April 27, 2025 – The Second Sunday of Easter
The Rt. Rev. Brian Cole
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. You all have the most fascinating bulletin I have ever seen. I have seen bulletins for many, many years.
I have never seen a bulletin that let folks know for the hymn, everyone sings. I love that. You think you’re not a singer.
No, no, no, no, wait a minute. Are you everyone? You’re a singer. There you go, right? We should sing that hymn again and let them know that everyone’s a singer.
I’d like to teach the world to sing, right, in perfect harmony, right? You know that one. We’re not going to do that though. But I love that.
When I was a child, there was a Superman movie. Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, loved movies, loved Superman. Big, open-hearted kid.
There’s a spoiler alert in this sermon, okay? In the film, Lois Lane, portrayed by Margot Kidder, dies. Young boy, very sad, right, watching said film. Lois Lane dying in the Superman movie, that’s a big setback in the Superman story, okay? Superman’s very upset and very angry.
And does an amazing Superman thing. He goes around the Earth many, many, many, many times. Do not try this at home.
He goes around the Earth many, many, many, many times. He makes the planet go backwards, right? Did you know this was possible? He makes it go backwards. Remember what happens, right? All of a sudden, there’s no car accident, all of a sudden there’s no earthquake or whatever happened.
He makes it all better, right? That is not what the resurrection is about, okay? An important thing to know about this morning’s gospel lesson is the resurrection does not somehow make the cross go away, okay? That’s the first point I want to make. The powerful thing that happens in this morning’s gospel lesson is the disciples who are there are in a room and they are afraid. They are afraid.
And Jesus, who is wounded, resurrected, but wounded, goes into that room. He doesn’t say, shame on you for being afraid. He hasn’t somehow made the planet go backwards and made it all better.
He’s walked through the cross, walked through the tomb, is in that room, says peace to them, and then he shows them his wounds. It’s a way to say, this is the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing happened to me, and I’m still here.
And I’ve come to be with you. And I’m not planning to go look for new disciples. Jesus is always in the salvage business of working with the people he has, right? Now this is the part in the gospel lesson where we either really give it to Thomas or we feel like we have to defend him, which both are kind of overreactions, right? If you notice, Thomas is not in the room at the beginning of the story.
The folks who are in the room are afraid. So we want to get on Thomas about doubting, but what if we said, what if we called him fearless Thomas, right? What if we called him willing to take a risk for Jesus Thomas? Maybe he’s DoorDash Thomas, I don’t know what he’s doing. But he’s not in the room.
That should be worth something. He’s not in the room in fear, he’s out in the world. Maybe he’s looking for Jesus.
Because when he comes back in the room, all he asks is, I’d like to experience what you experienced. I’d like to see the wounds. Because Thomas also knows the resurrection is not the Superman story.
He knows Jesus, who has been raised from the dead, is still going to bear wounds. And it’s from those wounds that God’s love is truly going to transform us. So Thomas comes into the room and only asks to see what his friends have seen.
So when Jesus then comes into the room and shows Thomas the wounds, if you notice, Jesus then says that part about, you know, blessed are those who have not seen but believe. So about the time I’m watching the Superman movie, is also the time that this very devout, pious little kid is in his room, trying to make myself a Christian, right? Little pious kid, reading the New Testament, thinking, without seeing, without any evidence, I’m supposed to believe, right? So I take my little nine-year-old forehead and I scrunch it up really tight, and I close my eyes and I clench my fists, and I want to flip some switch in my noggin that says believe, right? And I think if I could do this, Jesus is going to be really happy with me, right? He won’t have to show me his wounds. I’m just going to believe.
But I think the way we get to belief is not by thinking. I think we get to belief by going out into the world, by being open to going out into the world and seeing where is the wounded Jesus now. I’m going to ask you, when it comes time to give the offering, to not give it to me, to my discretionary fund.
