After Easter - Then What

What follows is a transcript of Guest Speaker Sandi Mulls's message from our Sunday morning gathering. We share these messages on our blog for those who appreciate the opportunity to read the sermon again—whether for deeper reflection, personal study, or a quieter moment of prayer and introspection. As you read, we invite you to linger with the words, notice what resonates, and remain open to how God may be speaking to you through them.

by Sandi Mull

Before I start, I'd like to tell you a little story related to the Sunday that it is. Years ago, I was at Church of the Resurrection, either Sunday after Christmas or Sunday after Easter.

And Adam Hamilton, who's the regular pastor, wasn't preaching that day. And the preacher that got up said, Adam asked me to preach on Bowling Ball Sunday. And she said, what is Bowling Ball Sunday? And he said, that's the Sunday you could roll a bowling ball just about anywhere in a sanctuary and not hit anyone because, and I'll let you finish the rest of it for yourself, but we are thankful that you are here.

And you are important as a part of our worship and a part of our church. I'd like to start by reading John 20:24- 31.

Now Thomas, also known as Didymus, one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord, but he said to them, unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand in his side, I will not believe. A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked,

and they always had the doors locked. It seemed like every account, the doors are locked.

Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your fingers here. See my hands. Reach out your hands. And put it into my side. Stop doubting and start believing. Thomas said to him, my Lord and my God. Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. Jesus performed many other signs and the presence of the disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, that believing in him, you may have life in his name.

And so ends the reading of the scripture. I'd like to pause for a moment just to ask the prayer of God's spirit on us as we look at his word. Lord, we come to you thanking you for the opportunity to read your word, and to know it, and to be blessed by it.

We pray that your spirit will bless us this morning as we look at what you might have been thinking or what words you might have for us. In Jesus' name, amen. How was your Easter? Now, I think we had a wonderful Easter worship service last Sunday.

It seemed that just everything went very well and flowed. And we had baptisms that help us look at the idea of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, people rising to a new life in God, in Jesus. After the service, did you have a big dinner? Probably some of you did.

We had five people there, and we had more food than we should have had, for sure. But Rhee and I got to eat on it all week, so it was fine. But we have to also remember that sometimes a day of celebration can be lonely for some people, because maybe they can't be with family and friends.

And we have to think about them also. The early church basically went from depression. The disciples went from depression to joy at the resurrection of Jesus, even though he had tried to tell them ahead of time.

In the appearances, it seems like at least some of them were done in ways that would help them recognize him. There was one early one was that when Mary thought he was the gardener, but when he said Mary's name, she knew it was Jesus. And then later, when the disciples were gathered, again behind locked doors, and this was of the two disciples as they traveled to Emmaus.

And Jesus was with them. And they invited him in as a stranger. And here again, locked doors, but in the breaking of the bread, they recognized him.

They didn't know. They just thought he was a stranger they were talking to until they saw him in the breaking of the bread. And now, we see him again making an appearance to the disciples.

And talking gently to Thomas, neither the disciples nor Jesus tried to shame him for his doubt. There's always, with all of us, probably a mixture at times of belief and some doubt or confusion in our lives, even though we believe. And yet, Thomas had written a list or set a list of the things he had to do to believe.

But yet, when he saw Jesus, he didn't really need to do those things. He said, my Lord and my God. And so the disciples, and one other thing.

Notice that even though Jesus is resurrected, his scars are still there. And I think that says something to us. Even though we believe in the resurrection, it doesn't mean life is fixed and all the problems are gone, just like Jesus still had the scars.

The disciples spread the word of the resurrection. But Rome was spreading rumors that the disciples had stolen his body and hidden it and said that he was resurrected. So here again, we have some people doubting, probably partly because of what they were hearing from the Romans.

And there's always that. There was always belief. There was always some doubt.

And yet, as we come to this time, the week after Easter, we are looking at life in maybe a little different way. The disciples expected that when one person rose from the dead, that there would be a number of people rise from the dead. And then they were confused when it was just Jesus.

They also thought that life would be significantly different. But Palestine was still ruled by the Romans. Their lives were still very much the same.

There were still many people who were poor, hungry, and sick, and needing help. And so it seemed that even though Jesus had risen from the dead, that other things that they thought were going to happen hadn't happened. And I don't know exactly the timeline or how this happened.

But at some point, the disciples felt that God was leading them to not only share the gospel, but also help to care for people and show the kind of care Jesus did for people that were poor and hungry and all. And they were trying to do it all, just like sometimes some of us think we have to do it all. And they weren't delegating.

