St. Thomas, an Example of Faith

 Every year on the second Sunday in the Easter Season

         we have this Gospel reading.

The main part of it, so memorable, is the story of Thomas,

         absent from the other disciples the previous week - hence his doubts, 

                  then his encounter with the Risen Lord,

                  and subsequently his response to the Resurrection.

This should be a lesson to us all of the importance 

         of being in church every Sunday.

Who knows what you might be left out of if you miss even one Sunday!

Well, of course, that really trivializes this story and does Thomas a disservice.

He performs an important role, shows us his humanness, 

         so that we can readily identify with him 

                  and thus see ourselves in this encounter with Jesus as well.

Thomas, the “patron saint of Episcopalians!”

Well, there’s more in this Gospel reading we can also look at.

The first part of the reading is the same one we will hear on May 23,

         for Pentecost Sunday, 

                           the day more associated with the reading from Acts 2.

This first part of today’s Gospel reading often gets overlooked.

         overshadowed by the saga of Thomas today,

I think it might be good to spend some time, therefore, 

         with this section of the Gospel reading, 

                  and in particular with the part about forgiving sins.

Jesus appears to the disciples (all except Thomas) and says to them:

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

“Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus breathes into them Holy Spirit,

         and then he commissions them into the ministry of reconciliation

                  "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; 

                  if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 

Well, we may want to back away from this statement, sounds too much like:

         "I forgive you, but I don't forgive you."

So let me help unpack this.

 

Two key Greek words here: forgive and retain – 

         forgive, which literally means to send away, send forth, emit,

                  an action that involves separation.

Sins are sent away and separated from a person;

         the action is done on the sins.

Retain, or better translated restrain – to lay hold of, keep under reserve, 

         hold fast, bind them, 

         hold back, hinder their action.

To send away the sins and to bind them from happening.

                           This is the spiritual action of liberation.

What an incredible thing the apostles were to do!

And by logical extension, what an incredible thing WE are called to do!

 

I think we see very little of this being done in the church,

         and heaven knows the world sure needs this kind of reconciliation,

                  the forgiving of sins, 

                  the sending away of sins and the restraining of sins in the first place.

The first is a response to sin, and the second is a preventative action.

 

And sin, what all is included in the definition of sin?

         What is the most important aspect about sin that we need to remember?

Sin is a violation of the basic human relationships –

         with each other, with God and with ourselves.

That covers everything from murder          

         to something as seemingly minor 

                  as begrudging another’s joy because you do not have that yourself.

So notice: there is a two-fold aspect to the ministry of reconciliation.

Forgive or take away sins – responding to the occasion of sin, 

                                                    reactive reconciliation.  

And retain or hold back sins - proactive reconciliation.

         We can have a restraining effect on sin!

Think about the implications of this for us in daily life:

         What we say, 

what we do, 

the attitudes we have, 

the opinions we express, 

how we live out relationships 

– all can be proactive reconciliation.

We who are called by his Name,

         have been sent, and 

         have been given an awesome power and force in the world for good,

a force that is as desperately needed now as ever.

We are called to ministry of reconciliation through our baptisms;

         Book of Common Prayer, page 855, from a section in the Catechism, Outline of the Faith:

Q. What is the ministry of the laity?

A. The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church;

         to bear witness to him wherever they may be

         and, according to the gifts given them, 

         to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the world; 

         and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.

There is much more to say about the ministry of reconciliation

         but we also have the other half of this gospel reading.

Someone forgot to tell Thomas about the meeting last Sunday.

Despite all the other disciples corroborating their story of seeing the Risen Christ

         Thomas says he must not only see, but also touch.

He would not trust just his eyes.

He wants to see the wounds; he wants to see that which killed Jesus.

Maybe he wants to make sure

         that it is absolutely apparent that Jesus is risen from the dead,

                  not just a survivor of the ordeal of crucifixion.

So Jesus shows up, 

and apparently unseen the Risen Lord had overheard Thomas’ conversation.

Jesus shows great compassion to Thomas

         and he gives him a special invitation to touch the wounds.

The text doesn't say if Thomas then did touch.         

But what Thomas said is very significant:         "My Lord and my God!"

Thomas was not just looking at Jesus as his rabbi, or teacher, or master,

         but as GOD.                  This is bold declaration of faith.         

Thomas goes from doubt to calling Jesus God.

         This even goes beyond what the others told Thomas.

Thomas' declaration, "My Lord and my God!" is both a creed 

and an act of devotion or worship, a response to the Holy.

Then in verse 29 from the Gospel reading Jesus says:         

         Blessed are those who have not seen, 

         and yet believe.

Now here is another place where how the Greek gets translated into English 

                                                               is tricky.

