Wholly, Fully, Live

 “Wholly, Fully, Live.”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

April 27, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Psalm 16

John 20:19-31

Faith… is NOT the opposite of doubt. If faith has an opposite, it is non-belief, but why set belief and non-belief against each other? Faith is a continuum, and it cannot be quantified. We cannot measure one person’s faith over another’s. Doubt is a healthy part of a life of faith. If we never doubt, we are foolishly following whatever brand of faith we subscribe to. If you remember the atrocities of cults such as Heaven’s Gate and Jim Jones’ The People’s Temple in Jonestown, you know what I mean. The Christian life consists of much more than following a charismatic leader. It has much to do with using the brain that God gave you.

The disciple Thomas has had a bad rap for a long time. Modern interpreters of today’s Gospel passage have labeled Thomas as “Doubting Thomas,” though the Gospels never label him as such. The word for “doubt” in Greek is not found in this passage. Yes, Thomas required feeling Jesus’ hands and side in order to believe that he had been resurrected and to believe that what Jesus had preached was true. But wouldn’t you?

Thomas was tardy to the party and missed out on Jesus’ visit to the other disciples, but Jesus made the extra effort to visit him personally so that he might believe. (Remember, when Mary told the other disciples that she had seen Jesus, none of them believed her). Jesus did not shame Thomas for not believing. He simply gave the message, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” That one line reaches out to everyone in every time and place to make the message clear: you do not have to feel my body to know my Spirit. “Blessed are those who have not seen” does not mean, “Blessed are those with ‘blind faith’.” Rather, Jesus message is, “Blessed are those who will know me by my Spirit.”

Today’s Gospel message is like an early Pentecost. Luke writes in the Book of Acts about the day of Pentecost when the Christ-followers were gathered in the Upper Room and experience the Holy Spirit like the rush of a mighty wind and tongues of fire above their heads. That’s the way Luke described it. John, on the other hand, describes it as we heard today. The risen Christ breaths on those present and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Imagine being one of those present on that day, taking a deep breath and being filled with Unconditional Love, Grace, and Peace.

That was not a one-time event, frozen in history. We do not have to experience a vision of Jesus in order to breathe in that breath. We just have to be willing to do the inner work required to clear the clutter and allow Spirit to make a home within. Yesterday, I took the plastic off of my windows and opened them after a long winter and allowed the fresh breeze to enter my home. The stale air left and fresh air blew through. Take a minute to think of what stale air you may be keeping in your spirit. What does not belong in your life in this season of new beginnings? What feelings are overdue to let go of?

Jesus’ disciples were locked up tight in a room in fear when Jesus appeared to them. They were in the closet! They were afraid of the religious authorities and thought they would live better hiding away to live a more private faith. But Jesus, even beyond the grave, comes and gives them exactly what they need to come out of the closet. He says simply, “Peace be with you,” in Hebrew, “Shalom Aleichem,” “Wellbeing Be Upon You.” Those simple words gave them the courage to leave that stuffy closet and enter the world again with the Good News.

You don’t have to be gay, bisexual, or transgender to come out of the closet. Life is full of closets! I have never been in a house with just one closet. There are many things we carry shame about unnecessarily. To name a few: being in recovery, being bisexual when you can easily pass for the cleaner categories of gay or straight, health statuses, family histories, relationship histories, job histories, and the list goes on. I’m not saying that we should put all of our dirty laundry out in public. I know that far too many people do that on social media like Facebook! What I am saying is that if we do not fully own who we are and who we have come to be through our life experiences, the shame will keep the Holy Spirit from making a home in our beings.

I’m talking about those “old tapes” that play in our heads. “If I had kept a better diet, I wouldn’t have diabetes,” “If I had stayed away from those people, I would not have become addicted to that drug,” “If I had been a better partner, the relationship would not have ended,” “If I hadn’t wasted my money, I wouldn’t be in debt,” “If I had used a condom, I wouldn’t have HIV,” “If I had come out earlier in life, I would have had a better experience.” We all have regrets, whether large or small. But in the words of the great musical RENT, “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.”

I don’t think it’s news to anyone here, but you can’t change the past. Sometimes we have the wonderful opportunity to allow God to reform our futures from our regrets, but there is no such thing as time travel. The past is past, but the future has infinite possibilities! Turn the “what if” of the past into the “what if” of the future. “What if I lived a life of gratitude, living joy each day?,” “What if I went back to school and started doing what I always wanted to do in life?,” “What if I love myself enough that I will allow someone else to love me too?,” “What if I saw myself as God sees me: perfect, whole, and complete?”

Do you see the change in perception? Old patterns and cycles of pain do not need to continue. Nothing needs to bind you. Those chains? They aren’t real! They are a mirage, an illusion. That angry God you have heard about? He doesn’t exist. Those labels people put on you that you hate so much? They wash right off with the healing water of the Spirit.

On her most recent album, Rev. Delores Berry recorded an old gospel hymn from the Baptist tradition called “Old Time Religion.” It goes “Give me that old time religion… it’s good enough for me.” But Delores said, “I have come to realize, it’s not good enough for me!” So she changed the words and recorded, “Don’t give me that old time religion… it’s NOT good enough for me!” The old time religion is what had the disciples afraid and huddled together in that room. It wasn’t good enough for them, so Jesus liberated them from it. The same applies to us today. Whatever religious hang-ups you have that offend your spirit: let them go! Jesus gives you permission!

Without doubt like Thomas, we can’t have a living faith. Everything that I say on Sundays, I fully expect you to analyze with your God-given brain. And that goes for everything else you listen to and read as well, even and especially in your Bible. If something offends your spirit, take the time to look into it. Chew on it. If you swallow it and it doesn’t sit right, regurgitate it like a cow and chew it again! Don’t thoughtlessly swallow information and expect it to do you good.

Faith is about trust. It is an intimate and holy act. When we are intimate with lovers, we take our clothes off. We show our bodies in vulnerability. We show all of our beautiful scars, sags, wrinkles, and bumps. We also take the doors off of our closets to reveal their contents (and you know we like to pack those closets full!). Our souls stand vulnerable before those we love. That is trust. And just like Jesus, we invite those we love to touch our wounds. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.” Authentic loving relationship requires us to say the same to those closest to us. “Touch my wounds. See how I have been wounded.” The ego response would be, “Don’t touch me. You’ll never know what I’ve been through.”

Ironically, in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas (not found in our Bibles), Jesus says, “When you undress without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet as little children and tramp on them, then you shall see the Son of the Living One and you shall not fear.” Jesus was the perfect, living example of Abundant Life for the disciples, and he is the same for us. Now, don’t go walking down Temple Street naked—You’ll get arrested. But when it comes to sharing our lives with our families of choice and when it comes to sharing our faith with those who need liberation, some vulnerability is required. And until we own our full selves, warts and all, we keep ourselves from those infinite possibilities.

Today, the risen Christ stands before us. And just as God breathed life over the waters of the deep and breathed life into the first creatures in the beginning, and just as God breathed life into the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision, and just as the risen Christ breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples long ago, God breathes a breath of fresh air on us today. The wind is blowing. We cannot see where it comes from or where it goes, but we know it is there because we feel it. Take a deep breath and experience the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. They are God’s free gifts for us today. What a blessing! Amen.