Fear and Doubt in the upper room

At our Easter worship we celebrated and experienced the resurrection. The women have seen and told the disciples, Peter has looked in the empty tomb, bread was broken and Jesus was recognized. After all this, the church was not began, this is my body broken for you, this is my blood shed for you and for all people, had not begun. We start off the Sunday after the resurrection with the disciples still in fear behind those locked doors, looking for a way out, but not daring to take it.

Fear is a powerful tool. It kept the disciples behind the doors. It allowed the disciples to blame the one disciple who dared leave as a doubter, while they were still behind those walls. Fear, one of the main obstacles overcome on the cross was still in control and was about to overtake the church before it was born. Into this fear, Jesus came and offered forgiveness, the Spirit, boldness, and slowly moved them and the church outside the walls.

Fear continues to hold us back. Fear keeps us building walls in our society and in our churches. Fear keeps us using the same format for worship, if we change it, or the music, perhaps the God who created all things, and knows our hearts far better than you and I will not understand. If we include “those people” in our society, everything will fall down. If we don’t do anything about climate change we may well start a cataclysmic response that could destroy civilization, which may be easier to take than changing our lifestyle today. Even the Gen X slogan of “fear not” is based on a fear of missing something. Fear is never rational, but rather stifles the rational under a sea of “what if?” Fear holds us back in the world.

Into this fear filled world, behind the locked doors of the upper room and the inner chambers of our hearts, comes the risen Christ. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven. You are now the embodiment of God’s grace on earth. Even though there are numerous places in the scripture where the angels announce “fear not” I think it is less about chiding us for having fear than it is about encouraging us to face those fears and to move forward in spite of them.

On the cross, Jesus died for all for the forgiveness of sins. Earlier, he took the bread and broke it, no more the life of a sacrificial animal, but rather the joy of sacrificially sharing our meal, our means, our relationships with one another. He then took the cup and blessed and gave it to all to drink saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins, no more scape goats, no more sacrificial bloodletting on the altar of our world, no more grudges as the foundations for the walls in our lives. Only forgiveness, for you, and for your enemy and a call to come together around a meal and work things out as brothers and sisters who are loved by your heavenly Father. No more fear of getting to heaven, no more fear of hell, rather the calling of heaven where we will finally see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Even though the tomb is empty and the upper room is empty, we continue to build the walls that separate us, and the love of God provides the means to tear them down. So if you have doubts, welcome to the club, they are the ants in the pants of faith, they keep it up and moving. If you have fears, welcome to the club, but face them knowing you are a child of God, saved by the grace of God and you are never alone. If you are hiding behind walls, Jesus comes and stands beside you, not to give you comfort within the walls, but to give you the strength to break them down from the inside out and start to live as a child of God. Welcome to God’s world, outside the walls of fear and doubt and into the sunshine of new life.. Now live it!!