William Temple, the Ninety-eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, once observed that the Church is the only institution in the history of the world that does not exist for the benefit of its membership.  And so, we read in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles that when the apostles were arrested and put into prison by the Jewish Authorities,

an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”

Ah, what a Lord is the Risen and Ascended Jesus; . . . He sends an angel to free His imprisoned apostles . . . in order to send them back to the temple where they had first been arrested . . . and are certain to be arrested again!  And all for the purpose of urging the people and the Jewish Authorities themselves to know and embrace the Life in Christ; . . . to know and embrace the Resurrection Life.  And the reason that the Lord God does this to His Church and that His Church calmly responds with joy -- the difference between the Church and every other institution -- is the difference between Faith and Despair.  And that difference is most clearly explained to us in the Gospel Lesson appointed for today.

    The account begins with an event that occurred a week ago today; . . . on the evening of the Day of the Resurrection.  The text tells us that Jesus, Who had been crucified on Friday and His dead body placed in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea, . . . Jesus shows up Sunday evening to stand among His disciples alive!  Jesus comes and stands among His disciples who were in hiding behind locked doors “for fear” of those same Jewish authorities who had contrived to crucify their Master.  . . . But Jesus stands among His disciples and says,

Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.

And then, the Risen Jesus breathes on them saying,

Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Now, I hope that scene is disturbingly familiar to you.  But if you can’t quite put your finger on where you’ve seen it before, I will tell you where to look:  Genesis 2:7, where we read:

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living creature.

The similarity is not coincidental.  The Risen Lord Jesus declares in the bestowal of His breath upon the disciples that all who are baptized into His death and resurrection are a new creation.  You are a new creature.  It is right here in John’s Gospel that we encounter the tremendous and precious truth that you are not merely homo sapiens any more.  You are homo Christus; . . . not merely intelligent humanity, but holy humanity!

    The object of your Christian Life is not that you should benefit; . . . the object of your Christian Life is not to help you overcome or cope with Despair.  The object of your Christian Life is to create an environment in which Faith might flourish; . . . the object of your Christian Life is to sanctify life; to make life holy with the holiness of God’s life-giving Spirit which has been breathed into you in order for you to be in communion with and communicate the Peace and the Joy of Heaven, . . . which is the source of life.  You do this by living simply:  holding onto the good, loving others as you are loved by God, forgiving others as you yourself have received God’s forgiveness in Christ, having nothing to do with evil, and discerning the difference between good and evil by the discipline of prayer strengthened by Christ Jesus Whom you receive regularly in the Sacrament.

    Now, when the Risen Jesus appeared to His disciples last Sunday with this Gospel of Faith . . . one of them was not there.  Thomas was missing.  . . . Thomas was missing from the company of his friends, I imagine, because he had succumbed to Despair.  Thomas had quit.  I suspect that Thomas had become so disheartened at the death of Jesus and Christ’s apparent inability to make a difference . . . that he quit.

    But, taking Jesus at His word; . . . receiving the Holy Spirit; . . . receiving the new life of Faith that sends the Church for the sake of humanity as the Son was sent, . . . the disciples go out to find Thomas and tell him, “We have seen the Lord.”  That was the first apostolic missionary journey:  down the street and over a block or two to their friend’s apartment . . . to tell Thomas to take heart; . . . Christ is Risen!  . . . Of course, you know what Thomas thought about that.  But out of curiosity, perhaps, or out of gratitude for the disciples’ continued friendship with him and their newly found courage, Thomas was with everyone else when Jesus appeared to them all a week later; . . . Jesus appeared to His disciples (and Thomas) today.  . . . And Jesus says an extraordinary thing.  He says to Thomas,

Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.

. . . Now, how do you suppose Jesus knew that those were the very things Thomas required in order to believe the reality of the Risen Lord?  . . . Jesus wasn’t with the disciples when Thomas named the terms of his belief that Christ is Risen.  . . . Or was He?  . . . Today, in the Revelation to Saint John, you heard the Risen Jesus say to John, in a vision, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”  . . . “I am the A and the Z; . . . I am at the Beginning . . . and I am at the end,” says Jesus; . . . and, by implication, Jesus assures us of His presence at every moment in between.  And so, we read at the beginning of the Gospel according to Saint John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  . . . all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

So, you see, when the Risen Jesus breathed on His disciples, telling them to receive the Holy Breath of God, . . . they became present to Him . . . and He to them.  . . . Jesus knew Thomas’ terms for belief . . . because He is risen; . . . He is the Alpha and the Omega; . . . He is at the beginning of your precious life . . . and He is at its end.

    Therefore, “receive the Holy Spirit” and be homo Christus; . . . be holy humanity.  Because Jesus is present . . . here . . . in this place . . . today; . . . Jesus is present to call us out of ourselves; to call us away from gazing at a life of Despair and to guide us into a life of Faith; . . . Jesus is present to call us into the life of Faith which sees Him present to us in the midst of our minutia; . . . a life of Faith which sees Him present to us in our sleeping as well as in our waking; . . . a life of Faith which sees Him present to us in our profane moments as well as our sacred moments.  . . . Jesus is present to call us into a life of Faith in order that we might live as Archbishop Temple has said the Church must; . . . in order that we might forgive what is repentant, . . . endure and soften with prayer what is obdurate, . . . and speak to the people all the words of this Life; . . . speak to the people all the words of participating in the Presence of the Holy One Who is poised to transform all of human life into something sacred . . . if we will but give Him permission; . . . if we will “not be faithless but believing.”  Alleluia!