“God Within Us” - John 20: 19-31
April 15, 2007
Dr. Michael C. Yarbrough

          When I was on my sabbatical, Suanne and I drove from Assisi, Italy, into Florence, where we were supposed to drop off our rental car.  We first drove the car to the train station where we had been told we would find the rental agency drop-off.  The agency wasn’t there!  After a lot of effort and frustration, we were told that we should take the car to the other side of the city.  Our drive through Florence was one of the most stressful experiences in our 34 years of marriage.  We don’t speak Italian.  Street signs are rare.  Street names change every few blocks.  We had a map, but none of the street names on the city map fit the names of the streets on which we were driving.  I felt disoriented – helpless and maybe even a little fear.

          We knew that there was a place where we were supposed to be, but as we frantically drove down 500-year-old dead ends and streets that turned into one way alleys (going the opposite way) we could not figure out how to get there.  At one point, Suanne wanted me to pull the car over and let her out.  She was ready for us to just abandon the car and take a taxi – to – I’m not even sure where.

          For a couple of hours on that Saturday morning in Florence, I got in touch with what the disciples of Jesus must have felt in the days after Easter.  Our reading from John’s gospel depicts the disciples of Jesus cowering behind locked doors, paralyzed by fear.  Their drive into this kingdom did not turn out like they expected.  They knew that they were supposed to be somewhere – but they didn’t know how to get there.  They had a road map, but none of the streets matched up.  They felt disoriented – helpless – and afraid.  They were lost.  Maybe it was a little like being in Florence, not speaking the language, and looking for the car rental agency.

          Just about the time Suanne was shouting at me to pull the car over and let her get out, I did pull the car over to the curb so that I could look at the street map one more time.  And then, Suanne shouted, but with a whole different emotion in her voice.  Looking up, we saw that less than ½ block ahead was the car rental agency we were looking for!  I still don’t know how we got there except for the grace of God.  It was as if the agency had come to us!  We could hardly believe our eyes.  What joy filled our hearts!  What relief we both felt!  We were saved!  Our marriage was saved!  Life was suddenly filled with wonderful possibilities.

          And there in Florence, I got in touch with something that the disciples must have felt on that day when the risen Christ came and stood among them in their hiding place.  In those moments, they realized that their story with Jesus was beginning rather than ending.  And the Church was born.

          When we are lost, there comes a time when we can do no more but hope.  The only hope that is worth having would be the hope that arises from some event outside of us, some hope not utterly dependent upon us, and at the same time, a hope that is reaching toward us.

          Last week, I spent some time reading the story of the resurrection from the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  In fact, at the beginning of the Easter sermon, I read a little bit of each of them to you.  Do you remember?

          This week, I read each of the gospels’ post-Easter stories.  Each tells the story differently.  They speak of the risen Christ as if he were a ghost, as if he just mysteriously showed up out of nowhere, as if he could go through doors and walls, as if he could do things we cannot.  This is their way of affirming that, in this Jesus, God has met us decisively.  In Jesus, God is among us.  In these resurrection appearances, the veil is pulled back and we see God, God with us, in fullness and glory.

          There are some people who would say that the resurrection did not really happen – that it is only a symbol that the cause of Jesus lives on in the hearts and lives of his followers, – but that’s a pretty puny explanation.  “Symbolic resurrection” is an inadequate explanation of the miracle of how the church came to be.  It is true that faith doesn’t need historical verification – and faith certainly is not the result of our human aspirations or a projection of our longing.  Faith is the result of catching Jesus alive!

          Something must have happened after the disciples scattered in their attempts at self-preservation.  Something drew them back together again in spite of possible danger.  You cannot get from this disillusioned, ragtag gang, crouching behind locked doors to the great apostles who preached, witnessed, suffered, and died, unless you bring into the story something that radically changed them and their world.  In fact, there were two “somethings.”  The first is the resurrection – the event we know as Easter.

          The second “something” that changed everything is described in these words of John: “When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:22)  The promise of the Spirit, so repeatedly given by Jesus in the farewell discourses of chapters 14-16, is here fulfilled.  This is John’s Pentecost story.  This is the moment when “God-Among-Us” (in the person of Jesus) became “God-Within-Us” as the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is real, and it is God’s creative power working in all who are believers in Christ.

          The resurrection is real.  Paul writes of “more than five hundred brothers and sisters … most of them who are still alive” – are witnesses to the resurrected Jesus – so you can go ask them. (I Corinthians 15:6)  Luke writes about Jesus eating and drinking with the disciples after the resurrection.  Matthew meets the challenge of those who said that the disciples stole the body of Jesus by telling about all of the soldiers who guarded the tomb and the huge stone that no person could roll aside.  These are all attempts to underscore the reality of the resurrection.  It is not a fictional creation of human imagination!  God has done something!

          John says that the risen Jesus came and stood among the disciples.  He offered them “Peace.”  All doubts were gone for them.  They saw “God-Among-Us.”  They rejoiced and they believed.  And then, “God-Among-Us” did something.  He breathed on them, and gave them the gift of “God-Within-Us,” the Holy Spirit – and it changed them and the world.

          In the book of Acts, Luke has a different version of how God’s Holy Spirit came to dwell in us, and how the ragtag gang of disheartened, disillusioned, fearful, and lost disciples became the powerful, living body of Christ on earth.  It is the better-known version we read from Acts 2 on Pentecost Sunday.  But the words of John can be enough of the story for us here – today.

          In a closed room with locked doors, the disciples huddled.  Feeling helpless, afraid, and disoriented, it was as if they had a road map, but none of the streets matched up.  And then Jesus came and stood among them – and God came to dwell in them.  What joy filled their hearts!  They were saved!  Life was suddenly filled with wonderful possibilities – a little like finding that car rental agency in Florence.  Alleluia!  Amen.

          Let us pray:

          O God, you came and lived among us as Jesus.  And you brought Jesus back to us so that we would not live in fear or hopelessness.  Your Holy Spirit comes to us in our confusion, our despair, and our loneliness, and now lives within us.  Thank you for the two gifts of Easter: resurrection and the Holy Spirit.  In Jesus’ name we thank you.

Amen.