These things are given you so that you might see God’s Christ, and trust that God’s life is healing this world, giving you and all creation abundant life.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Second Sunday of Easter, year B
Text: John 20:19-31

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

It’s easy to understand Thomas.

How could he trust in God? The last he’d seen of the Son of God he was dead, hands and feet and side and back and head covered in blood. Even if his friends said they’d seen Jesus alive, the evidence of his own experience, eyes, heart, was too much to ignore.

We know that feeling. Wherever you get your news, you could spend hours daily witnessing the pain and suffering of this world, of your neighbors. Every problem – and there are so many! – is a challenge to solve, and you doubt we’ve got the power or energy or wisdom or imagination or courage to handle even one of them. Trust God is bringing life to this world? Some evidence would help.

The problems of your daily life also pile on your heart. The illness or struggle of loved ones, your own struggles and fears, all can often seem unchangeable. Trust God is healing your mind, your body, your heart, or that of those you love? Some evidence would help.

It’s easy to understand Thomas.

It’s hard, though, not to resent what Thomas received.

His struggles with trust happened in the week between the Sundays, when he rejoined the others. But the risen Jesus was still walking around, and the next Sunday Thomas saw Jesus alive for himself.

He got to reach out and touch those scars of love. Thomas found his evidence, saw God’s life in Christ was real, and found the ability to trust.

But we missed both Sunday nights in the Upper Room, even the second, when Thomas got his chance. We’re still in the place of doubt and fear, with no way to have the physical and personal experience of seeing Jesus alive as Thomas did.

That’s why John is so compelling today.

He says, “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written,” John goes on, “so that you may come to trust that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that through trusting you may have life in his name.”

John says you have a chance to reach out and touch Christ’s scars of love like Thomas, and trust for yourself. Trust that Jesus is risen, and can give you and the world life.

That’s worth looking into.

We think we can’t touch Jesus’ wounded and risen body in person, see for ourselves that death cannot stop God’s love.

But look at what Jesus does here. He gives the disciples God’s peace that he knows and lives within the Trinity. He sends them just as the Father sent him. He breathes the Holy Spirit into them that breathes in him.

Jesus’ disciples and friends met God in Jesus, saw God’s face. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, the divine Son embodied as a human being.

But what Christ does that first Sunday night is confirm that God continues to be an embodied God, just not only in Jesus. He sends out his followers as new Anointed Ones, children of God, bearing God in their bodies, breathing God in their spirits, loving and touching others as God’s love and touch.

That means you can have what Thomas had.

Christ’s anointed ones have been offering their lives for the sake of the world ever since this moment in the Upper Room. Allowing themselves to be wounded as they love in God’s name. Risking their own comfort, even their own lives, to work in the world as God’s love, God’s Body, God’s hands, feet, voice, arms, heart.

If you want, you can only look at all the evil in the world, the bad news, the things you fear, the systemic injustice, the broken society. You can dwell on what seems like the rule of death in this world.

Or you can look for Christ working in the world. See the healing life and love happening in the world because Jesus is risen and has anointed followers, and filled them with the Spirit. You can reach out and touch scars of love in people who bear God in their lives for you, and to change the world. Maybe only what looks like a tiny piece of it to cynical outsiders, but that tiny change, that minute hope, is the seed for the healing of the whole creation.

And once you see and touch, you can learn to trust that God is alive and working in the world, and find abundant life here, even in the midst of all that can seem overwhelming.

Jesus gives you another gift, too.

There are times when it’s really hard to see the Christs working and loving and being wounded for God’s love in the world. Days, weeks, months, even years can go by where you’re overwhelmed by your pain or the world’s pain and you’re back with Thomas between the Sundays, doubting, wishing for evidence.

But Jesus says that if you can learn to trust without seeing in those times, that will bless you. One way to learn such trust is to remember the times when you did see. Call them to your mind, let them renew your hope and trust.

But the community of Christs around you are also tremendously important. Let us see for you when you feel blind. All around you is God’s wounded Body, scarred with love, and they can help you find trust until your eyes are restored.

Remember this, though: you are also sent.

You are also God’s Anointed, God’s wounded Body, filled with the Holy Spirit and with God’s peace. Your scars of love, your willingness to be wounded for the sake of your neighbors and the world, to offer yourself as God’s love where you are, these are signs to the other Thomases. Let them reach out and touch you, so they can see, and trust God’s life, too.

Because this is the path to abundant life for you, for all who suffer, and for the whole creation.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

Your life in Christ is lived in what Mark left open – chapter 16, verse 9, where you, like believers for centuries, let go of your fear and witness to God’s life in the world.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Resurrection of Our Lord, year B
Text: Mark 16:1-8

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

“The women went out and fled from the tomb . . . and said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”

Yes, that’s how Mark’s Gospel ends. Fear and silence. If there was more written after verse 8, it was lost very early on. Little wonder that by the second century some scribe added in his verses 9-20. But our best and most ancient manuscripts don’t include them.

