Christ Episcopal Church
April 15, 2012
2 Easter B
Last summer, we hosted our first ever Reading Camp at Christ Church. Our goal was to help children who had just completed 2nd grade and were a year or so behind in their reading. We would recruit from schools with a high poverty rate, where parents most likely could not afford supplemental educational experiences for their children. Despite the fact that we were told by other churches who had hosted Reading Camp that this was not a venture for one church alone, a small group of Christ Church folk formed a leadership team to plan curriculum, field trips, meals, recruit children, find money, and take care of the countless organizational details. Once we had some idea what the Reading Camp would look like, we invited all of you to participate and the response was amazing. The parish stepped forward to shop, help with meals, read with children, chaperone field trips, decorate, call parents, contribute financially, and pray for this ministry. And the week was fabulous. After 5 days of Reading Camp, the children really had improved their reading. They had such a good time that they asked if they could come to school here. They loved taking books home to read to their families. And their parents were deeply grateful.
Does all this mean that Reading Camp went off without a hitch? No. I don’t know whether Christ Church is just special, or whether it is true in every church, but our projects rarely go according to plan whether we are buying real estate, roofing a building, or starting a new ministry. So, we planned Reading Camp for 24 children, were very happy to have 15 children registered, and then had 5 children show up on Monday morning. Phone calls to parents brought in three more children. Our teachers did a quick revision of the curriculum and 15 minutes later, they were ready to go with 8 children, but clearly we needed to rethink recruiting. We thought children would love choosing from a variety of cereal bars for breakfast in the morning, different flavors of yogurt, and sweet juicy melons. The children liked homemade egg and cheese biscuits and grapes. Lots and lots of grapes. We didn’t think walking to the library or the bowling alley would be a big deal. It’s not that far. Wrong. So, we tweaked through out the week, stayed flexible, changed the plan as needed and had a most amazing week. And we are tried to learn from our experience last year so we can offer an even stronger Reading Camp this year.
This morning in our readings from Scripture, we hear about the earliest days of the church....the days immediately following Easter. In both of these stories, we hear about what it means to be Easter people-people who go live knowing that Jesus has risen from the dead. In both of these stories, we hear about times when Plan A did not work out according to plan, and Plan B was needed. In the book of Acts, we hear that all those who believed were of one heart and soul, held all their possessions in common, and there was no one needy among them. That was Plan A. While this is a lovely picture of the early church, just two chapters later, the Greek speaking Jews who had become Christians complained that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. Plan A was not working so well. So the community was called together and seven people were chosen who had the gift of service to make sure that food and other goods were equally distributed. That way the disciples could focus on using their gifts of teaching, preaching, and healing. The early church had ideals, but when things did not go according to plan, they found new ways of keeping those ideals. Easter people are not perfect, and life does not always go according to plan. But Easter people know that resurrection is not about perfection. Resurrection is about new life and Easter people find new ways to be the people God calls them to be and do the work God gives them to do.
In the gospel reading, the disciples are hiding in fear behind locked doors when Jesus appears to them on Easter night. Whatever Plan A might have been, I’m pretty sure hiding behind locked doors was not the plan. Jesus says to the frightened disciples "As the father has sent me, so I send you" then Jesus gives the disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit. But Thomas was not with the disciples that evening, and he refuses to believe the disciples’ tale unless he sees Jesus’ wounds. Who knows whether or not Jesus had plans for a follow up appearance to the disciples, but he does now.
Thomas has taken grief for his demand over the centuries and he will probably never shed the nickname "Doubting Thomas." But without this story, we could easily believe that the resurrected Jesus had no wounds-that all traces of the crucifixion had been eliminated. For Thomas, the proof that the person who appeared to the disciples is the crucified and Risen one was in the wounds. The wounds are the evidence that God has transformed death into new life.
Easter people are not perfect and do not live like nothing ever goes wrong. The early Christians in Acts could not maintain the ideal of holding all things in common themselves, and so they had to figure out a way to ensure that all things were shared equally. The disciples were hiding for fear of their lives, and Jesus appears to them anyway. Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit and sent them out into the world. A week later, where were they? Hiding behind locked doors. And Jesus appears to them anyway. The resurrected Jesus himself is recognized by his wounds, reminding us that the resurrection is not about perfection, but new life. The many, many ministries and projects we have here at Christ Church do not always, or often, go exactly according to plan for a whole variety of reasons many of which we have no control over. Sometimes we could have planned better or been more generous, sometimes not. Everything we do here has a story, whether Reading Camp, or the Food Pantry, or our welcome ministries, or our worship, or our Christian Education, or our work in the community to respect the dignity of every human being. And each of those stories is typically a parable about new life, not perfection. Easter people believe that God is always doing something new in our midst, even, or especially, when our own efforts seem to stall. In the book of Isaiah, God says "I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?" And in the book of Revelation, the one seated on the throne says "Behold, I am making all things new." Easter people believe that, in all that we do, God is writing a story of new life.
Amen.
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