Easter 2
Act 2, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

Dear friends in Christ,

In my nearly 53 years of life, I don’t know that I can remember a time when there’s been so little confidence in what is going on in the world and in the future yet to come. I’ve been around long enough to know there have been some peaks and valleys, but this seems to be a particularly deep and desolate valley. Some recent polls seem to affirm this. For example, the Consumer Confidence Index is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. This Index, which had declined sharply in February, fell further in March. The Index now stands at 64.5 (1985=100), down from 76.4 in February.

Says Lynn Franco, Director of the Consumer Research Center: "Consumers' confidence in the state of the economy continues to fade and the Index remains at a five-year low. The decline in the Present Situation Index implies that the pace of growth in recent months has weakened even further. Looking ahead, consumers' outlook for business conditions, the job market and their income prospects is quite pessimistic and suggests further weakening may be on the horizon. The Expectations Index, which measures future expectations, in fact, is now at a 35-year low level not seen since the Oil Embargo and Watergate."

In the first quarter of this year, food prices are up 8%. Gas is $3.15/gallon. The housing market is dismal, with prices having dropped 20 – 30%. There are pages and pages of foreclosure notices every week in the back of the Forest Lake Times.

Our confidence in our government leadership is also low. President Bush’s approval rating has stood at about 30% the past several months, with a 65% disapproval rating and another 5% undecided. As we look to the future, there’s skepticism about the next presidential candidates as the democrats continue to slug it out and not all republicans are happy with who will be their nominee.

There’s not a lot of confidence in the war in Iraq, which continues to go on with no end in sight. It’s a divisive issue that hit the Forest Lakes School District this week as administrators chose to withdraw an invitation to the Vets for Freedom event that had been scheduled at the High School. They feared that it was going to turn into a political demonstration by both those for and against the war, endangering students. And how confident is anyone about there being a satisfactory resolution to the Wyoming/Wyoming Township/Chisago/Stacy annexation issues?

There is a lack of confidence all around, and this naturally trickles down into all areas, including the church. We wonder, where is God in all of this? Is it worth investing my time in service to Him? More of my money is going for food and gas, not to mention the decline in the value of my property. Maybe I’ll cut back on my offering, maybe cut it out completely. Doubt creeps in from all sides. Our confidence, even our confidence in God, can be affected.

But today as your pastor, I’m here to proclaim that we, of all people, need to stand strong and live with confidence and hope. In the face of the lack of confidence all around, we need to be witnesses to our God, who could not be defeated by death, but raised up his Son in power. The Easter message is all about living with confidence, for in the empty tomb we believe the forces of evil and death, and all the confidence busters, have already been defeated.

As Jesus’ life came to an end, there was plenty to be skeptical about. For the disciples, there seemed to be good reasons to lack confidence in their lives and in the future. This lack of confidence comes out in the gospel lesson. On the evening of that first Easter, 10 of the disciples gathered in a house behind locked doors. The risen Lord had not yet been revealed to them. As far as they were concerned, Jesus was dead. They had no future. The man they had given three years of their lives to, had been nailed to a cross. They were afraid that the terrible suffering and death that happened to their leader, might happen to them next. One of their group, Judas, the betrayer, had already killed himself. Another, Thomas was not with them.

We learn in the lesson that to these 10 the risen Lord did appear, greeting them with peace and revealing to them the scars in his hands and side. But when they went to tell Thomas, he doubted their word. He had no confidence in their witness. He was still back on Good Friday. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”


Peter also speaks today in the first lesson from Acts, and in our second lesson from 1st Peter. Like Thomas, Peter went through a time when he had no confidence in himself, Jesus or God. You know the story. When Jesus was arrested and put on trial, Peter watched from a distance. When a maid and some others recognized him and asked him if he was one of the Jesus’ disciples, three times Peter denied knowing him. Like the other disciples that first Easter Eve shut behind locked doors, like Thomas who demanded proof, Peter had no confidence in life when Jesus appeared to be defeated.

But what a very different Peter we find in his sermon in Acts and in what he writes in 1 Peter. Clearly, because of the resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter became a changed man. The weak, lying, defeated disciple of Good Friday, became the strong, confident, hopeful man we meet in these lessons.

Peter was now able to speak confidently about God’s great plan. On Good Friday, as far as Peter was concerned, there was no plan. In Peter’s eyes, whatever plan Jesus was following came completely undone when Jesus was arrested and put on trial. “I never knew the man,” is all Peter could come up with then.

But now look at Peter in this lesson from Acts 2. The contrast with the Peter on Good Friday couldn’t have been greater. On Good Friday he was timid and afraid of the authorities. But in Acts, he speaks with boldness. He begins, “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say.” That’s confidence.

He goes on to say that God very definitely had a plan. Speaking of Jesus he says, “This man, handed over to you, according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”

What happened to Jesus was no mistake. Hid death was no accident. God allowed it for a greater purpose. Jesus died, so that He might be raised up, to show that God was more powerful than death itself.

He quotes to the Israelites from their very scriptures, Psalm 16. David says in the Psalm, “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption.”

Peter then says, “I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us today.” Peter is fully confident that David is dead and he is therefore all the more confident that who David is referring to in the Psalm is Jesus, the Lord. He is not dead, he is risen. “He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.” The resurrection so changed Peter’s life that here, instead of denying Jesus and God’s plan, he stands before the people of Israel and witnesses to God’s perfect plan in raising Jesus.

So Peter now speaks confidently of God’s plan. But even more, he himself believes confidently in God’s plan. This comes out clearly in his letter, our reading from 1 Peter. He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Now listen to his confidence. We are born “Into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who are being protected by the power of God.” Does that sound like a man who once denied Jesus in the corner of a courtyard when confronted by a maid? No way. He now speaks with supreme confidence.

And this is no pie in the sky, life is always good, kind of belief. He says we rejoice, “even if now for a little while you have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of you faith – being more precious than gold, though perishable, is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus is revealed.”

Peter’s life was completely changed by the experience of the resurrection. So was Thomas’, who came to confess Jesus as, “My Lord and my God.” So were the lives of the remaining 9 disciples, all of whom became witnesses to the Lord and leaders in the early church.

They all went from no confidence, to complete confidence in the power and presence of God. They understood that hardship, trial, and suffering would not go away, but would be a time of testing and give them an even greater opportunity to proclaim the good news of the resurrection.

There is no doubt that among Americans today confidence in life and the future is about as low as any of us has ever seen it. But for believers, this a great opportunity for witness. Our hope is deeper than the ups and downs of the markets or the dreams and plans of political parties. We approach life with confidence, resurrection confidence, that there is nothing in this life that in the end, defeats us. As Peter declares, we have an “indescribable and glorious joy” because of what God has done for us in Christ. Now’s not the time to give up. Now’s not the time to give in. Now’s not the time to cut back in our spiritual commitments. For now is the time of testing. Now’s the time to stand up, bear witness, and have confidence, knowing that because of the resurrection, God goes before us and will lead us through this time of trial. So let us leave this place today with renewed confidence. And then let us join Peter, Thomas, and all the apostles, bearing witness to the good news of the hope and power of the resurrection. Amen