Musical Prelude and Service.

Acts 5:27-32 & John 10:19-31
Whose voices are we still silencing?
If we step back and take a close look at our history – not just the church, but so many institutions in our country and the larger world, we can point to so many groups of people who were systematically told to keep silent.
Women were kept from the pews for centuries if not millennia. They were kept away from the ballot box until 1917 in Canada. Those are basic ways their voices were silenced. People of colour in so many different ways have had their voices silenced or were simply ignored. Our indigenous siblings have also been told to be quiet or forced into the background in a host of ways for generations.
I want to say these forms of racism, misogyny, never mind the homophobia I didn’t even address have been put behind us, but I can’t. If we are honest with ourselves, we can still point to a long list of ways a great many institutions continue to threaten, belittle or shout over the voices of those we see threatening the status quo.
Does this sound a little close to a political message? I don’t know. But the simple fact is that this week we hear a story about the religious authorities in Jerusalem bringing Peter and John before the Sanhedrin and telling these two apostles to stop talking about Jesus rising from the dead. That this is a subject that is not open for discussion. It threatens their authority. They disagree with what it proclaims. And Peter and John respond that no matter what earthly power might demand, they can only listen to and proclaim what they have been told by God.
If we are too literal in our reading of Acts, we can come away with a reading that is decidedly anti-Semitic. Peter accusing the Sanhedrin of killing Jesus. But that fails to recognize that the Apostles are Jewish and remain Jewish in their faith.
That reading also leaves little room for how we hear this story in our current world. If I as a privileged straight white man remove myself from the centre of my reading and imagine a trans individual; someone who is told by so many that they are mistaken in how they identify themselves.
Who are told by so many they are a threat to the world? Who are told repeatedly that there is no space for them in our communities?
What might they hear in this story?
“We must obey God rather than any human authority.”
We must listen to our conscience.
How often over the years have our institutions used their authority to limit whose voices are privileged? I need to be so careful with this message. There are occasions when people like me insist we are being victimized by certain social forces. We have attached various terms to it over the years. I won’t belabour that point.
If we are honest with ourselves, we will acknowledge that our society has promoted what I have read referred to as a monoculture. One predominant way of seeing and responding to the world. Voices that offer a different perspective on our world; seen through the eyes of women, of people of colour, migrants, and 2SLGBTQ have all too often been threatened or shouted over or been labelled as dangerous to the well being of our communities.
I didn’t come to this understanding of this scripture on my own. I had my eyes opened to this understanding by reading an essay by Mitzi J. Smith. Dr. Smith is the J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA. She earned a Ph.D. in Religion (New Testament) from Harvard University, a M.Div. from Howard University School of Divinity, and a M.A. from Ohio State University. Her voice is very much worth listening to. So I think it might be important to quote her now as she reflects on this particular passage from Acts. In a section she titles, God sides with the oppressed she states: “With God, Black lives matter; Muslim lives matter; Jewish lives matter; refugee lives matter; poor lives matter; women’s lives matter; incarcerated lives matter; the most oppressed among us matter. God’s people should be agents of reversal. We are to embody good news to the poor, imprisoned, and those oppressed because of their religious affiliation, culture, gender, race, class, or sexual orientation. The religious entities, authorities and communities to whom we often submit do not always side with the oppressed or with justice. Authoritative communities and institutions sometimes allow themselves to be hijacked by their own biases, dogmas, racism, sexism, classism, and prosperity gospels. We stifle God’s voice. Absent intentional self-reflection, internal and external critique, religious institutions and peoples always risk becoming more and more like the oppressors and less and less able to see and hear God speak in new and life-giving ways. Instead, we justify death and dying.”
We can often feel uncomfortable when our views of the world are challenged. We can also be reluctant to express our doubts with what we are told is beyond question. The Gospel reading this morning is often referred to as the story of Doubting Thomas. If we are not careful in how we read this story, we may walk away thinking there is something wrong with the disciple Thomas because he insists on seeing the risen Christ for himself; that he is not ready to rely on the word of his fellow disciples and friends. What we miss in this story is that Jesus shows up for Thomas. He blesses Thomas.
Furthermore, the other disciples; Mary, Peter, John and the rest of the gang, also struggled with doubts and questions until Jesus appeared to them.
When Jesus says, imagine how blessed those who have faith without seeing him will be, John is referring to those in that community who come to their faith who did not experience Jesus in person.
In my reading I came upon a comment I found very compelling. She said, “I wonder if Thomas, who is called the twin, is supposed to be my twin. Because I see myself in his questions, his insistence upon that experience.”
Jesus blesses Thomas in his questions and his skepticism. Thomas’s doubts do not keep him from being blessed. In fact, it is after expressing his doubts that Thomas expresses his incredibly strong faith. “My Lord and my God.”
We are allowed to ask questions. It is natural and okay to harbour doubt. Actually, this is often how we strengthen our faith – by naming our doubts and seeking illumination on those matters. That is how we learn more about who we are, and the world God has blessed us with.
God’s presence in our world is not confined to a few select important voices. It is not a message that preserves and protects the existing authorities or a status quo. It is not a voice that tells us to be frightened of those who are persecuted and struggling to survive in an uncaring world.
I believe God’s voice is one that reminds us once again to love one another.
To serve one another.
To see the face of God in the stranger, in the houseless person we try to avoid, in the people thrown in jail for simply trying to exist.
We find ourselves in the Easter time, when we celebrate the experience of the risen Christ.
The empire tried to silence Jesus and his message of love and God’s kingdom, but God’s love is stronger than death. It cannot be contained in a tomb. The risen Christ cannot be silenced, and we have a responsibility to listen for that voice in so many different places. May we open our eyes and our ears so that we may be open to the multitude of ways that God speaks to us as individuals and also as a community of faith. Thanks be to God. Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789