There are nuances of meaning around any Greek word 

         that may overlap with the many nuances of meaning 

                           around a corresponding English word,

and the Greek verb pistew is one of them.

It gets translated believe and have faith in.

         In English for us here in a church setting 

                  believe has a creedal sense to it 

                  – such as in a tenet of belief or a doctrine.

         It can have a sense that having gathered so much evidence 

                  one can now reliably believe something.

Have faith in as a translation is more relational.

         We say we have faith in someone 

                  because our experience of that person shows us 

                  that he or she is trustworthy.

It’s a matter of trust level.

         Being willing to trust what is not in my control.

         Trusting what I cannot prove, what I cannot dictate as verifiable,

                  only what has been revealed to me,

what I have experienced so subjectively. 

Faith, in this sense then, is a participation in relationship 

with the God of the resurrected Lord in us.

Now listen carefully to what I am going to say.

We are not saved on the basis of what we believe.

We are not saved on the basis of what we believe.

If that were the case, then purity of theology, the content of belief

         would be of primal importance,

and only those who believed rightly would be saved, 

                                                               would be reconciled to God.

That makes for a pretty scary situation,

           since with all the different denominations 

         and all their different belief systems,

knowing what is right belief is problematic.

If someone didn’t know the right formula of doctrine, then too bad.

         This would leave out most children, 

         those of low mental capacity and the ageing mind that is forgetful.

But that is not the case.

         It is a matter of trust, that kind of faith, rather than belief.

 

So can you see that it is not what you believe, but what Jesus did.

As you have heard me say before:

         God doesn’t leave anything as important as salvation, 

         up to us and our response alone.

Even our faith is a gift.

 

Now back to what Thomas said and its connection with the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is a concrete and specific Resurrection appearance of Jesus.

 

In the Eucharist we say that we have before us the Body of Christ.

         These are the words as the bread is placed in your hands, right?

 

So do you realize what you take into your hands during Communion?

         The very presence of the Resurrected Lord,

                  tangible, touchable.

That is why we make such a point of the moment of silence 

         at the breaking of the Bread.

This represents the very wounds of the crucifixion,

         the very thing Thomas wanted to see and to touch.

And we get to touch and see and taste and eat.

 

When the bread and the cup are lifted up, and the Presider says          

         “The Gifts of God for the People of God” these are words of invitation:

come forward to see and touch and taste

         that our faith, our trusting may be nurtured

         and our spirits and whole being are nourished

         and strengthened for the ministry of reconciliation.

 

Take the Mystery of the Resurrection into your own hands.

Easter Failure

 Resurrection.         What in the world do we mean by Resurrection?

And, in a practical sense and more to the point, 

how can I sum up Resurrection 

in the space of a few minutes of a sermon?

Easter is the time to celebrate 

         the best good news of the Gospel message,

         how the death of our Savior 

                           provided for the biggest surprise of all,

         how in that death, which could not hold Jesus in the grave,

                  we have incredibly been brought into life,             

New Life,

         life in its fullness, life as it was always been meant to be,

         life without the taste of death

         life that is timeless and endless

         and most of all, the possibility for us to live fully in that Life right now.

 

A new life and a new creation in resurrection:

         if we have the eyes to see that.

It’s new only to us, this new life and new creation.

It’s what has always been in the heart of the Creator

         who has yearned to open our eyes to the wonder of it all.

That is why God became incarnate, 

         why the Divine creative Word came among us,

                                    to open our eyes.

That is what Jesus was doing then on that first Easter day

         and at Pentecost pouring out his Resurrection Spirit

and is doing ever since right up until today, this particular Easter Day.

 

Fine words,          but think for a moment about what it was like 

         for those disciples and followers of Jesus 

                           that first Easter morning.

That first Easter Day was not totally as full of joy and excitement

                  as one might think.

Just the week before 

         there had been this grand procession into Jerusalem

         that had all the trappings of the Messianic King,

                  a new King David

         who would restore the nation to its former glory, 

                  they thought,

         in which there would be no Roman occupation 

                           grinding down the people under military rule, 

                  no crushing taxes draining the country’s wealth

                           in tribute money pouring into Rome’s coffers.

Was all that with the idea 

         that God was only interested in their political success?

 

But the Kingdom of God does not happen in that way.

Instead Jesus appeared to intentionally 

         poke in the eye the priests at the Temple,

         and cause such provocations 

                  as to drive it all to the crisis point.

But there were no legions of angel warriors 

         descending from the heavens

                  to bring a quick victory.

Instead there were those strange things Jesus had said 

                           at that last supper with them,

         the audacity and scandal of telling them 

                  that in partaking of the bread and wine

                           they were consuming his Body and Blood.

Then his arrest in the garden

                                             when they had all fled.

