Declaration of Life: Living What we Believe

In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. One God. Amen. Please be seated.

Happy Easter. Okay. That was pretty good. We have 50 days of joy, and in times like this, I can’t help but think about Thanksgiving. Okay. Maybe one singular tradition of Thanksgiving that my family has of watching the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. This irreverent film starring Steve Martin and John Candy holds a special place in our holiday movie collection. When we were much younger, my sister, my cousin, and I would begin our viewing experience crowded in front of a small wooden framed television until we were told to leave and to go to our room while a particular scene was about to come on. If you’ve seen this movie, you may be able to guess the scene. Steve Martin’s character, in an effort to get home has rented a car at the airport, and when he gets to the car’s assigned spot in the lot, there is no car.

Needless to say, hilarity ensues when this character returns to the car rental desk, at which point all the kids were told to leave the room. It’s this scene that we missed for years. We could hear the howling laughter as this scene played out, but we always missed it. Our names would be called and we could finally return to the viewing party in front of the tv, and then eventually, one by one, my sister and our cousin were invited to stay as they were deemed old enough to experience it, and I was left in a room all by myself.

Thomas wasn’t exactly excused from a room to avoid an expletive laden scene in a movie, but he did miss something incredible the first time. Jesus came and stood with his disciples on the first day of the week, on the day of new beginning, new life, and new possibilities. He stood with them. He rejoiced with them and breathed the breath of life onto them. The disciples were told to forgive, to live out loud their faith, and then they are sent into the world to live into their ministry. Thomas heard about this encounter from his friends and couldn’t believe. He wants to see and touch the marks and wounds on Christ’s body. Thomas desires clarity. He desires clarity because it’s reasonable to know what happened. Because clarity will help him live a new life, a life of ministry following the one they say was raised from the dead. And so on the last day of the week, the first day of the rest of his life, Thomas encountered the risen Christ. We’re not told the extent of Thomas’s investigation of this risen Lord, but we do hear his declaration of faith. ‘My Lord and my God’.

Thomas doesn’t declare this from a place of grief. He makes this declaration of faith, a declaration of life. This is our new life, a declaration that Christ has indeed risen and we are to create a world worthy of his resurrected life and our new life in him. Easter was just one week ago. We are here to continue our praise and worship of a Lord willing to be betrayed, to suffer and die for all creation, and we praise the same Lord who was raised from the dead to bring new life to every part of creation. It was on this eighth day that Thomas encountered the risen Christ. It was on this eighth day that clarity was offered and a declaration of life was made. It was on this eighth day that we make a declaration of life and go into the world to live the resurrected reality offered freely by Jesus Christ. We are eight days from the glorious celebrations of Easter and we are on the edge of a new beginning.

We don’t have the luxury of demanding that Christ with his wounds and radiant light appear to us whenever we need a reminder of our faith. But if we truly believe what we celebrate at Easter, if we truly believe and live what we celebrate every single week that Christ suffered, died, and rose for us, then it’s clear how we are to live our lives. We live our lives like the apostles in the reading from Acts, in radical obedience to God in the risen Christ. Not to judge the world but to save it. Not to destroy the world, but to heal it. Not to shame the world and out of fear and torture, transform it, but to love the world so much that it is saved.

We join together as faithful community, not once or twice a year for spectacular worship, but every single day as beloved children of God. To seek justice, to resist oppression and indifference, and to have our eyes opened to the world as Christ sees it, worthy of love and of mercy and grace and kindness. Our declaration of life is in Christ Jesus. We aren’t declaring this behind closed doors while simultaneously debating the humanity of our neighbors. Our declaration of life is declaring the humanity of all creation. For if we believe what we celebrate, then what we risk in delaying life in Christ and declaring life in Christ, is nothing compared to the risk Christ took to sacrifice once for all. We declare the fullness of the revelation of God, that Christ Jesus is indeed Lord and we are to live in him as loudly and earnestly and faithfully as possible.

There is danger in this declaration of life. We risk very little to say that Jesus is Lord in this place. But declaring that we see the same Christ in the face and eyes of our neighbors the world has deemed unworthy or less than, is risky. Because we speak truth to power, changing the center of reality from those who desire conformity, to a Christ who desires relationship and healing. We declare that Jesus is Lord to turn the world upside down, to break open doors so that no one is left out when new life comes. Our ministry and mission are clear. To live out loud. To love as Christ loved, to forgive, to heal, to break down barriers and to seek justice. We are a place to place ourselves next to, and in the midst of the marginalized, the othered and the oppressed, to resist any violence that may come to any part of creation, even if that leads to the way of the cross.

How we go about this work is up to each and every one of us. And we know that we are never doing it alone. We can pray, we can serve, and we can gather in community to seek the Christ already among us. We can pray for new life and the strength to persevere. We can serve those around us through simple acts of charity, kindness, honoring the dignity and humanity of everyone we encounter, and we can gather in community where the risen Christ is already working in us and through us and around us. We haven’t been sent into any other room away to avoid some inappropriate movie scene, but like Thomas, we are in the world to declare for the world and for ourselves that Christ died and was risen and lives for and with us. For we know that our redeemer lives and we have a resurrected life and a new life in Jesus Christ. A life that will change the world. Thanks be to God.