SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR B

April 7, 2024

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Warwick, R. I.

 

Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 133; I John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31

 

The Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter introduces two themes in today’s readings: reconciliation and fellowship. It begins by addressing God “who in the Paschal mystery hast established the new covenant of reconciliation,” and then asks that “all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith …”

 

The word for fellowship in New Testament Greek is koinōnia, which is often translated “community.” However translated, it refers not to a casual circle of easygoing friends and acquaintances who enjoy doing things together, but to the sort of intimate bond that develops among an otherwise diverse group of people who share some deep common commitment - and who may well have nothing else in common whatever. 

The basis of all true community or fellowship in the Church is our shared faith in God the Holy Trinity, rooted in Holy Scripture and summarized in in the Creeds, and our common membership in the Body of Christ, established in Holy Baptism, and nourished by the Church’s Sacraments.

 

And then there’s reconciliation. Fellowship and reconciliation naturally go together. To maintain our fellowship serious conflicts and interpersonal disputes among the Church’s members need to be identified, named, and resolved through mutual repentance and forgiveness. So reconciliation restores fellowship; and fellowship in turn facilitates reconciliation when disagreements arise, as they inevitably will, we being the fallen creatures that we are. A community whose members are unable to be reconciled with one another is likely to disintegrate. Conversely, communities that actively foster reconciliation among their members strengthen their cohesion and hence ability to grow and flourish.

 

Today’s reading from Acts describes the deep fellowship among the earliest Christian disciples in Jerusalem: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common ... There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and … laid [the proceeds] at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”

Now, I don’t think that this passage is meant to be read as a utopian blueprint for an ideal Christian society. Rather, it testifies to the power of the apostolic preaching: With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Reconciled to God through the apostles' preaching, the Jerusalem Christians find themselves reconciled to one another—overcoming the age-old division between rich and poor, those of high degree and low. This transformation exemplifies the difference that Christ’s resurrection makes, in fulfillment of the words of Psalm 133: “Oh, how good and pleasant it is, when brethren live together in unity!”

 

Today’s reading from the First Letter of John also takes up these twin themes of fellowship and reconciliation. The Apostle writes: “we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ … if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Notice how John links fellowship—a word he uses in this reading no fewer than four times—with being cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus. Only reconciliation with God through the saving work of Christ makes possible the reconciliation with one another that is the sole foundation of any genuine Christian community.

 

Our Gospel reading is taken from Saint John’s account of the risen Lord’s appearance in the upper room on the evening of the day of his resurrection. Jesus stands among the disciples and wishes them Peace—Shalom. He then delegates to them his authority to forgive sins: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” This text has many implications, not least concerning the ordained priesthood’s authority to grant absolution to repentant sinners. But the implication I want to highlight is that this duty to forgive extends to all Christians, because only by mutual forgiveness and reconciliation can we experience that harmony with God and one another—that Shalom—that Christ wishes his disciples when he says to them, and to us, “Peace be with you.” 

 

In this context, I suspect that the deepest significance of the story of Doubting Thomas—seemingly everyone’s favorite character in the Gospels—is that before he can finally see and touch the risen Jesus, he must rejoin the disciples’ fellowship. Luke doesn’t say why Thomas was absent or where he was that evening when the risen Jesus first appeared to the disciples. What seems significant to me, however, is that Jesus didn’t just go and appear separately to Thomas wherever he was, even though he was entirely capable of doing so. Instead, he waited for Thomas to be reunited with the community one week later.

 

That detail suggests that we normally experience the presence of the risen Jesus in the context of Christian community. As someone once put it, the Christian life is a team sport, not a solo performance. The good news is that once Thomas rejoins the fellowship, the risen Christ does come to him, answering his questions and overcoming his doubts. Our God is a God of second chances, and that is good news for us.

 

These observations suggest some questions that we might profitably reflect on during the coming week. In what ways do we need to be restored to the fellowship of Christ’s body to reawaken and renew our faith? More specifically, whom do we need to forgive, and whose forgiveness do we need to seek, in order to take our appointed place in Christ’s new covenant of reconciliation?

 

I hasten to add that none of this is anything we can do on our own, but only something that Christ does in us. As today’s reading from Acts says of those first Christians in Jerusalem, “With great power the apostles gave their testimony … and great grace was upon them all.” That power and grace came from on high. Again, “Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit …’” Relying not on ourselves, then, but on the grace that God continually offers us in the Holy Spirit, we realize true reconciliation and fellowship in the Body of Christ, showing forth in our life what we profess by our faith.