A couple of them had endangered themselves 

                           to witness some of the trial,

and a few, mainly the women, 

                           had gathered at the scene of the execution.

The rest were in hiding 

         knowing that they too could be rounded up, arrested and killed,

                  because the Romans would be quick to suppress 

                  any hint of revolt.

It was all over, the mission, the hopes and dreams, died with Jesus.

The disciples were taking a chance even meeting together,

                                                               even behind locked doors.

 

And the Resurrection story from the Gospel of Mark 

                           that we just heard 

         is not one of ecstatic joy.

The women going to the tomb 

         are going there mourning and grieving

         and for the purpose of properly anointing the body for burial.

They are worried about being able 

         to complete this act of devotion

         because of the stone sealing the entrance to the tomb.

So when they find the tomb open and the body missing,

         and this stranger dressed in white 

                           telling them something incredulous,

they were greatly astonished, they were terrified.

That’s a far cry from joy.

         Can you imagine it?  

They were perplexed and dismayed and hindered in completing          their loving devotion to the body of Jesus.

Who could understand what this young man was telling them?

         who reminded them that Jesus had been crucified,

         but now he had gotten up and was gone, no longer there,

                  and that they could see him in Galilee?

         How did Jesus get there so fast?  It doesn’t compute.

They fled trembling, bewildered, beside themselves in fear.

 

Have you ever had the experience of being told some good news,

         but were afraid to believe it?

Have you ever come up to something in your life 

                           that was a turning point

         in which, if you took this turn, life might be so much better –

                  and you were afraid to risk it?

 

Today’s Gospel reading ends with the words,

         “they were afraid.”

But that definitely was not the end of the story.

         The joy, the ecstatic joy would come.

         And with that a whole new way of being.

Their lives would be changed in a way they could not foresee.

         They would all know the joy, catch the vision,

                  get what Jesus was all about,

                  and become Apostles, ones sent.

                  and spread that joy and hope and love and life

throughout the whole world.

Please notice this:

         Failure was a big part of that first Easter Day – 

         Jesus looked like a failure 

                  (they didn’t understand him or the purpose of his death).

         The disciples were a failure,

                  and they probably felt it profoundly.

         And the women at the tomb were so bewildered

                  that they failed to understand 

                           what that strange young man in white was saying.

But that failure was short lived.

In Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth 

he relates how widely the witness of the Resurrection was spreading:

         the appearance to Cephas aka Peter, then the twelve,

         then to more than 500 brothers and sisters at once,

         to James, the Lord’s brother, all the apostles,

         and even to Paul, who considered himself unfit to be an apostle,

                           a failure who had persecuted the Church.

“But,” Paul says, “by the grace of God I am what I am.”

That grace is the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus at work in us.

There is where our true inheritance and identity rests.

By the grace of God I am what I am,

         because of the Presence of Resurrection

         because the Spirit of Jesus is at work in me,

                  is at work in you,

                  is at work in every heart 

                                             open to hope, to faith, to love and to joy.

So let us enter with joy into this Easter celebration.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

GOOD Friday

Did you ever stop to wonder why today is called “Good Friday?”

                        Not Bad Friday?                        It’s Good Friday.

 

And did you know that this liturgy today

            is not meant to be gloomy, sad and depressing?

No, it’s meant to be solemn for sure, but not mournful.

 

The liturgy is designed to be reflective,

            giving a time to ponder,

            to ponder how such a death brings life and hope,

                                    how such a death opens the way 

                                                for healing and reconciliation in human lives,

                                    how such a death is glory.

 

Yet this is the hardest part of the week we call holy:

            staying present at the cross, with the crucifixion, with death itself.

 

But this staying present is part of our devotion and response in gratitude 

            for God’s gracious love expressed so incredibly for us.

 

At the time, there on that Friday, for the disciples 

            this horrendous crucifixion was devastating beyond belief.

For those who had been traveling with Jesus, 

            listening and taking in and pondering what he had been saying,

            watching how he interacted 

                        with all the various sorts and conditions of humanity that came to him,

            seeing the healings, the transformations taking place in people’s lives,

for these witnesses, 

            how could it be that it was all now destroyed in this cruel injustice and death?

 

 

For the disciples the political forces that ruled the world had smashed 

            what was the most beautiful, generous and loving gift of a person 

                                                                                                            that had ever been.

Their world was shattered.

 

They could not yet see how Jesus was taking on the image of the Forsaken One,

            how he put on every dimension of suffering of mind and body,

            how intentional Jesus was about walking straight into his death with all that.

 

St. Anselm had written about that, 

            saying you can’t do that unless you are God;

            you can’t take that on unless you are God.

That’s the mystery and the beauty and the goodness of the Cross.

