Easter 3B, April 15, 2018
Acts 3:12-19, Psalm 4
1 John 3: 1-7, Luke 24: 36-48
St Thomas the Apostle
The Rev’d Joy A. Daley
The year was 2009. An unemployed, plump, simple woman walked out onto the stage of one of those talent shows and explained that she wanted to be a professional singer, a little late to get started at age 48, and she certainly didn’t look the part. The judges were skeptical the audience was laughing at her. There was significant eye rolling among the viewers who though they were witnessing some sort of joke. Then Susan Boyle opened her mouth and began singing with passion, poise and beauty. You could see the judges’ faces open with wonder, humbled as they received her gift of song and the audience was transformed getting to their feet with gratitude and surprise in a way that they never would have if she had been the picture of perfection as she walked out on the stage. There is something powerful about being real. The paradoxical mix of beauty and brokenness that touches the heart in a way perfection never could, that opens people up to receive so much more than they thought was possible. This, I believe is why Jesus came to his friends in the way that he did, showing them not perfection but the reality of who he was and what had happened to him. Can you imagine what that was like?
If any of us showed up unexpectedly when we were thought to be dead and said, “Hey look it’s me!” we would probably point to our whole selves or our face which is the way most of us recognize each other but when Jesus shows up to his confused and fearful friends, he doesn’t point to his face or his whole body. He says, “Look at my hands and my feet,” the most wounded parts of him. This is not the way we usually recognize each other. I can’t imagine if I was unsure of who someone was that I hadn’t seen in a while I’d say “Is that really you?” “Let me have a look at those feet.” Maybe we could recognize someone ‘s hands but feet are a little more private and vulnerable somehow. Speaking for myself, I can tell you that on Maundy Thursday when I thought about getting my feet washed I almost didn’t do it because now I have those scars on my right foot from the surgery I had last summer. So why did Jesus say so freely “Look at my hands and my feet!” that were not pretty or smooth or perfect anymore. They still had holes in them from what he’d been through. They were wounded. If Jesus had conquered death why were the holes still there, why were they not perfect?
How do we feel in the presence of someone who appears totally flawless and perfect especially when we are feeling confused and scared? Grateful? totally inspired? Or does it increase our insecurity and our sense of feeling less than? Jesus meets his disciples where they are in their fear and confusion and shows his wounds affirming what he had been through. He didn’t escape the trauma of suffering but went through it and he has the scars to prove it. Wounded, bruised and real he shows up and says, “This is me.” How could this rag tag group of limited people be encouraged to proclaim as witnesses the good news of Jesus Christ if they thought they had to be perfect or flawless. They knew they were not. They had not even seen the holes in Jesus’ hands and feet before now because they had run away from that whole ugly scene too afraid for their own lives. And in this particular scene I doubt They could even hear the “Peace be with you” beyond their chattering teeth and knocking knees but I believe that peace moved into them because Jesus didn’t come to them as a glowing untouchable vision but he came to them as real, in beauty and brokenness without denying what he went through to get there. Not prettied up without the marks of what had happened He showed them that you can suffer and live again. You can be wounded and have a place in God’s great adventure. You can go through death and become a force for life.
It reminds me of that recent hit song This is me:
“I’m not a stranger to the dark
Hide away they say Cause we don’t want your broken parts
I’ve learned to be ashamed of my scars
Run away they say no one will love you as you are.”
Who hasn’t felt that way at sometime in their lives Who hasn’t felt less than, in the face of the seeming perfection or superiority of others? That feeling can prevent us from living into our calling as witnesses of the good news. Jesus could have showed up without blemish or flaw but that would have been useless for the disciples. It would only reinforced their fear that they would never be enough. Showing up as he did Jesus shows the power of being real that who we are and what we’ve been through is not only enough but our brokenness is how the light gets in and shines through us, through our fearful experiences through our woundedness. Jesus appears to the disciples with broken parts and is not ashamed of his scars. As the song says, “ I am brave I am bruised I am who I’m meant to be. This is me.” Jesus showed his disciples that being real, whole and all that entails is what matters. We know that this unlikely group of flawed disciples did receive the peace that Jesus brought that day They also received courage and words and actions that they could not have come up with on their own They went and proclaimed the Good news in so many unexpected ways. And just as they were witnesses so are we, called to bring all of who we are our beauty and our brokenness as we live out our calling whether that is going down to Austin street washing the dishes in the altar guild sacristy, singing in the choir, working in the kitchen or serving on the streets. Bringing the paradoxical mix of beauty and brokenness touching hearts in ways perfection never could, opens people up to receive so much more than they thought was possible. We are witnesses to these things when we follow Jesus’ example serving him in our beauty and brokenness saying to the world “I am brave I am bruised I am who I’m meant to be this is me.”
