What is Giving You Life?

April 19, 2020 • Palm Sunday
Reading: John 20:19-31 (New Revised Standard Version)
Pastor Alexis Waggoner

What is giving you life? This is not only the title of the sermon, but also has become a meme of sorts in our culture, used to identify something that makes us feel particularly joyful, or that we find humorous. I invite you to think of what is giving you life, as we go throughout our time today. To help you out I’ve got a few memes here to share. 

SLIDES / IMAGES — I will describe each

https://ballmemes.com/i/this-mush-ball-is-giving-me-life-what-a-cutie-20875031 

https://twitter.com/nnja/status/1238689102058283008

https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem/status/1245336294609338368

So while you think about your answers, I’ll share some of mine:  clapping for healthcare and other frontline workers at 7pm; writing daily inspiration emails; knowing I am helping my elderly neighbors who need it; dancing like a crazy person in my living room. 

To get us into the Biblical text, I’m going to do so by way of a quote from Harry Potter, from headmaster Albus Dumbledore who says:

SLIDE

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” 

He tells this to Harry when explaining a magical mirror Harry has found. 

SLIDE

The mirror of Erised. 

The mirror shows what people most want  … but, what Dumbledore is trying to say, is then they get sidetracked by that. Dumbledore’s quote is in many ways actually a pretty decent summation of our text for today. 

Let’s think of the Mirror in relation to the disciples. What do the disciples most want? What would have shown up in their mirror of Erised? The author of this text gives us some pretty big clues!  They make the answer obvious, or at least the story is written to have us understand that what they want most — and what they get — is Jesus among them. Not stories of Jesus, because they’ve already had those (Mary Magdalene), but actual Jesus. They all want to see Jesus in their “mirror” so to speak, to experience Jesus fully in this new and transformed way. 

I want to also stand up for Thomas a bit here, because I think he gets a bad rap! From this text we come to know him as Doubting Thomas … but he’s not behaving any differently than the rest of the male disciples! All of them had news of Jesus from Mary Magdalene and the other women who went to the tomb … instead of “believing” (we’ll talk more about that term in a minute), they lock themselves in a room!  So yes, Thomas isn’t taking them at their word but neither did they take Mary at her word either! 

These stories are pretty crazy, at least to our ears — physical resurrection, bodies walking through walls, post-mortem displays of wounds. But, like PJ said last week, I am less concerned with whether or not this stuff actually happened, and more concerned with what these stories try to tell us. 

What is important?

What do the authors want us to see in OUR mirror? 

I don’t know that the supposed craziness of this story would have distracted or fazed the early hearers at all. This was the way of hero stories in Jesus’ day; sons of God set up kingdoms, came back to life, accomplished super-human feats. So the Johanine story-teller is using the tools at their disposal, but telling the story with a different tone. 

In the gospel story, Jesus didn’t come back to ascend to a throne, or get his followers in line, or rule with an iron fist. In fact, he disperses his power — the power of his story, his presence, his spirit — by giving it to the disciples. He meets people where they are, and gives them what they need.

He doesn’t rebuke the male disciples for not believing one of their own, Mary. He doesn’t refuse Thomas’ request because Thomas hasn’t believed the others. He gives them what they need to believe. 

And here’s where we come back to that word. 

Belief in the Hebrew sense as Jesus’ early followers would have understood it is about action, not just head knowledge 

The first time word is used in Hebrew Scriptures: Abraham believed the promise that he would have a child. Jewish commentators say this shows trust and reliance upon God, which call forth behavior consistent with that stance of trust and reliance. All this wound up together, this is “belief” in the ancient Jewish world. 

I think Dumbledore would agree! And perhaps another way to think of it is, it does not do to dwell on head belief and forget to live. Because one should be leading to the other. Our embodied beliefs, our dreams, the things we most want to be true … they should be in service of leading us further into life. 

The last line of this text says, "Through believing we may have life.” It does NOT say, "these things are written so we may get stuck on the finer points of orthodoxy,” or "or so we engage in debates about theology.” Instead what is emphasized is that belief is more a question of HOW than WHAT. 

What do we most want to be true in our lives? What would we see in our mirror? Are these things — these embodied beliefs, these truths — leading us INTO life, or are they taking us further away from what is life-giving for us? Whatever the answer to that question, Jesus meets us there — Whether we are walking away from the tomb proclaiming the goodness of life, or we are locked up in a room trembling with fear.

The images in our mirror that reflect our desires, our truths, our beliefs may change with time, but Jesus is always a steady presence in our mirror. He is inviting us into ways of belief that reflect not a fantasy leading us away from living, but truths leading us more fully into life. 

May we accept, and live in the “how” of the invitation. 

Amen.

(c) 2020 Alexis Waggoner
All rights reserved.

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