Collect: God of mission, You raised up Jesus Christ as your faithful witness and the first born of the dead: by Your Holy Spirit, empower us to witness to Him so that those who have not yet seen may come to believe in Him who was and is and is to come, and who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Readings
1st reading: Acts 5:27-32 27
When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, 28 saying, ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.’ 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than any human authority. 30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, so that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.’
Psalm 118:14-29 or Psalm 150
2nd reading: Rev 1:4-8 4
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel: 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.
I don’t know about you, but I relate to Thomas, referred to as ‘Thomas the twin’ in our Gospel passage, but better known as ‘Doubting Thomas’, because I too have to admit that I too struggle to believe that Jesus could really have risen from the dead, don’t you?
And Thomas is given an overly hard time – after all, all the remaining disciples were locked behind closed doors, in fear for their lives, and they had all doubted the women’s testimony that Jesus had risen…
As for Thomas, in our passage he declares Jesus to be his Lord and God and tradition has it that he travelled even beyond the Roman Empire to preach the Gospel, travelling as far as present-day India in AD 52 where he founded what today are known as Saint Thomas Christians or Nasranis. Thomas is regarded as the Patron Saint of India, and the name Thoma remains popular among Saint Thomas Christians in India.
Getting back to our gospel and Acts passages, the way all the disciples changed from cowards hiding and denying even knowing Jesus into fearless proclaimers of the risen Christ shows beyond a reasonable doubt that they truly believed in the resurrection, and so we too can believe in the resurrection, despite our doubts…
But the Christian story doesn’t end at Easter – our reading from Revelation reminds us that the Jesus “who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood… made us to be a kingdom, priests serving His God and Father”. In addition, John’s gospel later describes the risen Jesus breathing the Holy Spirit onto His disciples before ascending, and it is the Spirit in them, God in them, who changes their lives, enabling them to live resurrection lives, and we see evidence of Holy Spirit inspired resurrection lives in countless men, women and children throughout the history of the church – I’m sure we’ve all been blessed with encounters of the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit in our lives as well as many encounters with Holy Spirit inspired resurrection lives
Our reading from Acts reminds us “we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit Whom God has given to those who obey Him” – obeying God is the requirement, and the fruits of the spirit is the measure…
I know I’ve been blessed with many encounters with the Holy Spirit – and usually in the most unexpected ways, through the most seemingly ordinary people…
I don’t often talk about politics in sermons, but I do believe in and am proud of Christians and the church or anyone, be they of any faith or none, when they, clearly in obedience to God and surely inspired by the Holy Spirit, stand up against injustice, especially if the injustices are when the powerful oppress or abuse the weak or poor, as this is surely what Jesus did and commands us to do too, as long as we do this in Spirit inspired love, with humility, in a Christ-like and life-giving way…
After all, in chapter 13 of John’s Gospel, Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, then shares the Last Supper with them, predicts how He will die for them, and says: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The Gospels makes it clear – Christianity is all about sacrificial love, so I was deeply disappointed by the revelations about the alleged influence the Gupta family has on our government, and I mentioned it at our Holy week service last Thursday before citing examples of Christians Bonhoeffer and Oscar Romero who stood up in Holy Spirit inspired self-sacrificial love to injustices in their context…
I think we should remember that there are many others who bravely stand up against injustice, Christians and non-Christians too: surely many also acting in obedience to God and thus acting in Holy Spirit inspired love?
Have you heard of the approximately 1.5 million Muslims (including 70,000 clerics) who have signed a petition against terrorist attacks by Isis? [see the St Paul’s blog and Facebook pages].
And then, you must have heard about our Public Protector, advocate Thuli Madonsela? I’m not sure if she is a woman of faith, and I resisted the temptation to check because my point is that she too has taken a courageous and surely Holy Spirit inspired stand against injustice and abuse of power in South Africa in declaring some of the unpleasant truth about our president and Nkandla, which has cost her?
I was (quite frankly), pleasantly surprised by the headlines on Friday morning, when I saw reports that the Constitutional Court has unanimously ruled that the president had failed to uphold and defend the constitution by not acting on the Public Protector’s remedial actions…
I must emphasise that for me this is not about party politics, about bashing the president or any political party, it’s about something much bigger, something more important than our constitution – it’s about looking into our world to acknowledge and celebrate where we can see the same Holy Spirit the resurrected Jesus breathed onto His disciples before ascending, which enabled them to live resurrection lives, enabling us and those around us to likewise live our resurrection lives…
Surely the bravery of the Muslims who are standing against ISIS terror attacks, the bravery of people who like Thuli Madonsela and the Constitutional Court Judges who are upholding the constitution in South Africa, the bravery of Bonhoeffer and Oscar Romero, the bravery of all people who stand up to injustices in their context, is as Holy Spirit inspired as the transformation of the disciples, be it denying Peter, or doubting Thomas?
In our collect, we prayed for our God of mission, the God who raised up Jesus Christ as a faithful witness and the first born of the dead, to also empower us to witness to Him by the Holy Spirit, so that those who have not yet seen may come to believe in Him, and surely we witness to Him whenever we stand up for the poor and oppressed, courageously inspired by the Holy Spirit, as described in our readings from Acts and the Gospel?
And surely we ALL see and PARTICPATE IN many, many examples of Holy Spirit inspired self-sacrificial love in the world, and so make the resurrection real daily, be we honest public prosecutors who make the news, or caring public-servants, be we teachers, doctors, lawyers, clergy, business-people, the unemployed, the young or the old or whatever who do our best for those in our care or those we chance to meet, just because it is the right thing to do or because it’s what God or our conscience is asking us to do?
With all this evidence of resurrection life around us, if only we choose to open our eyes and see it, how can we not rejoice in the fact that Christ is risen, He is risen indeed, and we, along with the saints of the past and the present, are all blessed as those who have not seen, and yet have come to believe?
Dear Jesus, by Your Holy Spirit, empower us to witness to Him so that those who have not yet seen may come to believe in Him who was and is and is to come, and who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN
Rev Gavin Smith
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