Recently, I was leading a group in the practice of the spiritual discipline known as “lectio divina” or “sacred reading.” It is a process of reading scripture that invites people to spend time with a passage.
As we explored this spiritual practice together, I 
read a passage from Scripture 2-3 times, as is the usual practice. I invited the group to listen for a word or phrase that “stood out” for them and to repeat the word or phrase as they sat in silence.
I then invited them to ponder the meaning this passage holds for their lives by asking these questions:
- “God, what are you saying to me in this passage?”
- WHO are you INVITING me TO BE?
- WHAT ARE YOU INVITING ME TO DO?
- WHO are you INVITING me TO BE?
At the close, when I asked class members to speak about how the passage came alive for them, most shared that they had affirming experiences. But a couple of them said, “It didn’t come alive for me.”
As I was reading our passages for today, this experience came back to me and I asked myself-
What needs to happen so that the Scripture passages for today, can come alive for this church community?
And at that point the word “community” jumped out at me. Both Luke in the book of Acts and John had each written to new Christian communities, late in the first century. These were communities facing stresses much like we face today.
But there was one stress that was particularly painful and it is one with which our congregation can identify. It stemmed from our painful separation from the Jewish community to which many belonged and was filled with people whom they loved. New circumstances and separations, new ideas and differing points of view take their toll on people, don’t they?
This community John is addressing was scared; they were afraid. John knew this! His pastoral sensitivity told him they needed inspiration, not simply information.
And so he set out to tell them a story – a story that would transform their lives of fear, lives of anxiety, lives of confusion, into lives of faith.
“These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life in his name.”
One of the most accurate pictures of fear I have seen is the one John paints in just one word in half a sentence in our Gospel reading today.
“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear. . . “
LOCKED! SHUT TIGHT! CLOSED DOWN!
STOMACHS TIED UP IN KNOTS!
NOT EVEN ENOUGH ENERGY TO ENTERTAIN OPTIONS!
FEAR blocking their ability to give credence to anything but that with which they were already familiar!
The community of Christians that John portrays is not the only community locked behind closed doors. We see it in families, in cities and towns, in churches, in our nation. I’M WONDERING IF IT IS ALSO TRUE OF OUR CHURCH COMMUNITY.
The question for us today is loud and clear. Are we going to allow fear to drain the life out of us or are we going to use the energy generated by fear to live as a community of faith that is empowered by the new life that God has given us in Jesus Christ.
God bless the Gospel writer John! He gives us another golden nugget in the second half of this power-filled verse. “Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
I don’t know about you, but the first time I read these words, all I wanted to know was how Jesus got into the room. But by getting side-tracked, I almost missed the inspiration that continues to transform my life and maybe you’ve missed it, too.
How Jesus got into the room is the least of our concerns. A greater miracle here in this passage. The real miracle is fear-filled people huddled behind closed doors finding peace and wholeness – FINDING FREEDOM FROM FEAR.
The miracle of transformation occurs when we recognize JESUS IS RIGHT HERE IN OUR MIDST. And this miracle won’t happen until we face our fears by naming our fears. Now that’s downright scary, isn’t it?!
LIVES and COMMUNITIES locked behind fear of failure;
-fear of facing who they are;
-fear of letting go of ways of doing things that just aren’t working anymore;
are lives and communities that cannot recognize that Jesus is already working through the power of the Holy Spirit leading them on a journey that will be life-giving because he has made that promise through his RESURRECTION.
Listen to these words from an article by the Rev. Cameron Trimble entitled The Future Arrives as Community:
Resurrection is not primarily about a body returning from death. It is about refusing to end where power declares it should. . . It is about love reorganizing itself when old forms collapse. Resurrection happens whenever people choose solidarity over isolation and refuse to disappear into despair.”
Look at the community that Luke describes in the Book of Acts.
When those believers prayed, the place in which they gathered together was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They told the story that gave birth to the Christian Church. They TOLD THE STORY OF JESUS AND HIS RESURRECTION.
It is the story that turned a fear-filled and disillusioned community into people of hope. It is the story of God’s love for the world, It is the story of empowerment to be advocates for the poor, to be seekers and doers of justice, to be the salt of the earth, to be the leaven of society. It is the story that empowered them to faith their fears.
And herein lies OUR CHALLENGE as the faith community of First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem. Everyone here has a story of their journey with God. This congregation has a story of its journey with God.
Wouldn’t it be incredible to tell our stories, weave our stories, and this congregation’s story with the BIBLICAL STORY as we journey together asking God –
GOD, WHO ARE YOU CALLING US TO BE?
GOD, WHAT ARE YOU CALLING US TO DO?
As we stay open to God’s wisdom in the telling and listening,
- God will work miracles in OUR community, as GOD WORKED MIRACLES in the lives of our ancestors in the faith.
John was a sensitive and caring pastor. He knew his community; he knew they were afraid scared, anxious. And so he told them a story that they might come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in believing have new life in him.
John told this story to guide them, and NOW TO GUIDE US, the community of FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA, to recognize Jesus in our midst, declaring that his peace is with us, encouraging us to face and faith our fears, calling us to new life, empowering us to live that new life, and sending us forth to make a difference wherever we find ourselves by showing and bringing God’s love to all people and situations.
Let us pray –
God of thresholds and new beginnings, give us courage to release what is no longer ours to cling to. Help us to distinguish between faithfulness and fear. Teach us that letting go can be an act of faith and trust, and that emptiness can be a form of readiness. Hold what we cannot yet release and hold us gently as we learn. In Jesus’ name. Amen.