“I Have Seen the Lord: The Disciples”

“I have seen the Lord!”

Those words were spoken by Mary of Magdala, the focus of last week’s sermon. Jesus had appeared to her, and her alone, and her first, amongst all of the other options, including two of the disciples who had shown up first at the tomb. Jesus had sent Mary back to the disciples, and Jesus told her to deliver that first Easter sermon to them, proclaiming the truth of the Resurrection: I have seen the Lord!

This all happened very early in the morning on Sunday, so by evening, we should assume that the disciples are all purposefully spread throughout town, looking for Jesus and repeating the Easter sermon of Mary: Jesus has risen! Alleluia! In fact, by evening of that first day, John catches us up with the exciting story of what the disciples were up to over the last 10 hours or so: “the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews…”

Yikes. Not the happy Hollywood ending that most Jesus movies depict, is it? But a real one. Deep down, could we really blame them? Fear is one of the most universally human, and also one of the most paralyzing, experiences that we can have. Remember that when John uses the word “Jews,” he is not talking about all Jewish people…after all, everyone in that room would have been a Jewish person. The word is probably better translated, “Judeans,” referring to the political and religious regime that had opposed and killed Jesus. That regime was afraid of Jesus and his influence, so they killed him. Now his followers were afraid of reprisal, so they hid. One of the many examples through history of a fear-driven community spinning itself into the ground. Fear begets fear begets fear begets….

In fact, translators have struggled to make sense of what the Greek says here, because it doesn’t actually refer to any specific place or room or location or house. The most literal translation is “the doors having been shut where were the disciples.” The Greek here is ambiguous: it could be talking about a physical reality…or a spiritual reality…or as is so often the case in John, both. And doesn’t this match the way we experience fear? Doors shut by fear are unopen to relationship, unopen to health, unopen to healing, unopen to hope. We don’t need an upper room or a physical location to be locked away by fear.

Again, this is not the first or the last time that a community finds itself paralyzed, spinning deeper into fear. Over the course of the last 11 years, social scientists at Chapman University (in California), have been conducting what they call the “Fear Survey.” Each year, they survey Americans and ask what kinds of things that they are afraid of. And this year’s survey has a lot of predictable answers. Fears of losing a loved one or a loved one becoming ill. Environmental concerns about what is happening to our earth and our water and how climate impacts our health. Fear of war, especially this year with America entering another war. Economic collapse, both in the way that it impacts us personally and this year a greater concern over the larger question of whether the whole system is broken. All of these fears seem to be logical and well-founded.

But fear doesn’t stop there. The researchers report that crime is one of the higher fears in America, and has been rising year after year. That, despite the fact that crime rates are going down. They associate that with political rhetoric that demands that we be afraid of crime, even as crime is dropping. Of murderers, despite the fact that murder rates are going down. The researchers make it clear that social media has fueled this misinformation, going as far as to say that “the internet is not an information highway after all, but a manipulation highway.”

This dynamic is further exemplified by the number one fear in the survey. The number one fear, which has been the number one fear for the last 11 years, is not other countries, but our own. We are deeply driven by fear of our leaders and our government. Media and social media has fed this, to the point that more and more Americans believe in conspiracy theories, regardless of the evidence. It doesn’t matter what the conspiracy is, they suspect that our government should be feared. To test this fear, they asked people about specific government conspiracy theories, including JFK, and the moon landing, and the Illuminati, and the South Dakota Crash. You have probably heard about these conspiracy theories, and seen movies about them, and maybe wondered about some of them yourself. The exception on that list might be the “South Dakota Crash.” I don’t know if any of you remember, or have heard any details about the South Dakota Crash. But it is unlikely…because this phrase was completely made up for the point of the study! There was no South Dakota Crash! But the researchers included a prompt about whether or not respondents believed that the government covered up specific details about the South Dakota Crash…and 43% said that they did! Again, there is no such thing as the South Dakota Crash. But when we are prompted and manipulated and pushed into living in fear, we will fear things that do not exist! Of course, there are things to fear in this world, but we have allowed that fear to define us. Like the Gospel of John reminds us, it closes doors within us and shuts us down to seeing truth, seeing each other, and seeing God.

