Touching Resurrection: Resurrecting Relationship; April 12, 2026

Trinity Presbyterian Church: Our first reading is found in the gospel of John chapter three verses 16 and 17. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world but in the order that the world might be saved through him. The word of the indeed. All right, I've mentioned in a past sermon ⁓ that we are currently offering a confirmation class this semester to six potential conformants. So in fact some of them are helping us out in worship this morning. So in morning light we had a few in there. Well, just one, but that's a few. And also here at our 1030 service, we have a few in here as well. So I'm very grateful for their courageousness to do this. But if you are new to the Presbyterian tradition, confirmation is our tradition's rite of passage. So it's similar to a bar mitzvah or a bat mitzvah. Confirmation is a time for our students to be cared for by this congregation. It's a time for them to be affirmed of their belovedness in God. more importantly maybe, to explore their faith. And one thing we try to communicate to our conferments is that their doubts and their questions are welcome. And we pray that confirmation is a safe place that comes and when questions that arise in our class that we hold them. And part of creating a safe place comes with the caveat that I do not promise that their doubts and their questions will be solved in our class, completely at least. In fact, some of you in this room might even testify that doubt and questioning comes as your faith deepens. So this morning, as we start a new sermon series, Touching Resurrection, perhaps we can show us some empathy to doubting Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples. We will see in our second scripture reading found in the Gospel of John that Thomas doubts the resurrection. So hear now the words from John chapter 20 verses 19 to 31. When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and said among them and said, peace be with you. And after he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord Jesus said to them, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, I send you. When he has said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. But Thomas, who was called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see the mark of the nail in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe. So a week later, his disciples were again in that same house and Thomas was with them. And although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands. Come on, reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt, but believe. Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. The word of the Lord. Thanks. Would you join your hearts with mine? Let's go to God in prayer. God of the universe, you offer us this amazing love. And we come to you asking, how can it be, ⁓ Lord? And sometimes we doubt it, and sometimes we question it. So today, wherever we come and wherever you come from, we ask that you would hold it all, that you would bring us together as your body, and that we believe as changed people. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you. Amen. All right, so this past Friday, the world watched as the Artemis II successfully splashed down after a 10-day mission to the moon. Anybody else hear about this? It's pretty amazing. I was not keeping a close eye on this story. However, what caught my attention were the awestruck words expressed by the astronauts throughout this mission. So here are these hopeful words of resurrection from astronaut Christina Koch. She said, We will explore. We will build. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers. We will do radio astro- We will find companies. We will bolster industry. We will inspire, but ultimately we will choose Earth. We will always choose each other. And a few tender moments particularly stuck out to me. And one of them was how the astronauts chose to name a bright spot after crewmate Reed Weissman's late wife Carol. When they announced this, the astronauts huddled together in a warm embrace. And I read a poem by Jen Shoup about this event, and it expressed the sentiment so beautifully. Six years after she passed away, she was still on the tip of his tongue. Shoup writes, I can't tell you how much hope this gives me. The way we search for the deceased in the faces of flowers and asterisms, the great distances we go to honor the departed. What I mean is this. Even when doing the hard, the demanding, nearly impossible, we're really spilling out the letters of the names of the people we love. And for whatever reason, it's easy for us to forget how pro-human we actually all are and created to be, right? Perhaps our hearts have been hardened by things such as power or greed or even grief. But I'd like to believe that we all have this instinct in us to keep things alive rather than to destroy. Even if it means naming things after lives that have been lost. And maybe it's our way of resurrecting the memories of those who we love. And what happens dance, right? The Artemis II launched around Easter, the time when we celebrate the victory of life and we declare, ⁓ death, where is your sting? Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. We got it folks. All right. We are beginning a new sermon series again called Touching Resurrection as we start this season of Eastertide that will eventually lead us to the Pentecost, the birth of the church. And so I hope we might even be a bit transformed as we try to define the word resurrection together. What does it mean? Did this actually happen? And why is this concept so important for us as Christ followers? My introduction to ministry was through musical worship leading. I went to a Christian university as a Christian ministries major and a worship music minor, but I did not finish it. The minor, I finished the major. But. In the classes that I did take, we thought a lot about worship style and songwriting. And so I grew up on older contemporary Christian music, and there is a lyric that continues to make me think. So here is a game for us to play together. And you can get a bonus point if you can guess the song title and artist after worship. right? It goes like this. Crucified, laid behind the stone. He lived to die, rejected and alone, like a rose trampled on the ground. He took the fall and thought of me. I'm not going to finish the lyric because that would ruin the game, but if I can correct one thing about that lyric written in the 90s, considering these words of Presbyterian writer, Frederick Beekner. He says that we tend to try and make a poetic statement out of the resurrection when really it is simply this proclamation. Christ is risen. It is just as fine as it is. No need for fluff. And so I am challenged by the lyric, he lived to die rejected and alone. Because if we really believe in the resurrection and we really consider our first reading found in John 3, 16 to 17, which maybe many of us memorize as kids, Jesus lived not to die, but Jesus lived to live and to be in relationship with us. Because what did Jesus do once he was resurrected and made alive again? We see in our second scripture reading in John 20 that he went back to his friends. John sets the scene for us in our second