First Sunday after Easter, 2002
John 20:19-23

Most Americans are rightly outraged by the targeting of innocent civilians by suicide bombers. These murderers have imposed extreme lifestyle changes on Israel, and if they are not stopped they will eventually disrupt the United States as well. What has changed in Israel? People have become agoraphobic. Agoraphobia is the fear of going outside. The country has become a nation of shut-ins. People spend their days huddled in their homes afraid to go out. After narrowly escaping a suicide attempt, a father commented, "I was going to the market that very morning. I delayed five minutes. I am standing in the door when I hear the bomb. The keys are in my hand. I have my kids ready to go with me. That's how close this is."

Consequently, people do not gather in restaurants or cafes. They do not go to movies. They rarely visit parks or pedestrian malls or supermarkets, and when they do, they rush through as if their lives depend on it, because they do.

Two thousand years ago there was another group of Jews hunkered down with fear. That was the disciples after Jesus died on the cross. They were huddled in the Upper Room on that Sunday afternoon. Afraid of the Jews, they had locked themselves inside. And suddenly Jesus appeared in their midst. They gasped and stared in amazement. Was He a ghost? Was He come for revenge? No. He came with a message of reconciliation: "Peace be with you." Remember, every last one of the disciples had abandoned Jesus. Judas had betrayed Jesus to the enemy for thirty pieces of silver, but the other apostles were likewise complicit in His death. None of them defended Him at His trial. They had abandoned Him. But Jesus came to them, not in anger, but with pardon. He had dismissed their sin from His memory, and He wanted them to do the same. So he said: "'Peace be with you.' And then He showed them His hands and side."

His hands revealed nail-prints; His side a spear wound. Such a presentation proved that He was no disembodied spirit, rather He came in His physical body, the same man that had walked with them for three years, and been crucified, but now was alive. His words and sudden arrival brought great joy to the disciples.

Our gospel passage on this First Sunday after Easter gives us a high view of the institutional church. We learn something about her mission and authority. Let's explore a few facets. John 21:20 says, "So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you!" As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." Jesus had earlier taught the disciples: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38, 51). Jesus was sent by God the Father to give His flesh for the life of the world, which means He came to redeem His chosen ones along with the cosmos. God sent Jesus, and now that Jesus is about to ascend into heaven, He sends the apostles.

Let's consider a bit more closely whom Jesus sent. If we read all four accounts of the resurrection we see a slightly different emphasis in John's gospel. While the other writers tell of Jesus' appearance to individuals (Mt. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24), John speaks here of the resurrected life of Christ coming into the Church. It was to the collective group of disciples that Jesus appears with a message concerning their mission. "As the Father has sent me, so I also send you." This commission comes from the Father, through the Son, to the Church. It was not given to individuals, but to a society, to a visible body of disciples.

This is the climax of the Gospel. Everything that Jesus had done on earth was building to this point. How would He leave His stamp on the world? In what way would He transform the earth, turning a wilderness into a paradise? How would the nations be baptized? Notice what Jesus did not say. He did not say, "I send a book, or I send an ideology, I send the best experience, or I send a twelve-step program." No, He said, I send YOU" (collectively). Those words of Christ, while they were spoken to individuals, were not individualistic in their intent. They were words for the Church. And while the disciples made up the Church, they did not make the Church. Jesus did.

How should we understand the Church at this point in history? In a way the Church had already existed in the Old Testament. The Church was Israel. But Christ had declared to the unfaithful Jews: "The Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it" (Mathew 21:43). The Lord hints at a shift in God's focus. Before Christ's coming to earth, God's purpose was centralized in the Temple in Jerusalem. Now His redeeming purpose would expand. God's power and presence would be multi-centralized in a million places over the face of the globe wherever the worshipping Church advanced. And that transfer of focus takes place right here in our gospel text. Jesus said: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." At this moment Christ Jesus takes this chosen group of followers and constitutes them the Church. They were to be His people; He was to be their God. They would have as their mission the conquering of the globe for Christ. They were to baptize and disciple the nations (Mathew 28:18).

We see unfold in the Upper Room, in microcosm, a picture of the creation and redemption of mankind. Here are the disciples, called out from the world by Christ, collected together, huddled, frightened and powerless. Suddenly in the midst of their helplessness, there He stands; Jesus, their Redeemer, and their God. And He speaks with them, and He commissions them as His people. And their mission is similar to the cosmic task God the Father gave to Adam: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth" or to use Jesus' words: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." Meaning they were to go forth and represent Christ to the world, as His body. And their mission would not be fruitless; it would triumph.