 

Jesus had told his disciples, 

            “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”

That is the image of God – God on the Cross – 

            and not many get this, 

                        even though there is the mercy and love that draws us in.

How is it that this is resisted?

            Our persistent resistance to this good, beautiful truth!

 

Just a few hours before the crucifixion Jesus had said to his disciples, 

            “If you knew where I was going you would rejoice.”

 

Let’s just look for a couple of minutes at what is happening

            in the Passion story according to John.

In this account in particular you can see

                                                            that Jesus is the only one in control.

He is a calm center in the midst of power struggles, mockery, and cruelty.

 

Everyone else exhibits that they really have no control over what is going on, 

that there is great failure on their part 

to achieve what they want to do.

 

The disciples have no apparent control over their drowsiness;

                        they fail to stay awake.

And then they all run away, fleeing for their lives.

Judas is doomed to play his role as betrayer

            despite whatever his motivation and intentions were.

 

In that strange scene in the garden, as John’s Gospel tells it,

            the band that comes to arrest Jesus at Gethsemane

                        is knocked to the ground by the force of the word 

spoken by Jesus, his simple statement: “I AM.”

Only when Jesus purposely gives them a second chance 

            can they lay hands on him and take him away.

 

Peter, in spite of his earlier protestations,

            fails in his ability to keep from denying his Lord.

 

The high priests and Sanhedrin 

can’t make a credible case against Jesus.

So they have to revert to political pressure 

to get Pilate to cooperate.

 

Pilate being backed into a corner, discovers he is not so powerful

            and he can’t engage with Jesus regarding Truth.

Then Pilate tries but fails to set Jesus free.

 

It is Jesus who acts, who is in control, 

who accomplishes all that needed to be done, 

right down to the last detail described in the ancient texts 

about the Servant, the Lamb of God.

 

And then the still point – that moment when he breathed out the last breath.

It is he who chooses when his last moment is, when he dies.

He completes all, 

and breathes out his breath 

and gives up his spirit.

 

The scene at the cross now becomes somewhat surreal.

His side is pierced.

Blood and water gush out

            spraying those standing there.

The witness giving the account of this tells the truth.

This is baptism in his death.

 

Death provides release of his presence 

            empowered to baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit 

                        without the limits of the mortal body.  

 

All that afflicts, that contracts, that inspires a sense of poverty, 

            that leads to violence, deception of self and others, 

            that promotes false, self-serving interest, 

                                                                        abuse, exploitation, addiction, war                                    – destroyed in death.  

Jesus dies the death of all that.  

 

And in his dying, all in us that is identified 

            with such a world of spiritual confusion, suffering and self-destructiveness, 

                        is drawn into his body on the cross.  

All that tragic evil dies there with the death of his body. 

 

He is on the cross in our condition of world-identified humanity.

He is on the cross performing a creative act.

 

For the death of Jesus is the absorption of the sacrificial gift of suffering             

            into the heart of God. 

Jesus takes our humanity in its fragmented, self-destructive state 

            into the divine presence 

                        that is always whole, eternally unbounded and creative.  

 

This is what we need to recognize: 

            by the crucifixion and death of Jesus, 

            as we, and all the world are drawn into and unite with his death,             

the way opens to embrace the eternal radiance of divine love, 

                        which is God.  

 

So today – Good Friday – 

is not just about a morbid reminder of a particularly gruesome death, 

for which we ought to grieve 

and feel deep remorse and penance,

but an occasion for deep devotion, gratitude, thanksgiving even

            for the blessed wood of the Cross.

 

Hymn 166 Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle

            a hymn by Fortunatus, one of the very earliest hymns of the Church,

Verse 4:

Faithful cross! above all other,

one and only noble tree!

None in foliage, none in blossom,

none in fruit thy peer may be:

sweetest wood and sweetest iron!

sweetest weight is hung on thee.

 

This is the glory of the cross,

            the precious weight that hangs upon it, 

                                                            precious beyond all counting,

            the grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying

                        producing the fruit of salvation and resurrection

                        and new life for us all.

 

            In the limitations of our own personal life perspective

                        focused on our immediate issues

we miss the hugeness – it is beyond anything we know how to ask for.

 

Would that we could see more clearly

            how what we here suffer in the routine of daily life

                        often has more to do with our attitudes and presumptions

                        than with the actual reality of our situations.

 

Would that our eyes were opened

            so that we could see how much we are spared, how blessed we are.

 

Then we would sink on our knees before the cross, 

                        the rude representation of the suffering of God,

and express from the heart our love and devotion,

            our thanks and our acceptance of God’s love.

At the foot of the cross let it all drop away

and worship the glory with grateful hearts in wonder, love and praise.