"Fragments and Whole" April 8, 2018

John 20: 19-31 Acts 4:32-35 The farce of this morning’s Call to Worship about “Teaching Sentence Fragments” is that every sentence is a fragment; yet, together those fragments paint a picture where we clearly identify ourselves in that classroom. We hear the music, we see the light, we know by name and can feel the other students in our midst, all the while knowing the assignment they are to do, and wrestling along with the teacher the mood of teaching. Taken together fragments can represent a whole, but fragments out of context may not portray the full story. When we hear the words Cancer, Divorce, Arrested, Killing, does FEAR take over us, or do we listen for the full story? This morning, after so many years together, I want to ask you about Starting points, our Assumptions. Are: Grace and Generosity and Compassion, only “Churchywords”, or the foundations of how we live and treat one another? Do we view one another as competitors in our way, or do we see one another as the presence of God in our midst? When you receive an email, do you expect frustration? When the phone rings do you answer as if a robo-call taped telemarketer, or surprise from family member? Do we approach life as experiences of the whole of life’s journey holding to what we believe, or as a series of crises? Our Gospel is such a well-known story, we know what it is to be a “Doubting Thomas” without hearing him speak. But Thomas doubted no more than any other, he simply was not present to witness, when the others each saw the resurrected Jesus that 1st Easter. Knowing that Thomas’ Doubting is coming, we gloss over and miss that Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit, John’s version of the Day of Pentecost, along with the first Three Commands of the Resurrected Jesus! “Peace I leave with us!” “As the Father has sent me, so I send you!” “If you refuse to forgive the sins of any they are retained forever, if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven!” The first words of Jesus after the Crucifixion, are not from Fear but from Faith. He does not speak of riot or retribution, but of forgiveness and following God. Thomas represents all of us, who did not live in 1st Century Galilee, to be witnesses. We hear the Bible, we share experiences, and as much as we want proof, as much as we need certainty, this is a story of faith. Our lives are a story of faith or doubts. Doubting Thomas is one fragment of the whole Resurrection story, of the Life of Christ and what it means to be a Christian, to be the Church. Doubting Thomas is a piece of the whole, which makes sense when we also have the Last Supper, the Betrayal, the Arrest, the Crucifixion, the Burial, and all of the many other Resurrection appearances. This in contrast to Mark, last week, which simply ended that they ran away in fear, others doubted the resurrection as an idle tale; and in contrast to Luke where the Gift of the Holy Spirit will not come for 50 days. The point of this piece of the Resurrection is not that one of the disciples was named Thomas; not the naming of doubts, every disciple/all of us, have doubts. The point of this fragment within the whole is Jesus’ statement: “Have you believed because you have seen me, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”. More than anything the disciples had experienced before, Jesus’ death and resurrection shifted their level of trust and commitment. How do you believe when confronted with the impossible? If I described to you that this week a 15 year stepped up to a Golf Tee and shot a hole-in-one, we would smile our congratulations for the boy. Yet if we add to that fragment, that the 15 year old was Jack Nicklaus’ own grandson at the US Open, and Grandpa Jack who himself had Six-times won the Grand Masters Tournament, described that this: being with his Grandson when he shot a Hole in One was the best moment of his whole life. Our present circumstances, this fragment we call today, calls each of us to question and to struggle with our full trust and commitment. Do we react in panic at crises, or persevere in faith? We remember the fragment, that the Racial Prejudice of the 1920-1960s was evil. We know Martin Luther King Jr. was remembered as a hero, but do you recall why he was in Memphis this week, 50 years ago? Garbage Workers were not Unionized, and were not given any benefits, not even breaks or lunch hours, working a 16 hour shift. In order to eat, one man would drive the truck, while others sat in the Garbage hopper to eat. It was against the rules, but it was cold and snowing just as it did this week, so three had been fully inside the Garbage hopper eating, when the compactor was accidentally activated, and these human beings were treated as garbage. Would that we could see one another as human beings, as equals, without anyone having to endure such tragedy. The passage from Acts, describes a fragment from the early Church. This is a utopian starting point for the Church, that everyone held all things in common, providing for each as they had need. But how much more complete an image if in addition to Barnabas selling his land to provide for others, we continue reading about a husband and wife Ananias and Sapphira! They too had a piece of land, but instead of keeping it (which was their right), or doing as Barnabas had done, they refused to trust, they conspired together against the community and against God, by selling the land for one price and saying they sold the land for a lesser value. When confronted about his lie, the husband dropped dead. When the wife was asked, she maintained the lie, and she too died. Fragments of life, a singular decision out of context, in reaction to crises, seems as nothing, but fragments join together as a lifetime, as representation of who we are and what we believe. So I ask again, as we did at the start: Are Grace, Generosity, Compassion only words, or the foundation of how we live & treat one another? Are our lives, Stories of Faith and Forgiveness, or of our Dou