"The Church and her program of discipling the world to the obedience of Christ are thus central to the world; from the strictly Biblical point of view, Church history is the key to world history, and history is inexplicable apart from such an understanding. Historian Philip Schaff had some good words on this. He wrote: "The central current and ultimate aim of universal history is the Kingdom of God established by Jesus Christ. This is the grandest and most important institution in the world, as vast as humanity and as enduring as eternity. All other institutions are made subservient to it, and in its interest the whole world is governed Secular history, far from controlling sacred history, is controlled by it, must directly or indirectly sub-serve its ends, and can only be fully understood in the central light of Christian truth and the plan of salvation." [I am indebted to David Chilton's book, Power in the Blood for this citation and others. Borrowed as well for this homily were insights by Bishop Grote, and commentaries by Gary Burge and Leon Morris.]

And to enable the disciples to carry out this world-transforming mission, He breathed His own Spirit of life into His church: "Receive the Holy Spirit." Again, the Spirit was given primarily to the Church. The stress in the New Testament is not so much on every individual's possession of the Spirit (although that element is certainly there), but on the Church's possession of Him. In fact, nowhere does the Bible suggest that individuals are granted the Spirit apart from their relationship to Christ through His organized Body.

Just as God breathed into the nostrils of Adam, and man became a living soul, so the Church was given her life that first Sunday evening when our Savior breathed upon her His very own Spirit. And as far as individuals are concerned, the life of Christ is only imparted to those who are members of her. The second-century church father Irenaeus had a high view of the institutional Church. His attitude is a challenge to modern Christian thinking. He said: "For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is truth. Those, therefore, who do not partake of Him, are neither nourished into life from the mother's breasts, nor do they enjoy that most limpid fountain which issues from the body of Christ; but they dig for themselves broken cisterns out of earthly trenches, and drink putrid water out of the mire" That is a colorful way of saying it, but very true.

Next, Jesus said to His Church: "If you remit the sins of any, they are remitted; if you retain them, they are retained." What does this mean, and how does it work?

"The answer brings us directly to the issue of excommunication. Excommunication is, literally, the exclusion of an offender from partaking in the Lord's Supper, our sacramental meal. Such a serious step is, in the nature of the case, an official act of the Church. It is not the prerogative of the individual believer. For instance, Fred may not like Barney, but Fred has no right, as a private individual, to keep Barney from Holy Communion. Conversely, if Fred and Barney are close friends, Fred does not have the right to give Barney the sacrament when the Church has pronounced judgment against him. Only the Bishops and Priests of the Church, acting in their official capacity, have the power of forgiving or retaining sins in this sense." [Loose quote from Chilton. p. 143.]

Furthermore, with the words, "If you remit the sins of any, they are remitted; if you retain them, they are retained" Christ confers a divine authority to the Church. Through the apostles Jesus grants the Church a special authority to which all believers must yield and obey. Not only is she sent and empowered, she is invested with authority. Christ gives the Church authority to represent Him among men as the giver and withholder of pardon. Remitting or retaining sins means that the Bishops and Presbyters have the authority to declare absolution or withhold absolution. Unfortunately, we are living in an age when such an assertion raises eyebrows. Forgetting the centrality of the Church for society, men and women regard the Church as a social club. They see their money to God as a kind of dues payment. And they regard their membership in the visible Church as optional. These are harmful perspectives. With such a low view of the institutional Church, is it any wonder that the moral foundations crumble under us?

"If you remit the sins of any, they are remitted; if you retain them, they are retained" means that it is the job of the Church to give assurance of God's pardon, or, to declare that, indeed, there is no forgiveness if a person remains unrepentant. Some would say that only priests in apostolic succession possess legitimate authority to remit and retain sin, to declare pardon or withhold it. That view is unacceptably extreme. In the Reformed Episcopal Church the absolution is pronounced by the minister both in Morning and Evening Prayer and in the Eucharist. The message is clear. God forgives the sins of those who repent, but he does not forgive those who fail to repent. And that declaration is made within the framework of the worship of the Church. For it is in her, that Christ's commission, Christ's power, and Christ's authority lie.

The words of our Lord on this First Sunday after Easter call us out of our cocoons. We serve a crucified and risen Lord who empowered His followers by making them part of a life bigger than their own -- the life of Christ in His Church. As you now approach the Holy Supper keep this thought in mind: the sacramental life you partake of is larger than your own, it is Christ's. By the power and miraculous working of the Holy Spirit you eat the flesh of Christ, and drink His blood. For what reasons? The Holy Communion taken in faith lessens your propensity toward sin. You learn to believe. You are able to strengthen your faith. Through the Lord's holy meal you may possess abundant life, and lose yourself in Him.

These are comfortable words for a lonely, individualistic culture. To lose yourself in Christ is joy unspeakable. To belong to Christ is to belong to the Church. Through the apostles, our Lord sends the conquering Church into the world, He breathes the power of His Spirit into her, and yes, He grants her His authority.

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