A Complaint Free World: Jubilee

Jubilee
Well, it’s our second Sunday of Easter…Just like Christmas, our celebration of Easter lasts longer than just one day…We celebrate the 50 days of Easter…The time between Easter Sunday and Pentecost…After Jesus rose from the dead, he spent time with the disciples before he ascended to heaven…During this time, Jesus ate, spoke, taught, and shared with his disciples and many of his followers. This Sunday also begins our Easter series—A Complaint Free World. And some have asked what in the world this is all about!
Well, if Lent is a time of trimming away all of those things in our lives that keep us from fully experiencing the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then Easter is a time of celebrating and fully experiencing the resurrection! And if Lent is a time when we give something up, then Easter is a time when we should start something new or take something on. So for the next 50 days, we are invited into the challenge to live in a complaint free world. Did you know that the average person complains 15-30 times a day? Have you ever counted how many times a day that you complain? So, during these 50 days of Easter, we are going to work at being complaint free…So, what does this have to do with Easter or the Gospel message? Well…
As happy as people were to hear that Jesus was indeed alive, there were just as many who weren’t sure what to make of everything. Last week, we heard about Mary Magdalene who didn’t recognize who Jesus was until he spoke her name…There were the other disciples too, who just looked in the tomb and saw Jesus was gone and they went back home…This week our story of Jesus takes us to his appearance to the disciples…
The disciples had gathered together in a home after Jesus’ death…They were probably together mourning the loss of their teacher and friend. As Mary Magdalene was at the tomb of Jesus, the disciples were gathered together—perhaps they were sharing stories of Jesus’ life with them, recalling his teachings, laughing together, crying together…When Mary Magdalene came and told them that Jesus’ body was gone Peter and another disciple ran to the tomb…As they returned to the house where the rest of the disciples were, Mary was having a conversation with Jesus…He told her that he was going to the rest of disciples and that she should tell them what she had seen and heard…
Jesus made due on his promises, like always and came into the house where the disciples were…John, the Gospel writer makes sure to point out that the doors to this house were locked when Jesus appeared to them…There was something different about this Jesus…He wasn’t quite the man that they had spent time with—something was different about him. Jesus’ resurrected body was different, but it was still a body…But we have these stories here to remind us that something is different—Mary didn’t recognize him until he spoke her name, but at that point she knew exactly who he was…and this resurrected Jesus can come into locked rooms… But lest they think that Jesus wasn’t really there and this was just some kind of spirit or something, Jesus showed them his wounds in his hands and his side. He showed him his physical body…
This was such an amazing experience for the disciples and as amazing as it would be to see their teacher and friend standing in front of them again—Jesus breathed on them and told them that they were to go out…Just as Jesus had been sent into the world, the disciples were sent into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit…They saw their Lord and Jesus sent them out into the world to continue the work that he had been doing.
As the disciples went out and started to do what Jesus had told them to do…There was one who was missing—Thomas…Many of us are familiar with Thomas—Doubting Thomas is how he’s usually known… The disciple who needed proof…The disciple who was invited to put his finger in Jesus’ wounds…We’re familiar with the story of Thomas…
Now just like many of the stories of the disciples, this is one of a disciple who takes just a little bit longer to understand what Jesus is doing or talking about…Jesus had been telling his disciples over and over what was going to happen—that he was going to die and rise again, but it just never made sense to the disciples because no one expected the Messiah to suffer and die, that just wasn’t something that they expected of the Messiah and as much as they didn’t expect that, they didn’t expect the Messiah or anyone to be resurrected in the middle of history! The Jewish people believed in resurrection and they expected resurrection to happen, but it was going to happen to everybody at the same time and not to one person in the middle of history…But that’s exactly what happened! And Thomas wasn’t with the disciples when they saw Jesus for the first time after he was raised…And he had a few questions…Wouldn’t you? Don’t you?
