1 John 3:1-7
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Luke 24:36b-48
Jesus himself stood among [the disciples] and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
---
As I worked through today’s gospel text this week, a word kept popping into my head. A funny word. A word that isn’t even a real word, even though it sounds a little bit like something that would show up in a Greek lesson. It’s a word that is an acronym, one that I learned a long time ago in junior high math class:
PEMDAS.
Anybody remember that acronym? When we were learning how to solve equations, PEMDAS was how we remembered the order of operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction. PEMDAS.
Otherwise known as the order of operations.
When you come to a math problem, you have to do things in a certain order, and the order matters.
The process of coming to faith in the resurrected Christ is hardly something as straightforward or logical as a mathematical proof or equation, and yet there’s something to this idea of an “order of operations” that resonates with me, especially when we think about the relationship of having faith and being part of a faith community.
As we begin today’s gospel from Luke, it is late evening on the day of resurrection. Two fringe disciples have just met Jesus on the road, thought him a stranger, and then recognized him as he broke bread with them over dinner. These two disciples ran back to Jerusalem to tell the eleven that they have seen Jesus. As the two are sharing their encounter with the many, Jesus appears among them.
Let’s look at the order of operations in today’s gospel:
The fearful and uncertain disciples have gathered together, bound by their friendship, by their anxiety, by their shared experiences, by their common grief, by their doubts and disbelieving.
Jesus appears to them. He offers them peace.
The disciples are frightened. They are still doubting.
Jesus shows them his body; offers his hands and his feet for them to touch.
The disciples are joyful. They are wondering. But notice - they are not yet believing.
Jesus asks for something to eat. The disciples give him some fish, and he eats with them.
Jesus starts talking about the scriptures, proclaiming and interpreting them in the presence of this gathered community.
Then - and only then! - does Jesus open their minds to understand.
The disciples begin in community. And they end in faith.
If we are honest with ourselves, our churches for a long while have operated on the assumption that faith comes first, and then belonging in the community. The presumption is that, by and large, the church is a gathering place for those who already believe. It is a place to gather with people who already “get it,” however imperfectly. We experience the church as a community into which we bring our faith so that we can nurture it and grow it, and it is because our shared faith that we understand ourselves as belonging.
But today’s gospel flips this understanding on its head. The experience of the disciples in today’s gospel is not one of believing, then belonging. It is the complete opposite. They belong first. And then believe.
Think about all of the communities that you are a part of: family groups, friend groups, your workplace, your school, a team or ensemble that you are part of - what are the things that make you really feel like you belong?
For Thomas last week and all the disciples this week, belonging feels like being loved and supported in a time of grief and anxiety. Belonging feels like clinging to friends with similar doubts and questions, in a space where it is okay to have doubts and questions. Belonging feels like sharing a meal together. Belonging feels like permission to be quiet together, without pretense. Belonging feels like honest space where they can feel fear, curiosity, and joy; a space where they don’t feel like they have to put on a faith that doesn’t yet fit them, just for the sake of keeping up appearances.
Within this community of belonging, the eleven welcome other disciples and are eager to hear their story. Within this community of belonging, they find peace, they encounter Jesus, they share a meal, they grapple with scripture, and at the end of all of this, the disciples make the move from disbelief to joy and wonder to belief. Belonging creates belief.
I mean, the story of Jesus is one where he ran around healing people and forgiving people and feeding people and reaching out to the outcasts and the marginalized. He did all of this stuff because he was creating a community. He was building a kingdom. And yeah, at the end of the day, he really wanted people to see him and know him and believe in him as the Son of God, but that was only after he had first invited people into the community. Jesus cared for people exactly where they were. He took seriously their needs and their fears. And he loved them. Which, of course, is the heart of belonging, isn’t it? The knowledge that you are loved? The knowledge that you are loved so much that the community would somehow be incomplete without you?
It’s not that the church doesn’t offer this sort of opportunity for belonging. But sometimes we get really hung up on the “belief” side of things without realizing that maybe the “belonging” is more important. Because I firmly believe that creating a space for people to belong doesn’t just create the space to see Christ, but that belonging itself is a vision of Christ’s love, especially in a world and a community so divided right now by so many things.
Starting with belonging takes a posture of grace; it asks of us a certain comfort with open-endedness. Seeking a community of belonging means that we create space for people to be whole and well and the beloved children of God that they are, without rushing to questions of faith or belief or assent or conformity. The belonging, then belief order of operations is more concerned that we show our work than that we rush to solve for x.
And in this space, we encounter all of the hope and possibility and mystery of resurrection, for ourselves, for others, and our world. 1 John reminds us, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.”
For each of us, we are part of this beloved community now. Not when we are better disciples or more faithful or when we know more about the Bible or church history. Jesus loves us and the world right now. We already belong. We belong to God. We belong to one another.
And what each of us will be - what this community of faith will be - has yet to be revealed. Thanks be to God for the mystery and joy of this open-ended, blessed future of love, hope, and possibility.
Tags:
sermon