I invite you to join with me and sing the first verse of “Joy to the World.” We can sing it without the organ or piano, I’m sure we can.
I really haven’t lost my mind, at least not in an obvious way. While it’s true we just sang a Christmas hymn and while it also true we’ve just finished Easter, shouldn’t we sing Joy to the World? Jesus has risen from the grave and shouldn’t we continue our Easter celebration, shouldn’t there continue to be joy in our world? Surely the kids or grandkids aren’t completely out of Easter candy are they? I would imagine their parents are ready for them to come down off the walls. So, perhaps some folks are ready for Easter to be finished more than others.
Yet, Easter brings the hope that stays with us, the hope we have prayed for, the hope that once again Jesus will save us. And he has, with Easter we became resurrection people. But in some ways, the resurrection has been spoken of so often we’ve become immune to the serious theological and practical implications its truth has for our lives.
We are, by nature, curious people. It is not long after we begin to talk that we start to question everything. That desire to know stays with us all our lives. Topics and interests come and go, but by and large we are curious folks who want to know first hand what our world is about. Knowing about resurrection, on the other hand, may have slipped away from our curiosity.
In today’s Gospel story, Thomas was being faithful to his human nature, he was faithful to his personal desire to know the truth about his life, his world, and ultimately, the experiences he was having as a follower of Jesus. Given the recent turn of events, Thomas was not about to stop being Thomas.
Jesus had died, of that he was certain. Now, his friends were telling him, Jesus was no longer dead but was alive and had actually appeared to them and had actually spoken to them. It is not that Thomas disbelieved them, Thomas simply wanted to know for himself, first hand, if these wild accusations were true or not.
When I taught at Blinn College it was always a struggle to help my students understand about life and what was indeed true and real about what goes on in our lives and what might be suspect. Often, I found, we confuse our own view of what we think is true for what everyone else actually knows to be otherwise. Very often, our personal view is just that, our personal view. And just as often, that personal view is not what anyone else would agree to be true. Finally realizing this difference is a humbling experience.
Thomas shows us the right way to understand about life, by asking questions, “Where is your proof?” he wants to know. “Show me”, he says.
Being true to himself, this is exactly what Thomas asked when the other disciples told him they had seen Jesus alive, that information just did not compute with Thomas. He had seen them nail Jesus to the cross. He had seen them pierce his side with a sharp lance. He would have to see the evidence for himself that Jesus was risen from the grave. Otherwise, he was skeptical and in many ways, so are we.
At some point in our lives we may have asked for more proof about God. At some point in our lives we may have realized that just because people we know, people we respect, or even people we love believe certain things about Jesus, they may be wrong. Their faith claims are just that, theirs and they may not be sufficient proof for ours.
So we do what Thomas did, we ask questions, we strike out on our own, we study, we read, we pray, we engage in discussion, we expose ourselves to new and different ideas. Slowly, we begin to define limits for ourselves. We discover what we absolutely do not accept as the truth, and with the same certainty we discover bits of possibilities, truths we do accept in our belief system.
In sort of a routine way we discover one such truth, then another, and before we realize it, a miracle occurs and a faith develops that we hold to be absolute and foundational and solid as a rock with no compromise or wiggle room. These solid truths become strongly held faith and belief certainties that define our Christian way of living.
When it was evening on that day, the disciples were huddled in the upper room – afraid of the religious authorities, afraid of the religious folk who resist the message of the Gospel and its light – preferring instead to hide in the old ways of holy habit.
We Christians may be like this in a sense – it is easier to hide in our old ways, our comfortable clothing of holy habit. In a way, this story may actually be a picture of some churches. We’ve heard the good news of the resurrection, yet we prefer to huddle in safety, where outsiders cannot reach us.
Yet Jesus will not let us huddle safely from the world. When he first appeared to Mary she did not recognize him, so he called her name. Mary. When we first do not recognize him the church, speaking for Christ, calls our name for Jesus.
