The Gospel story this morning is of
the famous story of doubting Thomas, the Apostle who insisted on touching Jesus
after his resurrection in order to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus
was physically resurrected. It is a
story I believe many Christians identify with because we have all had our
doubts at one time or another and a story that, once I saw it in the readings
this morning, changed my mind about whether I would do a homily in addition to
reading the morning prayer.
This story is not really a favorite
of mine. It is one of those stories that
the Jesus Seminar folks probably label as unlikely, or in the area of folklore,
rather than as one that represents historical facts. But I believe it is an important story, one
that speaks to us on many levels.
Thomas was not present with all of
the disciples when Jesus appeared to them initially. Later, in the story, Jesus appears again to
the disciples and when Thomas sees Jesus, Thomas is convinced. “My Lord and my God” is his trembling response. Thomas was convinced and legend has it that
he lived the rest of his life following Jesus and died a martyr’s death..
Two thousand years later, we can
look at this gospel story and see the reasons for why John might want to
include it. There was controversy in the
early Church about whether Jesus was physically resurrected or if, instead, his
resurrection was a spiritual one only.
Indeed there were some who believed that Jesus was never physically present
at all, but was instead a Divine avatar throughout his life. John, in writing his Gospel, was writing to
these Gnostic Christians, supporting what eventually was to become Christian
orthodoxy and presenting principles that were foundational for Christian dogma
for centuries. The
humanity of Jesus. The bodily resurrection.
Jesus oneness with God.
We were not there two thousand
years ago and we are very aware of the weakness ancients had to discriminate
between fact and folklore. We all accept
that Jesus was a man who walked among us. There are few who today believe Jesus
to have been a ghostly avatar throughout his life and ministry, none who are
Gnostics of the sort that John was writing to.
However, there is no small number, even among devout followers of the
man Jesus, who, like Thomas, still wonder about the Churches historic claim
that Jesus physically rose from the dead or if his resurrection was of a
spiritual nature, the kind of spiritual immortality that has sustained his
message of good news to the poor for millennia.
Scientific and historical methods have changed since the time of Jesus
and our questions have changed, too.
These events did happen 2000 years ago.
So we can’t stand with Thomas and
be convinced. We have an old story, from
an old scripture, from a writer who was writing, as Marissa pointed out to us
last week, at least 50 years after Jesus was alive.
So what does this ancient story
have to tell us?
We cannot stand with Thomas and see
Jesus, but we have our own crises of faith.
Thomas uttered his exclamation of awe, and every Sunday we utter exclamations
of worship and awe. But after Thomas
acknowledged Jesus – proclaiming his faith and belief in the resurrection, he
went out and for the rest of his life he served Jesus. He lived his life in the
certainty that, as Marissa said last Sunday, “God wins, God
always wins.” He lived his life as if
God really is the ruler of the universe and the one who sets the standards of
ultimate value and worth.
That is the challenge that I think
is presented to us by Thomas’s lack of faith and his changed response of faith
when hit over the head with God’s victory.
It is a challenge that faces us now.
We have many doubts in this congregation. We all know Jesus lived on earth, told some
of the stories and uttered some of the words in the Bible attributed to him and
that he courageously lived unto death according to what he believed was the
will of his Father in Heaven. Unlike
Thomas, we are not so concerned as to whether the
resurrection is a literal physical resurrection or one of many explanations
involving a spiritual resurrection – this is an academic question and there are
a variety of opinions that exist comfortably among those in this
congregation. However, there is a
question of faith that all of us are concerned about: whether this congregation will survive and
what we can do to make it thrive. This
is our question of faith.
And this question centers, in my
opinion, on whether we really do believe that God always wins. Do we have the faith to act as if the
This congregation will live and die
not according to whether it maintains a good fiscal outlook. It will live and die to the degree that it
serves God’s purposes. It will not thrive
because the new space is going to be more modern and more attractive. It will live and die according to the degree
that it serves God’s purposes. And it
will not be saved by a vestry that makes the most fiscally prudent decisions,
risking turning down
opportunities to use the parish resources to serve the poor in the hopes that
less financially risky opportunities present themselves later. It will live and die according to whether it
serves God’s purposes. It will only thrive to the degree that we do
what Thomas did: believe, and then go beyond
the mere flattery of words and follow the words with actions that truly
demonstrate that we believe that God won.
In today’s terms that does not mean that we
have to resolve theological questions or all agree on some kind of esoteric
dogma regarding metaphysical events of 2000 years ago. Today the question of faith is whether we will
live according to Jesus’ priorities. And
we don’t need to have any particular kind of special faith to know what Jesus
priorities were. It is clear from the
historical record that Jesus was no friend of superficial religiosity, but was,
instead a friend of those who were the outcast of society, the poor, the tax
collectors, the Samaritans, the strangers, the homeless, the orphans, and the
widows – the great unwashed who are often not welcome in this neighborhood.
I believe that God won and Susan
and I are here because we believe that the core of this congregation also
believes that God won. We are here
because we feel this is the best place for us to try to follow Jesus during
this time of our lives and we believe that all of you here in your own unique
way are also trying to follow Jesus. We
pray with you that this congregations thrives and that
the choices that are ultimately made turn out to be the choices that God would
have us make. If this congregation
thrives, we will know that they were.
Amen.