Luther, a man of great devotion to the faith, a man who wrote the great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” a man who some say was one of the greatest men of the last millennium had times of questioning his faith. He once wrote, “For more than a week, Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy against God.”

If great leaders of our faith can have doubts why can’t we. Thomas didn’t stay in his doubt. When Jesus appeared a second time Thomas said “My Lord and my God!” He didn’t say oh great leader, he said “My Lord and my God!” These words ring with authenticity, with clarity about Jesus’ role on this earth. Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!”

What does it take to ignore the fear and say “My Lord and my God?” These words are NOT words that drip of tradition, of ceremony, of righteous pietism. These are words of the Holy Spirit. We can only say this when we personally experience the breath of the Holy Spirit in our life. Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

After Jesus said to them a second time, “Peace be with you” He says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” To me this is curious. Here we have folks who are scared out of their minds after Jesus’ death and Jesus tells them “So I send you.” Could being sent be a formula, a recipe for resolving and overcoming fear and doubt?

In other words the progression we have just seen in scripture from fear to doubt, from doubt to belief, from belief to action is a pretty good illustration, a design, perhaps a pattern for the Christian life.

Martin Luther said, “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”

Our scripture today takes the disciples from fear to doubt to action and then to new life.

We see what God expected of the disciples and what God expects of us, so what should we expect from God. As Lutherans we need to be reminded that God is in control and it is by grace we are saved through faith. We expect God to honor his promise of grace, of forgiveness, of eternal life. When we look at the last verse of today’s Gospel we see that God has given us something to grasp or hold onto. These words give us an understanding of God and what God wants for us.

John, the writer of this Gospel, in verse 31, says, “But these (referring to signs and the written scripture) 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.” What does life in His name look like?

A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.

The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, “I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing the horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ‘What Would Jesus Do’ bumper sticker, the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday School’ bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.”

Going back to verse 31 “through believing you may have life in His name.” What kind of life? Abundant life, filled with God’s grace and mercy. God gives it to us, we don’t earn it, work for it, we just receive it. We must be open to it, but we must learn how to live it.

How? We acknowledge we are helpless to this end. The third article of the creed, says I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit calls me through the Gospel.

Jesus promised in John 16:13: But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you (us) into ALL truth. We embrace this as Lutherans, as Easter people, as people of faith. We let go of our fear. We acknowledge our doubt. We believe in the promise of God that new life is ours by God’s gift of grace through faith.

The greatest April Fools joke in history needs to be celebrated.

Hallelujah, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, Hallelujah! Celebrate it today!

Amen

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