Mark 3:20 – 35 

I was watching the TV show Downton Abbey the other day with Lucy.  It takes place in pre-World War 1 England.  It seems quaint to us to see a society where everybody had his or her own station, and knew just what society expected of them, whether they were a housemaid or a duke.  And when one of the housemaids dared to buy herself a typewriter because she wanted a career as a typist, consternation arose all around!  She was not following the script, the plan for her life that society had decreed!

We feel our society is not so rigid, and indeed it is not.  Yet there are still scripts that are given to us by society, by our families and our employers.  And woe betide us if we fail to follow the script, if we write our own scripts, or follow a different script!  Many families have been thrown into confusion when a daughter becomes pregnant without being married, or if a son declares that he is gay.  They are not following the script.  People become distressed and anxious, and even angry, when the approved script is not followed.

In our Gospel today, Jesus is not following the script.  Different people had different expectations of him, and he wasn't following any of their scripts.  He wasn't raising an army to become the kind of military king some people wanted.  He certainly wasn't being a good Jewish boy and marrying a nice girl and settling down and building up his carpentry shop.  He wasn't supporting his widowed mother the way the eldest son was supposed to.  He wasn't following the right script.

And so his family comes to take him home, to put an end to the craziness, to get him back on track again.  And the Jewish authorities speak against him, warning people that he can't be the Messiah, because he is not following the right Messiah script.

Whenever we deviate from the script other people think we should be following, strong negative feelings are thrown at us.  I'm sure you have experienced this in your own life.  Either other people criticized you harshly for your behaviour, or you have criticized others for their behaviour.  Because we all do it.  It's one way that society tries to make people conform to what is considered normal behaviour.  

And sometimes it's good, maybe most of the time it's good.  We frown on bullying.  When someone is verbally or physically abusive, we bring the full force of law down on them. When someone is wasting their money on addictions or gambling , familes resort to interventions, to bring them to their senses and impress upon them the damage they are doing, not only to themselves, but to the ones they love. This is what Jesus' family thought they were doing.

But sometimes, the script needs changing.  Sometimes the way it's always been done is not the right way for this time and this place and this person. Sometimes God has a different script.

In our first lesson we see a clear distinction between God's script and the people's script.  God wants Israel to be a different kind of nation, a nation that does not depend on the leadership of a king, but the leadership of God.  But the people want to follow the script that all the other nations are following; they want a king. And so they get a king.

And in our Gospel, Jesus is writing a different script, too.  It is a script where God has power over the forces of evil.  It is a script where people who do the will of God are bound together in a family that is even stronger than a family bound by blood.  It is a script which in the end will result in his death.  And in his resurrection.

We all have a choice as to what script we will follow.  Will we follow the script our families and society have given us?  Or will we follow God's script?  They are not always the same.  And especially when God changes the script on us, there is hell to pay. We will face a great deal of doubt and opposition.  Tempers will flare and harsh words will be said. There may even be ruptures in family relations. Sometimes it may seem that it is just not worth it.

God is changing the script in the world right now.  For 500 years the Lutheran church has followed a certain script, a certain way of being the church in the world.  This is what we grew up in, this is what we are used to and what we want.  But it's not working any more.  God has changed the script.  God is pushing us to become a different kind of church.

Now this leads to a lot of confusion, doubt, anger and dissension.  Even last Sunday we witnessed this. And what makes it worse is that it is hard to agree on what the script should be, even if we agree that the old script is not working any more.

It is easy to look at the story of Jesus and his family and see so clearly that Jesus was right and Jesus was following God's script.  And it is easy to look back at Samuel and his contemporaries and see that it might have gone a lot better for them if they had paid attention to Samuel and played it according to God's script.  I'm sure a hundred years from now people will look back at our struggles and clearly see that what we have done is right, or that we really missed the boat.  I wonder which!

But whatever happens, we have to remember that the script we are to follow, is the same script that Jesus followed. We follow the script of reaching out to the hurting and lost.  We follow the script of giving of ourselves in the face of criticism and scorn. When we were baptized, we were baptized into Jesus' death so that we would also participate in his resurrection. As Paul puts it, “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  So we do not lose heart.”  Now that is a very important point, because it is all too easy to lose heart when we are faced with confusion and doubt. 

