Second Sunday of Easter

The lessons for this second Sunday in Easter share a theological theme about the
evidence of Christ’s resurrection. If we go back closer to the beginning, just after the
death and resurrection of Jesus, we find this troubling and depressing scene from today's
Gospel. This scene in the Gospel with the remnant of the disciples gathered under the
cloak of darkness behind locked doors is simply scary. Scared and understandably
paranoid, obsessively worrying that they are the next ones in line to be tortured or even
crucified. Early that same day, Peter, John and Mary Magdalene viewed the empty tomb
and Mary had actually seen Jesus ,but you know, she was just an excitable woman
operating out of her feminine, emotional side, right? Who knows what was going on in
this woman's head. The only real, concrete evidence they have is that Peter and John had
seen an empty tomb; the body of Jesus is gone. That's the only real proof they have, and I
suspect one reason that by the end of the day they were hiding was because they thought
they'd be accused of stealing Jesus' body.

So there behind locked doors amidst their own doubt and fear, they're trying to make
sense of it all. Probably trying to get on the same page with their alibis for the night
before. Then suddenly, from out of nowhere, Jesus appears. One second he isn't there,
and in the next he is, and Jesus speaks to them and says, “Peace be with you.” And then
Jesus shows them his hands and his side. Here is Jesus who they had seen tortured,
crucified, and dead as a doornail, buried. And they can see that it is the same Jesus
because he's showing them where his wounds are in his hands and his side and he is no
longer dead; he is alive. They are consumed with joy. They're no longer afraid, they're no
longer hiding out because they know that Jesus beat death. The worst thing anyone can
do is kill them, and this guy, their leader who they've invested their hope and trust in has
triumphed over death.

And then Jesus says it again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send
you." and Jesus breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the
sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Just as
God had breathed life into Adam, in the beginning, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the
disciples and he gives them their lives back.

Lots of folks consider this part about forgiving and retaining sins as God granting the
Church, or specifically bishops and priests, the authority to absolve sins. Well I guess I
can go with that, but I also think it is describing something much larger than just priestly function. I think that here Jesus is calling for all of us to forgive sins and he breathed the
Holy Spirit into them to both give them their lives back, but also to empower them to
forgive and be forgiven, because forgiving is hard. In fact very often forgiveness can
seem impossible.

And I think it is no accident that this admonition from Jesus to forgive comes as he bids
them peace, because if we are truly to know and experience the peace of God, we must
forgive and be forgiven. We actually relive this very moment from the Gospel each time
in the liturgy when we come to the Peace. To a stranger it probably looks like an allotted
time in the liturgy when we greet one another, but it is so much more than that. When we
exchange the peace there is an element of greeting, but its primary liturgical purpose is
for us to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. That is where we truly go to work
as the Church, as a faith community. If we can be a place where we continually forgive
and accept forgiveness, we will know God's peace, and we will incarnate God's love as
the Body of Christ, heart and soul. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Dennis Campbell