Stephen Hawking, one the greatest minds in theoretical physics, passed away on March 14th of this year. Since then, I have caught snippets of interviews on NPR about some of his thought on parallel universes. Based on ‘paired protons’ that should not be able to ‘flip’, and yet inexplicably do, apparently there is at least a theoretical possibility of multiple alternate universes. Which got me to thinking, what would this Sunday’s gospel look like in an alternate universe?
It is not that hard to imagine. Jesus appears in front of the disciples who had abandoned and denied him, who had left him alone at his most difficult hour. Once they get over the shock of his appearing – there would be this silence. And then Jesus would speak.
“Well?”
And then, like a parent to a child who has misbehaved: “Do you have something you want to say to me?”
Awkward silence follows.
“I’m waiting.”
You see, in this alternate universe, the rules of forgiveness are these:
- You can only forgive sins when the guilty party makes the first move.
- You can only put things right when people ‘fess up to their part in making them wrong.
- Forgiveness can only be earned, not received; only merited by behaviors and not given as a free choice.
Why? Because your sin, your mistake, your failure makes you un-love-able. It makes you undeserving of forgiveness.
Sounds a bit implausible, doesn’t it, this parallel universe. Yet, here is the hard truth about this. Many of us live in that alternate reality, that parallel universe. We hold ourselves in our failure, in our past, in our mistakes. We buy into the lie that our failure makes us unworthy of being redeemed, unworthy of being loved. And perhaps we hold ourselves there because it is easier to sulk in that alternate reality than it is to do the hard work of changing our hearts and lives.
So, let’s look at what really happened – that ultimate alternate reality that our faith invites us to trust in and believe.
The Risen Lord appears to those less-than-faithful disciples. And he does not wait for them to apologize, explain, or seek forgiveness. Jesus, the aggrieved one, the offended one, makes the first move. “Peace be with you.” They can hardly believe it. So he shows them the wounds that sin has wrought, and repeats the alternate universe he is creating: “Peace be with you!” As if to say: Your failure doesn’t matter. Your abandoning me doesn’t matter. Your sin holds no power. The only thing that matters is my choice to give you a new start, a new heart and a new world of forgiveness to roam around in.
Then Jesus sent them out to share with others the undeserved peace and mercy he had shown them. “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.”
What comes next is less a commandment and more a description. “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” You can live in the reality where you hold people in their sins and mistakes; where you ‘retain them’ in a universe that is without mercy – OR – you can choose to live in the world where you make the first move to forgive people their wrong doings, and where forgiveness is your first and middle and last name.
This is the heart of the Easter message – that there is a world not bound by our rules about forgiveness and mercy and love, but rather that taps into the power of the Spirit of God that breathed over the face of the earth at its creation, and now wants to breathe in us the freedom that comes from God’s mercy and love. That world began with Jesus in that upper room. And it continues with us as we initiate God’s forgiving love to all we meet.
…
Stephen Hawking predicted that there could indeed be parallel universes, where things could be completely turned around from what we know and experience. Jesus Christ inaugurated this alternate parallel universe on that Easter evening, when he appeared to his disciples with those freeing words: “Peace be with you!”
And the choice this Sunday is mine and yours to make. Will you live in a world where you hold others and yourself bound? Retained in their/your sin? Or, will you, with the Spirit’s breath, foster that alternate reality that broke upon the world that Easter day?
You see, it is Divine Mercy Sunday. And to some, that is a very alternate reality. But for us who believe, it is both our salvation and our mission…