Gospel: John 20:19-31
Acts
2:14a, 22-32
2nd
Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9
I have
a nephew named Thomas. I remember when
my sister told me what his name would be.
My mom and I turned and looked at each other. We were both thinking the same thing,
“Doubting Thomas.” If I remember
correctly, we didn’t vocalize that thought at that moment, but discussed it, as
any family should, behind my sister’s back.
Now I’ve come to see that Thomas gets a bad rap. He does so much more than doubt, but even his
doubt cannot separate him from the love of God.
In the end he believes and confesses.
First
let us establish that Thomas is left out.
Left Out Thomas is what I will call him.
He is the only one not there when Jesus makes his peaceful appearance. The Disciples were locked in their room for
fear of the religious authorities who might like to crucify one of them
next. But Thomas is not there. Where is he?
Some say he was out getting groceries.
Some say he believed what the women told him, that Jesus is risen and
was out looking for him. In that case,
he wanted to see Jesus’ hands and side because he wanted to make sure it was
really him.
The
fact that Thomas was not locked up in fear in the room with the other Disciples
makes him Brave Thomas. He said before
they went to raise Lazarus, “Let us also go to Jerusalem that we might die with
him.” He’s out there. He’s taking a risk out there. He isn’t afraid, or if he is, he isn’t
letting his fear stop him.
The
next name I have given to Thomas is Honest Thomas. Doubting Thomas is a judgment meant to shame
Thomas and all who doubt. Yet we all
doubt. We are all Doubting Thomases. However much faith we have, still we wonder,
if we are honest. We might as well be
honest about it and ask questions and look for the risen Christ and seek to
touch him and wrap our brains around how he could be resurrected and why he’d
want to do that for us. Faith and doubt
are not opposites. Faith and certainty
are opposites. Faith and doubt are two
sides of a coin. They go together.
Thomas
is also Curious Thomas. He asks
questions. He wants to see and
touch. Sometimes the church has failed
people with inquisitive minds. We have
asked people to just accept what we tell them.
However, that is asking people to become mindless sheep—my friend calls
them “sheeple.” A combination of sheep
and people. God can take our
questions. God likes our questions. We ought to use the minds gave us to inquire
and try to understand and to verify for ourselves, because we can’t always
trust those in human authority.
Thomas
is also Believing Thomas. He spends at
least as much time in the Gospels believing as he does doubting. This is a story of a person’s unfolding
belief.
And
finally he becomes Proclaiming Thomas.
He proclaims, “My Lord and my God!”
He gets it and he shouts it.
I don’t
know why people focus so much on negative characteristics, but we often do. Probably to protect ourselves. However, it is not so with God. God sees the whole picture. God sees us at our worst and our best and is
leading us toward wholeness. That is
part of what the word peace means. In
Hebrew Jesus would be saying, “Shalom.”
Shalom means wholeness. Three
times, Jesus greets the frightened Disciples with the greeting of peace and
wholeness, and it is God’s intention for us too, God’s promise. Shalom is something we build between us, but
it is also a gift of God.
The way God sees us, we are not
defined by our mistakes, our sins, or our doubt, our brokenness. We are defined by our friendship with God,
our adoption into God’s family, and the fact that God made us very good. My grandma used to have a plate up on her
wall with a little boy on it and it said, “God don’t make no junk!” That’s right.
We have value in God’s eyes. We have
relationship with God. Nothing can get
in the way of that. Nothing can separate
us from the love of God.
Of course the Gospel writer John
was writing to his audience who were becoming anxious for Jesus’ return. Some of them had seen Jesus and believed, and
others had missed out on it. He was
saying that those who hadn’t been there were also blessed and showed an amazing
faith. Of course now we’re all in the
same boat. None of us were there to see
Jesus walk the earth or to touch his hands and side. However we do see him and touch him. We see him whenever we see someone in need,
someone wounded, someone hurting. We see
him when we see anyone who is marginalized, an immigrant, someone whose car is
broken down by the side of the road, those who gather cans and bottles as their
income. And we do touch him. We touch him when we hold the hand of a
homebound person, when we embrace a convict, when we put first-aid-cream and a
band-aid on a boo-boo. And we touch him
when we take him into our own bodies in Holy Communion. We eat his wounded flesh for the healing of
our world, for the strengthening of our belief.
We drink his blood poured out for us, touch his life and his power, so
that we can pass that on to people who live in fear and isolation.
May we find in Doubting Thomas a
role model. May we embrace our doubts
and voice them rather than pretend that we know. May we be Left Out of the “faith” everyone
else pretends to have in order to come to a faith that is our own. May we be brave, willing to exit the room
where others lock themselves in fear.
May we have courage to look for the risen Christ. May we be honest and straightforward with
God, knowing we have nothing to be ashamed of or to hide. May we allow ourselves to have an honest
relationship with God. May we be curious
and questioning and thing for ourselves, rather than led astray by believing
everything our religious leaders tell us.
May we find in our doubts an element of belief, a kind of “yes,” an
affirmation of ultimate truth that brings us abundant life that we, then,
share. May we find our lives proclaiming
the resurrection, naming God, naming what has power and who gives life. May we find resurrection all around us, among
the Easter doubts, fears, and hopes.
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