It's been a few years...

Thought I might share the fruits of my labor during my "J" term class which required I start this blog...here is the sermon that came from said class (which was written over two years ago and one of my very first sermons)...

Christ is Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia! We proclaimed it last week and we do today, the culmination of our Lenten fasts and reflection, the celebration of our victorious Savior Jesus the Christ. How amazing Easter Sunday is every year! Each year, I don’t know about you, but I feel overwhelmed with excitement and joy; walking in to the sanctuary to see the Easter flowers, seeing the white and gold covered alter,  the jubilant hymns and Alleluia choruses I’d missed so much. The congregation is brimming with excitement; you can feel it as we break out in the opening hymn. Then of course there are gatherings with our families, Easter egg hunts and  baskets for the children…it’s a time of pure rejoicing. The hope and renewal we find on Easter are actually palpable.

 It’s always a letdown when a day or two later, we’re snapped back to reality, back to work, or school; back to the everyday life. The disciples in today’s Gospel are too snapped back to reality. They have lost their Lord, not yet aware of his Resurrection, and in fear and grief, knowing they too could be persecuted for being Jesus’ followers, and they are holed up, locked in a house. Inside this safe house is where Jesus comes to them, imparting on them peace and showing them he indeed lives…what pure joy they must have surely felt.  So the other disciples go to Thomas, who was not in the house with them and tell him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." 

Yes, indeed this is the same Gospel of John we hear every year at the same time: second Sunday of Easter and our friend Thomas always pays us a visit: doubting Thomas, as most of us affectionately known him. I remember being a kid in Sunday school learning about Thomas and I remember the lesson I learned: whatever you do…don’t be like him! No doubting allowed, not if you want to call yourself a good disciple of Jesus, a good Christian, a person of faith!

As I reflected on the text and in my seminary studies, I wanted to take a closer look at who Thomas was…I mean, I feel bad for him. He followed Jesus for three years and was an early church evangelist: this can’t be the only legacy he left from his discipleship

Today’s gospel reading isn’t the first time we’ve met Thomas in the Gospel of John. Thomas is first and foremost, you see, a realist. For instance, in the 14th chapter of John’s Gospel, when Jesus says mysteriously, "I go to prepare a place for you.... You know the way to the place where I am going," it is Thomas who replies truthfully, "Lord, we don't know where you are going; how can we know then the way?" (14:5). He’s asking a REAL question, one that I may not have said but would probably be thinking. And in the 11th chapter, when Jesus speaks of going back to Judea, Thomas knows that for Jesus to return to Jerusalem is to go to his death. Thomas was no fool, he’s a very logical and intelligent person. He counted the costs before making a decision. Nevertheless, it is he who bravely urges the others to follow Jesus: "Let us go also, that we may die with him" Thomas, is labeled “doubting” at his greatest test of faith. Yet, he was willing to go to Jerusalem and die with his Lord… he just couldn’t believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.

After the capture, trial and crucifixion of Jesus, Thomas is snapped back into reality also. After three years of following Jesus, putting his faith in Jesus as Lord, believing him to be the Son of God, his faith in Jesus’ words and works…and now Jesus is gone, he can no longer see him, speak to him, or sit at his feet… and the reality of the world around him has set in.

Aren’t we today, on this 2^nd Sunday of Easter in a similar place? We have read the Gospels throughout the year, we know and believe what Jesus proclaimed, in his teachings and miracles; we grieved with heavy hearts during Holy Week, knowing that our Lord was going to face persecution and death to save US and celebrated Easter Sunday, of His victory over death, fulfilling his promise. And now, like Thomas, we are back to reality.  We leave here and go into our lives where we are faced with hard choices, loss, grief, joys and sorrows. We know we need to rely on our faith, but who here among us when lost or confused has never in their mind started to wonder if they have been abandoned by our Lord, asked God for just ONE sign…and that’s where that bad word, the one we heard about in Sunday school starts creeping back into to our minds, the one we have framed Thomas with…DOUBT.

Jesus comes to the disciples again, this time showing himself to Thomas. Jesus does not rebuke him for his doubt, but instead gives him peace. Jesus’ appearance to Thomas reminds us that doubts do not disqualify us from discipleship. Jesus says to Thomas and to us, “Do not doubt, but believe.” “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.

The theologian Tillich once said that doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; rather it is an element of faith. He says that if we don’t have any doubts, we’re either kidding ourselves or asleep. He characterizes doubts as “the ants in the pants” of faith—they keep it awake and moving! Doubts do not disqualify us from discipleship, in fact it keeps us moving forward, looking for answers, curious to know more and continually finding our way back to the truth we find in Jesus and our hope in His Resurrection.

Maybe today it’s even harder for us than it was on Thomas. It’s difficult to take things on faith  alone because we are so good at finding tangible - or at least scientific - proof for so many things. All of us stay in good health based on studies about vaccinations, diet and exercise by expert scientists, we lock our windows at night because studies have proven we’ll be safer that way, we even get our entertainment by watching shows debunking so called truths, like Myth Busters and History Decoded. We can prove so much with our God-given minds; Thomas sure seemed to have a keen one. But perhaps, instead of trying to beat those terrible doubting thoughts out of our heads, we can use the gift we have been given in our minds by continuing to ask the hard questions, to be curious and alert; letting those “ants in the pants” keep us moving forward…down that long road that is our journey of faith. Then in our times our doubting and confusion we can say with hearts full of hope, assurance and joy: I know he IS Risen, I know he lives, He IS…Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.