Anyone who saw the brief intro video I made, knows that I have had lots of thoughts swirling around in my head this past week.
• The wounds in Jesus hands, wounds of the earth
• What wounds are we willing to look at?
• What evidence do we need?
• What miracles do we believe in?
• The statement: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet still believe.
How many of us have experienced doubt in our lives? Maybe it is about whether we are loved, just as we are. Maybe it is about our health or worries about aging. Maybe its about climate change and whether there is ANYTHING we can do to impact it. Maybe, like Thomas, it is about our faith, and what is this Easter story, all about anyway. Are we ashamed that we have doubts? Do we keep silent, thinking that no one else has them?
Or do we say boldly, I don’t understand, help me believe. Like Thomas did. I don’t think Thomas was as much of a doubter as we have often thought. I prefer to think of Thomas as a questioner. You know, one of those annoying people who always has to know how something can be true, never taking things as face value. One of those people who want to know for themselves, and not take for granted any one else’s experience. I am sure we have all met them. I am sure we have all been that person at times. Questioner, and doubter. Let’s listen, as the story unfolds in John 20: 19-31:
20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 20:21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
20:24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 20:25 So the other disciples told 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.”
20:26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”
20:28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
20:29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 20:31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
I remember when I first started leading worship… more than 25 years ago, and at least 5 years before I was ordained. I hadn’t started my formal training for ministry. I had lots of questions and doubts about my ability to do lead worship each week. As I studied and prayed and worked each week, I came to believe that maybe I could, and then suddenly I believed that I could. Not only believed because the community in which I was preaching was supportive. But believed because I had the experience of leading worship. I was able to see and touch the risen Christ through many of them. And so I believed… in the relationship and in the experience.
I think that is what Thomas was looking for. The experience that the other disciples had had in that locked room. He wanted to believe that his friend had been risen from the dead, but he could not help but question it. After all he had seen him crucified and buried. How can someone come back from the dead? And disappear from a tomb? And come through a locked door? I would venture to say that more than a few of us would question our friends who were telling us these tales. I think that Thomas bitterly regretted not being in that locked room that night when Jesus first appeared. And in his regret, desperately wanting to share in that experience, he said “Unless I see that scars myself and touch them myself I do not believe.”
Don’t forget this is a week after the disciples had seen the most horrific event imaginable happen. It staggers Thomas’s imagination and it staggers our imagination, that Jesus would be risen and recognizable, and able to get into locked rooms. The disciples had virtually been hiding in a locked room ever since the crucifixion. Hiding in terror for their lives. They were locked in their own little tomb of fear, and sorrow, and agony. And into that place, Jesus came, just as we often need him, right at the right moment. We don’t know how he got into that room, but he did. Just as we don’t know how comfort and strength will sometimes reach us just when we need it the most. Jesus came and said, “Peace be with you.” “Peace be with you.”
Into a terror and doubt filled room, Jesus came breathing the Holy Spirit, filling them with the breath of life, just as God breathed life into Adam. They would be the new creation. And what happened? Those same disciples who couldn’t stay awake through Jesus’ last night with them, those same disciples who pretended not to know him, those same disciples who had run and hid after the crucifixion became leaders of the new community of faith.
They shared whatever they had, not only with one another, but also with the beggars and the unclean, and the women and children. Sharing with the same compassion and love as Jesus had for them. Sharing bread and wine as if it were Jesus body and blood just as Jesus commanded them to. The love that they were showing to those starving, hurting people was the same love that Jesus showed to them. They were different people from the people they once were. Challenging us to question and doubt. Just like Thomas.
And how did Jesus respond to Thomas’s need. He came once again to that locked room, and he greeted them saying, “Peace be with you.” He looked right at Thomas and said, “Touch me, feel my scars.”
Thomas reached out and Jesus was there, and he fell on his knees saying, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus did not condemn Thomas for wanting to touch him. Instead he came and gave him a blessing. Even as he says within that blessing he also said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
It was Earth Day yesterday. We cannot see the wounds on Jesus’s hands…and most of us, in this beautiful province don’t see the wounds of the earth. Both are there… and we are certainly aware of the wounds of the earth… the groans of creation… the looming climate crisis. And it would be so easy to be overcome with doubt that we can do anything about it. Dr. Sally McFague, in The Body of God, back in 1993, wrote, “What if we dared to see the planet and the entire universe as God’s body?” What if we religious people, thought about climate change as not just destroying the earth, but actually destroying God’s body. What if we thought about the wounds and scars that we all have a hand in creating are wounds and scars on Jesus?
I don’t know about you, but when I hear predictions of what the earth may be like in 20 or 30 years, I just want to be an ostrich and stick my head in the sand!
The magnitude of the problem seems insurmountable.
But there are things we can do:
• Don’t buy bottled water.
• Walk or bike more often.
• Change your lightbulbs to more energy efficient ones.
• Hang your clothes out to try if you live where you can do so.
• Don’t buy more food than you can use.
Those are only five, because I don’t want to overwhelm you. Plus, a simple Google search for those of you with internet access, can give you many more. I’ll add to more… donate to organizations that are doing something on a larger scale than most of us feel we can.
James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” We can face Jesus’ wounds and the earth’s wounds and experience doubt that we make a difference. We could be overwhelmed… but we can choose to experience joy too!
There is joy in knowing that we contribute in some small way to the healing of the world. There is joy in knowing that each spring, the daffodils and hyacinth still push their way out of their cold, dark tombs. We can have faith in the resurrection.
That my friends, I think, is the message to us. We cannot see Jesus, he lived and died, and rose long, long ago. But we can trust because we have stories of his life, his teachings, and his resurrection. We can believe because others have believed. We can doubt and still find joy and belief. We can question and still believe. Our questions and our doubts, and our joy in the midst of troubling times, are the keys that unlock the tomb of fear. The God who is beyond all human understanding welcomes our questions and our doubts. They enable us to break out of our prison and live as God’s people. Loving and caring in the world. We can touch and be touched by Christ, because others who have gone before us, have been touched by Christ.
Because we have been hurt, we can heal hurt.
Because we have sorrowed, we can comfort.
Because we have hungered for Christ, we can nurture and feed others who hunger.
We have touched Christ’s wounds, we can tend others’ wounds.
We can experience Christ in each mouth fed, each naked one clothed and each sick person tended.
My friends, believe in the risen Christ.
He is alive! Thanks be to God, amen.
© Catherine MacDonald
John 20: 13-35
April 23, 2023 – SJUC
St. James United Church Dartmouth 