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Acts 2:14a, 22-32 • Psalm 16 • 1 Peter 1:3-9 • John 20:19-31
You may have seen Richard Rohr’s daily meditation on Friday, called “Seeing and Recognizing are not the Same”. Rohr speaks of the varieties of ways in which the Risen Christ appears in the gospels – how he “transcended doors, walls, spaces, water, air, and at times, eating food” etc. “While all these accounts ascribe a kind of physical presence to Christ,” Rohr writes, “it always seems to be a different kind of embodiment.” Or as Mark 16:12 puts it: “After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country.” We’ll hear that beloved story next week, about the Road to Emmaus, but for now let’s be clear that while Thomas today could poke his fingers in Jesus’ wounds, Jesus was often seen, but not always so almost ‘surgically’ recognizable. The Risen Christ seemed to be ‘shape-shifting’ as our indigenous friends might say. And as Rohr’s book The Universal Christ reminds us – Christ is in everything; and has been so since the first post-resurrection days that we hear about in this Easter season. One cartoon I saw gives us a dog’s version of seeing Jesus, in which the dog can’t recall what Jesus looked like; but could describe in detail the sandwich he was holding.
As to seeing and not recognizing, has this ever happened to you – that you see someone you know, but in a surprising place or context, and at first you don’t recognize them? I may have told this story before – how decades ago my own brother who was supposed to be working in the far north – unexpectedly knocked on my door early on a Saturday morning. Annoyed and still in my housecoat, I looked through the door window, right at him, and did not recognize him. This was in my 30’s long before I could use any traces of dementia as an excuse! Perhaps you have not been that remiss, but have you failed to recognize people, maybe from work or church, if you saw them in a different context? … Phew, I was hoping at least some of you would put up your hands.
Poor Thomas immortalized so often as ‘Doubting Thomas’ when actually his great faith should also be mentioned, since he’s the first person in the New Testament to recognize Jesus’ divinity and say: “My Lord and my God!” to the Risen Christ. And of course, we get honourable mention in this gospel when Jesus says to Thomas: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” That’s us right?
Let’s also ‘behold’ our amazing gospel verse 30: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.” Despite all kinds of Christian biblical arrogance that we see today, the fact remains that any story about what Jesus said and did in his 33 years – is incomplete! Therefore, let us not make the egregious error of being overly confident about everything that Jesus said and did. People make up horrible stuff and insist it’s in the Christian Bible – like no abortions, no homosexuality, no women preachers, etc. Even where some such references seem to be alluded to, let’s keep in mind the golden rule of bible study – context, context, context!
I also found good insights into today’s gospel from two African American Bible scholars Gennifer Benjamin Brooks and Joy J. Moore. Brooks comments this year that:
“The disciples are huddled together in fear behind locked doors and Jesus comes into their midst with a word of peace. Shalom! The word itself has multiple meanings, one of which can reflect a simple hello. However, the writer of John’s gospel and the modern-day interpreter must consider Jesus’ greeting as the much stronger word of peace, offered in his greeting to the disciples. The greeting is said twice, perhaps for emphasis, or perhaps because the disciples were so awe-struck that they could not respond to Jesus’ first salutation.” https://www.workingpreacher.org/.../commentary-on-john...
I was glad to know that the actual word Jesus likely used was Shalom because that word can refer to a wide range of wellbeing wishes one can give to others – health of body, mind & spirit. Moore’s commentary in 2020 on the same passage, points out that:
“The whole of this is neither about phantom appearance nor even a doubting disciple. It is how to tell of a world when the divine shows up in disaster. It is how to tell of a world when forgiveness is forever possible. It is how to tell of a world when a woman’s witness welcomes wonder. It is how to tell of a world when life is to know the God whose mission is to forgive sins and reconcile communities scattered by oppression.” https://www.workingpreacher.org/.../commentary-on-john...
In today’s world we have so many communities scattered by oppression – so many desperate migrants forced to flee their homes because of violence, hunger, bomb-destroyed homes, slavery, or inability to access basic human needs and rights.
Throughout our Easter season until Pentecost, the first reading will be from the biblical book called Acts of the Apostles, or Acts – basically the unfolding of the earliest Christian communities – a book written by Luke who also wrote the gospel of Luke. Together Luke’s gospel, and volume two, the Book of Acts makes up over a quarter of the New Testament – all this from the only New Testament writer who is not Jewish. In today’s readings we hear from Peter in both the Acts first reading, and in the epistle from the first letter of Peter. And here we are at St. Peter’s – how appropriate! Peter has come a long way since denying three times that he was one of Jesus’ followers.
So, what can we take away from our readings today? That it’s okay to have had times, like Peter, when our faith wavered or floundered in fears; and that such times can make us even stronger in life and faith. That it’s also okay, like Thomas, to ask God for what we need in order for our faith to be strengthened. In this season of the Resurrection, may we grow in Easter grace and compassionate love for the world, Amen.