Having a child with Down Syndrome can be a bit anxiety producing. There were so many things I didn’t know until after Danny was born; he was born with two holes in his heart that thankfully closed by his first birthday. We have to check his complete blood count yearly because he is at more risk for certain kinds of leukemia. We have to check his thyroid levels. There were endless hours of various kinds of therapy when he was little aimed at making his body work. He takes cholesterol Medicine and has for many years. Flu shots are mandatory because a respiratory illness could kill him. Oh and there are eleven vertebrae that are fused in his back because of a serious case of scoliosis. The list goes on.
There are also the physical markers or “stigmata” of Down Syndrome; the shape of his eyes, his short stature, his flat nasal bridge; all things that are part of Danny.
The apostle Paul tells us this morning that The resurrection of the dead is true, and he tells us that the resurrected children of God will be resurrected in bodies that will be imperishable. That’s quite a lot to think about. What I have to say about the resurrection is, if it’s not true, you and I could all be doing something different on Sunday morning. I believe with every cell in my body and with every breath I take that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day and that we too will be raised with him. I don’t know what that will look like. This reading from Paul’s letter is the closest thing we have to telling us what that would look like. I like the idea of an imperishable body given some of my own body’s proclivities toward pain and dysfunction. And I got to thinking about Jesus and his resurrected body; I realized that in the stories from the gospels when Jesus visits his beloved disciples after his resurrection, we know from the Thomas story if nothing else that Jesus was raised with the scars of the cross on his body. As I have thought about that over the years, it has always been important to me that Jesus’ scars are there in his resurrected body; for me it’s about being able to experience his humanity; it feels like we are more connected to him because of his suffering and because of ours. It would be easy to dismiss his humanity without those scars.
I am not always sure if I like thinking about my scars and the scars of others whom I love as following them into heaven. Would I recognize Danny without his distinct features? If he still has them does that mean he still has Down Syndrome and Autism?
None of us will know the answers to those questions on this side of heaven. The mysteries of God’s promises for us in the next life will one day be known to us, but not today. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t know some things. Here is what our reading from Paul’s letter helps me to know… I know without a doubt that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I hope and pray that you know it too. It’s ok to have questions and doubts; ultimately the resurrection of Jesus is THE Good news that we all hope for. I wonder how our lives and the lives of others would change if we lived as though we believed it was true? What are the consequences of knowing it to be true? Well, I think our Gospel lesson gives us some help in answering that question; we are not to judge or condemn; we are to give to anyone who asks something of us; we are to love our enemies, which in today’s social and political climate is difficult. Basically as we see in so much of scripture, we are to love God and love our neighbors. It’s those spiritual scars that we carry that perhaps define who we are more than our physical scars. Jesus’ scars are every bit as spiritual as they are physical, and maybe the reason he carries them still, is to remind us and not him of how he received them. All of humanity is carried in those scars and I know I need to remember my own responsibility in their creation. Perhaps we carry those things that make us the most human, the most vulnerable, the most forgiving. Ultimately, the thing that is most important is Jesus being raised from the dead; that is where everything begins and ends for us. I pray that we can each live as if we know that Jesus was raised and that we shall be too.