Sermons

April 7 and 8

Sermon

Sunday Easter 2C

Acts 5:12a, 17-22, 25-29; John 20:19-31

Hillary T. West

 

It seems that every year around Easter time, current publications run articles questioning the authenticity of Jesus.  And last week was no exception.  Easter week Newsweek magazine featured an article with Rick Warren and Sam Harris in the God debate.  Sam Harris, a neuroscientist and proclaimed atheist, is the author of the best selling books, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation.  Rick Warren founder and pastor of the mega church, Saddleback, in   California, is the author of the popular, The Purpose Driven Life.  Harris and Warren accepted Newsweek’s invitation to discuss the age old question, “is God real?”  Rick Warren, as we might suspect, and I quote, “believes in the God of Abraham, as revealed to us in Scripture, tradition and reason”.  Harris does not believe in God or any gods.   He claims that there is a lack of evidence. 

Today we hear from the gospel writer of John.  Had he been in the “is God real” debate, my guess is he would push hard to give folks plenty of evidence about Jesus as the one sent from God, to reveal to us the truth about God’s constant love for us, and how we live with that promise in our world today.  The writer of John’s gospel is very keen on helping the faith community know that God is with us, always, even if we’re not eye witnesses.  You see, he writes at a time when few or no eye witnesses to Jesus life, death and resurrection exist.  So he’s anxious for us to know how God continues to be present for us.  Because, the simple truth is, that very few of us are Thomases.  Very few of us know the experience of actually reaching out and touching Jesus. 

 In today’s lesson from John’s gospel, Jesus’ followers, confused, and frightened, have cloistered themselves in a room for fear of persecution.  They’ve already heard about Jesus’ resurrection.  Remember, Mary has just come from the tomb and told them.  She has seen Jesus, risen from the dead.  She didn’t recognize him at first, it took a while.  Finally she realizes, and on his instruction she hurries off to tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” Whoa…, what to do with that, they must wonder.  Well, the proof is in the pudding.  Jesus appears to the disciples, this time, behind closed, probably locked doors.  There is no forced entry.  In fact, in Luke’s gospel the disciples think that they’re seeing a ghost and they’re dumbfounded.  Jesus is simply there.  He immediately sets them at ease with his greeting, “Peace be with you.”  In other words, you’re safe, I’m here.  His presence fills them with joy, because they see the miracle of the risen Lord!

 In their joy, Jesus commissions the community and breaths the breath of new life upon them.   Filled with the Holy Spirit, we can assume they go off to do wondrous deeds.  But, we don’t really know.  We do know that Thomas, one of the twelve is not with them.  So, to bring him up to speed, they tell him the story, when catch up with him.  “We have seen the Lord.”  Just hearing about Jesus’ resurrection is not good enough for Thomas.  He’s not just curious.  It’s more than curiosity.  He needs proof.   “I refuse to believe…unless I see the holes in his hands and can put my fingers into the marks on his sides,” demands Thomas.  He’s not going anywhere until he has a sign from Jesus.  We demands the real presence of the risen Lord.  It’s not that he’s not a man of conviction.  He is.  Thomas has been on the scene.  Earlier in the gospel, Jesus travels to the tomb of his friend Lazarus, where he raises him from the dead.  At great peril to Jesus, himself and the other disciples, and not fully understanding the might of Jesus, Thomas still is bravely willing to follow and says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”   Then, later on, at Jesus’ last meal with the disciples, Thomas is there.   As the hours toward Jesus’ death click away, Jesus is teaching, preaching, giving signs of his lordship and instructing his disciples on how they’re to live in his absence.  But, Thomas doesn’t fully catch on.  He says to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going! How can we know the way?”   Jesus reassures him,  “Trust in me…I am the way and the truth and the life.”   Maybe what Thomas is saying is, “I’m going to be the person you want me to be, Lord.  Just let me make certain I know who you are so that I can be all that I’m to be for you.”  Maybe Thomas is just double checking Jesus’ credentials before going out to serve in his name. 

History has given Thomas the nickname, Doubting Thomas.  But, perhaps he’s not a doubter.  What if Thomas really is a believer?  He’s just being honest.  He’s just asking the hard questions.  Maybe that’s why the gospel writer of John has given us this Thomas story.  Because, we all ask.  We all want to believe but, where’s the evidence?

 To believe means we gather information.  We learn a system, and form certain ideas.  Then, we act on those ideas.  The word belief finds its stem in the Latin “credo”, the compound form for “to put, place or set.”  Historically “belief” means “to entrust, to commit, to put trust in something or someone.”   In other words, when we say “I believe,” which we say faithfully in our creed, we are saying, “I give my heart, I commit myself to, I hold this very dear”.    

Thomas is a believer.  Even though he doesn’t fully understand the impact of Jesus as Lord, as King of Kings, as God, present, among us, eternally, he has set his heart upon this trust in Jesus.  And, in trusting Jesus, he demands to know.  He must peer into the holes and touch the marks of Jesus’ persecution.  Jesus honors Thomas.  He meets him right where he is.  He doesn’t dismiss Thomas.  He doesn’t ignore his request.  He doesn’t rebuke Thomas for not being present in the first place, or for not believing the story told to him by his fellow disciples.  He just shows up.  He grants Thomas the proof that he desires.   He stands before him in all his glory and shows him his raw, wounds and says, “Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas cries out, “My Lord and my God!”

 Now, not all of us get the proof.  We’re not all Thomases.  For many of us, the resurrected Lord doesn’t make himself visibly known.  But, here’s what we can know about living a life of faith, centered on Jesus Christ.  Jesus does show up.  He shows up exactly where he is supposed to be.

He’s there when we’re much to frightened to admit how scared we really are, in the tender faces of those who surround us with love.  He’s there in the listening hearts of those who care when we seethe with jealously and anger over the ones who have betrayed us.  As we gather with those who share our rejoicing and celebration at the amazing miracles and gifts of life, he’s in their happy faces.  When, if only for a moment, we feel God’s presence among us, and sense peace, we can look and see in the faces of our fellow believers, that we are looking into the face of Jesus Christ. 

 He breaths his holy breath upon us and fills us with his Spirit.  He calls us blessed.  We’re his favored ones; not because we have seen, but, because, in faith, we believe.  We’re committed to living this Christ like life.  So, we stretch our belief.  We take the leap of faith. 

 Faith, is the very quality of who we are.  Faith is what scholar James Fowler terms as “an alignment of the will, a resting of the heart…an orientation of the total person, giving purpose and goal to one’s hopes and strivings, thoughts and actions.”  In other words, faith is how we care for ourselves, how we treat others, how we respond to the world around us.  Faith is bypassing complacency and choosing to care; to find meaning in the world; and it forms itself as courage, loyalty, peace, love and joy.  To live with faith means we “face catastrophe and confusion” with assurance and we embrace opportunity and challenge with cheerful conviction.  (Fowler, James W., Stages of Faith).  To live with faith means, we trust because we don’t have all the answers. 

 To live with faith means that we have set our hearts upon the promise of living in the glory of our resurrected Lord.  We choose to be yoked in the wonder and mystery of the kingdom of God, knowing we’re not eye witnesses to its coming. Or maybe we are eye witnesses to the kingdom of God and we just need to orient ourselves to that kind of thinking. 

 Why do we doubt the absolute goodness of God’s mercy?  Maybe, just maybe, we live the kingdom life and Jesus is making his presence known to us in all that we do.  Look around.  Look at the person across from you.  Look at the person on the next row.  See the face of Jesus.  “My Lord, and my God!”