Means of Connection

Guess how many Sundays we have to celebrate Easter? It always encourages me to recognize that Easter, the proclamation of Jesus redemption of all things is not 1 day, but in fact 7 weeks! 

What we read then today is a continuation of Easter – what are called the post-resurrection accounts of Jesus’ encounters with the disciples.

To me, these accounts feel a little ordinary - like everyday moments that anyone of us would have. They are wonderfully normal and incredibly intimate.

In Luke, for instance, Christ meets two disciples as they were strolling to Emmaeus. They share a meal and in the breaking of the bread, the disciples recognize this fellow traveler as Jesus, their Rabbi, their Lord.

In John Ch 21, Jesus meets with Peter while cooking fish. Over a meal, Jesus forgives Peter’s betrayal affirming Peter’s call – Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.

In our reading today, we hear of Jesus coming to meet the disciples', locked doors protecting them from the outside world and Jesus offers this word - Peace.

In terms of its production value, each of these Easter images is on some level underwhelming. If Easter was the defeat of death and a new lineage whose bloodline was in Jesus Christ, then certainly a follow-up should be equally spectacular, or at least a similar quality. What impresses me about these images is how jarringly simple and commonplace they are. A word of forgiveness, a word of peace, a meal among friends and God’s presence is revealed. Can Easter be that simple? Can God’s presence be found in such ordinary affairs?-

PAUSE.

Turning specifically, to the encounter with the disciples and the risen Christ in John Ch 20, we see an encounter marked by fear, a revealing of scars, and finally – a sending.

Admittedly, what I first come to notice in this passage are the scars, marks, and wounds on Jesus’ hands, which he shares with the disciples and Thomas. Of course there are other elements, the sending of the disciples, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the primacy of faith without first-hand experience, but the image that remains is the one of Jesus, the resurrected one, scarred.

It's not a surprise that the Gospel of John would want to show a demonstrable connection between the historic man, Jesus, and the resurrected Christ. Again, what’s moving is how our Teacher and Lord demonstrated that connection. His scars.

I imagine that there were 100 different ways John could have made this connection: Jesus could have referenced a shared experience, an inside joke, a moment of his teaching, or the feeding of the 5000. He could have recalled the number of baskets that they gathered. Instead, Jesus speaks a word of Peace into their fear and then demonstrates the marks of his passion – pain – and the world’s shame. It was his utter humanity that revealed his divinity and opened the doorway to faith.

PAUSE

Brené Brown, author of The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly, is a researcher into shame, the stories we tell ourselves, and how the pathway to creativity is often through vulnerability.

Our rejection of vulnerability often stems from our associating it with dark emotions like fear, shame, grief, sadness, and disappointment—emotions that we don’t want to discuss, even when they profoundly affect the way we live, love, work, and even lead. What most of us fail to understand and what took me a decade of research to learn is that vulnerability is also the cradle of the emotions and experiences that we crave. Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. (Repeat)

When people cling so tightly to the ego, a construct of the self, which is built to prove itself to the world and defend itself from the world - that self is then sealed off from such wonderful things the world has to offer like love, hope, empathy, connection, and authenticity.

PAUSE

Church

What do we do with wounds and the wounded? And similarly, how has the church wounded?

 When we are the wounded, where do we go?

Can these places be part of our faith? Part of God’s story? Part of our connection?

Henri Nouwen in his book, Wounded Healer, writes, 

Making one's wounds a source of healing ... does not call for a sharing of superficial personal pains but for a constant willingness to see one's own pain and suffering as rising from the depth of the human condition which all people share.

PAUSE

Have you ever wondered why Jesus shares his scars with the disciples as marks of his identity? Perhaps it is because they were also his means of connection – which is ultimately the point. God’s deep desire to abide in you / with you. Jesus is vulnerable first and invites you into that same place of love! As Jesus speaks in the gospel of John – just as God has sent me, so I now send you.

Real connection with God and one another can grow in all kinds of places – on a stroll, at a meal, and even, perhaps especially, in our wounds if we are brave enough to see them, own them, name them, navigate them so that we can help others do the same.

Perhaps that is why Jesus shares his wounds – because they are his means of connection.  Likewise – they are ours.