And Yet Believe - Second Sunday of Easter
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
April 27, 2025
Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!
I know those three Alleluia’s feel a little extra
especially once the flowers and the pageantry of Easter Sunday are no longer
visible. It takes more to sustain belief that we are in the season of Easter
and not just a day. One year I tried to spread out the Easter candy across all
of Easter but, well it started to feel a little silly.
Our world creeps right back in doesn’t it? We who long
for joy short circuit it. Like it’s not really real. It becomes so very easy to
feel the weights and worries. And here come our insecurities. Do you ever find
yourself second guessing even after really good things? Maybe letting the
perfect be the enemy of the good? For some reason, good news does not feel as
sustainable as the bad. Some might even say that good news does not feel as
believable. Negativity has more staying power, feels stronger and sometimes it
can even feel like we can’t let it go.
The disciple John knew this, having lived amidst the
ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, as well as the struggles
along the way within the band of Jesus’ followers. One of those struggles was
grappling with what they so wanted to see in Jesus, in each other and in the
world. The years before they met Jesus were years of longing to get to be
right, to be in charge finally, and maybe get to settle scores. Jesus’ death
and his resurrection upended that in so many ways. Because old patterns are
hard to break, they struggle. Jesus knows.
Jesus in his compassion, appears to his followers after
his resurrection in different times and ways. He appeared to the women, but the
men didn’t believe. He appeared to almost all of the disciples, but Thomas
missed out and so he appears again. He will go on to appear when they have
decided after all that to just go fishing anyway! That’s a story for
next week.
Each time Jesus appeared with what his
followers most needed to see or hear. Let’s recap the timeline in
John: Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found it empty. She thought Jesus’
body had been stolen. She went to find Peter and John who ran to the tomb.
Peter went in and looked and left. John went in, looked and believed Jesus had
risen. Peter and John went home and Mary Magdalene stayed, weeping.
Jesus appears to her but she doesn’t recognize him until
she hears him speak her name. Mary Magdalene proclaims the good news that she
has seen the risen Lord and what he said. Yet…
That night the disciples are in a room with the doors locked
because they are scared of what the religious leaders who killed Jesus might
do. And what an empty tomb means. Weights, worries, insecurities. It is then
that Jesus appears. And then again Jesus appears eight days later to Thomas and
the others, where the doors were AGAIN locked.
Jesus enters because they all needed to see and touch, needed
to let go of the barriers that were preventing them from believing.
WHAT ABOUT US? Have you let Jesus enter those
locked spaces in you? Do you believe he can transform you? I mean really.
In Holy Week there was a Question Board in the Welcome
Center that asked “What do you want to see more of in the world?"
It was not “what do you want to see less of” on purpose-
because that is where we begin to criticize. And shut down and close the door
on others.
“What do you want to see more of” is a bigger space. And
it is no surprise.
Empathy, kindness, compassion, acceptance, tolerance,
peace, hope, joy, understanding, inclusion, forgiveness.
These are the things we long to see and hear and believe are real and possible.
So let’s see them through the lens of seeing, hearing and
believing in Jesus Christ. Let’s see them as those for whom John has written, “
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet come to believe…These things are
written so that you may come to believe and continue to believe.”
Because the days after come
Weights and worries come
Insecurities come
And the temptation is to respond as we often have or so
easily can.
But resurrection is a new life. And it is a life where
Jesus can meet us and teach us.
Jesus knows we can easily be so very hard on others
usually because we are hurting. We can be so hard on ourselves. But pain
that is not transformed is transmitted. Resurrection is transformation.
Jesus gently drew his followers into the peace they
needed. “Blessed is the one who came in the name of the Lord”, meets them and
now sends them.
Jesus reminded them that he has not given them the power
to deny forgiveness; he is entrusting them with the power to proclaim it.
Let me say that again. We are not given the
power to deny forgiveness.
We are entrusted with the power to proclaim
it.
Do you want to believe it? YES!
Does it seem easy? NOPE
Friends, there is power in letting go of what has a hold
on you, and what has a hold on others. In letting go of the old worn out and
exhausting ways we see and react. There is great peace that comes from
abandoning the age old saying “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Blessed are those who have not seen but believe and
embody, however tentatively, that belief that God is doing a new thing.
I want to expand how we hear Jesus say “blessed are those
who have not seen.” The early disciples show us that for every time they had
seen, there are times they had not. This is our life experience.
Sometimes we see Jesus and sometimes we do
not. Sometimes we will have to keep gathering and worshipping and serving and
working to love and forgive even before it feels real. In spite of weights and
worries and insecurities. And we do this together.
Jesus didn’t appear to Thomas alone. But in
the community. Jesus is drawing them together, giving the Spirit
they would need, telling them that as the Father sent him he now sends them. We
too have received the Holy Spirit for the same reason. To comfort, and
reassure, and empower and lead.
All of the things we want to see more of in the world are
manifestations of what a world can be when the grace, love and forgiveness of
Christ are made known and we embody it.
Remember that “Blessed are those who have not seen and
yet believe” is connected to “since you know these things you are blessed if
you do them.”
On Maundy Thursday Jesus commands his followers to love
by his example, telling them, “Blessed you will be when you embody faith
however shaky in the midst of what feels louder and stronger.” It is easy when
the church is full and the music swells and the joy of this past Sunday was so
very present. Alleluia!
But it is so much harder to go back to seemingly endless weeks
of dirty stinky feet, and daunting fears; painful wounds and persistent woundedness.
It’s lots harder to love in these spaces or see them as blessed, but these are
the places in us where Jesus shows up and where he sends us because he believes
in us.
Maybe this week, sit with Jesus and recall a time when
you did not feel strong in belief but where Jesus met you. Maybe you’re struggling
right now. Can you unlock your heart to let Jesus to meet you in the presence
of another? Maybe you see someone struggling but wonder what to do. Reach out
in love. These are the places where we’re given the grace to continue to
wrestle and rejoice together, and to strengthen each other in faith. Christ is
risen and here to meet us, teach us, and to surprise us. To rekindle our belief
that what he says is true and powerful. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Alleluia! And because he lives we shall too.
AMEN
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2025 All rights
reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written
permission.
Sermon Text: John 20:19-31
19 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.” 20 After
he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples
rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus
said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send
you.” 22 When he had said
this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If
you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of
any, they are retained.”
24 But Thomas (who was
called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 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.”
26 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.” 27 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.” 28 Thomas
answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 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.”
30 Now Jesus did many
other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 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.
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