YEAR C 2025 easter 2

Easter 2, 2025
Acts 5:27-32
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31
Psalm 150

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

So, there’s your annual “Doubting Thomas” gospel story.  Every year, in all three years of the lectionary cycle, this is the gospel reading for the second Sunday of Easter.  Every single year.  Which means, unless I got a substitute, I have preached on this same text every year for the 15 years that I’ve been ordained.  And—to be honest—I’m kind of out of ideas for now.  But we’ve still got three other perfectly good readings to look at, so today I want to talk about the reading from the Revelation to St. John.

“'I am the Alpha and the Omega’," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”  Jesus says that same thing two more times in Revelation, so it’s clearly important. Now as every good Greek student knows, alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and omega is the last letter.  Alpha to omega is like A to Z.  Alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.  There are no letters that are not contained between those two.  Every possible word is made up of letters within those end points.  Nothing exists outside of Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

We can think of alpha and omega as the outstretched arms of Jesus.  And that is the space where we live our lives.  Within the infinite wingspan of Jesus.  All things exist within the arms of Jesus.  When we die, we are not going anywhere we have not always been.  There is nothing outside those arms.  Nothing before; nothing after.  In the beginning was the Word.  And at the end of everything will be the Word.  The beginning and the end; the alpha and the omega.

The chasuble I’m wearing this morning came from St. Alban’s Church in Cleveland Heights.  On Thursday evening, I went up to join the Bishop in decommissioning the church, which closed and disbanded about two years ago.  I was sort of like their unofficial priest for a few years before I came here.  The now secularized building is being sold to an art collective.  After the service, the Bishop said those in attendance could take anything we wanted from the building.  I took a box of taper candles, and I didn’t want this lovely hand-made chasuble to end up rotting in the cathedral basement, so I brought this home as well.

I’m not going to replace the beautiful chasuble we already have, but this one will be worn on some occasions, like today.  Because that’s important.  Just as it’s important to remember that St. Alban’s Church existed, and it existed within the outstretched arms of Jesus.  St. Alban’s is not going anywhere it has not always been.  Just like you and me.  All within the span of the alpha and the omega.  There are no words, or letters, or people, or faith communities that do not fall within that embrace.

We all spend so much time worrying about how long things will last.  From our retirement accounts to the milk in the fridge.  From the aging roof on the house to our aging bodies sitting here today.  Nothing lasts forever.  Part of what makes cut flowers valuable is that they don’t last forever.  Which is why we need to enjoy them now, while we have them.  The value of earthly living things is precisely because they don’t last.  Cling to them while you can, but when you have to say goodbye, remember that they are still within the arms of Jesus.

I heard someone point out recently that the en dash on a tombstone represents an entire life.  You’ve got the birth year and the death year, and that little dash between them is the life lived, however brief, or however long.  And there’s something to that.  But the beginning and end of that life—of your life—is not the beginning and end of all that is.  For that, you need Jesus.  The alpha and the omega.  The beginning and the end.  All beginnings and all the endings take place within the alpha and the omega.

I know that we all have our disagreements over . . . well, just about everything.  And the way things are going, there will be plenty more of that!  We don’t see eye to eye on everything.  And I would argue that that’s a good thing!  Because we are different people, with different life experiences.  Different values and families.  Different lifespans even.  But all of us live our lives within the alpha and the omega, between the beginning and the end.  No matter what happens in this life, we are always within the outstretched arms of Jesus.  Who gave his life for us, and who now lives and reigns, forever and ever.

Amen.