Paul goes on: “Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” You could also say that of our congregation.  Our outer nature is surely wasting away:  our finances are faltering, our average attendance is slipping;  but our inner nature does not depend on these external signs.  The life of this congregation is still strong, the love we have for each other sustains us, and the hope for the future which God is giving us is carrying us along.

God has a future planned for us; a future with hope.  God is guiding us to discover how we can move into that future.  Between us, we and God are writing a new script for Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, a script that is loving and welcoming and challenging and inspiring.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

John 20:19-31 

“These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” This is the big SO THAT, the chief motivation for John to write his gospel, and for that matter, for all the gospel writers. So that you may come to believe.

Now, we tend to use the word believe as if it means to have an opinion. “I believe it is going to rain today.” The word has a much deeper meaning as it is used in the Bible. There is intellectual content of course, but there is also an element of trust and confidence, and even loyalty, to the word believe.

Now, how does this belief happen? What causes it?

The kind of proof we need to believe in Jesus is not the kind of proof that we need if we are, say, developing a cure for cancer. It is not scientific, experimental, verifiable proof that we need. It is more like the kind of proof we need for falling in love. Ian and I know about this. We had only known each other 3 months when we decided to get married. And then we were only engaged for 5 weeks! 4 months from start to, well, not to finish, because that was only the start after all, and we're still going, after 38 years. We didn't need a lot of proof that we were a good match – and we were right.

Thomas thought that he needed tangible proof. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” He wanted proof that he could touch. But in the end, he didn't need that much proof. There is no indication that he actually did touch Jesus. When he saw Jesus and heard his voice, that was enough – he fell to his knees: “My Lord and my God!”

And there are many who don't even have this amount of proof – who just hear the story, and believe. And they are blessed.

Now I think there are 3 stages to coming to belief in Jesus. 1. We are attracted by the story, we want to believe it is true. 2. We decide to believe it is true, and start to behave as if it is true. 3. We get affirmation of the truth of our belief by what we experience.

This is also true in the process of falling in love: I first met Ian and just knew that we would be good friends. I decided that he was worth getting to know better. Then as we spent time together, we found more and more reasons to keep spending time together.

So the process of coming to belief in Jesus is much like falling in love with someone: You hear the story of Jesus; you decide that it would be worthwhile to be one of his followers; and as you act like his follower, you have experiences that convince you that you were right; everything about him is true.

What is the proof for you? Some people have had supernatural experiences. One man I know was baptized in a river as an adult. He says that while he was under the water, he could feel the pastor holding his hand, but he could feel another hand in his other hand, and he knew that it was God's. Some people have dreams or visions. Some people just have a sense of a comforting presence. All these are valid signs of the presence of God, proofs that the Jesus story is true.

  But there is another affirmation that the gospel is true: the love and fellowship that is found in the church. It is significant that Thomas, after he was not present at the first appearance of Jesus, did give up. He was still with the community when Jesus appeared again. He didn't abandon his friends because he thought they were deluded. He still hung around with them.

The kind of love that the early church had for one another is so beautifully described in our first lesson from Acts: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and... everything they owned was held in common.” And in the second lesson: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.”

Because when we believe, we have no need anymore to SEE the body of the risen Christ. We ARE the body of the risen Christ. WE are the proof that Jesus is alive.

Now, walking in the light, as John says, means being honest with one another. It means being honest with ourselves about our faults and our shortcomings. It means forgiving one another. We cut each other some slack because we are all struggling with some sin or other, if we are honest about it. And Jesus tells us to forgive one another in the power of the Holy Spirit. If we retain the sins of any, they are retained. We have to let go of them, let go of all our grudges and hard feelings from the past, and forgive one another freely, in order to set each other free.

In a world where everybody seems to be promoting their own agendas and putting up a perfect front for the world to see, covering up their inadequacies, it can be refreshing to be among a people who are humble and honest and forgiving. And this is the final proof that Jesus is alive.

  People will fall in love with Jesus when they not only hear his story but see him in the flesh. And that's us, folks. We are the body of Christ. A bit broken, but filled with new life, the life of the Spirit, eternal life. Thanks be to God! Amen.