Third Sunday in Easter, April 19, 2015

Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:30b-48

First I have to get this off my chest.  

The anointing of Peter continues.  In the reading from Luke we hear that Jesus asks the disciples, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”  Then he “opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”  In Acts, Peter asks the crowd “why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us” after they heal a man; then he tells them the Jesus story, and seemingly “opens their minds.”  Both Jesus and Peter announce a call for repentance and forgiveness.  So just in case you’re wondering, Peter is the heir.  Not Mary, not Thomas, not John or James.  Peter.  And on this rock, and no other, etc.  

Tell that to the people who read other Gospels, other writings; who listened to women preach, who heard a different Jesus message.  They’re still out there, whispering.  Call them heretics, call them Gnostics, whatever - that Holy Spirit landed on a lot of people.  There’s enough for all of us.

OK, enough picking on Peter.  What I love in this Gospel passage is this: “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering.”  You mean I can disbelieve and wonder and also feel joy?  You mean that “belief” is not one cloth, and “doubt” is another?  Yes!

At our Coffee Table Communion conversation and Friday we talked about how our Sunday Schools never introduced us to the disorienting experience of Jesus or God.  They taught us words, they might have opened our intellects, but they rarely touched that place where joy and wonder live.  Now, as adults, we choose to start with the experience and seek understanding after.  Understanding doesn’t eliminate questions or even doubts.  It gives us a place to start from to address those questions, and it gives us practices to hold onto while we doubt.  We worship and pray even as we sometimes disbelieve.  And then, after sharing food with us, Jesus opens our minds.  That comes later.

Following Jesus doesn’t mean certainty.  It means sticking close through all the surprises and disappointments and miracles of our lives.  it means joy even in times of fear.  And yes, it means repenting and forgiving.  

May you be graced with the crazy experience of the risen Christ this day, this week.  May you know yourself to be God’s child, loved and loving.  Go, be a blessing!