Second Sunday of Easter April 27, 2003. (Preaching Helps).

Acts 4:32-35

Psalm 133

1 John 1:1-2:2

John 20:19-31

In the Prayer of the Day we ask God to help us "show the power of the resurrection in all we say and do." It is the same hope John expresses at the end of the Gospel reading. He has recorded all these things, he says, so that we "may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing [we] may have life in his name."

What does "life in his name" look like in real time? How does the "power of the resurrection" show itself in what we say and do?

In those heady first days following Pentecost, Luke (the author of Acts) tells us life in Jesus' name produced unity of heart and mind among the believers. Their spiritual unity became incarnate. It took on substance. It led them to hold their property in common so that "there was not a needy person among them." How does the power of the resurrection show up in the care we take for the needy of our community and world? What does life in Jesus' name mean for our stewardship of our "goods and services"?

The power of the resurrection showed itself when they testified with power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We heard that powerful testimony from Peter and John in prior chapters of Acts. The authorities were much annoyed and arrested them. These authorities were astonished at the power of their words, because Peter and John were just ordinary men. They ordered them to stop speaking. They refused. The authorities threatened them again and then let them go. Wasn't this the same council before which Jesus stood to a much different outcome?

The power of the resurrection shows itself in the declamation of John the letter writer. He leads off his letter by repeating the declaration first heard from the angel's lips and then from the mouths of the women and then from Peter and John in Acts and then from Paul and now from us. His purpose in declaring is that his readers may have fellowship with him and his congregation. Here is repeated the unity-of-heart-and-mind theme from the first reading. More is involved than fellowship on a human scale. This is the fellowship not of lodge members but of the church. The fellowship of the church puts us in company with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

"We are writing these things," he says, "so that our joy may be complete." The power of the resurrection produces fellowship with one another and with God. That is what makes for joy in our new life in Christ.

After four verses John comes to the content of the declaration. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. We walk in darkness and need transfer to the realm of light. That transfer comes on Jesus' coattails. It comes by his dying and rising. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Moreover, he is our advocate with the Father when we continue to flirt with the darkness and stray into the shadows. Jesus is our defense attorney. If we take seriously what we say about resurrection and ascension, that means there is one who became like us in every respect in heaven's throne room. We have an insider pleading our case and taking up our cause.

He must take up our cause every day, because every day we need a transfer out of the shadows to which we stray and into his realm of light. That transfer takes place by confession and forgiveness. Our walk in the light is not slow-but-steady progress. It is not the case that every day and in every way we are getting better and better, sinning less and less. Our walk in the light is marked rather by return--return to the waters of baptism. Every day we live in the power of our baptism and in its dying-and-rising rhythm by confessing our sins and hearing the words of forgiveness.

John says in his first letter that life in Christ looks and sounds like the confession of sins. In the Gospel reading John says resurrection-power showing looks and sounds like Thomas's confession of faith. In fact, the confession of sins is premised on the confession of faith. Without the confession of faith we are bound to rationalize our actions, excuse our sins, and dodge the law's accusation. We are by nature Artful Dodgers (for those who remember that character from the musical "Oliver"). When we know Jesus as "my Lord and my God" we are confident of God's forgiveness. Then we can confess the truth about ourselves. With this twin confession we live by the grace of God and so show and tell the power of the resurrection in our lives. We pass that forgiveness to others. Jesus authorized us to do so and gave us the power to do so with his own Holy-Spirit breath. Forgiveness is the power that transforms us.