We got approval from the town a couple weeks ago. It was a lengthy process to get the correct papers to fill out (and then to fill them out correctly), and after numerous appearances before the zoning board, we got permission to put up a new church sign - the kind with moveable letters. There were no headlines in the local paper: "approval granted by a four foot by four foot sign," but now we have the ability to highlight our special events. We can promote our five Bible Study groups. We can trumpet our youth program. The Craft Fair, the Christmas Concert, the special services. Will we have enough letters even? But wait - why make busy work? Let's just prominently proclaim that we are the "Church with Everything," and leave it at that! Does that sound a bit arrogant? Probably more than a bit. But, it just also happens to be true: we are the "Church with Everything!" Please, don't tune me out just yet.

Personally, I've never been in a position to go church shopping, but some years down the line I may be. I wouldn't even know how to go about it. Would I start with the yellow pages or the web pages? Do I drive around looking for signs with Luther's name, or do I look for the tallest steeple and the stain glass with the most class? How about you? Most of you made a decision at one time or another to look for a church home - what were you looking for? In a lot of communities, churches announce their status with their name: First Methodist, or First Presbyterian, or First Lutheran. I think I'd be attracted to a church I visited in one town, Fourth Lutheran Church. That's modesty. I wonder if they put on their sign: "Fourth Lutheran - the Church with Everything." People would probably say, "Well, make up your mind."

Would you have been attracted by the true first church - the one described in our Gospel text? It could be argued that on the afternoon of the first Easter, the ten disciples in the upper room are the First Church. But it was by no means the Church with Everything. A better description would be the Church with Nothing. They were gathered once more in the upper room, where a few days earlier they had shared the Passover Meal. This particular afternoon, the doors were locked. Peter and an unnamed disciple had raced to the tomb earlier in the day ... the tomb was empty and they weren't quite sure what to make of it.

They must have been discussing that very thing in the upper room, behind locked doors. In my imagination, that upper room door had more locks than the Erie Canal! More locks than your average Jewish deli! More locks than Fort Knox ... and I think I've made my point, however poorly. The were frightened, you see. But in the blink of an eye they went from the Church with Nothing to the Church with Everything. In the blink of an eye, Jesus came and stood among them. That seem a bit unlikely given the lock on the doors; then again, if death could not hold him down and a boulder could not keep him in the tomb, how could a mere Master lock lock out the Master. "Peace be with you," he said to them. And to ensure they heard him, he said it again, "peace be with you." Without a building program; without an infusion of cash, without one new member joining - the Church with Nothing became the Church with Everything. And only because, and all because, Jesus stood among them!

Now, it is a week beyond Easter and once again they are in the same upper room. The doors are still shut ... a lock is not mentioned. Perhaps the peace of Jesus had begun to take root. Nevertheless, though Jesus had been alive for a week and a day, the disciples are huddled still behind closed doors. Churches don't grow behind closed doors. Evangelism committees are not keen on the concept of closed doors. It was the first Sunday after Easter ... and it was as if Easter had never dawned.

One preacher points out that the church gathered in that upper room has "no plan, no promise, no program, no perky youth ministry, no powerful preaching, no parking lot, (and excuse the grammar) no nothing." It is a church without Jesus, the most missed of all missing persons. And a church without Jesus has nothing.

And then in a wonderful display of déjà vu - it happens again. "Jesus came and stood among them." The church with nothing quickly becomes the church with everything. Again Jesus says, "Peace be with you." God knows they can use it. A church with everything, except peace, is all-too-soon a piecemeal church; fractured, divided. The Peace of Jesus, the Shalom of Jesus, does not mean that there is always complete agreement on how to go about things. Complete agreement does not always happen in a family of six - much less a church family of six hundred! But if the Peace of the Lord is a part of the family - there is, at the least, the stirrings of a church. That Peace is pronounced more than once in our liturgy. As if Jesus himself is present - and we trust that he is.

And then the miracle of the day occurs. The previous Sunday, the miracle of the day was resurrection. On this Sunday, the disbelief of Thomas, is turned into faith. Thomas had not been with the other disciples on Easter day when Jesus first appeared to them. He finds it hard, no impossible to believe that on the third day, Christ is risen. But on the eighth day ... Jesus offers his hands, "Touch, Thomas, touch. Take and touch; this is my body." And the First Church of Jerusalem, eight days after Easter, grows by one.

Jesus did not phrase it exactly like that ... but the gesture somewhat echoed his words just a handful of days earlier, as Jesus offered himself in bread and wine. And they are a foretaste of the words we hear this morning as we gather at the altar: take, touch, taste: this is my body and blood. As if Jesus himself is present - and we trust that he is.

This is the context for my contention: we are a Church with Everything. Jesus is among us. We are the Church with Everything, as is every church of any denomination which proclaims the presence of Jesus. Are we a perfect church? Heavens no. We are not a perfect church. We struggle and we strive for a plan, a promise, a program, perky youth ministry, powerful preaching, a parking lot and all of the rest that passes for a church with everything. It all adds up to nothing - unless, unless Jesus is among us. And we trust that he is.

And this Church of Jesus Christ this morning also grows by one. His faith is a bit shaky - but no more so than the disciple, Thomas. To this point in his life, Aidan knows only the love of his parents, the joy of his siblings, the pride of his grandparents. He is fed and changed at regular intervals. What a life. It seems he has it all. But not so. In faith we proclaim, when Aidan is moisturized with water from the Yorktown tap, mixed in with water from the River Jordan, this boy who has it all will very quickly be a boy with truly everything - he has Jesus. His first words are some months off ... and they are not likely to be, "My Lord and my God." But eventually, if we all keep the promises made on his behalf, those words will come.

And so it happens again, eight days beyond Easter, Jesus is among us. The Word is heard. Our prayers are said. There water on a child's head, bread in countless hands, wine on countless tongues. For certain, Jesus is among us. Our Lord and our God. And his presence allows us the conceit to proclaim, we are the "Church with Everything"!