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. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
(Acts 4:32-35)
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Some people live by the old adage that “seeing is believing.” I think, for example, of the classic biblical example of the Apostle Thomas refusing to accept the testimony of his fellow apostles about Jesus’ resurrection until he had seen the risen Christ with his own eyes. Jesus, of course, in response to Thomas’s demands to see him, responded with the words “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” We here today, then, are among the truly blessed because we haven’t seen the risen Jesus, but our presence here is a sign that we’re willing and able to believe without seeing, and if we’re going to successfully share our faith with the world, then we have to be able to convince others that they should be willing to believe without seeing as well. The question is “how?” We face the same dilemma that the apostles faced with Thomas. If we can’t actually show Jesus to people or invite them to at least listen to his voice, is there any evidence at all that can help us to share our faith in the risen Jesus? What, indeed, are the signs of the resurrection in the world today? In answer to my own question, I want to suggest that there are many such signs, but I want to focus on just one – perhaps the greatest and most important one, and the greatest and most important sign of the resurrection today is – wait for it! - us!!!
That might surprise you, but my reading of the New Testament tells me that, to a great extent, the answer to the question of whether there is any evidence for the resurrection is: the church. The very existence of the church is a witness to the resurrection; the very existence of the church is evidence to the world that Jesus has, in fact, been raised from the dead. The early church leapt into existence when those first disciples realized that in spite of his death, they had an unbroken and in fact unbreakable connection to the living Jesus Christ. Enlivened by that connection and emboldened by that conviction, they lived in their world with so much passion and with so much compassion, with so much love and with so much grace, with so much generosity and with so much power that the only possible explanation for their life together as the church was the presence and the power of the risen Christ.
We found a remarkable description of the life of the earliest Christians in the earliest church in the passage from the Book of Acts that we read this morning. It was a short passage – only four verses – but it packed power! This earliest church was a community that demonstrated such joy, celebration, and exuberance; such compassion, generosity and love that there could only have been one plausible explanation: Jesus was with them! His presence with them caused them to live out their faith in ways that touched people far beyond the confines of that Christian community: they gave themselves on behalf of the broken, the bruised, and the battered; they shared their lives with the least and with the last. They had deep love for one another, great compassion for their neighbours, and passionate devotion to God. The brilliant skeptic Friedrich Nietzsche once challenged Christians with these words: “I might believe in your redeemer if you looked more redeemed.” He wouldn’t have said those words to that ancient church in Jerusalem, who were living in the immediate power of Easter and Pentecost. In that Christian community, everywhere you looked, there were signs of the resurrection. The early church was a vivid demonstration of the risen and living Christ.
Now, before anyone starts to say “wait a minute – that’s fine but we’re not them,” it’s important to remember that even though that earliest Christian church was brilliantly aglow (blazing even!) with the presence of Jesus, that earliest Christian community wasn’t a perfect church. It was no less human and no less flawed than any congregation today – including our own. We’re imperfect people and so we have an imperfect church – and it was no different in the earliest church. It numbered among its leaders a denying Peter, a competitive John, an ambitious James, and, yes, that doubting Thomas that I mentioned earlier. The same Book of Acts that describes this church as a bold and shining witness to the resurrection is also honest enough to tell us that it was often embroiled in conflict and embittered by controversy. The Book of Acts in various places tells us of selfishness and discrimination that existed within the community of faith, and yet, for all that, this was still truly an Easter church made up of an Easter people who bore powerful witness to the presence of the risen Christ among them, even in spite of their various flaws. That causes me to wonder: if that oh so human and imperfect bunch could rise with Jesus above its own conflict and its own pettiness to be a truly Easter church, then maybe we, too (sometimes perhaps in spite of ourselves) can manage to be a living witness to the living Christ. Whenever we gather together to share our fellowship, to tell our stories, to sing our songs, to pray our prayers, to worship our God, to bear witness to the good news, to care for those in need, to work for peace, and to struggle for justice – when we join together to do those things we should discover anew that Jesus is alive and among us and that “great grace [is] upon [us] all.”
Whenever you may find yourself tempted to doubt the truth of the resurrection (and doubt is something that all of us have to contend with from time to time) perhaps the best advice I could give would be to look around you during a Sunday service (or any gathering of Christ’s church anywhere or anytime, for that matter.) What you’ll see around you are signs of the resurrection of Jesus. When you see choir members who rehearse long hours so that they can be prepared to lead us in song and to lift us to heartfelt praise of God – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see people who take flowers or joy bags from the church to brighten the lives of those who are sick or bereaved or shut-in – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see people who have helped clothe those in need or provide a delicious meal – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you notice someone offering a quiet word of encouragement to someone who’s troubled – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see followers of Jesus praying and working for peace and justice – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see someone who’s given of their time to make sure that there would be a Sunday School lesson or craft prepared for the children on Sunday morning – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see people making sure that a hospital in far away Africa would have the essential supplies it needs – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see people laughing or crying together over the joys and disappointments of their lives – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see someone facing illness and death hopefully and honestly and courageously – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see people praying for victims of tragedies halfway across the country and halfway around the world – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see grace and mercy defining our relationships rather than judgement and condemnation – that’s a sign of the resurrection! When you see the church opening its doors and its heart to whoever comes and excluding no one – that’s a sign of the resurrection! All these things together are enough to convince me in my own moments of doubt that – however much so-called “evidence” there may be to the contrary – Jesus is alive and well and living within us and among us, motivating us to be an extension of his own ministry, until the day comes when he returns to us, and all will be as God wants it to be.
The living Jesus embraces the world with the arms of his followers – which means that the living Jesus embraces the world with our arms. The living Jesus speaks words of grace with our voices. The living Jesus demands justice and offers peace through our witness and our compassion. The living Jesus extends love through our kindness and our concern. The living Jesus extends healing through our touch and our care. Over and over again, by God’s great grace, the simple and ordinary practices of the church are the means by which Jesus becomes real to us and to the world. We show the world the sights and sounds of Christ, just as surely as Christ is present to us in his body – the church. The church’s very existence is the evidence for the truth of Easter. For we who are a part of it, it’s a high calling – and it’s not always an easy calling – but it’s one we should be happy to claim and blessed to be responding to. The church itself is the greatest sign of the resurrection.
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