Easter 2C - "Passing the Baton"

 

Saint John 20:19-31

Every athlete will tell you that the one of the most important plays in any sport is the handoff. Fumble a handoff and things will not go well for you.

In football it is obvious.  If a quarterback fumbles the handoff to a running back there is trouble and maybe even a turnover.

In baseball it is not so obvious, but it is still there on every double play.  An infielder must somehow get the ball smoothly over to another infielder who is covering second base in a toss that goes so effortlessly that the one who is covering second can relay it on to first in time to get the batter out.  There is almost a ballet-like quality to this hand off that requires smoothness, agility, and the grace of a ballet dancer.  

In a swimming relay race, there is a “hand-off” between the one in the water and the person waiting on the blocks that must go, if you’ll pardon the pun, swimmingly.  Leave a moment too soon and risk disqualification. Leave a moment to late and risk losing by the tenths of seconds by which most races are decided.

Perhaps the most important hand off is in a relay race when the baton needs to be passed from one runner to the next.  They practice this a lot because the moment in crucial.  Have anything but the smoothest of smooth hand-offs and, like in swimming, precious seconds may be lost along with the race.  Drop the baton and it is all over.

Passing the baton, handing a ball off from one player to another in any sport is incredibly important. 

Nobody on this day, when we mark Elizabeth’s retirement, can doubt how important passing the baton is.  Elizabeth has been the rock, the fount of information for one long term pastor and two interims.  I’m not sure I would have been able to remotely function without her able assistance. And she will be deeply missed by us all or, at least any of us who would like to get something accomplished.

It is also surprising and appropriate that neither she nor I realized how fitting today’s gospel is for this day.

Jesus is about to hand the gospel off to the disciples.  He is about to pass the baton to them but at first it appears they are not quite ready.  They are not passing anything on to anybody. They may think they are keeping the world out but in reality they are keeping themselves locked in.

The doors are locked for two very good reasons.  The first was fear.

It wasn’t just the learned religious leaders that the disciples were afraid of it was also the Roman authorities. 

Remember, it was their guards who were posted at the tomb with the charge to keep it secure, but they dropped the ball. The tomb that they were supposed to guard was empty.  What happened to the body? 

I wonder who had a bigger stake at finding it – the learned religious leaders or a government that had prided itself on its security measures and now had to deal with the blow back of having one of them fail.  It appears that somehow, someway, they had not been able to guard something as simple as a tomb with a body it.  Big time fumble!

"Where was the body?"  "Who had the body?" That group hidden behind lock doors were the prime suspects but and this is important for all of us to know.

Don’t tell the people who were here last week celebrating the resurrection with us that for Luke in his gospel the events of that first Easter morning do not include an appearance by the resurrected Christ.  The original ending of Mark has no A.M. appearance by Jesus either.  Only Saint Matthew and Saint John complete the story by having Jesus appearing to Mary in one case and a group of women in the other.

When we pick up the story today Jesus’ resurrection is a matter of pure speculation.

The hand off is not going well because there is no small measure of uncertainty.  You can imagine the disciples rehearsing and re-rehearsing the scene.  “Was the tomb really empty?”  “Are you certain?” “Did you really see him?” “For sure?” “Maybe it was somebody who looked like him?”  On and on the conversation must have gone on and on in one of those maddening circular spirals of speculations that we have all found ourselves in.

Maybe that is why Thomas wasn’t there.  Maybe he gave up on this game altogether.

Maybe he got tired of sitting shiva for someone who may, or may not, have been dead. Perhaps he got tired of the endless speculation about what happened.  Perhaps he was as confused - as we can sometimes be - by all the stories of resurrection encounters with Jesus.  Perhaps he was just tired of staring at the wallpaper and wondering what to do.  Perhaps he needed a breath of fresh air.  We don’t know what Thomas was doing. All we know for certain is that he wasn’t in the room where it happened when Jesus made his grand re-entry into the disciples’ lives.

Upon his return all Thomas does is wonder if what his friends are saying is true.

Thomas walks into the upper room, and everyone says, “Oh my gosh, guess who was just here? Jesus! He breathed in our faces, OK that was weird, but then he showed us his wounds! It was really him!”1

They are trying to hand the story off to him, but they all fumble it.

Remember, what they are telling him is that his friend Jesus who was stone cold, definitely dead only a few days ago is now running around making guest appearances to everybody Thomas knows.  Everybody that is but him. 

We’ve been celebrating Easter for all of our lives.  We’re the ultimate Monday morning quarterbacks. While the story has not lost one bit of its power for us experiencing it for the very first time must have been an entirely different matter.  This is not something that is taken in easily and Thomas is not sure he can believe it just based on word of mouth.

It is then.  It is exactly then that Jesus arrives back on the scene in puts the ball, or baton, or whatever, back in their hands.

Jesus could have responded to Thomas: “All right then, don’t take your friends word for it.  Don’t listen to them for all I care.”  He could have even said, “Listen I’m not going to subject myself to your cockamamie tests.  Either believe or don’t believe but don’t you go poking me.”

Instead, Jesus shows up and says: “Whatever you need Thomas.  Poke, prod, ask, talk, do whatever you want.”

Above this post is a painting by Michelangelo Caravaggio called “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” where Thomas and two others are not just staring a Jesus’ wounded side but Caravaggio with his usual over-the-top graphic style has Thomas’ finger about one knuckle deep in Jesus’ wound. 

If you don’t remember anything else I say this morning, remember this: Jesus was faithful too.  Jesus never gave up on Thomas or any of the other disciples.  And he never gives up on us.   That is our promise in those moments when we worry if we can execute a good hand-off or not.

The disciples may not have been the greatest team in the world, but they were his team and not only were they his team he was still going to use them.

With this story we are told that Jesus can use us to.

Sometimes we doubt.  Sometimes we believe.  Faith is a struggle.  It waxes and wanes.  Faith is sometimes strong and sometimes weak.

In this story we hear Jesus tell us.  “Yes, you weren’t there to see my miracles firsthand but here you are in church anyway faithfully working your way through your doubts and opening your eyes to faith.”

When that moment comes and faith triumphs maybe we’ll be able to say with with Thomas - perhaps in a shout, perhaps only in a whisper - “My Lord and my God.” 

And if all goes well in our lives and with our witness maybe others will be led to say of Jesus, my Lord and my God too.

This gospel has been handed off to us.  The ball ours now. Let’s not drop it.

________________

1. MaryAnn McKibben Dana, “Doubt Your Faith, Have Faith in Your Doubt,” A Sermon for Every Sunday (asermonforeverySunday.com, April 3, 2020), https://asermonforeverysunday.com/sermons/a22-second-sunday-easter-year/.