But then they realized they had to. And so they chose seven deacons. This is in the Book of Acts.

And the word deacon means server. It was from the Greek word, the net server. So they chose seven people to take care of the physical needs of the people while they shared the gospel, so that both things were happening.

And I think that's something, as far as the delegation, that when we delegate, we give other people an opportunity to serve. So today, what does it mean that Jesus has risen from the dead? And you know, I sent two or three questions to people that I had in my contacts. I would have liked to send it to everyone, just to see if you had something to say.

But I didn't have everyone's contacts. And I got so many really good ones that I probably didn't have room for a lot more. But I got some responses.

And these are going to be sort of a condensed version of them and a blended version. I'll start with one that emphasized the scripture. And this person talked about it fulfilling the prophecies from the Old Testament about Jesus and also showed the power of God and of Jesus.

And she felt like that was an important factor that she took in the resurrection of Jesus. And others said something about the assurance of forgiveness in our own resurrection. Probably one of the answers I got the most often from people in various ways is that it gave them hope in renewal and some either small resurrections or small Easters.

One pastor talked about seeing a lot of small Easters among people in difficult situations and how God worked through them. One of the people that I asked said that she and her husband had gone to community services. They'd had a service in each church in town throughout Holy Week.

And they went to each one of them. And they said, just being in a different place and a different style of worship was helpful to them to help them think about it. But also, she said, after the week was over, they started talking about it, that sometimes it's really easy to do all this.

And then all of a sudden, you just sort of forget it and go back to your old routine. And it's not that you've forgotten the resurrection, but you're not staying in that moment as much as it might be good. I also got some things from some people, some of them in the US, some of them were a few of our students that had been here internationally, and then a few people that actually live outside the country.

One person says that, you know, we experience this hope and renewal partially now. But it also looks forward to the time that we experience the new heaven and the new earth. Another person talked about the plants coming up in the spring and how that gave them hope in the resurrection.

And that was a sign and a symbol to them. Some other people talked about a pastor that we once had, and maybe some of you will recognize this, who often said, now go out and be the church. And I think that pretty well sums it up that this building is not the church, because it can't go out and do too much.

But each one of us are the church, and that God is calling each one of us to go out and be the church. But what does it mean to be the church? How do we do that? Maybe we share some things about the resurrection, or we just, some people said, live your life in a way that it demonstrates the resurrection and that something has happened in your life. And then if you get a chance to share, that's fine.

But you may not always, that may not always happen. Trying to, one person talked about when there are trying times, it makes it so you realize one can have new beginnings, resilience, and you can move forward, even though life is heavy. Others talk about living an experience that has happened in their life, and how after the experience is over, they feel a renewal and a sort of a small resurrection.

One person told me, she lives down in Sun City, Florida, and she said, whenever people move in that are from Indiana, and she's from Indiana, she calls them. And sometimes, she said, I welcome them and tell them to call back if they need something. And she said, usually I don't hear anything from them.

But this one lady and I were talking, and she said, I don't usually do this, but I asked her, I said, would you like to go to church with me Easter Sunday? This was obviously before Easter. And she said, well, I'm going with my family then, but I'll come the Sunday after. And she said, I'd been praying that I would find a good church.

And so I'll find out after today whether this lady actually did come. But she responded with that, that she reached out to this person. Somebody else talked about, it reminds them to approach life with more patience, gratitude, and faith.

It calls us to love, to give and receive grace, be more patient and compassionate, and that everyone is going through something. And so we need to be more patient with people. We know that we are always, in some way, sharing this story one way or another.

But it can be easy to just get back into the routine. For me, and I'm not saying I do this well, but it's a call to try to live into Jesus' teachings, especially his teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, parables, and of course, the Beatitudes are included in the Sermon on the Mount and anything else. Living into that and asking God to help us to do that because we believe that Jesus has been resurrected from the dead.

Easter is a feast of joy. Not everything is fixed. Not everything, not all of our problems are taken care of.

But we can look back on the resurrection and forward to the time of a new heaven and new earth. And I'm not going to try to explain that. That's from the book of Revelation if you want to look it up.

But that's a whole thing in and of itself. We can take the long view, the long view of our situation of problems. And we can realize that it's not over and that God is still with us, but our story isn't finished.

Wherever you are on the journey, I would invite you to find ways to live into the teachings of Jesus that bring renewal and small our resurrections. As we sing, let's think about what God is calling us to as people of the resurrection.