And then, all of a sudden, into our fear-driven community…steps Jesus. When Jesus appears to the disciples, he is ready to move them from a place of fear…to something else. Twice in three verses he tells them, “Peace be with you.” Clearly he is aware of their felt fear and trying to replace it with something else. And I would suggest that that something else…. is the Holy Spirit. Again, it is scholar Karoline Lewis who points out in John the connection to the language of creation in Genesis. Last week, I referenced the story of Mary in the garden, like the garden of Eden. And the dark chaos of grief, like the void before God spoke in Genesis. And the way that Jesus spoke to Mary her name, and thus formed a new creation in her. And now, once again, we read language of creation, as Jesus appears to the disciples. The NRSV says that Jesus “breathed onto them,” which is one way to translate the Greek. But Lewis and others suggest that it is more likely that John meant another connotation: Jesus breathed into them. Which is kind of a weird way to say it, unless you are intentionally referencing the first time in the Bible that we see God breathing into humanity and creating new life…in Genesis! John is hammering home this point that Jesus is forming a new creation. A new community. A new way to be in the world.

The appearance of the Holy Spirit here is not accidental. I sometimes hear folks mistakenly say that Pentecost was the first time that the Holy Spirit showed up. But what happened at Pentecost was more about the Church that was ready in a new way to receive the Holy Spirit that was already there. Even in Luke/Acts, where we read about Pentecost, the Spirit has been there from the beginning. And in John, the Spirit has already shown up at his baptism, and in the conversation with Nicodemus, and in his last conversation with the disciples before his arrest. And even on the cross…as the Greek suggests when John tells us that Jesus “bowed his head and gave them the Spirit.” We try and calendarize the Spirit, that she was not here at this point, and then showed up at this date. But the point seems to be that when the Spirit of God shows up, it is in unexpected ways, unpredictable ways, uncontrollable ways. Like when God shows up inside of a locked room and breathes into us, creating new life and new community.

Which seems to be what the Creator Jesus is doing. He is inviting the death of their fear-driven community, and calling them to instead become a Spirit-driven community. A Spirit-driven community that does not stay locked away, physically and spiritually. A Spirit-driven community that embraces the abundant life that is not hampered even by the coming of death. A Spirit-driven community that speaks peace to one another and brings peace to the world. And a Spirit-driven community that is ready to go. Have you noticed the language of “sending” in John? The man born blind was told to wash himself in the pool named Siloam, or “Sent.” Mary is sent to the disciples to preach that first Easter sermon. And here, Jesus sends the disciples, to be a people of peace. A fear-driven community spins itself into the ground…but a Spirit-driven community is sent into the world to proclaim abundant life.

So what does that look like for us, today? What might a Spirit-driven community look like in our world, when so many folks are overwhelmed and manipulated and driven by fear?

For a clue, I want us to think about the story of Isaac Pennington. Isaac was born in 1617, and was the son of the mayor of London. At that time in England, the government had no interest in the separation of church and state, instead demanding that citizens believe in the way that the government decreed. This is about the time and the place, by the way, where the earliest Baptists begin to push back with notions of religious freedom. But Isaac was not a Baptist; he was a Quaker, a member of what was called the Society of Friends. And that was just as dangerous. In spite of his father’s political and religious power, he chose to belong to a community that rejected that power. In fact, because he joined this outlier group, he was thrown in prison six different times. He spent five years in prison because of his religious convictions. When he refused to take an oath in court, because he believed that Scripture did not allow for it, he and his wife lost all of their possessions. Isaac Pennington knew what it was like to suffer at the hands of an unjust and tyrannical and Christian-nationalist government.

His response to all of this was powerful. In each of these examples of injustice and state-sponsored terrorism, Pennington chose to point…to the Holy Spirit. Over and over again, the decisions he made were driven by the Spirit. The words that he shared with others were often all about the Spirit. His daily practices of faith included prayer and meditation and meeting within the community driven by the Spirit. In a letter to a friend, this is how he described that Spirit-driven community:

Friends, our life is love and peace and tenderness. We are called to bear one another’s burdens, forgive one another, and never judge or accuse one another. Instead, we must pray for one another, helping one another up with a tender hand if there has been any slip or fall. O! wait to feel this spirit. Wait to be guided and to walk in this spirit that you may enjoy the Lord in sweetness and walk meekly, tenderly, peaceably, and lovingly with one another….May the meek, innocent, tender, righteous life that reigns within you and governs you, shine through you into the eyes of all with whom you speak.

Sisters and brothers, when I read about this Spirit-driven community, I cannot help but think of you! I think that you have learned what it means to be an Easter people, a people of Resurrection and Spirit-led peacemakers. In this season, where fear threatens to overwhelm, may we join in that work to which Jesus has sent us, and remind the world what it means to live into abundant life!