Locked Out

Second Sunday of Easter – Year C

April 3, 2016

John 20:19-31

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." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So 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."  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." Then 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." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But 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.

Last Sunday was Easter, with all its pomp and glory. Today we continue that celebration, once again we get to sing some of our favorite most triumphant hymns. And once again, as happens every year the Sunday after Easter, we get to hear about the disciple Thomas, you know, the disciple that wasn't around the first time Jesus appeared to the other disciples and declared he wasn't going to believe Jesus was alive unless he saw it with his own eyes, and touched him with his hands.

So often on this Sunday we focus on faith and doubt. On how faith shouldn't be dependent on proof (that's why it's called faith after all). That was actually the direction I was planning on going. Talking about doubt and faith, about how doubt wasn't a bad thing if it drove you to dig more deeply, to explore your faith more fully. Doubt leads to questions, questions lead to exploration, exploration leads to new discoveries. If Columbus hadn't doubted the world was flat, where would we be today? That was my initial plan. But, as often happens, my initial plan has changed. And it changed because I actually took the time to look at the Gospel text in Greek (something I rarely find I have the time to do.)

I ended up focusing on the word for locked, as in the doors were all locked. One of the most uncomfortable feelings in the world is walking up to your car or your home and discovering you are locked out. You often just stand there with a confused look on your face; wondering how in the world it could happen. You always have the keys in your hand when you get out of the car, yet there they are sitting on the seat. You wander around the car, trying all the doors trying to figure out how you might be able to get in. If you can get a wire coat hanger, you might try to jimmy the lock. Eventually, you either call your spouse to bring you their extra key (that is if they aren't with you!) or you give in and call the locksmith. You feel about ten inches tall.

Getting locked out is uncomfortable. It makes you feel like an idiot. It makes you feel like everyone is looking at you as you struggle to get into your car in the pouring rain. But, being locked out doesn't just happen with doors. It was less than a hundred years ago that women were locked out of being able to vote. They were locked out from getting a college education. They are still locked out of getting equal pay for equal work with their male coworkers. How long were women excluded from sports at the high school and college level before Title IX protections?

We locked people out of other things too. Whites only water fountains and swimming pools. Whites only lunch counters. To this day there are country clubs in this country that do all they can to make sure all their members are of a certain skin tone and culture. For much of the church's history women have been locked out of the role of pastor, and still are in many denominations. In many churches people are locked out of being able to participate in communion unless they are members of the church.

Being locked out sometimes happens in subtle ways: we assume that person who comes from “that” part of town will never be a success. We put the child with disabilities in the remedial classes at school, or assume they don't want to be in sports. We're shocked when the little girl joins the wrestling team, or the boy declares he wants to be a fashion designer. We put all kinds of barriers, both real and cultural in front of people to keep them from being able to follow their dreams, and stay in the roles and societal positions where we think they belong.

Over the last few months, we have heard Donald Trump speak often about building a wall to lockout people from crossing our southern border. And just in the last few weeks there have been states passing laws (or attempting to pass them) to limit the rights and freedoms of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. Locking them out from being able to find a place to celebrate their union, or even be in a place of business if the owner doesn't get the right 'feeling' about them. These laws even make it a crime for people to go to the bathroom if someone thinks they don't have the right letter on their birth certificate. Locked out. Sounds a lot like those 'whites only' water fountains to me.

In our text, the disciples were huddled together, in fear, behind locked doors. They were their hiding to keep themselves safe from the world beyond that door that they were terrified was going to be the death of them (just as it had been Jesus' death.) Locked in, and the world locked out. Which is where I made my discovery. The Greek word for locked out, or closed in this passage is kleiso. It's actually the root of our word close, you can hear it kleiso- close.

There they were, locked away in their fear when Jesus comes to them, appears in their midst, seemingly walks through the locked doors, breaks through the barriers they had erected to keep things out. Jesus walks in and, what does he do? He blesses them, he says, “Peace be with you.” That should be enough, but it's not even after seeing Jesus the disciples are still gathered behind those closed doors the next time Jesus comes. Still huddled in fear, trusting in God, but scared of what might be out 'there' that might want to come in.

Sounds a lot like the church today. But, today we aren't scared of the religious elite (John calls them the Jews). No, today we are scared of the muslims, or the gays, the people with crazy ideas, those abortionsist 'baby killers', the list goes on and on. Sure, we say they are people, but do we really? It's like that church in Wintersville that has changed it's sign to say, “all are invited”. Not all are welcome, invited. Sure, come, but you might not be welcome here; you might have to change who you are, we might not accept you, you might find yourself locked out of the church.

Is that what the church is supposed to be like? Closing our doors, locking people out because they aren't like us, because they make us nervous, because we have never really gotten to know them? Of course not. And that is where the other half of my discovery this week comes into play. The Greek word for church is ekklesia. It's where we get the word you sometimes hear in church gatherings, ecclesiastical. But, it's roots can be traced to another word. What's that word? Kleiso – the word for closed. The words are the same, with one difference, there is a prefix on ekklesia that negates it, that reverses it. Literally, the word ekklesia, the Greek word for church, means open or unlocked.

Jesus comes to the disciples, locked away, closed off, on their own; and breathes upon them. “Open up, come out, unlock your doors, become the church. Do not live in fear, live within the peace I am giving you. Do not be kleiso, be ekklesia.” Do not be closed off in fear, but opened up in faith.

What doors have you closed? What practices or ideas have you built a wall around, to keep away from you and your faith? What barriers have you placed (even accidentally) in the lives of others? We have all done it. We all have doors we should be unlocking, sanctuaries of perceived safety we should be coming out of. If we are the church, if we are the open community as it was first envisioned, that is not only our calling but it is who we are.

The resurrected Jesus still comes to us, breathes his Spirit upon us, gives us peace and calls us to come out, to unlock our doors, our hearts and our ears, to open our doors. Most of the time, when we hear the children's rhyme about the church that says, 'open the doors and see all the people,' we look at it from the perspective of looking at all the people in the church. But, we are called to open our doors and see all the people outside, waiting to come in.

This is the church, and this is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people. (with actions to the rhyme, but ending with opening and spreading arms to see all the people) Amen.