April 15, 2007
(Second Sunday of Easter)
Unlocking the Doors
By The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean
Acts 5:27-32 • Psalm 118:14-29
or Psalm 150 • Revelation 1:4-8
• John 20:19-31
(From
The Lectionary Page)
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Last Tuesday, driving by our local Walgreens, I saw a sign reading: Easter 50% off.
By Friday the sign had been changed: Easter 75% off.
Candy, decorations and the like are being discounted quickly. On this Second Sunday of Easter, let us not be guilty of discounting the power of the Resurrection.
Sixty years ago today, at Ebbets Field in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, when the Dodgers took the field at the start of the game, America began a new chapter. Starting at second base for the home team was #42, Jackie Robinson, a skilled athlete, starting his first major league game, who happened to be African American. And the color barrier was broken in Major League Baseball.
The general manager of the Dodgers at the time was Branch Rickey, and his decision to start Robinson was called by some the Great Experiment, and renamed by others the Noble Experiment.
Robinson was 26 years old when Rickey secretly signed him a year and half earlier in October of 1945, defying the other baseball owners who had voted 15-1 against integrating the big leagues, and who threatened to boycott any games with a team who had a black player. By then, Robinson had excelled at four sports at UCLA including baseball, had played and starred in the Negro Leagues, and was undoubtedly ready to step onto a Major League field. Robinson was also known as a fierce competitor who had a temper. Some said the angrier he got, the better he played.
Many historians see Rickey's experiment, which opened the way for Robinson to break baseball’s color barrier, as a trigger to a number of events that followed, and played a significant role in fueling the move toward integration. Yet perhaps no socio-political event in the first half of the 20th Century was as fraught with risk.
Atlanta Journal sports editor Ed Danforth is quoted as saying at the time: "I don't see why a top-flight Negro ballplayer would be so anxious to play in the white leagues when he is doing so well in his own organization.” (Jules Tygiel's book "Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy")
The 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson legalized segregation. On April 15, 1947, segregation was dealt a critical blow. In some ways, more powerful than a court decision, was the image of a black man taking his place on a field formerly for whites only. And while calls to end segregation came from some quarters by 1947, it can be argued that few events spoke as loudly as when Jackie Robinson stepped up to the plate for the first time in a Major League, not a Negro League, baseball game.
That was a huge burden to put on the shoulders of Jackie Robinson, and later in the 1947 season Larry Doby and Hank Thompson. With the color barrier broken, Hispanic players with dark skin such as Minnie Minoso, Carlos Paula, and Ozzie Virgil were signed. But it took 12 more years for every major league team to have a person of color on the roster.
In an article written for Major League Baseball, Justice Hill writes, How do people who had long been viewed as inferior prove they are an equal? He answers his own question saying: They need a defining moment, an event in history that so crystallizes their equality that nobody can dispute [that they are inferior.]
And yet in another sense, a defining moment is just that: a moment. In order for change to happen, for progress to be realized, for new life to spring forth, a journey must follow. Choices must be made. And life must be lived, which either reflects the defining moment or not.
Today’s Gospel lesson from St. John begins: When it was evening of the day of Resurrection, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them.”
John’s Gospel is the last of the four to be written, some 40 to 60 or more years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This Gospel is certainly composed after the Jewish-Roman war of 66-70 AD, and quite likely reflects the notion that in order for the followers of Jesus to be on good terms with the Romans, it is best to distance the Jesus people from Judaism, and in fact, join the Romans in despising the Jews. Thus, this Gospel says that the disciples were not afraid of the “authorities” who had successfully conspired to kill Jesus – they were afraid of “the Jews,” and holy justification for anti-Semitism was created. The Church cannot apologize often enough for this sin.
So for the remainder of our time this morning (this evening) let me rephrase a portion of the opening line that we might ponder the following: the doors where the disciples met were locked for fear of the ______ (blank.) What are the fears that keep the doors of where we meet, the Church, locked?
We need to confront the fears which cause us to lock our doors. In this gospel passage John is telling us about the fears of the community of believers in his day, and challenging the fears the Church has today. It is the day of Resurrection, it is the season of celebrating Christ’s victory over death. We are freed from the destroying power of sin! Alleluia! Thanks be to God! And yet . . .we still lock our doors, we are still prone to fear, we still choose to hide.
John accurately describes us. At least, he describes me. Doors, hearts, minds, and lives are locked up too often. And out of fear, we lash out. We are guilty of keeping people out of our lives and out of the Church because of the color of skin, or the lack of education or wealth. We keep people out because they live differently or love differently, or in some other way don’t measure up. And suddenly, Easter is 50% off. New Life is not so absolute, and we begin to inch back into the very grave that has been defeated.
Yet, as John tells us, we can lock all the doors and hide all we want, but the Risen Lord still comes to us. He gives us peace, His breath of life, His Spirit. And sin is forgiven, sin’s is power crushed. Even the sin of fear, the fear that prevents us from doing the right thing, the fear of being more Christ-like.
It is easy to point to Mr. Imus and name his sin. But I need to look at myself and how far I fall short of Easter’s new life, so that I can ask the Risen Lord to heal and renew me. For the Church, Easter is our defining moment. We must live each day in the light of new life and unlock the doors.
There isn’t time to do justice to the rest of today’s gospel reading, so one final point.
Thomas comes to believe by touching the wounds of the Cross imbedded in the Risen Christ. Thomas stands for many people, for many of us, people who have come to faith because the Body of Christ, the Church, offers itself for the life of the world. And as the Church builds up the reign of God, we are wounded. The scars we receive from standing up to oppression and prejudice, and the wounds inflicted upon the Church as we wage reconciliation and respect the dignity of all, are wounds that help others to see and know and believe that Resurrection is real. Often in my life I lock doors because I am afraid of being wounded. And so does the Church. Yet Easter teaches us that our woundedness is more life-giving that we can imagine. It is by giving our life that we take it up again. Our defining moment has arrived. Let us respond with courage, conviction, and a heart eager to love.
Jackie Robinson retired from baseball and became involved in corporate business, politics, and was often branded as an activist. Some political backrooms and boardrooms locked their doors for fear of Jackie! He is quoted as saying, “There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.”
John’s Gospel may very well be saying: Unless all people are loved, embraced, and included, we have not yet been touched by the power of the Lord’s resurrection. So let us touch the wounds of Christ and believe.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Unlock the doors!
Confront our fears!
Hide no more!
And live as 100% Easter people!
