Locked or unlocked?
When I was in seminary, one of the classes I had to take was Greek. I am not very good at languages. I am even worse at being able to name and identify the grammar and parts of speech. I did better at the vocabulary of Greek, and one of the reasons was that I started to hear the Greek words and how they often form the roots of English words (or even are taken straight from the Greek).
For example, did you know that “Thesaurus” is a Greek word that means “treasure”? And did you know that the Greek word for sugar is “sacchar”, from which we get the word “saccharine”? Or how about the words “bibliography” or “bible”, which come from the Greek word for “book”? I could go on and on. Finding out that these words had Greek roots made it easier to learn the vocabulary for my Greek class, even though I always have to struggle with the grammar, and whether a noun is a masculine, feminine or neuter noun!!
So when I was looking at the text for this week, I decided to check out the Greek text, especially the text referring to the locked door. What I discovered was wonderful.First I read that the Greek word for “closed” or shut is “kleiso”. As I stared at the screen and pronounced the word to myself, I wondered, why does this sound so familiar?
There they were. The called ones, the disciples of Jesus, suffering post-traumatic stress to be sure, locked away, behind kleisoed doors. They were afraid of the Jewish leaders who crucified Jesus, and who they thought might next come after them. Because they were afraid, they weren’t letting anyone in. But because they were afraid, and hiding behind closed doors, they also weren’t taking the Good News of Jesus Christ out into the world.
So here John presents us with a closed room containing a closed community. “Kleiso”, closed by their fear.In some It ways reminds me of the modern church.Our church seems to be dogged by fear. Fear because we look out and see aging and dwindling congregations. Fear because that church has become irrelevant to our families, neighbours and communities. Fearful of what the future might hold for the Presbyterian Church in Canada. We’re also afraid of changes in our society and what is going on in the world around us. I think that the modern church is ghettoed, ghettoed by our fears, fears of “Muslim” terrorists, fears of those whose lifestyles are different, fears of change. Closed rooms, closed disciples, closed minds. It is dreadful what fear will do to disciples.
The book, the “The Open Society and its Enemies” was written at the end of World War II by political philosopher Karl Popper. Popper, a Jewish intellectual and professor who fled Austriajust before the beginning of World War II, argued that a free and open society is the most desirable for humanity. His book is an uncompromising defense of liberal democracy and a powerful attack on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism, or a “closed society”, as exemplified by Plato, Marx and Hegel. This book seems to be eerily prophetic, given what is happening in the political arena of our neighbour to the south, where some presidential candidates are appealing to a climate of fear in order to limit the rights and voices of individuals and move towards a more “closed society”. I wondered if this climate of fear is what is also impacting us in the church today, making us move toward a more “closed” society.
It was then that I realised why “kleiso”, the Greek word for closed, had caught my attention. It sounded so much like another Greek word that is common in church usage. “Kleiso” is linked etymologically to “ecclesia”, the Greek word that came to describe the church!
The Ecclesia (literally translated “not closed”) was the Open Society. Not closed, unsealed, outed and free. The ecclesiathat celebrated freedom from systems of dominance, fear and oppression. How wonderful that the Church mothers and fathers chose ecclesia –“not closed”, to describe the community of Jesus’ early followers.
And in our Scripture passage today, it becomes clear that, in this upper room encounter, Jesus
ourtomb busting, resurrected saviour was NOT going to be cocooned by fear. He came to tell the disciples that they weren’t going to be a closed society, keeping other people out because of fear. Jesus broke out of the tomb in order to give to them the Good News of life eternal! And he clearly expected them to share that news, when he said to them “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And he breathed his life-giving spirit into them. He was making it very clear. He was saying to them “You are not to remain ‘kleiso’; you are ‘ecclesia’. Come out! I am sending you!!”
So I wonder. I wonder if our ghettoed suspicious fearful church of 2016 can still feel the resurrection breath on our cheeks? I have no doubt that the risen Jesus is still breathing on us. He isn’t stopped by closed doors. So one way or another, he is going to break into our closed hearts and minds as well, dismiss our fears, and fill us with the light and breeze of the Good News! Our Saviour is calling us! Which will you be? Open or closed? Klesio or ecclesia? Locked or unlocked? Amen