Easter 2 2010

Believing in Hope

I think that Thomas always gets to me.... Part of it, I think, is that I live in a world where I question too much... where I am never quite sure that I have said the right thing, done the right thing, or even hoped for the right thing...

There are days I wish I could be a carpenter... either the deck stays up and is finished, or it falls apart – either way, you are sure about something.

Life never seems so easy for me.

Think about it. Don’t you wish you could be sure that Green Tea was good for you? Don’t you wish you could be sure you’re not missing some big deduction when you fill in the tax forms? Don’t you wish you could be sure that is the right tie to wear on your dinner date? But more specifically – since we are here in church – don’t you wish you could be sure God loves you?

Ah – there – that is the crux of our religious problem. That is why we come here week after week, for some ‘assurance’...

Our Gospel reading this morning is about “Doubting Thomas”, but here is a curious fact, the Greek word for “doubt” never occurs in this whole passage! The root word is actually pistos – which has three definitions:

• pertaining to trusting -- one who trusts in, trusting

• pertaining to being trusted -- faithful, trustworthy, dependable, reliable

• pertaining to being sure, with the implication of being fully trustworthy -- sure

The prefix "a" as in apistos, means "not" or "without". We have the same thing in English where, for example, "amoral" means "without morals" - therefore "Apistos" means "without pistos."

We could define it as “not having trust or faith or certainty."

Okay, so now you are all scratching your heads and asking – so what. Is not having certainty really any different than doubt? Well, it is when we turn it around – It is not Thomas who doubted; it is Thomas, who wanted to be sure. And, well, wouldn’t we all want to be sure? Don’t we all want to be certain?

That experience of knowing – really knowing – that Christ is alive, still able to touch and love and heal, is something we want and need, especially when times are dark and uncertain. And for Jesus’ followers in this morning’s gospel, the times feel very uncertain....

Think back for a moment – you might have to think back years, or maybe it in only months, or perhaps weeks, or minutes... what has happened in your life to make it so you can’t be sure God loves you.

I had a lot of really bad stuff happen to me when I was a kid. When you read the newspapers and say “Oh. That’s terrible,” well, I have probably been there. I spent most of my life pretty unsure if there was a God, and certainly unsure if God loved me. I spent decades actually rebelling against church... locking myself away from any proof that there just might be a God of love out there.

Which is essentially where our friends the disciples find themselves this morning; they’ve had a terrifying series of experiences. They saw Jesus arrested and led away. The ones who were brave enough to watch saw him crucified.

And then Peter and the beloved disciple saw that Jesus’ tomb was empty. An even more frightening thing than we usually imagine, because to someone living in the first-century Roman Empire, they would know that if anyone had seen them around the tomb, Jesus’ followers would have been suspected of grave robbery – a crime that carried a death sentence.

It is of little wonder that, at the beginning of this morning’s gospel, Jesus’ followers are gathered secretly, behind locked doors. As possible grave robbers, they were suspected of a capital crime; as known followers of a man brazen enough to conduct a public demonstration in the Temple courts, in full view of the Roman garrison stationed there, the disciples would be considered highly dangerous to the peace of Rome, and to the Judean leaders Rome supported…

So the question on the minds of Jesus’ followers is probably not so much “will we be next?” as it is, “how long do you think we can last?”

To reach them, breathe his spirit on them, and commission them to serve as agents of his forgiveness and love, Jesus has to come through not just the physical locked door behind which they’re all hiding – but the emotional barriers of their fear and doubt as well.

To get from here to there, they had to be SURE.

Right? All of them are in there locked up and afraid, right? Well, almost all of them are hiding. Interestingly enough, one of them is not. Thomas is not with those cowering in the locked room when Jesus appears to them. And so Thomas doesn’t see Jesus, doesn’t experience Jesus’ breathing on his followers, doesn’t receive the commission the risen Jesus gives the others.

Does this mean that Thomas is less faithful than the other disciples? I think it is actually hinting at quite the opposite. Thomas misses Jesus’ commission to the other disciples to go out into the world, forgiving as he forgives: but I like to think that Thomas wasn’t present to hear those words because he, unlike the others, was not locked inside in fear, but was already out there, in the world.

Thomas was the disciple who already understood some of the things we too often forget. For example, he knew that being a disciple was not always a safe thing to do. Way back in chapter 11 of John, Thomas is the one who says about Jesus, “let us also go to Jerusalem that we may die with him.”

SO perhaps Thomas is not afraid like the others.

Jesus appears to the first group because they need to get over their fear, they need to be empowered... so why does he come back for Thomas?

How about so Thomas can be SURE he is on the right track.

Which led to some great things – according to rumour Thomas was the only disciple who was present at the death of Jesus’ mother. He was also the one who took Jesus message the furthest, spreading into Syria, and India... all because of his certainty.

So how can you know it is the real risen Christ? The real risen Christ is the wounded Christ, the broken Christ, and the Christ who walks right by our side in our pain and sorrow with tears streaming down his face.

Thomas knows that if he is dealing with that Jesus, then everything he believes in is true. And he wants to make sure. Maybe it will give him strength so that he can go out there into that dangerous world, maybe he just needs to know he is not alone – but he needs to know.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Faith is being sure, deep down in your heart, that God is real, that God loves us, and that there is some way in which this whole world makes sense. And I need to say it just one more time – seeing the risen Jesus, knowing what Jesus went through for love, seeing those wounds and really, really, experiencing resurrection – that changes everything.

How can you be sure? How can you encounter the Risen Christ in your life? How do you know for sure that God really matters? For each of us the answer to that question might be different. But it is available to us nonetheless – If we are open to it, we will encounter God as a very real presence in our own lives. We will be able to unlock the door on our own fear and wade out into that world with a new purpose and vision – we will be able to declare, like Thomas, “My Lord and My God!”

And at that point we have to really listen for what resurrection is all about – for ti didn’t end with Jesus appearing to the disciples, it ended with the words he spoke next to those who encountered him: You are being sent out, into the world, and specifically to the world’s brokenness. You are being sent to touch those places, to proclaim and participate in the healing that is Christ’s work in the world. You are being sent because YOU – yes you – are now the Body of Christ, Jesus’ presence at work in the world, called and empowered to do what he did, and more.

We are the risen, living Body of Christ is in the world – breathing peace, bringing healing, and going forth, in love and in power. Thanks be to God!