It is the middle of the night on Easter Eve on a Greek island. Most of the villagers are leaving church carrying candles lit at the Easter liturgy.

The rest of the island is in darkness. As the worshippers return home, they stop along the way to bring the Easter light to every house.

A teenage boy carries his candle to the home of an old woman who was too frail to attend the Easter service. He knocks on her door.

The old woman opens the door. She is holding an unlit candle. And as the boy lights her unlit candle with his Easter flame, he pronounces the words of an Easter greeting that is as old as Christianity itself.

"Christos anesti!" he says to her, which means "Christ is risen."

And the old woman responds with a reply that is as ancient as his greeting, "Alethos anesti!" which means "He is risen indeed!"

In such a manner the light of Easter has moved through the centuries from candle to candle, from the apostles who first saw the risen Lord down to us today, to lighten our world.

The apostles shouted "Christos anesti - Christ is risen!" And we respond, "He is risen indeed!"

Or do we? Do we ALL respond "He is risen indeed"?

From the very beginning, there were skeptics. The most famous was the apostle Thomas.

When the other apostles told him "Christ is risen!" Doubting Thomas replied, Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.

We've got to give credit to the apostle Thomas. He wasn't a wimp. He didn't just go along with the majority opinion. He had the courage to express his personal doubts.

Nor should we be afraid to express personal doubts. At its heart faith is a personal encounter and a personal decision. Faith, like doubt, is something that you have to work out for yourself. Your journey from doubt to faith may be filled with obstacles along the way.

Last month my wife Polly and I visited Mexico. We had a chance to see the restored Mayan ruin of Chichen-Itza.

It was a busy day at Chichen-Itza because of the spring equinox. It seemed that every new-age seeker of truth from Europe and America had made the pilgrimage to see the setting sun cast its amazing equinox shadow on the pyramid.

The thousands of people sitting on the grass reminded me of Woodstock. Some of them humming their mantras. All of them waiting for the sun to get lower in the sky so that they could see the clear shadow of the great serpent god, Kukulcan, slowly creeping down the stairway of the ancient Mayan pyramid.

They had come thousands of miles to see this phenomenon of the moving serpent shadow, which happens only at the time of the equinox.

Because of the crowds, we decided to hire one of the official guides to expedite our tour of Chichen-Itza.

Our Mexican guide was extremely informative. We were practically running as he took us to every Mayan artifact in the two hours before sunset. And near the end of the tour, he raced us in front of the giant pyramid.

There was a narrow border of grass that was roped off to keep the thousands of people in the crowd from mobbing the pyramid. But since we had an official guide, he led us across that roped off area between the pyramid and the crowd.

The sun was sinking towards the horizon. The undulating shadow of the Mayan serpent god, Kukulcan, began its slow crawl down the stairway of the pyramid.

The crowd started to applaud the shadow, and then was silent.

In the next moment I heard a deep baritone voice calling out, "Andy! Polly!" At first I thought I had imagined it. But Polly heard it too. We heard it again and again, "Andy! Polly!"

Was it the voice of the serpent god? For all these years had I put my money on the wrong religion?

We ran toward the voice. And between the crowd of pilgrims and the great pyramid of Kukulcan we found two friends from New Haven - members of this church, in fact.

As we stood there talking to them, there was a different, higher-pitched voice coming from the crowd. It said, "Andy! Polly! You're in the way!"

And so we were. We were blocking everyone's view of the descending shadow of the serpent god. They had come thousands of miles to witness this rare moment, and we were in their way.

It's a fact of life. Sometimes, without realizing it, you find yourself standing in the way. Sometimes you're standing in the way of somebody else's faith. But that's pretty rare.

As I see it, most of the time it's our own faith we're standing in the way of.

Let me say that another way, because ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put.

What I mean to say is that we ourselves can be the biggest obstacle between us and our recognition of the risen Lord. We get in our own way. We stumble over ourselves. We block our own vision of the living Christ.

St. Luke tells the story of two men who were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus on that first Easter day. They had heard rumors that Jesus had risen from the dead, but they weren't sure.

The risen Christ himself joined them in that journey, and along the way Jesus explained to them the Old Testament scriptures which had foretold his death and resurrection, and yet the two men still did not recognize this teacher.

They invited the teacher to join them at their house for dinner. Jesus sat down at their table. He took the bread. Said the blessing. Broke the bread. And then he gave them the bread.

At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they recognized the risen Lord.

What was different about that moment that caused them suddenly to recognize the risen Christ? They had walked with him. They had listened to him. But still, no recognition.

And then Jesus gave them the bread. And they received it. They received it. They accepted something from Jesus. And in that receiving, their eyes of faith were opened!

I don't think you can believe in the risen Lord until you receive something from him. And you can't receive if you're already full.

I can't tell you exactly what it is that might be getting in the way of your faith in the risen Lord, but I can tell you what gets in MY way.

It isn't doubt. Doubt is good thing. Doubt is just being honest; and unless you're honest with yourself and with God, your faith will never stand the test of time. Whatever my doubts may be, they don't get in the way.

Rather, it's my ego that gets in the way. A cup that is already full cannot be filled by God. Hands that are already full cannot receive the bread of life. And a soul that already has a full agenda cannot recognize the risen Lord.

I don't know about you, but there are a lot of filled up places in my life.

My mind is so full that sometimes I can't listen to what's being said. My memory is so full that sometimes I can't remember what happened 5 minutes ago.

But worst of all, sometimes I'm full of myself. And when I am, I can't receive. When I'm standing in my own way, I can't receive what Jesus freely gives me.

And what Jesus freely gives me is himself. His power to believe. His sanctifying grace. His life-transforming love.

Jesus said this to those who were willing to get out of their own way - he said, Seek and ye shall find; ask and it shall be given, knock and the door shall be opened.

It is the risen Lord who knocks at our door. If we get out of our own way, we can let him in.

Amen.