Easter 2-A  (3/30/08)              Acts 2:14a. 22-32; 1 Pt 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31

Epiphany, South Haven                                                Fr. Joseph Neiman

Theme: “We have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:25)

“Alleluia! Christ is risen!” we say at the beginning of our post-Easter celebrations of the Eucharist. We answer: “The Lord has risen indeed! Alleluia!” But do we really mean it? Are we like Thomas who have heard other disciples say, “We have seen the Lord!” and yet he was not certain he believed them.

Have you seen the risen Lord in your life?

We have entered into the season of the Church calendar called Eastertide in English usage in which each Sunday is named Easter 2 to Easter 7. It includes the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost, which this year will be on Mother’s Day, May 11^th. The season of Eastertide is linked to the season of Lent and together form a 90 day block of the Church year which moves back and forth on the regular calendar depending upon the date of Easter.

This year, as we all know, Easter was very early. It is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. The last time Easter came on March 22^nd was in 1913, and the next time will be in 2228. It could be on March 21^st, but the last time that happened was in 1818, and the next time will be in 2285.

The major theme of Lent this year was preparing for Baptism. Aware of their sins and failings on Ash Wednesday, catechumens (those preparing for Baptism) would be taught on the First Sunday of Lent about Jesus' temptations in the desert with an eye to their own continuing temptations to the flesh, power, and possessions. Then on the Second Sunday the conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-17) stressed one must be "born again" or "born from above". The Third Sunday about the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-42) presents Jesus as "the living water." The Fourth Sunday the emphasis was the healing of the blind man near the Pool of Siloam (John 9:1-4). Then on the Fifth Sunday the emphasis turned to the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45). Palm Sunday had echoes of "the saints go marching in" and stressed the ruling presence of Christ as King. After the Maundy Thursday confession (being shriven of sins like we did on Shrove Tuesday) and the lesson of humble service (foot washing), Good Friday stressed Christ’s total commitment even unto death. Then the all night service of lessons from Scripture, stressing God's plan from the beginning of creation to the life and death of Jesus, led to the Baptism and celebration of Holy Eucharist on Easter. Even if there was no baptisms per se, we generally renew our baptismal promises.[1] This sequence is designed to give us a vision of God’s plan for us, in particular, our resurrection destiny.

 The major theme of Eastertide focuses on how we experience the presence of the risen Lord in our lives today. Week after week we will hear in the Gospel narratives ways in which we encounter or see the risen Lord if we have eyes to see (Mk 8:18). Today the emphasis in on experiencing the risen Lord in the actions of forgiving and healing. The Lord empowers the his disciples to forgive, and shows Thomas that in touching healing wounds one can discover or see him.

Next Sunday, the emphasis will be on experiencing the presence of the risen lord in the braking of the bread as the two disciples did on the road to Emmaus. Their eyes were open and they recognized him (Lk 24). Then the next week we learn we can experiencing the risen Lord in shepherding as the Gospel account of the good Shepherd is present to us (Jn 10). The same emphasis is found on the 5tkh, 6^th, and 7^th Sundays as well, each with a particular emphasis. Let’s look at forgiveness and healing this morning.

On October 2, 2006 word spread over the media that Charles Carl Roberts “carried his guns and his rage into an Amish schoolhouse near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Five school girls died that day, and five others were seriously wounded.”[2] Roberts first told the girls he captured: “I’m angry with God and I need to punish some Christian girls to get even with Him.”[3]

“He was angry at God, he said, for the death of their firstborn daughter, Elise, who had lived for only twenty minutes after her birth nine years earlier. In the note to his wife, Amy, Roberts had written: “I’m not worthy of you, you are the perfect wife, you deserve so much better…. I’m filled with so much hate towards myself, hate towards God, and an unimaginable emptiness.”[4]

The Amish community was surprised by the response of the general public to their trajedy when thousands of letters and gifts came to them. The public was surprised by the acts of forgiveness the Amish community extended to Roberts family. “The Amish quickly realized that Roberts’ widow and children were also victims of the shooting – victims who had lost not only a husband and father, but also their privacy.”[5]

The grandfather of two of the slain girls was confronted by a TV crew who asked: “Do you have any anger toward the gunman’s family?” No, he replied. “Have you already forgiven them?” “In my heart, yes” he answered. “How is that possible?” Through God’s help” he stated clearly.[6]

Another incident: On May 14, 1985 four girls looking for money ended the life of Bill Pelke’s grandmother. “On the pretext of asking for Bible lessons, the teens got invited into the home of Ruth Pelke, 78, of Gary, Indiana. They hit her on the head with a vase, stabbed her 33 times, and fled, taking her car and $10. Bill Pelke’s memories of his grandmother were reduced to images of her in a pool of blood.