scripture reading. Easter morning, we read about Jesus appearing to Mary. Then here we are on the first day of the week. The disciples gathered in a room that is locked for fear of the Jews. And this detail is important because somehow in this locked room, Jesus appears. But the miracle does not stop there. The first thing Jesus offers to his friends in this room full of anxiety and one might even assume guilt and shame. The first thing Jesus offers to his friends is peace, saying, peace be with you as the father has sent me, so I send you. Jesus offers peace and freedom from guilt and shame to the same people that rejected him and left him alone to die like a rose trampled on the ground as the song goes. Here in his peace offering, Jesus demonstrates forgiveness. And so I do not know exactly what the disciples were feeling, but I have been a friend desperately in need of forgiveness. And so I can only imagine the weight they all carried in that room that day. You know, I have been going to therapy for many years. In fact, in seminary, I had mentors encourage therapy as a practice of self-care, even after healing after a traumatic event. And what I have come to realize through my sessions is that there is a lot of guilt and shame that our bodies hold that we need to work through. Because there are so many messages in the world that shame or guilt us without us even realizing. And these heavy chains of guilt and shame isolate us more than we understand. Guilt and shame can keep us in a frozen state because of the fear of making another mistake. They keep us from reaching out to one another because we may feel unworthy of help. Shame tells us that in our core we are bad, while guilt focuses on the behavior and leaves room for growth. And Brene Brown writes that shame corrodes the belief that we can be better and do better. And it's much more likely to be the cause of dangerous and destructive behaviors than the cure. It's also inherently dehumanizing. But the story does not end in either of these two, guilt or shame, no. For Christ came down not to condemn us and keep us in our shame or guilt, but rather to save us from it. The miracle in this story, my friends, is just beginning. And so the story goes. Christ enters the room full of his friends and literally breathes new life onto them. He literally breathes onto them the Holy Spirit and releases them of the shame they carry. Christ tells them to live as forgiven people and to go and to do likewise. And keep in mind, these words are spoken, and for some words are enough. For some to hear, peace be with you, is enough to propel them back into life. But not for all. Right, we see eight days later, we are introduced to Thomas. Nicknamed Doubting Thomas, his doubt was taught to me through a negative lens. However, might I provide a new lens for you all today? I now read this story about Thomas and I see a friend who was probably so riddled with shame that his disbelief was not necessarily in Christ. But instead, he was so deep in a shameful thought pattern that he could not believe that Christ would come back to life and choose to literally be face to face with his betrayers and offer peace and forgiveness. Amazing love, how can it be? It's grace, of course, right? Frederick Buechner explains that grace, God's unmerited goodness, is a gift that can only be given. It cannot be created. It cannot be earned or bought. Someone has to choose to give it to you. So maybe Thomas asking to touch the wounds of Jesus is Thomas reaching out for the gift of grace offered right in front of his life. Maybe Thomas is not necessarily having doubt in his faith, but questioning, rather, the grace and forgiveness offered by Jesus. And further, I see this in Jesus' response. Jesus says to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. I do not think Jesus is condemning Thomas for his desire to see and touch his scars, no. Instead, I consider the word blessed, which translated in Greek as makarios, literally meaning to receive God's favor. So I understand Jesus' words as saying that those who are able to believe in the grace offered without having evidence or having to see... They are able to easily receive God's grace and forgiveness. And because of that, they are blessed. or are able to receive God's favor. For it is one thing to know that God's grace and forgiveness exists, and it is another thing to live into such grace and forgiveness. And I think that is the call for us today, to live as people who have experienced the grace and forgiveness of God and offer the same to one another and even ourselves. And guess what, my friends, the story doesn't stop there. This is a long story, huh? This grace will never run out. There is enough grace to go around again and again. So why is it that we put parameters around who gets to receive this grace and forgiveness? We draw lines, we create laws, but in my opinion, these lines only keep us from receiving grace. And I'm not saying that we have no boundaries in our relationships, but what I'm saying is that we might as well share what we can when we can. One last story. Since coming to Trinity, I have started saying the phrase, it's not a deal. I got this phrase from Pastor Jake. When I was new to this role, I was learning a new rhythm and I was running 10 minutes behind and I would text Jake frantically saying, I'm gonna be 10 minutes late, I'm so sorry. Then he'd simply respond, it's not a deal. And to be honest, that phrase has stuck with me because I truly believe that is one way God might respond to us when we confess to him and we ask for forgiveness. Perhaps God says to us, dearly beloved, it's not a deal. I'm just glad you made it. I'm just glad you're here. And don't get me wrong, there are plenty of moments when it is in fact a deal. But what I hope for you to see is that relationships are where we can really live into resurrection or Anastasis, which in Greek translates to rise again. When we offer grace and forgiveness to one another, we are able to rise again into a posture of receiving the gift of grace and forgiveness God has to offer us. We are able to experience what it was like for the disciples to feel Jesus' breath onto them and come alive again because of it. When we offer grace and forgiveness, we offer each other a small glimpse of resurrection. So my friends, hear and believe the good news. Christ is risen. And may those words come to mean something to you this Easter tide. And may our relationships be a place where the words grace and forgiveness are not only words, but become as tangible as Jesus's scars, which Thomas dared to touch. May we be inspired by events such as the Artemis II that remind us of our natural God-given instinct to nourish life, to make life rise again rather than to destroy it. and maybe remain hopeful for new life because we believe in a God not just of the earth but of the universe who so loved creation that God gave us Jesus his son so that whoever might believe in him and receive the grace and forgiveness his resurrection offers would not perish but instead experience eternal life and friendship with God. For Jesus came not to condemn the world, but to save the world from shame and to remind us at our core that we are good and created for good. Amen.

John 20:19–31