Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Gospel lesson (John 20: 19-31).
We've all heard echoes in large buildings or canyons. It's fun to hear that reverberation of a sound, that soft repeat that echoes faintly and less clear than the original until it fades away into silence. (Hello� Hello� Hello�) This week we celebrate Easter's echo, but Easter's echo grows stronger, louder and spreads further with each repeat.
Easter is echoing, echoing first among the disciples in that upper room that first Easter evening. The disciples are together, doors locked for their fear, but Jesus comes and physically stands among them and says "Peace be with you." They are overjoyed, even as they are reminded of the painful echoes of Good Friday when they see his hands and his feet.
Jesus echoes again "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Just as his father had sent Jesus to bring the message of the forgiveness of sins, so Jesus sends out his disciples, his early church with that same powerful message. "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." This heavy and wondrous promise that God forgives and retains sins through the Church is a marvelous echo. We echo what Christ promised right here. What we call the "Office of the Keys" is based largely on these simple, direct words right here in our lesson. We echo them to all who will hear and believe.
A week later we hear the echo of Easter again, this time especially in Thomas. Jesus comes to him, Thomas the denier, Thomas the unbeliever. Sometimes we call him "Doubting Thomas", but that may be too soft right here. The NIV translation is the only major translation that uses the word "doubting" here. The Greek word actually means to be faithless, to be unbelieving. Doubt indicates an inner struggle between trusting and not trusting someone. Thomas isn't "doubting" here. He is refusing to believe the story, the words that his friends are telling him. "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger in his side, I will not believe."
But Jesus lovingly comes to unbelieving Thomas and echoes the words he said before to his troubled disciples: "Peace be with you." Then he echoes Thomas' words back to him: "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop being faithless and believe."
Thomas had been a follower of Jesus for some 3 years. Thomas had faithfully said before Jesus death (John 11: 16) "Let us also go, that we may die with him." He had faith at that time, but the cross was such a shock that his faith is shaken. Severe tests can do that to humans who trust more in themselves than in God's Word.
But Jesus doesn't stop echoing his words to Thomas. He calls Thomas to lay aside his unbelieving human expectations, the foolishness of human wisdom and reason. He calls on Thomas to hear the echoes of when Christ Himself had told them that he must go to Jerusalem "and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life" (Matthew 16: 21). Easter is echoing the foolishness of God being wiser than the wisdom of man (1 Corinthians 1). Jesus echoes Thomas' own words, calling him to feel with his hands if he must. You know, we're not even told here if Thomas felt Jesus wounds. Perhaps it was only Jesus' words and presence that brought him back to faith again. Jesus told him "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Christ's resurrection is echoing among us. The loud echoes of that first Easter have reverberated all the way here to Junction City, KS. They have grown stronger and stronger through the ages. Their refrain sounds among us and through us.
Christ's resurrection is echoing in God's Word. Since He is alive, his words are not just a part of the historical record. Because He is alive, His words continue to be spoken to us. He is not just a memory, but an active agent who can confront and instruct and love us (modified from L.T. Johnson in Living Jesus).
In the weakness of our human reason, we would be lost and confused, filled with unbelief and fear. We would have no answer to the questions "What lies ahead of us after this life?" We would have no permanent response to our earthly fears and troubles. But Jesus' words to his disciples still echo through us and for us. "Peace be with you!" The Word made flesh still dwells among us in the written and spoken Word of Scripture (John 1). He is with us always according to his promise (Matthew 28: 20). We would doubt and reject and be unloving except that Jesus' word is living, active and powerful. We are among those who have been blessed with trust in him despite not having seen him as the apostles did. John wrote these many signs for us that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by trusting (we) may have life in his name" (John 20: 31). His echoed Word overpowers unbelief and works faith. His echoed Word brings forgiveness.
His echoed Word comes to us in Baptism. In our Baptism He spoke us into His life and then spoke our names before the Father to name us as his own. His death and resurrection are echoed in our Baptisms, uniting us together with him so that we too may live a new life (Romans 6: 1-6).
Easter has echoed to us. Now we have the opportunity to echo Easter to others. Easter is echoed when we share the love of Christ with others, especially those who do not know him. Easter is echoed through us when we share his love and peace with others.
The owner of a drive-through coffee business in Portland, OR was surprised one morning when one of her customers not only paid for her own mocha, but also for the coffee of the person in the car behind her. It put a smile on the owner's face as he told the next customer that the car ahead had paid for her drink. That customer was so pleased that she paid for the drink of the person in the next car. That started a chain, each person paying for the coffee of the person in the next car. This went on for two hours and 27 customers. (from "To Illustrate" Leadership, Spring 2000, p. 75).
In a small way, that is how the message of Easter has spread and continues to spread, one passing it on to another. We echo his words of peace, and fear and anger are displaced. We echo words of faith, and unbelief is subdued. We echo words of love and Christ's love is spread.
When I think of echoes, I think of buglers playing 'Taps' on Memorial Day or at funerals. 'Taps' is the universal signal that the day or life is over. Growing up as a kid I remember that at our local Memorial Day celebration a second bugler would be off in the distance, unseen, echoing the first bugler. Winston Churchill instructed that at his funeral he wanted a bugler to be high in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, and that after the benediction he would play taps. as soon as Taps was finished, another bugler, placed on the other side of the great dome, played the notes of Reveille - It's time to get up. It's time to get up. It's time to get up in the morning. That was Churchill's testimony that at the end of history, the last note will not be Taps; it will be Reveille. (modified from John Claypool in Leadership, Vol. 12, No.1.).
The last echo of Easter we will hear in this earth will not be a faintly passing sound in a canyon far away. The last echo of Easter we will hear will be a trumpet according to 1 Corinthians 15 (vv 51-52, 55, 57) (Because of the echo of Christ's resurrection) "we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." On that last day we will be able to echo "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?� thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
(This sermon theme was suggested by Rev. Mark A. Wood of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Brandon, FL. This particular sermon is modified from, but heavily dependent upon an outline written by Rev. Wood in "Concordia Pulpit Resource", April 2003.)