Like Mary and the other disciples and everyone for whom Jesus died we cannot avoid the relationship Jesus desires to have with us. He has done too much for us to take him lightly. He has come back into the life of the living. He returned from the grave to be with his disciples again and he has returned from the grave to be with us, each of us.
Why would Jesus do this? We aren’t like Mary. Or, are we? In Jesus’ mind we are. In Jesus’ heart we are not different from those he appeared to after his death, after his resurrection. Like them, Jesus loves us so much he comes to find us, to call our name and to send us out into the world. We too have been breathed upon, we too received the Holy Spirit at our baptism, we too have therefore become disciples of Jesus Christ.
Thomas was not there when Jesus came, neither were we. He doesn’t believe until he sees the marks, neither may we – not because we lack faith, we are curious by nature remember. It’s just that our skepticism has kept us safe in the past from making foolish decisions.
Thomas was like us, he wasn’t so different from the others, he wants to see the same thing they saw, he wants to see the same things we want to see, “show me the marks” he says. “Show me the marks,” we may say.
In the same room with the same group, in church, Jesus comes to Thomas and shows him the marks. Then, like John who had entered the tomb and believed, Thomas believes, he says, “My Lord and my God”.
This story does not end with Thomas, it takes on life here in our church and it goes with us every where. We too proclaim to Jesus, “My Lord. My God”! This is clear from Jesus’ blessing on each of us who, though we have not seen, yet we believe. It is from this belief that Jesus embraces us and raises us to be his church.
Our society has many who doubting likeThomas and they want evidence before they believe. They cannot see the marks of the body of Jesus, but they can see the marks on the body of Christ, namely us, God’s church.
Sometime what they see, well, it isn’t so Christian. Society and non-believers and those from non-Christian faiths are quick to point this out. We see you church people! We see what you are doing! Sadly, the marks of today’s Christians do not always convince the many like Thomas in our world who want evidence before they believe.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. You Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Voltaire, the 18th century skeptic said, “If Christians want us to believe in a Redeemer, let them act redeemed.”
Unless I see the marks, I will not believe.
In the history of Christianity there are marks that would help those who doubt like Thomas to believe. The marks we have to show them are many. They include the stories we tell of our Christian witness. There are many we can tell, stories of people like John Calvin or John Knox or others responsible for the Presbyterian tradition finding its way to America.
Voltaire might say, yes, these are heroes; every movement has its hero’s, what about ordinary people?
We need look no further than this church to find ordinary people who are heroes in the faith. We need look no further than the marks left by the real life stories of people in our own church. Founding congregations, founding ministers, chartering families, pastors and families from the past, and even each of you in this place this Sunday. We, in our lives of faith, create the marks those who doubt long to see. Once they see how we are, then they will believe.
People come into this church on a regular basis, they come to our campus often. We are a busy place. When they come, we show them a great deal, and what we show is good. Before they can believe, they want to see what it is that marks us as the body of Christ, they want to see what marks us as Christians who are like Christ, they want to see that we not only believe in a redeemer but that we act redeemed.
People come into this church on a regular basis and they call our name. They tell us, “Unless I see his mark on you, I will not believe!” They come to worship, we greet them during the passing of the peace, during fellowship times before and after worship, we invite them to our table to take communion with us, we invite them to break bread with us in fellowship at our congregational luncheons, we let them see Jesus’ mark on us when we open God’s church to them to give them a place of comfort and love for their school, for their thespian group, for their place to worship, to pray, to study scripture, or to grieve the loss of a loved one.
These are a few of our marks, there are others, you know about them, you know about the wonderful ministry network we have for taking care of one another, for keeping up with one another, for visiting with one another, for loving one another. You know about our Christian marks.
Can we feel good enough about these marks that we will bring others, like us or not, to this church, to see our marks, so they may believe? I believe we can. I believe we can because those who ask to be shown the marks of Jesus on us want to see the marks in a church, in a familiar place, this church. And the greatest truth we can show them would be the boldly lived claim, “See how they love one another”. “See how they love one another.”
Is it any wonder that we sing - Joy to the World!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.
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