March 30, 2008 – The Second Sunday in Easter
John 20:19-31
Grace and peace to your from God, the Creator, and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
This morning we are delighted to have so many of our young people participating in their first Holy Communion. Each year, as Pastor Roger offers the Faith Stepping Stone Family class to prepare these youngsters, I recall a wonderful story that a colleague shared with me many years ago. She had finished the instruction and the children were being picked up by their parents. One little girl ran to her mom and said, “Mom! I’ve been prepared for my first Communion!” “What did you learn?” asked the mother. “I learned that Pastor Julie will put God in my hands!” A precious point of view, and one that we all share with the realization that when the bread and the wine of the Eucharist, or the water of Baptism touch us, we are indeed, holding God in our hands. And don’t we all want to be able to touch God? This is the connecting point between us and a disciple named Thomas.
It is always difficult to follow “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” which is why this Sunday is often known as “Low Sunday,” and why you would normally hear the voice of an intern preaching today! It has been a number of years since I got to visit with Thomas, and I am finding it to be an experience much like the one I had as a child, following our family Easter egg hunt in the back yard. For days after, my sister and I would continue to find the undiscovered eggs – small treasures, when found days, or even weeks later! And so it is this day – as we rediscover this little treasure story in John’s gospel. Last Sunday was Easter, and we heard all about God’s amazing love for us. Now, it’s our turn, and we change the focus to speak a moment about our grateful love for God.
I always wonder what someone who is not normally a “liturgical church-goer” would think if they came in here during the end of Lent, and then didn’t come back until the Easter season. They’d take one look around and say, “What the dickens happened here?” Obviously, there has been a rather seismic shift - and something major has happened. Thomas might have felt that way, having been absent Easter evening, and yet discovering when he returned to the fold that something major, had indeed, happened. We wonder where Thomas might have gone that first Sunday. Had he been out looking for Judas, or taken Mary, Martha, and Lazarus back home to Bethany? Or maybe it was simply that Thomas was grieving a very private grief – a grief that he did not want to share among the other disciples. Whatever it was that kept him away, now it’s one week later. Sunday night.
We know so little about Thomas, and yet what we do know does not seem to support his persistent “tag” of “Doubting Thomas.” In fact, the Biblical picture is much different. When we first meet him, it is when Jesus learns the news of Lazarus’ illness. All the disciples knew that for Jesus to return to Jerusalem meant grave danger, and they all tried to talk him out of going. However, it was Thomas who said, “Let us go and die with him!”
Hardly the response of someone who doubted Jesus. Then, later, at the last supper with his friends, Jesus was telling them the last things, and saying that he was about to go where they could not follow. It was Thomas, who apparently felt he had the freedom to question Jesus, who said, “Just tell us the way, and we will follow you!” These are not the words of a man in doubt. These are courageous words, from a man convinced about his Lord. Yet what defines him is his moment of disbelief. When the others say, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas responds, “Unless I see, and touch and feel…I will not believe.” Pretty clear about his criteria for being convinced.
These encounters between Thomas and Jesus are really a portrait of our human/divine relationship. Because somewhere along his journey, Thomas “lost his faith.” And it was a solid faith, a courageous faith that he had had. What happened to shake him so badly? Perhaps there is a hint in his name: Thomas, called Didymus “The Twin.” This begs the question, “Whose twin?” And some suggest that he might have been very like Jesus. I am not saying he was Jesus’ biological twin, but perhaps there was something about Thomas. Something that, if these two men had been boys, folks would have described as being “like peas in a pod.” Perhaps there was a special connection between Jesus and Thomas. But now Thomas was facing the very personal reality of loss.
We all know what it feels like to give our hearts to someone, to trust them completely, to believe in the hope that they are the special one – and then to have that person leave us, betray us, abandon us. Thomas probably wanted desperately for Jesus to be who he said he was – the long-awaiting, long-expected Messiah. And Thomas had fallen for that, hook, line and sinker. But then Jesus somehow let him down. And Thomas reacted pretty much the same way we would have – with questions, and doubts, with disbelief, anger and grief. But Thomas was not alone. Just look at the other disciples. Don’t you think, if they were such faithful rocks, that they would have been acting as if they believed what Jesus had told them over and over again? I mean, he had said three times that he was going to Jerusalem, that there he would suffer and die, and then be raised on the third day. Why were they not in the streets, joyously awaiting their first encounter with what Jesus had promised would happen? They, too, were huddled behind closed doors, afraid of the outside, and the only thing going for them would be the risen Christ.
They say that “Hope Springs Eternal,” and we all want to know that we have not placed our hope in something that will abandon or disappoint us. Thomas was no exception; he just wanted to touch and be sure. He was having a moment of disbelief, and unfortunately we have stuck him there forever. You know, even today, some of our Christian “stars” have their dark days. On the Saturday before Holy Week, Garrison Keillor’s column in the Star revealed that he was feeling a little shaky about what he believed. Oh, not about God. Just about all the stuff surrounding God and God’s church. So he has chosen to observe from the skeptics seat, and see what he can learn from the doubter’s point of view. Which points up the fact that each of our faith journeys are full of lifelong learning, and an ongoing confrontation with the question Jesus asked Martha, “Do you BELIEVE this?”
Finally, a word about “belief.” In John’s gospel, belief is NOT so much a state of fact…but a state of faith. And, as a pastor, I am privileged to be included in the stages of your “states of faith.” In fact, Pastor Roger and I often get questions, some silly, some really important, and I usually want to respond, “why do you want to know that?” The answer often comes, “I just thought it was interesting,” or “I was just wondering,” or “I’d like to understand.” These are the questions like “How did Peter know who Moses and Elijah were on the mount of Transfiguration?” To which Pastor Roger replied, “Nametags.”
Those questions are the ones that are not so important. But the important ones, like “If God is a good God, why do little children suffer?” “Does God really love me better than I love myself?” “Did Jesus really rise from the dead, and if so – how does that change my life?” These are questions of your relationship with God. And these are the questions we deal with on our journey together.
Recently I’ve had a number of people speak to me about problems reciting the Apostles Creed. They do not feel that they can fully agree with, or give their assent to each line of the creed, and therefore hesitate to state, “I believe.” But this is a function of faith, not fact. In the creed, we are stating as a community, that we are in relationship to the God who expresses himself in three “persons” – and those three “persons” have a story - and that story is one that we hold in common- with the risen Christ at center.
So just a reminder from Thomas – it’s not about “believing” facts and details, it’s about God’s love for you, and yours for God. Did you notice that Thomas, so very clear about his criteria to be met as a requirement for believing, completely forgets those “requirements” in the presence of the risen Christ? When invited by Jesus to do exactly what he said he would need to do to believe – to touch the wounds – he does not! But in the presence of the risen Christ he finds his relationship with Jesus intact, and he cries out in joy and gratitude, “My Lord and my God!” His hope has been restored. His faith made whole again.
My prayer for you today is that as we move out into the world, carrying the story of Jesus, we will not be known for our “moments of disbelief,” but will proclaim boldly the faith that is in us, with bold confidence - as we stand in the presence of the risen Christ… Amen