Of course, we’re celebrating Christ’s resurrection 2,000 years later. Someone told. Matthew, Luke, and John fill in what happened. The other disciples’ fear was so great they stayed locked up that morning, but these brave, frightened women re-discovered the courage that first got them to the tomb in the early morning hours, and began telling the good news that spread that Sunday morning and afternoon. They overcame their fear and witnessed to what God had done in Christ, witnessed to God’s resurrection life.

These women created and lived their own verse 9.

Maybe Mark had good reason to end at verse 8.

He knew that the women soon told others. So, what if Mark intentionally stopped where he did? Mark called his story “Good News” in chapter 1, giving us the word “Gospel” itself. What if Mark believes this story only becomes Gospel, “Good News,” when you and I live our own verse 9, overcome fear, like these women, break our silence and witness to God’s resurrection life, like these women?

Maybe Mark is asking, how will you end this story? Will you remain in fear and silence? Or do you have a verse 9 that you can live?

To move on from verse 8, start by letting go of your fear of dying.

That Sunday the believers began to grasp just what it meant that Jesus was alive. They knew beyond doubt that he had been killed, buried. As the day unfolded, it began to dawn on them: death has no power over God’s Christ. That meant they didn’t need to fear dying, either. Death was just a doorway their beloved Master had opened to a new life.

Their witness to God’s raising Jesus from the dead poured out in this new awareness. They faced death and deprivation, imprisonment and torture, and yet they proclaimed loudly wherever they could go. They learned to live and witness without fear of dying.

What would your verse 9 be if you truly believed that death is no threat to you? Would living confident in God’s resurrection life for you change your life? If you learned to face anything, even your own imminent death, with peace, knowing you were secure in God’s love?

Imagine your witness to others if every day you lived as if it were your last, but you lived that day with joy and love and grace unafraid of what was next.

That’s what living verse 9 can look like for you.

Next, you can learn to let go of your fear of living.

If God can bring you through death into life, the early believers realized, all of Jesus’ promises of abundant life here are also true. The fear that led most of the disciples to betray and run away on Thursday was replaced by joy in this life with God, peace of mind and heart no matter the circumstances, in great difficulties, even suffering.

What would your verse 9 be if you released all the things you cling to in fear, and found a path to simplicity and joy in simply being alive? All our grasping for possessions or security, all our belief that faith means we’ll have no problems, all can be let go in Jesus’ resurrection life, and you can find true life here and now.

Imagine the witness your life would be to others if you lived free of the things that cause the world anxiety, and you witnessed with joy – even in serious difficulty and suffering – to God’s life living within you.

That’s what living verse 9 can be for you.

You could also learn to let go of your fear of loving.

When God’s resurrection life fills you, and you release your fear of dying and fear of living, the fear of loving is next to go. Those early believers lived into an abundant life in Christ and became vulnerable with each other in their love. Love shaped their community. At first, they shared everything in common, no one went without food or shelter, all were cared for.

It didn’t last, because this fear is tenacious. Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable to others in sharing what we have, in love, in forgiveness, risking being wounded by others, is frightening. But what would your verse 9 be if God removed the bondage of this fear and you gave of yourself for others in ways you never thought possible?

We’re watching and longing for justice from the Chauvin trial, we see in our nation persistent racially-motivated violence such as recently in Atlanta, we know the ever-present inequities and injustices in our society. We also know our relationships are fragile and we can harm even those closest to us. There is deep need for this love Christ calls out of us. When God’s resurrection life removes all your fear of loving with Christ’s self-giving, sacrificial, love, you participate in God’s healing and justice that vulnerable love creates.

Imagine the witness your self-giving love could be to others, joyfully letting go for the sake of your family, your neighbors, as you follow Christ’s example and calling.

That’s what living verse 9 can be in you, and it will bless the world you are placed in.

From today, this could be your path: live out your verse 9 with God’s Spirit as guide and strength.

Freed from fear of dying, fear of living, fear of loving by the Good News that God has broken death’s power over you and the creation, you can witness to this resurrection life in all that you do.

Mark has left open the rest of the Gospel for you to write. To live. Go, be verse 9 and show your world why this is Good News indeed.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

This is the week when the Triune God makes clear the plan for this world, and for you, the answers God has for your healing and the healing of all things.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sunday of the Passion, year B
Texts: Mark 11:1-11; Philippians 2:5-11; references to parts of the Passion story

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

This is the second Holy Week in a row we’ve been apart.

Last year, we were so shocked and stunned at how quickly the world shut down only a few weeks before Easter, it was hard to believe we weren’t in church for this week.

This year was no surprise. We’ve been in this for so long, we expect disappointment. Even last fall it didn’t seem likely we’d be open before Easter. Vaccinations give us better hope now than we’ve had in a while. But worshipping at home yet again for Holy Week just seems like another thing to struggle with in a year full of struggle.

