Easter 3 b: Live the Resurrection

I have to share a great story with you.  On Thursday, we held the Shalom Center—opening our doors to people who may need some assistance.  18 people came—our biggest month yet.  Of those 18, we were able to meet the requested needs of 10 people; 4 people had some of their immediate needs met, and we were unable to help out 4 others. 

We also had a family member come in who needed assistance due to an unexpected shortfall in monthly income.  For that member, after Shalom Center closed, the office sent out a request to the parish family, asking for help in gathering the $150 needed for this individual.  Within hours, the amount was made available, and within 18 hours, not only was our family member’s needs met, but there was enough provided that I will be able to contact the 7 people whose needs I was unable to meet on Thursday.

I am overwhelmed by the love and generosity, the hospitality and compassion of this family at Intercession Episcopal.

“Touch me and see.” Both Luke and John tell of this moment, this resurrection appearance of Jesus walking through walls and telling the disciples to touch his wounds, to believe he is real, to see him.  

“Touch me and see.”  Jesus is asking them, and us, to believe that death does not have the final word; it is God’s love which wins.   To believe that God’s love wins even when all seems lost and an end seems inevitable and our human mind cannot imagine a different outcome.

The disciples don’t recognize Jesus.  They do not think he is real---that he is flesh, as they are.  How can the dead become undead? As this Jesus stands before them they are afraid; he is strange, a ghost, the other. The wounded Body of Christ stands before them and commands: Touch me and see; touch me and believe. 

Mennonite pastor Isaac Villages writes: “To trust in the resurrection of Jesus is to believe in the transfiguration of all flesh, to believe that God comes to us in our encounter of the other.”

As 21^st century disciples, the wounded Body of Christ stands before us and declares: “Touch me and see.”  Touch my wounds and know Jesus.  Touch me and see that I am flesh and blood like you.  That I am real.  I am not the other.  We share the same God DNA.

The wounded Body of Christ entered these holy spaces this past Thursday as the Shalom Center opened.  People who live in our community, struggling to make ends meet.  Most of them have income coming in, but not enough to make ends meet.  They find themselves on the edges---it might be due to circumstances beyond their control, due to their choices, due to bad luck or illness or tough economic times.  It does not matter.

They come here seeking assistance, a response, an outreach. Touch me and see. Know that I am real.  See me---not just my circumstances or my hardships, but the person within this struggle. 

And we respond, by inviting them here, welcoming them in, and by listening.  By making eye contact, shaking hands, perhaps a hug.  Whenever we can, we share from our blessings to lessen the gap of need.  We open our doors.  We recognize our sameness rather than our otherness.  We touch and see. And the Risen Christ is known.

“Peace be with you,” Jesus says to his apostles--those who are sent to continue his redeeming work and healing ministry---“peace be with you.”  The peace of Jesus found when we remember who we are and whose we are and in the remembering, in the living of the truth of who we are and whose we are, we are made whole.  Like Jesus, made whole even in the midst of pain and suffering, tragedy and fear, uncertainty and illness.  Made whole because, like Jesus, we can know from where we come and to where we are going.  Jesus knows peace and Jesus passes peace along to others.

“Peace be with you.” Every first Thursday of each month, some of us gather in the chapel of the Portage County Nursing Home.  We come to worship with residents there, and sometimes, caregivers or family members.  Too often in our society, the aged and dying are left alone.  After all it is hard to see that which we all become---like the appearance of the undead Jesus—the elderly can make us uncomfortable, perhaps even provoking fear and unrest---they may seem strange or the other.

“Peace be with you. Touch me and see.”

And so we do.  We greet them and gather them in, pray and sing together, make eye contact, share the Peace, touching hands, and we share the bread and the wine, giving thanks to God as we recognize our sameness.  Our oneness. 

As we do here, each Sunday and each Wednesday.  Welcoming whomever enters our doors, hopefully even taking the risk to invite others into our gathering, knowing that the Risen Christ is present among us.  And we touch and see, taste and know. 

These acts, these acts of touching the wounded Body of Christ, of seeing Jesus in each person we meet, these are revelations.  Not only do we reveal Jesus to those we touch and see, but we see Jesus in those we encounter.  The other becomes the known.  The wounds are tended to, and the Christ lives.

Let us not take this too lightly: these monthly, weekly, daily acts we commit to partake in as Jesus’s disciples.  Let us not dismiss them as obligations, duties, or self-serving necessities.  Let us recognize them for what they are.  These actions of touching and seeing—they are the means by which we transfigure the world with Christ’s peace.  These acts are the touch of Christ which disarms violence, the touch of Christ that spills out God’s mercy and grace.  It is gentleness made flesh that gives life, affirms life and makes the Light of the World known.

After the resurrection, Jesus walked through walls and ate fish.  How will we, as 21^st century apostles, continue to break down walls and share food?  Break down the walls that separate us and others from God?  Share food by living simply so that all may simply live?  See the wounded Body of Christ before us and touch and see?

Beloved, let us not only believe the resurrection.  Let us live the resurrection.  Let us declare it to the world with our lives.

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