“When Paula Cooper, the most brutal of the four teens, was sentenced to death, Bill Pelke had no problem at first. But four months later, as he was working the overhead crane at Bethlehem Steel, his mind suddenly flashed back to the 15-year-old girl at her sentencing, tears running down her cheeks, and her grandfather wailing, “They’re going to kill my baby.”

Then, he said, he imagined his late grandmother weeping for Paula Cooper, and Jesus on the cross, forgiving his tormentors. At that moment, Pelke made his decision to forgive. And from then on, he said, he no longer was tormented by pictures of his butchered grandmother. “Now I could picture her as who she was,” he said. He immediately joined an international effort to take Paula Cooper off death row. Around work, he asked colleagues for forgiveness for disputes dating back years. He now exchanges greetings with a man whom he avoided for ten years.”[7]

“Healing does not come immediately. It comes in stages. It’s a process that goes on through one’s life,” the Rev. Walter Everett noted. His son was slain by a drug addict.[8]

Forgiveness is a process, psychologists and theologians have discovered. For some it can come quickly, for others over a longer period of time. For some it does not happen at all.

People with faith, in our focus, faith in Christ, are more apt to be able to forgive than those without faith. Their stories nearly all say “they could not have forgiven without their faith propelling them forward.[9]  Those who are able to forgive, researchers find, leave bitterness and anger behind and become free to get on with their lives.

Those who do not forgive often carry their anger and bitterness forward, which continues to affect their lives. “James Stone of Jacksonville, Fl, said he can never forgive the two men who murdered his nephew. He attended the execution of both.”[10]

The news article from which I am quoting, goes on to show the results of forgiveness from the increasing research that is being done on this subject in our generation. “In a w966 study of 30 divorced mothers, Kristy Ashelman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that women who forgave their ex-husbands were less anxious and depressed and became better parents that those who could not forgive.”

“Other research in recent years has shown that people who scored high on forgiveness scales had significantly lower levels of blood pressure, anxiety and depression, and relatively high self-esteem.” Writing in the Journal of Moral Education, Dr. Robert Enright says, “There is a clear consensus in the journals that forgiveness is an important therapeutic goal.”[11]

The process of forgiving has been identified as a four-fold process, which can be repeated over and over again until the full forgiveness is possible. First one has to admit what happened or what one did – when seeking forgiveness – was clearly wrong. “That’s okay, it doesn’t matter” type of response is missing the mark. “What was done was clearly wrong.” Secondly, “I didn’t deserve it.” That identifies the action as unjust and unwarranted. If you are seeking forgiveness for something you have done, the phrase is similar: “you didn’t deserve this.”

Third, “I (or you) have an absolute right to revenge.” You are owed – or owe – something as a result of the wrong done that was not deserved.

Fourth: here is where faith enters in. We say in effect: “Even though I have a right to revenge, I suspend that right and because of my faith, I forgive you – or I seek forgiveness.”

The impact of forgiveness is profound. John tells us Jesus said: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:23). He also told doubting Thomas to touch the healed wounds in his hands and side. Touching healed wounds is a profound place where we can experience the power and presence of the risen Lord in our lives today.

Anyone taking part in a Twelve Step program seeking serenity knows full well one has to admit what is wrong, take an inventory of wrongs inflicted on others, seek forgiveness and restitution where possible, and with the help of God (one’s higher power), be set free of the addictive behavior and find serenity.

For your homework this week, let me reduce this opportunity to a simple phrase. A wise monk once said: If you do not forgive someone, you let him or her live rent free in your head. Reflect this week on who is living rent free in your head, in your heart. Lift that person up in prayer, and then evict him or her by granting forgiveness before God, and if possible, directly to that person. You will ultimately be amazed at the serenity possible, at the burden lifted from your heart, and at the possibility of a potential relationship with that person because you can see him or her as they really are and not as you remembered with your hurtful heart and mind.

God bless you and keep  you this day and always, and remember the good Lord has forgiven you all your sins, and loves you more that you can ask for or even imagine. Do you believe it?