John 20:19-31
Sent
April 15, 2012 James
Sledge
I’ve long been a Doonesbury fan, and I recall a Sunday
comic from many years ago marking college graduation. It took place at Walden College and featured
Zonker, that perpetual slacker. In this
strip Zonker stumbles across an unnamed student leaning against a wall with a
forlorn look on his face. Zonker asks
what the problem is, and the student offers how he can’t understand what
happened. “It must have been some sort
of scheduling mix up, some confusion about my hours,” he says. “You don’t mean…” Zonker begins, only to be
interrupted as the student says, “Yes, I’m afraid it’s true. I graduated.”
Most of us have known a few professional
students. Some of us may even have been
one. For such folks there is always
another major, another degree, more grad school. With true professional students, they are
never quite ready to go out into the world.
There is always a bit more preparation to do.
On my first Sunday as pastor here
at Falls Church, we are celebrating what sometimes has the feel of a
graduation. Members of the confirmation
class will publicly profess their faith, responding to God’s love that claimed
them in baptism. I suppose it is okay to
think of this as a kind of graduation, at least in the sense that they now move
on to something new, to a deeper calling, to a fuller life of
discipleship. But in practice,
confirmation has often served as a kind of graduation from church.
There’s an old joke that you may
have heard where a group of pastors are gathered for lunch. And as they do on such occasions, these
pastors are sharing problems and difficulties at their particular
congregations. At this lunch, one pastor
reports that they have an infestation of mice in their basement, and she
wonders if the others have any suggestions.
“Have you tried one of those electronic, high frequency pest
repellents?” one asks. “Yes,” she
says. “We bought several but they
haven’t helped at all.”
“How about those plastic owls?”
came another idea. “You could put a few
in the basement and they might frighten the mice away.” “Tried that, too,” says the pastor. “Didn’t work either.”
Just then the Presbyterian pastor
spoke up. “We had a similar problem in
our church, but we got rid of them.” “What
did you do?” all the others asked. “We
simply enrolled all of them in our confirmation class, and once confirmation
was over, we never saw them again.”
Now I’m
too new here to know if this has happened much at Falls Church, but it
certainly happens a lot in other congregations.
Young people are raised in the Church, go through the Christian
Education program, complete confirmation, and graduate from Church.
Sometimes it seems to me that Christian
faith in our day suffers from two very different sorts of graduation type
problems. There is that graduation from
Church that sometimes happens with confirmands, and then there is the problem
of professional students who are never quite ready to go out into the world. Congregations are filled with people who
aren’t quite ready to share their faith, aren’t quite ready to demonstrate
God’s love in Christ. They aren’t sure
enough about their own faith, don’t know their Bible well enough, and so
on. And while there are probably none of
us who don’t need to grow in faith and know our Bibles better, I’m not sure a
little more time in school, a little more time at church, will get us any more
ready.
To be
honest, I’m not entirely sure which of these graduation types problems afflicts
the disciples in our reading today.
They’ve certainly had plenty of schooling. They’ve been with Jesus for several
years. They’ve been his inner circle for
most of that time, observing first-hand what God’s power can do through him and
learning first-hand the ins and outs of the new thing God is doing in
Jesus.
And now after the horrible events
of Jesus’ arrest and execution, they have learned that he has been raised, that
he is alive. Jesus has trained them
personally and called them to love one another and keep his commandments. He has told them of the difficulties they
will face and of the help they will receive from the Holy Spirit. Everything he has taught them is coming to
pass just as he has said. And so… and so
the disciples cower in fear behind locked doors.
Perhaps they aren’t sure they are
yet ready. They need a few more classes,
a bit better understanding of doctrine, better answers to hard questions people
might ask them. Or perhaps they are
done, graduated from it all. It was quite
a ride while it lasted, but time to get on with normal lives, find jobs, raise
families, that sort of thing.
Either way, you’d think Jesus
would be a bit miffed when he shows up.
You’d think he might light into them like a coach whose team has
performed miserably in the first half.
But there is not even a hint of anger or correction. “Peace be with you.” Jesus lets the disciples swarm
excitedly around him and then says again, “Peace be with you.” And then he adds, “As the Father has sent me, so I
send you.”
Now that just seems crazy. The disciples have clearly demonstrated that
they either aren’t ready, or they are ready to move on. But Jesus says, “You’ve got my job now.”
Really? These guys?
That would be like telling some half-hearted member of a confirmation
class, who’s only there because his parents expect it, “Okay, you run the
church now.” And we would never do that.
But of
course there is that one other thing in our Scripture this morning. Jesus breathed on them and said to them, “Receive
the Holy Spirit.”
We Presbyterians aren’t always
sure what to do with the Holy Spirit. We
say that we believe in a Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but with the
Spirit, this is often more lip service than anything else. We’re fine with the idea that the Spirit
inspired the prophets and the writers of Scripture, but we’re not really sure
that the Spirit can inspire us, can empower us to do ministry in Jesus’
name. We think the limiting factor for
us and our congregation is our abilities, our talents, our resources.
And so quite often, Christians
huddle in their congregations like professional students, never quite ready to
be Christ to the world. Or they simply
graduate from Church altogether, perhaps because they’re not much interested in
being perpetual students.
But regardless, Jesus still comes
to us. He comes, not in anger, not even
in disappointment. He comes offering us
his peace, his shalom. He comes wanting
only to equip us to become who we are called to be, who we are meant to
be. To those being confirmed today Jesus
says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you.
You are ready and able to continue my work in the world.” And he says the very same thing to the rest
of us, to me and all of you.
Can you feel the breath, the wind,
the Spirit, washing over you? Can you
feel it strengthening you, equipping you, and sending you out to share the hope
of Easter with a hurting and broken world?
Can you feel it?
All praise and glory to the one
who sends us the Spirit that we might be the body of Christ. Thanks be to God!
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