Rev’d Jonathan Gale
Acts 5: 27 – 32
27 When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, 28saying, ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,* yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.’ 29But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than any human authority.* 30The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, so that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.’
Revelation 1: 4 – 8
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed* us from our sins by his blood, 6and made* us to be a kingdom, priests serving* his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
John 20: 19 – 31
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19 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 of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
Jesus and Thomas
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin*), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ 28Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe* that Jesus is the Messiah,* the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
The principal of sowing and reaping appears in a number of instances in the Scriptures. It’s all about the consequences of our attitudes and actions and how, given time, they bear fruit commensurate with the seed we have sewn.
In other words if you plant apple seeds you’re almost certainly going to get apples and if you plant wheat seeds you almost certainly going to get wheat.
And there’s always a time lag between the sowing and the reaping. Sometimes, if we’re a bit cavalier about what we sow in life we can be lulled into complacency about what we’ll reap; possibly because of the lack of immediacy between the sowing and the reaping – in other words we need to bear in mind that what we sow we will eventually reap in one form or another.
What’s this got to do with anything, you might ask. Well the three passages set by the lectionary for this often anticlimactic post-Easter Sunday, evidence just such a progression.
In the gospel reading we are in the engine-room of life with Jesus. This is the nursery where the seeds of faith have been sown by Jesus into the lives of this group of Galileans. It’s a fascinating look into the internal dynamics of the twelve apostles. Cooped up, as the Scriptures say, for fear of the Jews, the disciples are visited by the resurrected Jesus. Thomas is not there when Jesus appears.
Thomas is a tough nut but he makes sure he remains with the group and eventually Jesus appears. The impact of this meeting is evident in his falling to his knees before Jesus and crying, ‘My Lord and my God!’
The seed sown here is the faith that rises in the disciples as a result of their encounter with the resurrected Jesus. It transforms them.
John, who recorded these events, is aware of the process at work, not just in the disciples, but in those of us reading these words.
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe* that Jesus is the Messiah,* the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Not everyone believes instantly. Like Thomas we can resist the process of faith and the progression is stalled – in his case for a week. We come to believe, says John. It’s a process, and it’s a process that is determined by how we begin and how we make progress after that, in other words by what we sow into our lives and what we do with those seeds along the way.
In our reading from The Acts of the Apostles this Gospel seed has blown out into the community and the people of faith find themselves confronted by the authorities. They have not stunted the growth of the Gospel by either ignoring it or questioning its veracity. The resurrection has convinced them and they are out sharing the good news of God’s forgiveness and inclusion in the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel has progressed to more than the small circle of the disciples and it is bearing fruit. Its progress is what concerns the religious leaders.
In our reading from the Revelation of John we see the cosmic significance of this nurtured good news. John gives us a picture of what the future holds – of what the fruit of this Gospel good news will be, namely the triumph of Christ over all that is evil and the vindication of God’s approach to this incremental tide of goodness we call the Gospel.
We shuttle across the ages to the end of time and John gives us a description of a vision Jesus gives him when he was in chains on the island of Patmos – a notorious penal colony – and it is a vision of what has resulted from God’s labours on earth. There is a strong sense here of the passage of time. John hears from Jesus who is described as him who is and who was and who is to come
The response of some to the tide of God’s good will is not positive. 7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
Clearly some have misread the progression; possibly even opposed or ignored it. Perhaps they have been lulled into a sense of false security by the passage of time – and now the fruiting of the seeds they have sewn is no pleasant experience.
Others, of course, are no doubt ecstatic.
I think the message to us all is this: it’s important what seeds we sew in our lives and the lives of people we have influence over. It’s also important that we encourage the progression of God’s wave of good will – the Gospel – the work of God in redeeming both us as individuals and the entire creation. There is nothing outside the concern of God. The seeds sown consciously or unconsciously will bear fruit and God is concerned about it all. As a poster I saw in a child’s nursery read, “God don’t make no junk.” For this reason alone God has an interest in all that he has made.
This sense of development, one way or the other, doesn’t only apply to the tender little persons who are Mackenzie and Jude this morning. While something has been sewn into their lives today that needs nurturing, we – every one of us – have the ability to respond to the undeserved love of God.
For each of us the passage of time works its changes and they are guided by the way we treat the tender young plant of the Gospel in our lives. What we do in that time period is important – our actions and our words will affect the growth of the plant and its fruit. Our words and deeds in response to the Gospel will have an outcome.
Of one thing we can be sure. In Jesus’ words to Thomas: ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed (blessed, blessed) are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
Amen.