A forgiven people; a forgiveness people
(Free Version) The Second Sunday of Easter (Year B)- Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31
Artwork: “Reconciliation” by Deacon Darek Latta. This week’s readings can be found here.
Our readings this week focus on the profound implications of resurrection, specifically on the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, we are forgiven. In Christ, we are invited into the life of forgiveness.
In our Acts reading (Acts 4:32-35), we are told that the resurrection has economic implications. Something profoundly has changed. Because of resurrection, the people of The Way share things in common. They hold their possessions loosely because their possessions are not their defining reality. They are part of a new family. In this new family, they do not look like all their brothers and sisters. They are not bound together by biology, but by their adoption as sons and daughters of God.
Luke says, “there were no needy persons among them,” a likely quote from Deuteronomy 15:4, instructions for cancelling debt every seven years. This was a shaping practice for the people of God: they must not hold debts for too long. They will eventually be released. Making this a regular formative practice reminded the people that they are a forgiven people and God is the forgiving God. The early church embodied this practice. In resurrection, the ultimate “seven years” have been accomplished.
Even the practice of giving away our possessions is freeing. Many things claim hold on us: shame, fear, false narratives, and possessions. We are so easily defined by what we have or what we do not have. The church lives openhandedly, which breaks the fear of scarcity and false identities.
At the altar, we are reminded of this reality: bread and wine come from the earth as a gift of God; but they are also made by human hands. At the altar, the bread and wine are given back to God, who then gives them back to us! Our God is always the one who gives freely. At the table, we both give and receive; both postures require open hands. This meal then forms us into a people of giving and receiving, because you are what you eat.
In our epistle reading (1 John 1:1-2:2), John reminds us that resurrection is real. In case there is any doubt, this is something that we have seen with our eyeballs, touched with our hands, heard with our ears. This physical resurrection has physical implications for how we live. It changes how we walk: will we walk in darkness or in light?
Will we “walk in the light” revealing the sin that ails us for what it is? Only then can it be healed. In the cross, all of our sin, all the world’s sin was pointed in one place: the flesh of Jesus. And by his sacrifice (John says “by his blood”), we are cleansed from all sin. God is the forgiving God. He always has been. When we turn on the light, and to the light, when we reveal our ailments, God is faithful to forgive and cleanse us.
Our gospel reading (John 20:19-31), tells of the appearance of the Risen Christ to the disciples. He shows them His scars and He breathes on them the Holy Spirit. These become the defining elements of the church. We are a people of scars and of the Spirit. The presence of the Spirit is marked by forgiveness. More than anything, forgiveness is what the Church carries.
Jesus never disparages Thomas for asking to see. There is faith that comes from seeing, and there is faith that comes from trusting. Both are true faith. For those, like us, who trust in a witnesses, we need the blessing of God to sustain our trusting even when we are unable to touch the scars. In doing so, we bring our own scars and to sit with others in suffering and pain.
In the Eucharist, the cross and the resurrection come together for us. We step into the reality of Christ’s death and also Christ’s resurrection. We touch the scars and we receive the Holy Spirit. We become a people of forgiveness.
May we walk in the light and know the one who is always faithful to forgive. May the Holy Spirit transform us into the people we already are: the forgiveness people. May we hold our possessions, our identities, our views of others, and our narratives loosely, trusting them to God. May we know the resurrection that can be seen by eyeballs, heard by ears, and touched by hands. May we never leave resurrection as an abstract concept, but allow it to change us. May we know Christ in the midst of our own scars and doubt, and follow Christ to those who suffer and doubt.