In Our Midst: A Sermon for 2 Easter by the Rev'd Deacon Ed Richards

Reading the Gospel accounts of the post resurrection appearances of Jesus sometimes reminds me of watching old movies of the Keystone Kops. In virtually every narrative, the serenity of Jesus stands in sharp contrast to frenetic activity among followers of Jesus. The chronological sequence of what happened immediately following the resurrection of Jesus is as difficult to determine as is the nature of the various personal reactions to Jesus by the disciples who encountered him.

After the resurrection of Jesus, people who were as familiar with Jesus as they were with members of their own families failed to recognize him. Others saw him and knew his identity from a distance. Some individuals spoke of Jesus’ physical traits – his scars, his hunger, the look in his eyes. Others told stories about his mystical nature – here one moment and gone the next, moving in and out of a room with closed doors. Participants in the same event with Jesus frequently reported different accounts of what happened. 

Some people find the conflicting reports of the resurrection disturbing. Fearing that cynics may charge, “Why, the whole thing is made up – you Christians cannot even agree on one story,” many believers labor tenaciously to reconcile all of the accounts, to impose order where there is confusion, to create uniformity out of diversity. Such people seem to fear that others will not believe in the resurrection of Jesus unless they can prove the resurrection by offering harmonized accounts of what Jesus said and did.

Personally, I am not of that mindset. I find the confusion and the contradictions in the resurrection stories of the Gospels profoundly reassuring. Obviously, what we have in the Gospels is not a carefully choreographed presentation of Jesus developed out of a studied strategy. No. What we read in the Gospels are the disparate accounts of numerous individuals writing out of the excitement and wonder born of experiencing a totally new reality – the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, dead on Friday and alive on Sunday and in their midst during subsequent days. 

Think about the dynamics here. If three people who watch a serious automobile accident cannot agree on the details of what happened when talking with a police officer only a few minutes after the accident, why should we expect hundreds of people to speak of their experiences with the resurrected Christ with words and interpretations that are exactly alike? The affirmations of the resurrection of Jesus that pervade the Gospels are not the product of mob psychology, an imposed doctrinal orthodoxy, or a strategy to convince the world about this stupendous event. They are the product of hundreds of different personal experiences. In the diversity of numerous individuals’ reports related to the risen Christ resides great promise for us.

The powerful meaning of the resurrection of Jesus for our lives is lost if the resurrection is considered only a doctrine to which every individual must give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down reaction. The resurrection of Jesus is not a theory to be proven or a creedal statement to be repeated so much as an experience. And this experience is to be realized by individuals in their own respective experiences by means of a personal relationship. Note what eradicated the doubt of Thomas and pushed a confession of faith across his lips – a personal experience with the risen Jesus.

Because Jesus provides our best insight into God, the new reality of the resurrection of Jesus gives us confidence regarding the certainty of the promise, “You need never be alone; God is with you.” One Gospel writer placed such assurance explicitly on the lips of Jesus: “Where two or three are gathered in my name,” Jesus says, “I am there among them.” The implications of this promise energize our participation in worship, to be sure, but those implications stretch far beyond corporate worship.

The resurrection narratives make up a relatively small percentage of the material in the Gospels. However, that small amount of material provides us with a large amount of truth. The risen Christ appeared in the midst of a small group of fearful, discouraged disciples. Jesus appeared on the shore of a lake in which some of his followers were fishing. As reported in the text for today, Jesus appeared to a man who questioned almost everything and doubted reports of the resurrection of Jesus. In a familiar place, Jesus shared a meal with some of his followers. Not long after that, Jesus joined two travelers reeling from shattered dreams to walk with them, talk with them, encourage them, and then to break bread with them. Jesus appeared to individuals who knew him well enough to avoid the use of titles and call him “Jesus.” But Jesus also showed up among people who had never enjoyed a one-to-one conversation with him. Jesus appeared among people who spoke boldly of their faith. Jesus also appeared among individuals struggling with the possibility of faith.

Do you sense a truth running through all of these observations and pulling them together like a golden thread? No one was, or is, left out! The risen Christ comes to all people – the confident, the disturbed, the discouraged, the self-assured, the doubting, the grieving, the rejoicing, the fearful, the hopeful. No time or no location – geographically or spiritually – falls outside the reach of the risen Christ. We can experience the divine presence when worshiping, working, playing, or struggling, whether we are in a sanctuary or an office, whether it is a festival day or a miserable day or in the middle of the night. The risen Christ comes to us, and stays with us.

When we speak or write of our personal encounters with Christ, the story of the resurrection grows and continues. Each installment that we bring to the story is as peculiar and particular as those in the Gospels. Now, as in the Gospel narratives, diversity marks our varied encounters with Jesus. However, that diversity gives way to unity when, even in different voices, we speak of the rock-bottom reality at stake here – Christ comes to us!

The truths that spring from the affirmation of the Gospel writers and our personal experience are overwhelming. We are never alone; God is with us. The closer we are with God, the closer we are drawn to each other. There is no challenge that we cannot meet and negotiate together.

We serve a risen Savior! God is alive and among us. You ask me how I know. You inquire as to the reasons for my faith in the risen Christ. My answer, not unlike the answer you might have heard from Thomas, draws from many sources, but this one is primary – I know Christ lives because he lives within this fellowship and he lives within my heart! Amen.