By Rev. Jamie Green Klopotoski
Based on John 20: 19-22
Topsfield Congregational Church
People
who are doing what is right, doing what they know they need to do -- protesting,
speaking up, challenging the status quo -- are facing harsh consequences. These
actions carry a real danger.
You
could be fined.
New
York doctor Maggie Carpenter was fined more than $100,000 by a Texas judge for
providing reproductive health care to a woman in Dallas. Fellow doctor Ingrid
Frengle-Burke said, “The legal consequences that doctors like Carpenter may now
face simply for protecting, advocating for, caring for, and saving their
patients’ lives are shocking and dangerous.”
You
could lose your job.
Arkansas
librarian Patty Hector was fired for keeping books on the shelves about race
relations and L.G.B.T.Q. issues. She said, “I could not stay silent as calls
for censorship targeted marginalized communities and undermined our library’s
mission. Losing my job was devastating, but I refuse to let these actions go
unchallenged.”
You
could lose your citizenship and be deported.
Turkish
PhD student and former Fulbright scholar, Rümeysa Öztürk, was arrested at Tufts
University in Somerville by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, sent to
a Louisiana detention facility, denied bond, and had her visa revoked, all for writing
an op-ed in her campus newspaper that advocated for justice in Palestine. Her
attorney said, “It was fully constitutionally protected speech, no crimes
committed at all … If this is allowed, anyone could be punished for anything
they say.”
The
fear was real 2000 years ago.
Jesus
spoke up against a repressive regime and he was murdered. His disciples are
devastated by the death of their leader, their mentor, their friend. Their world
has been torn apart. And they are afraid. They locked the doors and met in
secret, because there was no telling what the authorities might do next. There
was real danger out there. Who knew whether the people who had killed their
leader would now come after them? The last thing on their minds was the living
out of Jesus’ message of peace and love and hope for a better world.
Fear
is real. It can prevent you from doing what is
right, from doing what you know you ought to do. The disciples shut themselves
behind locked doors. They gave up on making a difference. They lost hope and
they were afraid for their lives.
In
the midst of this hopelessness and fear, Jesus appears. Even though Jesus had died,
the disciples saw him in that room, they felt his presence, and they heard his
voice. “Peace be with you!” Suddenly, their fear is gone. The
disciples are filled with peace. They are not afraid anymore.
As
I imagine this scene with the disciples, hiding in a room behind locked doors
and being revived by the peace of Christ, I can’t help but imagine this one
scene from the 1990 movie Home Alone. In case you’ve never seen it, actor
Macauley Culkin plays the main character, an 8-year-old boy named Kevin
McAllister who is accidentally left home alone while his family travels to
France for Christmas. In one scene, two thieves attempt to break into his home
while he was there all by himself. Kevin gets scared and runs upstairs to hide
underneath his parents’ bed. As he is hiding, he has a realization, and says,
“This is ridiculous. Only a wimp would be hiding under a bed. And I can't be a
wimp. I'm the man of the house.” He then gets up and run downstairs, out the
front door, and onto the sidewalk and he starts yelling: “Hey, I'm not afraid
anymore! I said, I'm not afraid anymore! Do you hear me? I'm not afraid
anymore.”
The
disciples are not afraid anymore. They are no longer frozen with fear. Jesus
shows up in the midst of their fear, moves past closed doors, and greets them
with peace. Jesus doesn’t chastise them for being scared and locking the doors.
There is no blame, no fault, no judgement, no harsh criticism, just a loving
and gentle breeze of peace. The peace of Jesus gives them comfort, confidence, bravery.
It revives their hope. And they remember. They remember what they are supposed
to do. They remember why they were chosen. They hear Jesus remind them that
they have a mission. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And
then they feel the spirit of God wash over them. They can do this. Jesus gives
them peace to alleviate their fears, encouragement to get up, and inspiration
to continue the work that they started together. Sitting around in fear and
inaction wasn’t going to make any kind of difference in the world. Jesus helped
the disciples find their voices. They were no longer scared to stand up for
themselves and for others, they moved on from death and pain and suffering and
found hope and light and love.
In a 2010 collection of poetry
called “The River of Winged Dreams” African American poet Aberjhani wrote: “Hearts rebuilt from hope resurrect
dreams killed by hate.” The resurrection of Jesus
resurrected the hopes and dreams of the disciples that had been killed by the
authorities. The disciples got up and got back to work to bring about the
Kingdom of God. They formed communities, spread the message, traveled far and
wide to make a difference. Imperial
execution and a tomb couldn’t stop the movement. It wasn’t over. It couldn’t be
over! They weren’t afraid anymore.
Jesus’
story didn’t end with death. Darkness turned into light, despair turned into
hope, death turned into life. Stories of this amazing resurrection spread
across the land by people who were sick and tired of being sick and tired. The
unfortunates organized. The people stood up for what needed to be done and
proclaimed: "We aren't going away. There is a new kingdom coming. We
aren’t afraid anymore."
We
live in scary times. The danger is real. But not everyone is frozen by fear,
hiding behind locked doors or underneath the bed. Hundreds of thousands of
people have demonstrated and protested in all fifty states to register their
discontent with the new administration’s unjust policies. Fired National Park
employees scaled Yosemite’s El Capitan and draped an upside-down American
flag—a symbol of distress—across one of the cliffs. Cory Booker, a US senator
from New Jersey, delivered a historic twenty-five-hour speech in defiance of
the President’s agenda.
On
Easter morning in 1959, Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr preached this: “Let us not be disillusioned. Let us not lose
faith. So often we’ve been crucified. We’ve been buried in numerous graves—the
grave of economic insecurity, the grave of exploitation, the grave of
oppression. We’ve watched justice trampled over and truth crucified. But I’m
here to tell you this morning, Easter reminds us that it won’t always be that
way. Easter reminds us that God has a light that can shine amid all of the
darkness.”
Three
things happened in that locked room on that first Easter night. Jesus gave the
disciples peace to release their fears. He reminded them of their mission to
bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. And he breathed on them the empowering
breath of the holy spirit. The disciples couldn’t accomplish their mission
alone, and neither can we. We too can release our fears and experience the
peace of Christ. We too have been given
the gift of the holy spirit. When you get scared, when life gets hard, when
you’ve lost your way, breathe in the breath of Jesus, let it fill you with life
anew, that you may love the way Jesus loves and do what Jesus would do. Like
the disciples, we too are called to carry out the mission that began with Jesus.
We cannot lock ourselves up, or be too
scared to speak up, or be too afraid to do the right thing. Our mission is to
do whatever we can to try and nudge us in the direction of a better world, a
world of abundant peace and love, a world that Jesus gave his life for.
Breathe
in the spirit, then unlock the doors and shout: Christ is Risen! Alleluia! Do
you hear me? I’m not afraid anymore. Amen.
Benediction:
Unlock
the doors.
Be
comforted by the peace of Christ.
Breathe
in the breath of God, let it fill you with life anew.
That
you may love the way God loves and do what God would do. Amen.
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