Acts
of the Apostles 2:42-47
1
Peter 1:3-9
John
20:19-31
Is the Resurrection for real?
If you ask “doubting Thomas,” you
know he needed physical proof to believe.
Jesus tells Thomas,
“Blessed
are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Aren’t we all at times “doubting
Thomasas” -- disbelieving things we don’t understand or can’t touch or experience
for ourselves?
With this passage, we are at the
conclusion of John’s Gospel. This story
is meant to help us all to see that our faith must be grounded in the presence
of the Lord through the Spirit.
At the beginning of John’s Gospel,
we learn “The Word was God” and “the Word was made Flesh.” Now, John
repeats it at the end of his Gospel, but blesses those who accept it on faith,
needing no other proof in the Divinity of Jesus than the Word.
As Jesus' own words sum it up
today, “Do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
But still there are those here
today who might need more proof. It’s
OK. Hang with me.
Is heaven for real?
If you ask Todd Burpo’s little
boy, Colton, the answer is an enthusiastic “Yes.” In his call-it-like-he-sees-it innocence,”
Colton claims to have been there, experiencing a trip to Heaven and back after
nearly losing his life from a burst appendix when he was almost four years old.
He spent 17-days in the hospital
and emerged a changed boy. Now he was
talking about singing angels, meeting Jesus and seeing the bright, vivid colors
of Heaven.
At first, his parents were
doubtful of the boy’s story. So, too,
were many in the congregation where Todd Burpo is a pastor in a small Nebraska
town.
But Colton kept talking and
revealed some remarkable details.
Colton says he remembers at first
floating out of his body in the operating room, floating over his father in the
hospital chapel and hearing him “yelling at God,” and floating over his mother
who was calling friends on her cellphone and asking for their prayers because her boy was “real
bad off.”
Colton said he then was taken to
Heaven by angels and walked with Jesus and even sat on his lap. He saw and heard angels singing and
laughing at his questions.
Colton says, “In heaven, nobody is
old and nobody wears glasses.”
He later said he met his great grandfather
there, much to his dad’s disbelief. That
is until his father showed Colton a long, lost photograph of his grandfather
when he was a young man, without the trademark glasses of old age. And the boy said, “That’s pop!”
He later told his mom he met his
sister in heaven, a really nice girl who kept hugging him. Colton’s mom Sonja said, “Your sister
Cassie’s not in heaven. She’s right
here.”
Colton said, “I have two
sisters. You had a baby die in your
tummy, didn’t you?” Sonja said, “Who
told you I had a baby die in my tummy?” Colton said, “She did, mommy.” Then he said, “She’s OK mommy. God adopted her.”
When asked by his dad if Colton
knew why Jesus died on the cross, without blinking an eye, the boy exclaimed, “Well,
Jesus told me he died on the cross so we could all go see his Dad.”
Catholic friends have asked if
Colton saw Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Heaven. Todd Burpo says, ”the answer to that is …
Yes. He saw Mary kneeling before the
throne of God and at other times, standing beside Jesus.” Colton says, “She still loves him like a
mom.”
Colton described Jesus as having
green eyes and a kind face.
In the months after hearing his
stories, they would show him hundreds of pictures of Jesus, and the young boy
would shake his head and say, “No, that’s not him,” “No, the hair’s not right,” “The clothes aren’t right,” “Nope, that’s not him either.”
One
day, father Todd received an email from a friend with a link to a CNN story
about a Lithuanian-American girl who lives in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, who had a
similar experience to Colton’s and began painting pictures of her colorful
visions of Heaven, angels and of Jesus.
These visions started when she was almost four years old.
Akiane
(Ah-Kee- ANNA) Kramarik is now considered a prodigy. Self-taught, she painted
this picture of Jesus when she was just 8-years-old.
The
intriguing thing is her family were Atheists at the time, and God and Jesus
were never talked about in their home.
The
family has since converted to Christianity mostly due to Akiane’s amazing
journey of faith.
Not only has she become a world
renowned artist, but she’s also a self-taught classical piano performer,
composer and poet.
Akiane has completed over 200
published art works, 800 literary pieces and published two best-selling
books. She’s now 19 years old.
Akiane
says her talents come from a higher power and “she now belongs to God.”
Akiane
and Colton share two things in common, they both say they experienced Heaven
and both described Christ’s eyes as being, in their words, “just beautiful.”
When this picture was shown to
Colton, there was a long moment of silence.
Then he exclaimed, “Dad, that one’s right. That’s Jesus.” It was the only picture that “stopped Colton
in his tracks.”
This picture is called “The Prince
of Peace. The Resurrection.”
Perhaps you doubt this story. That’s OK.
Colton’s parents doubted it, too, for a while.
Thomas doubted Jesus’s
Resurrection until he experienced the risen Christ in the flesh.
In our world, “seeing is
believing” for many.
But the second reading from St.
Peter describes what true Christian faith is in a beautiful way:
“Although
you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet
believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you
attain the goal of
your faith the salvation of your souls.”
Pastor Todd now understands
everything and has put it all in perspective, “As a nurse wheeled my son away
screaming, ‘Daddy, don’t let them take me!’…
when I was angry at God because I couldn’t go to my son, to hold him,
and comfort him, God’s son was holding my son in his lap.”
At the end of the movie and the
book “Heaven is for Real,” pastor Todd gets up to share the family’s story for
the first time as part of a sermon.
During the service, he preached about that day's Gospel reading about “doubting Thomas,” “someone who
refuses to believe something without physical evidence or direct personal
experience. In other words, a person
without faith.”
Pastor Todd preached “about his own moments of anger and lack of faith
in that little room in the hospital, raging against God, and about how God came
back to (him), through (his) son, saying, ‘Here I am.”
Today’s first reading from Acts of the Apostles
details the very start of deacons in our Church. St. Stephen, who would be the first Christian
martyr, is commissioned along with six others to serve community members who
are on the margins.
I am honored to be a servant to this
community. I am so grateful for being
able to stand before you to share the Gospel, help with efforts to live our
Catholic Social Teaching by works of charity and justice in our community,
especially to those on the margins, and to minister to the people of God right
here in Everett. 
