+   Second Sunday of Easter                                            April 15, 2012

          Readings:  Acts 4:32-35;  Psalm 133;  1 John 1:1-2:2;  John 20:19-31     Hymns:  449, 390, 391 (stz. 1), 469, 379, 389

“Show  Me”

Christ Is Risen!  (He’s Risen Indeed!  Alleluia!)

There is an unofficial motto in the state of Missouri.  It’s known as the “Show Me” state, but it can’t compare with Jerusalem after the first evening of Jesus’ resurrection.  

Missouri congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver in 1899 had a speech at a naval banquet in Philadelphia where he declared, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me.  I am from Missouri.  You have got to show me.”  Regardless of whether Vandiver coined the “Show Me” phrase, it is certain that his speech helped to popularize the saying.

Yet, almost two thousand years before Vandiver uttered his speech there was a man named Thomas who told his friends, “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.”   In other words, “Show Me.”

Most of us have probably uttered those or similar words when it comes to a promise our children make that they would clean their room or get better grades… “Show Me;”  or the pitch from the used car salesman who told you that the car you were looking at would get 40 miles per gallon… “Show Me;”  or the new diet that everyone was raving about that would take 20 pounds off in 10 minutes… “Show Me.”

We want to see with our own eyes the promises or events that people tell us about.  It’s not uncommon.  It’s very “human.” 

So what do YOU want to see?  It’s the Resurrection season, do you want to see Jesus?    The empty tomb isn’t enough for you.  The word of the angel isn’t enough for you.  The witness of the women isn’t enough for you.  What you’re saying is, “Show Me.”

Over the past 8 days we have been shown, time after time after time, that the faith which was first proclaimed in Jerusalem carries power and truth for us who are in need of power and truth in April, 2012… with the horrible news of a little boy being killed in a wood chipper, with a man losing his life while saving a little girl, with violent weather in the middle of our country… if we can just see Jesus alive maybe our faith will be strengthened, maybe we will have something more to go on… so “Show Me.”

It was the Eve of the Resurrection and we gathered in a darkened room and we saw a single candle lighted which signaled the end of the dark days of Lent and ushered us into the bright new day of resurrection. 

We gathered the day after the resurrection celebration for a different kind of event… a beloved mother, sister, grandmother and friend had died and we saw the family mourn as we celebrated the life Jesus offered for Sue Henderson. 

Then, three more times last week we remembered the life of someone who died and tried to dry tears with words and memories and hymns and a bit of bread and a sip of wine… trying to “show” ourselves that the death of death happened when Jesus was raised from the dead.

Now, today, we are shown again of the power of Jesus’ resurrection as three children were brought to the Baptismal font and there they each were given the new life Jesus was raised to bring.  William and Callie and Joseph might not know, yet, what happened to them, but we do.  We saw it… the water flowing, the Word proclaiming, the oil reminding, the candle burning, all showing us with holy rituals what heavenly benefits are bestowed upon these three beloved children. 

Today we also have one more child doing something that shows us the power of Jesus’ resurrection coming into our gathering.  Heather will receive Holy Communion for the first time… a beautiful moment her life, hopefully initiating a lifetime of regular trips to the altar of the Lord where He feeds us Himself.  

What more do we need to see the risen Lord?   Well, if the truth be told, all of these events, all of these rituals that have taken place among us sometimes aren’t enough.  We want more because, as the second reading today says, even though the early church mothers and fathers heard and saw with their own ears and eyes the Risen Lord, and proclaimed that message with power, still, people walk in darkness, people are sinners, and if they say they aren’t then they are deceiving themselves. 

We are sinners too, we fail miserably from time to time in living in the light of Christ.  We suffer from daunting episodes of selfishness;  we can’t hold our tongue and rant and rave about others in language that is colorful, offensive, and hurtful;  we find it difficult to listen to others because our stories are always more interesting than theirs;  and we find it so hard to let the light of Jesus shine through us because even when we’re given an opportunity to invite someone to “Come and See” what we do here on a Sunday morning, even though we know we, too, have been breathed on by the Spirit of God, we’re silent.

If all of the events of Holy Week aren’t enough to “show you” Jesus;  if all the “Alleluias” of Resurrection Sunday aren’t enough to “show you” new life;  if all the Liturgies of Resurrection at the death of loved ones aren’t enough to “show you” the power of Jesus’ being raised;  if three Baptisms today and one at the Vigil of Easter aren’t enough to “show you” new life;  if one more youth receiving Holy Communion for the first time (after two did at the Vigil) isn’t enough to “show you” the power of God at work in families;  and if the care and compassion, the joy and eloquent reminders from Holy Scripture aren’t enough to “show you” the Spirit at work among God’s people;  then, maybe you’re the one Jesus is talking about when He said… “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”   

Jesus is talking about us today.  We don’t get to see Him in the way the first disciples did, the way the women did, the way Thomas did.  And yet Jesus calls us blessed because we’ve come here, we’ve gathered to praise, we’ve brought children, we’ve prepared a Meal, and Jesus says we are “blessed.”

We do encounter Jesus today, however, in the breaking of the bread.   There is something liturgical about the way today’s Gospel scenes unfold.  It’s as if John is trying to show us how the risen Lord comes to us in the liturgy and the Sacraments.  In both scenes it is Sunday night.  The doors are bolted tight, yet Jesus mysteriously comes to them.  He greets them with an expression, “peace be with you,” used elsewhere by divine messengers.  Jesus shows them signs of His real bodily presence.  And on both nights the disciples respond by joyfully receiving Jesus as their “Lord.”  

The same thing happens here, this morning.   Three children heard, through parents and sponsors and congregation, Jesus talking, inviting, sharing, bringing them into His arms.   Then Heather and the rest of us who are about to receive Jesus’ Body and Blood hear Him say “Do this” and we do it so we can be closer to Jesus, closer to each other, closer to those who have died than we are at any time or in any place.  Here Jesus gives us Himself… we can’t “see” Him but we trust His promise.

Jesus knew that not everyone would be able to “see” Him.   Jesus knew there would be those of us who would not have the benefit of touching His hands and side.  And so Jesus singles us out, as He did Thomas, and says we who believe without seeing are “blessed.” 

Blessed are you.  Blessed are you.  Because Christ Is Risen!  (Rx)