It’s important to name that pain as real.

This has been a terrible year, and everyone is going through it. In normal times if one suffers, there are many who can support and help. But what if everyone is suffering? Our friends and family are as exhausted and depressed and lonely as we are. Nearly every human being on this planet is. That makes it hard to know and find support.

We know, too, that many have it much worse. Every one on the planet is dealing with pandemic fatigue and all the suffering of COVID. But many suffer worse from the pandemic because of the racism or poverty that already trapped them in systems that seem unbreakable, and even keep them from treatment and help others get.

But it’s OK to say that it’s been a hard year for you, too. You’re feeling depressed; that’s to be expected. You’re feeling lonely; that’s normal. You’re feeling anxiety about going out or never going out again; of course you are.

But here is good news for you. This week is exactly what you need, right now. Even at home.

This week isn’t special because together we play-act Jesus’ week of suffering, death and resurrection.

We don’t pretend while we sing Hosanna that we don’t know what’s going to happen Friday. We don’t weep together Friday unaware of how the Three Days ends with Jesus’ resurrection. This week isn’t about us pretending we were there back then.

This week is about us learning to walk with Jesus every day of our lives. Every year, this week begins with Paul urging us to have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus. We walk this week every year because by looking deeply at these events, entering into them with our hearts and minds, we learn ever more deeply the heart and mind of the Triune God who entered into our suffering.

And that you can do at home, too. As much as we miss this time together, and will rejoice when we have it again, what you need to learn this week you can learn wherever you are.

Right from the beginning of today’s liturgy, the heart and mind of God begins to be revealed.

In the processional Gospel, after the entrance into Jerusalem where Jesus looked and acted like an Israelite king, and received the praise and adoration of the crowds, Mark says Jesus entered the temple, looked around, decided it was pretty late, and left the city for the suburb of Bethany with the disciples.

That procession of royal cheers with strewn palms and garments sure looked like a power-grab. Now this One who reveals divine power and love is positioned to take over everything. Nothing can stop him.

Except, he enters the heart-home of his Jewish faith, looks around, checks his watch, and quietly leaves the city. That’s the first sign this week that the mind of Christ, the heart of God, is very different than the world’s lust for power and might and control.

When you watch Jesus this week, worship at home with the videos or CDs, participate in the footwashing at home, wave palms today, make a cross for Friday, stay up late and pray with the Vigil video, you will see that this quiet departure set up everything. The command to self-giving love flows from this moment. The willingness to be betrayed and tortured flows from this moment. The forgiveness offered while being executed flows from this moment. The struggle with God’s will in Gethsemane begins with this decision not to assume power and authority and ride the crowds to glory.

Because of this moment and its aftermath, this week is God’s answer to the world’s suffering.

If Jesus had seized power in Jerusalem that Sunday, instead of quietly heading to his friends’ house, he could have taken care of a lot of systemic oppression and injustice, fixed the whole Judean political system, used his divine power to force people to do his will, maybe even ruled the whole world.

But that isn’t God’s way, to ride political power to domination. God’s way is to change hearts and minds to the heart and mind of Christ, one at a time, and spread the seeds for the end of oppression and injustice everywhere. Not by force but by love. And over the centuries, those seeds have knocked down tyrants and healed societies. Even exhausted people this year have done their part.

There’s still much to be done, but God is confident with enough of us it can be done. By our love and self-giving, multiplied.

This week is also God’s answer to your depression and loneliness, your pain.

God multiplying servant love one at a time means that God has put people in your life to be with you even when you feel most alone. This year that’s been harder to see. The people you love to see and talk to are often physically kept away, and most of us have found great difficulty in dealing with those missed ties. But look at this year to see this truth: God sent many people to bring you hope.

And in coming to be with us, the Triune God also promises to come to you in the Holy Spirit. To shape your mind and heart to be like Christ, yes. But simply to be with you, too. God’s Spirit is always with you, even in this time of separation. You are never alone in God’s embracing love.

And this week is God’s answer to a COVID pandemic that has put every person on the planet into a year of suffering and killed millions.

God’s heart and mind is to enter into the suffering of the world, even death, and bring resurrection life. A real, abundant life even in the worst of times, as billions of people have learned over the centuries.

Every sign of hope given by you or someone else this year, when you didn’t have enough energy to care another moment but you still tried to help, all those sacrificial moments, God shows this week, will change the world and bring life. Think of the times someone’s sacrificial love transformed you.

This week reveals God’s true heart and mind for the creation.

Now, Paul says, share that mind and heart of God so others can know God, too. Though we can’t gather in person for worship, take the time you need this week to watch with Jesus, walk with Jesus, listen to Jesus, and learn. Everything the Holy and Triune God is doing in the world in Christ starts to make sense this week, as the Spirit shows you Christ’s path of self-giving love and reveals how you can walk that path, too.

Watch. Pray. Listen. You will be changed, and so will the world.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen