Sermon 2nd Easter Year B April 15 2012
In 1991 a movie came along at a time when I was in the midst of a difficult period in my life. The movie was called, Truly, Madly, Deeply. It was set in England in which two lovers—Nina and Jamie live a blissful life—he is a cellist, she an English teacher. The movie title comes from a conversation they often had that went….
Jamie: I love you. Nina: I really love you.
Jamie: I really, truly love you. Nina: I really, truly, madly love you.
Jamie: I really, truly, madly, deeply love you…and so on…….
In the movie Jamie dies. Nina is lost in grief. Then an amazing thing happens, Jamie comes back as a ghost. It’s unbelievable, but soon they take up their new life…shutting themselves off from the world. In time Jamie’s dead ghost friends start showing up at Nina’s house. They more or less take over the place and Nina resents it. It’s a story about Jamie’s amazing return…and Nina’s journey of letting him go and needing him to stay dead.
Today we hear the story we hear every year the Sunday after Easter…the story of the doubting Thomas…his doubt about the risen Jesus—A gospel about faith, doubt, questions, and the choice to reverse what one believes in order to accept a new reality. So, what does this story of Thomas have to do with the movie Truly, Madly, Deeply?
In both stories…someone truly, madly deeply loved has died. For Nina its Jamie…for the disciples it’s Jesus. The deaths leave the survivors lost…unable to set a direction…locking themselves away…Nina in her house…the disciples in the Upper Room. The shock of loss is real…the uncertainty of what to do next overwhelming. And then, something totally unexpected happens…the dead one returns… In both stories, the survivors are confronted with a new reality. When they are just coming to grips with the truth that their loved one is gone…they are forced to deal with the possibility that they are not gone at all…They’ve come back and yet…they’re not quite the same.
And here’s the important part…they both had a choice about what to do when confronted with this new reality. Would they accept their loved one alive, or would they keep them dead? This is what I believe is at the heart of the gospel about Thomas’ doubt. It’s a question Thomas faced…and one that we all face….”will I accept Jesus alive and risen or keep him dead?”
When Jamie came back to Nina…he wasn’t the same. His new life as a ghost came with a price. He began to take over Nina’s life…a price she ultimately was unwilling to pay. It was too much to live with him as a ghost. She chose to move on…which is the point of the movie…but also the movie reveals that being confronted with an alive, real person exacts a price….AIN’T THAT THE TRUTH.
Today Thomas presents us with a picture in which the acceptance of a living Jesus comes with a price. Thomas was just getting used to the reality that Jesus was dead and now he’s asked to change. I can imagine him saying, “I’ve been in denial that Jesus is gone and just as I’ve accepted this tragic reality…you’re asking me to accept something completely different..”
Changing what we truly believe is difficult. Grasping a new reality, being asked to change…or worse…being forced to change is hard. An alive Jesus exacts a price…look at what happened to the apostles…the price of following an alive Jesus was huge…one paid for with their own lives and painful deaths. In some ways a dead Jesus is easier to follow. It’s the living one that never stops pushing and prodding us to see a new reality…to grow deeper in our commitment to others…to leave our comfort zone…to do more…to give more of ourselves. This endless discomfort brought by the living Jesus is often too much to take….and we wish he would simply go away. (T)
One of the great theologians in the Episcopal Church that I’ve mentioned before was a woman named Verna Dozier. I had the privilege of knowing Verna as a fellow parishioner in Washington, DC. At the heart of her theology is the idea that we are called to follow Jesus, not worship him. In the gospels Jesus points away from himself to the Father. Verna held that the great sin of Christianity is that we have moved away from Jesus’ teaching and took the easy way out…we forgot the message. It’s all about following…not worshipping. It’s about following an alive Jesus who challenges us, makes us uncomfortable and sends us…giving us His Spirit to unlock the doors of fear that keep us from following. To merely worship and not follow is to keep Jesus dead and buried. Resurrection proclaims that Jesus is alive…and all the messiness that it entails. Following an alive Jesus is hard…it exacts a price…it compels us to change. An alive Jesus makes us uncomfortable…asking us to confront our limitations and to love more truly, madly, deeply God and one another. To follow an alive Jesus or keep him dead is our choice as well.
Today we celebrate new life in our midst, the baptism of Theordore Salois at the 10am service. Today is testimony to the faith of a family who refuse to let death have the last word…that life triumphs over death. Teddy comes into a family of faith. He is the greatgrandchild of John and Sue Ostrout who are pillars of this community and give of themselves everyday to love truly, madly, deeply their God through love of one ano. Their parents are Travis and Christina both of whom have a love of their faith. Christina comes from the faith of her family rooted in the Roman Catholic tradition. In this baptism Teddy will be entering into a new life and claimed as Christ’s own forever…a life in which he are now fully participants in the Body of Christ….a life called to follow Jesus.
We pray that as Teddy and all of mature in our life in Christ he will discover a life in which Jesus invites us to love more truly, madly, deeply God and one another. Amen.