I’m going to ask you to give us all of your cash and credit card numbers, and we will get them back to you, and to give all that money to Bridge Refugee Services. Because I want us to go out into the world and see where the wounded Jesus is. And my sense is that the resurrected, wounded Jesus is in the place this morning where people are most afraid.
That’s where Jesus shows up. He goes into those rooms, and he says, I understand you’re afraid, and I understand the worst thing possible that could ever happen has happened to me, being Jesus. And I want you to know, I’m with you.
I’m in your room, and I do not want you to be afraid, and I’m going to be with you. So if you and I want to be the people who follow Jesus, we’re going to go following a wounded Jesus, not a Superman Jesus. We’re going to follow a wounded Jesus out into the world where people are afraid.
And maybe you’re afraid. Maybe I’m afraid. But when Jesus comes into those rooms, he doesn’t get on us about being afraid.
He breathes peace on us. There’s a practice in baptism, ancient baptism, in baptizing, it’s also possible to breathe on the person you’re baptizing. I’m not going to do that because I’ve had a lot of coffee this morning.
But it’s that attempt to imitate Jesus breathing peace on you. Blowing away that fear. Blowing away that anxiety.
Blowing away that sense of isolation and loneliness, saying, you belong to me, and you belong to these people now. Now, my favorite part of this gospel lesson, my favorite part is the end. Isn’t the end amazing, this gospel lesson? When the writer says, Jesus did so much more Jesus stuff.
Jesus was doing Jesus stuff all the time. And I didn’t write it all down. If you know me, you know I’m a book person.
I love books. The best book I’ve ever had in my entire life, somehow I gave away. It was a book called Elvis Day by Day.
Which was an account of every day of Elvis’ life, from when he was famous in 1954 until when he died in 1977. It’s a really big book, right? Every day, what Elvis did. Ate a cheeseburger, went to the studio, made a movie, rode a motorcycle, it’s all there, right? And sometimes I think we think the gospel of John is Jesus day by day.
Right? Ate a cheeseburger, rode a motorcycle, healed some people. That’s not what it is. The gospel of John is not everything that Jesus did.
And that’s important to know. Not simply because there’s other stuff he did while he was with those disciples. It’s to know that he is still doing Jesus stuff.
We are still encountering the wounded Jesus coming into the places where we are afraid. Coming into our homes, our businesses, our schools, our jails, our ERs, our unemployment centers. He’s coming to where we are afraid.
And he’s doing more Jesus stuff. The gospel of John will always have more to say. Because at the very, very, very end of the gospel of John, if you skip ahead, there’s this incredible thing where the writer says, you can’t write down all the stuff that Jesus did.
If you wrote down all the stuff that Jesus did, you couldn’t contain all those books. That’s what I’m thinking. Elvis day by day is out there, right? You can have some incredible, exhaustive account of a person’s life and you can capture it all.
But the gospel writer says, you can’t do that with Jesus. That’s not possible. Because the wounded, resurrected Jesus is never going to stop doing Jesus stuff.
And he’s going to keep coming to the places where we are afraid. He’s going to keep being there. In a moment, along with confirmations and receptions and reaffirmations, we’re going to baptize Axel.
And we’re going to baptize James. And we’re going to baptize Roland. And we’re going to mark them with water.
We’re going to mark them with oil. And we’re going to keep fire a safe distance from them. But through water and oil and fire, we’re going to say to those three young boys, the wounded, resurrected Jesus is always going to be with you.
And there are things that might cause you to fear. Like junior high. And high school.
And heartbreak. And all kinds of things. But that mark upon them, that water will dry, that oil will dry, that candle at some point will maybe be lost or burn out.
But the mark upon them of the wounded, resurrected Jesus is never going to leave them. And if it never leaves them, it never leaves you. It never leaves me.
So therefore, we can follow Jesus into the world, trusting he is doing more and more stuff. And all of that stuff is intended to convey again and again and again, you belong to God. God is never not with you.
Sometimes you’re not with you. But God is there. God is there.
Amen.