The disciples get a bad rap sometimes for just not getting it…But, how many times can you identify with the disciples? Confused about what Jesus is saying…Not wanting it to be real…Not wanting it to have to apply to us…We’re a lot more like the disciples than we want to believe…
Have you ever felt like Thomas? Have you ever doubted? Usually when something traumatic happens in our life, we start to question a lot of things…Sometimes that questioning leads to a questioning of our faith, a questioning of God, wanting to put our finger in the wounds…Have you ever doubted? Have you ever questioned? Thomas was out in the open about his doubts and questions—he was adamant about what he needed and wanted to see in order to believe…Have you ever been in a situation like Thomas? Thomas had just lost his friend and his teacher to a brutal killing…His leader Jesus had been whipped and crucified…He had to be devastated…In his devastation, he doubted and questioned…
I was a freshman in high school when I first met Jeremy, he was a junior…The very first time I had a conversation with him, he was babbling incoherently and wafted in and out of consciousness as he passed out on a friend’s shoulder as he mumbled about what drugs he had taken that morning…Over that year, we saw Jeremy spiral downward as he was kicked off the musical cast on opening night because he came to the show high…Over the summer, Jeremy was sent to a rehab by his family where he battled his addictions to drugs and when I was a senior in high school, he came back to school to complete his junior & senior years. There was such a change in him and he and I became pretty good friends that year as he dated one of my friends. In his recovery, Jeremy had grown in faith and he and I had many conversations about God & our faith. After my graduation, I started college and it just became harder to keep in touch…It wasn’t until I got an unexpected phone call that I realized that it had been almost a year since I had talked with him…A friend called to tell me that Jeremy had been killed in a car accident…He took a sharp curve too fast on a dark night and lost control…When I heard the news, I was angry and sad…As everything started to set in, I turned my anger to God…I was wrestling with my call to ministry when Jeremy died and when I got the news, the last thing that I wanted to think about was God…I pushed Jesus out and I questioned everything about my faith, about my call, about God, about what had happened…I doubted…At Jeremy’s funeral, there gathered a group of friends, some that hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in 3 years…As we left the funeral home and went to Denny’s for dinner, we laughed and we shared…We cried…It was in that community that put my finger in the wounds…It was in that community that I experienced a God who was a healer…A God who was close…In my doubts and my questions, Jesus made his presence very clear to me…I put my hand in his hands and side and I believed…
Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples when they saw Jesus…He must have felt so alone…So out of the loop…Everyone else is rejoicing and happy to share that Jesus is risen, but he didn’t know what to do with what they were saying…He couldn’t fathom how it could be true…All he knew of death was that it was permanent…And here were the other disciples celebrating that Jesus is risen…It had to be a very lonely place for him to be in…Full of these questions and doubts and no one seemed to understand…
Have you ever doubted? Have you ever had questions? It’s okay to doubt…It’s okay to question…But even in the midst of those questions, Jesus is there…Ready for us to touch his wounds…Ready to show to us how much he loves us…
It’s what we do with our questions and doubts that’s important…Because just like Thomas, we’re not left in the doubting and in the questioning…Because Jesus is there…Offering comfort and healing…Offering love and grace…
There’s a video that has made its way through the internet and even most of the news programs…It’s a video from the show Britain’s Got Talent—have you seen it? Britain’s Got Talent is the original version of the American show with the same name, but contestants come on the show to share their talent and they’re judged by three judges and given critique or compliments and either invited to continue in the competition or sent away home. Well, Susan Boyle came to the show to become a professional singer…Here’s a picture of Susan (picture)…and a couple things about this clip—Susan tells the judges that she wants to be like Elaine Page—well, Elaine Page is a very popular British singer and she is a very petite , blonde woman—so that may help to explain some of the reaction in the video…But watch Susan Boyle’s audition for Britain’s Got Talent…(Clip)…Talk about a bunch of doubters! How many the first time you saw that were you expecting that voice to come from that woman? And as much as Simon Cowell wants to say that he knew what was going to happen, you saw the surprise on his face just as much as the other judges and as the audience. What wasn’t on this clip was as they continue with the show, they spent about 5 more minutes reacting to what had just happened…Everyone had doubted Susan’s ability to sing and they judged her based on her appearance and her cheeky attitude…She wasn’t what they expected at all…And when she opened her mouth…My Lord and my God!
Thomas said to Jesus, “My Lord, my God.” He believed…He knew who Jesus is…He knew that Jesus is the Lord…Jesus is God…He came to the other end of his doubts and he believed…
The author of the Gospel said that there were other signs that were given to the disciples so that they may believe…Maybe they needed more to understand what it was that had happened…What Jesus had truly done through his resurrection…
Although there were more signs, John only recorded these…There were the ones that John saw as most important…John saw that it was important to show that Jesus is alive to offer love and grace…To love us through our questions…To love us through our doubts…To offer us grace when we cry out, “My Lord, my God!”
I think that some of Thomas’ doubts were really complaints…I think that he did have questions about what was going on as all of the disciples and the whole world had questions! But, I think Thomas was complaining about some things…That he hadn’t been with the disciples when they saw Jesus for the first time, that he didn’t know what to make of what they were telling him…that he was hurt that he wasn’t a part of this new thing that the disciples experienced…and he was complaining about it. So, if the average person complains 15-30 times a day…how many times to do you complain? Have you ever counted? Well, you’re going to get the chance to…A Complaint Free World is a non-profit organization started by Rev. Will Bowen to invite people to think more positively…the challenge that we are invited to participate in is to take the purple bracelets…And put it on your left wrist to start…and every time you catch yourself complaining, switch your bracelet to the other wrist. The goal is to go 21 days without complaining…We’ve got 50 days to work on this together. Now, I know that there are some of you who are thinking right now that there is no way that you’re going to participate—maybe because you think that this is too hard, which I’m not going to lie it is very challenging! Or maybe because you think that you’re just not ever going to change so why try now? Well, let me tell you that it is not a requirement for you to join this challenge—you are free to make your choice on that. But, I would ask you to prayerfully consider joining…This is the way that we as Sheridan-Norway United Methodist Church are going to work at experiencing the resurrection of Jesus because we have indeed been called out from our tombs…The tombs of complaints, of hurts, of pain…And we have been called out as Jesus reaches for us to show us the wounds in his hands and his side…And we have the choice of how to cry out…We can request to stay in our tombs or we can see what God has for us and cry out, “My Lord and my God.” So, take a bracelet with you this morning and let’s work together on making this world that we live in, this world that Jesus redeemed…this world that we live in as Easter people, a complaint free world…