Readings: Psalm 133; Acts 4:32-35; John 20:19-31
I wonder where the Easter Story has connected with you this year? In one sense it is the culmination of the heroic journey of one extraordinary man challenging corrupt religious and economic values which became the catalyst for a more socially just framework for our world. As we heard in our Acts reading for today, the early followers of the Jesus Way tried to model this alternative way of living. But we can also think of modern day examples of those who engaged with this bigger picture heroic journey – on the world stage I think of Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela with his truth and reconciliation commission.

But for me Easter is also about the `small picture` heroic journey of ordinary folks – like Mary and the women disciples, daring to risk standing near the cross, prepared to companion the suffering one despite the trauma. It is exactly five years ago since I shared here on Good Friday how the last week in which my brother died of motor neurone disease had so many elements of the Easter story in it and how his lady friend had companioned him through the three years before that, becoming his wife en route. Both had been called to go on heroic journeys – one had no choice but the other did. She could have walked away. And I was reminded of this Easter connection again this year because sadly she too has just died.

I would suggest that many people here have also experienced the heroic journey at this personal level. And when we listen to today`s gospel reading many of us will be able to connect with the disciples hiding away in grief, remembering our own times of feeling too devastated or too numb to risk venturing out to face the pain or challenges of life. The locked room certainly can become a metaphor for ourselves, especially when we`re undergoing a time of stress or crisis. Yet Jesus bursts those bounds by moving through the material into an `other` dimension with a challenge to trust this God dimension and be at peace. The Hebrew word for peace = shalom – carries the sense of harmony and well-being at both personal and social levels. Some of you may well have witnessed that `other` dimension through weird things that happened when loved ones died. Most of us will have read about people who clearly saw their loved one even before they`d heard they`d been killed. Yet we hesitate to tell those stories for fear of ridicule when in fact they may well bring comfort to another.

Of course there will always be skeptics of this other `dimension` underpinning our material world. Thomas` reaction is pretty normal. I`ve long had a soft spot for Thomas maybe because I too have been a head person and a questioner. But over the past decade or so I`ve shifted to trusting my heart response. I think this came about as a direct result of my ministry as prison chaplain and being in the privileged position of touching others` deep wounds – I mean this metaphorically of course. I was often left wondering, sometimes despairing, as to where and how healing can happen. But then I came to realize that I was looking through the lens of my own expectation and longing – as an optimist – wanting the world to be well and whole. The reality is it isn`t and never will be. The truth is there are gaping holes in ouruniverse let alone in people`s lives. There are fractures in human relationships just like those in the earth`s crust that can lead to paroxysms of earthquakes in our lives.

In today`s gospel reading, it is Christ present as the wounded one who challenges his disciples not only to be in touch with this painful reality, but also to be companions to God`s compassion for the injustices and suffering in the world. As Revd Darcy Wood puts it, When the risen Christ greeted his disciples with the words `[Shalom =] Peace be with you`, it was not simply a formality. His words had a much deeper meaning. He was bringing peace into their hearts as individuals, offering them peace with each other, announcing that peace was now a possibility for the whole world. It was this peace that the disciples were empowered by the Holy Sprit to share with others, in particular through the offer of forgiveness.

I would suggest that Jesus`s resurrection appearance very much connects with the suffering heroic journeys we too are sometimes called to go on. We cannot stay in the tomb of victimhood, the locked room, the retreat mode forever. The `empty` tomb has a parallel `risen` corollary informing us firstly that, rather than seeing ourselves as objects of trauma or abuse, we are subjects of God`s transforming love; and secondly that the space of emptiness, of missingness, can become filled by the Holy Spirit enabling love to flow through us. The risen Christ, the risen wounded one offers us this choice. It`s up to us to trust and accept God`s shalom.