Doubting Thomas sermon for 4/11/10

Gospel text: John 20:19 - 31.


Grace and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”
Fear. Have you ever sat in fear? And I’m not talking about the fear of having to write a sermon on Doubting Thomas for your teaching parish. Unable to move, paralyzed by that fear? Or, so afraid that you cry and laugh at the same time? That fear gripped my daughters last weekend when they coming home from their grandmother’s house. They had already taken the wrong exit and gotten turned around, but then hit a patch of ice, fish-tailed a bit, did a three-sixty and ended up on a guardrail. Down a steep ravine on one side…the other side would have put them upside down on I70. Luckily some angels came along and helped them off the guardrail. For anyone, especially a mother, that is fear.
Fear is what the disciples were feeling while sitting in that room. It should have been a comforting place, as this is where they met every week to observe the Sabbath. But this week, they were scared. Why? Their leader, Jesus, had been crucified and by default, the crowds may come after them. But Peter and Mary Magdalene said the tomb was empty. Oh great, what happened to Jesus? Confusion added to the fear. So they sat in this room, probably to scared to even speak…
Then wham, out of nowhere, this ghost appears, saying “Shalom, peace be with you.” I don’t know about you but I would have jumped right out of my skin. Jesus is here – standing right in front of them! But, how did he get in? He has his body, he shows them his wounds, and they know he died, but there he is! You can imagine the sigh of relief, the expression of joy, elation, at the seeing of Jesus with them again. “Shalom, peace be with you.” He then sends them forth, breathes on them, just as God breathed into the creation of man that first breath of life. Jesus knew they would need that added life, and that added strength to go out proclaiming, to forgive sins or to retain sins. Jesus needed them to know that He would be with them, just as God the Father had been with Jesus. Shalom. He brings those gathered the fruit of peace, simply by His presence, and by saying that phrase erases their anxieties.
For Thomas, there was no peace. He was disillusioned. Thomas ran away on Thursday when they captured Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane. He stood apart on Friday, watching from a distance as they nailed Jesus to the cross. Thomas had followed Jesus for three years, now Jesus, and his hope, were gone. On Saturday, he was just in shock. So what was he to think when his fellow disciples come to find him, to tell him that Jesus has been raised from the dead, that they had seen Him! He was in denial. Nope, no way, no how. Is this a cruel joke or what? He saw Jesus die; hundreds saw Jesus die; now here his friends were saying they had seen Him.
On the television show, Mercy, the other night, a man was heading into surgery; he and his wife asked the doctor to lead them in prayer, afterwards noting that obviously the doctor did not pray very often. The surgery was a success and the doctor and nurse came in to talk to the couple. During the surgery, for three minutes, the man had died. “But that’s not possible,” said the patient, “I didn’t see the light! I could not have died, there was no light.” At this point, he became very disillusioned. Probably a lot like Thomas. All he’d believed for so long, was any of it true? All his life he’d proclaimed, “God has a plan”. When he lost his job, “God has a plan”, when they couldn’t have a baby, which was apparently his fault, “God has a plan”, when he developed cancer, “God has a plan”. No matter who tried to talk to him in the following days, he felt he’d been betrayed – he had even broken the chaplain’s nose! His wife walked out, obviously upset. He was not going to be fooled again; he now had doubts. There was no light when he “died”: no light, no God, no plan. Now what?
Thomas too was saying, “Now what?” Thomas was not going to believe until he saw for himself; not until he could touch the wounds on Jesus’ hands and feet was he going to believe. He had to wait a week – a whole week! But, Thomas needed that week to calm down, to reflect. He had been alone. Now he was with his friends, spending time in community, in fellowship with other believers. He joined his friends in the room on the following Sabbath.
Let’s think about the fact that it’s the Sabbath for just a moment. Why the Sabbath? This was the day of rest, the day God rested after creation. The Sabbath was God’s day of rest; hence it became humanity’s day of rest. Now Jesus has come, on the Sabbath, making it a Holy day of rest.
Okay, back to the story. Again, in this room with the disciples and again, the door was locked. Jesus came and stood among them again. “Shalom, peace be with you.” The other disciples had been there, done this before. Now Thomas was with them. Jesus could have been totally snarky with Thomas, but instead was kind and understanding. "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas didn’t even touch Him! He finally gets it. Thomas fell to the ground and said, “My Lord, My God.” These four words, uttered by the disbeliever, are the greatest confession a person can make. Thomas, the doubting one, was the first to put these words together. Jesus made the point that Thomas had to see in order to believe. Knowing that He would not always be around for followers to see, He said, “Blessed are those who have not yet seen and yet have believed.”
I think, my friends that we fall into that category. We haven’t seen and yet we believe. Jesus came back that week later for us. He used Thomas for us, so that we who doubt may believe, so that we who haven’t touched nor seen may believe. This makes him a hero in my book.
John concludes this chapter by telling us that Jesus gave many other signs that were not recorded. But the signs we do know about were given so that we may not have doubts, but believe. Pope St. Gregory the Great commented that Thomas did more for our faith than any other disciple. As he witnessed Christ, he was won over to belief, all doubt cast aside. So the doubter who believed became the greatest witness of the resurrection.
The man in Mercy had his doubts; he needed something, a sign of some sort to rekindle his faith. His light came. When his wife walked back into his hospital room asking for her husband back, her faithful husband back. She needed him…she was pregnant. Here was his miracle.
The miracle came for the disciples came in that room, two times, a week apart. Their Lord, their God, had died so that they might live. Live lives to tell the good news. Thomas lived that life, he went forth as did the others. His fears were erased and he became an outspoken advocate for Christ until his death.
Fear. Do you have fear? Do you fear CPE? Your internship? Your first call? Do not have fear, but have faith in Jesus the Christ who came to this earth in human form to die for our sins. On this Sunday after Easter, put away your fears and doubts. As Thomas was transformed, we are transformed by the living word. Jesus came and stood with the disciples in that room, just as he stands in our hearts today. Let us remain faithful servants, always confessing, “Our Lord, Our God.”
Amen.

Flickering Pixels questions/comments

1. What are we coming to as a society when a cell phone can facilitate an 'efficient wedding'?
2. I was struck by the following statements: a. 'the illusion of real contact[is] provided by the cell phone', and b. 'the electronic age is essentially a tribe of individuals'.
3. In chapter 11, 'The Internet has a natural bias toward exhibitionism and thus the erosion of real intimacy.' With this, how can we maintain the intimacy of God's message through the medium of the internet?

Flickering Pixels...quote 2: "Knowing God comes from direct experience."

If you don't have direct experience, or recognize it, do you, can you, still know God? Of course. This direct experience requires an open heart and an open mind. Be aware of what is going on around you. (Big mantra of mine - just ask my kids.) In seeing God in this world, you need to look and listen and feel and touch. That direct experience could be a hug from a friend, a smile from a stranger, or a Facebook poke when you need it. I see God in all of these things.
Through your direct experience, you to can be that direct experience for someone else, this is my own sort of 'pay it forward'. We can all take lessons from the School of Kindness in Puget Sound, now an online course teaching random acts of kindness; first do something kind to yourself, second do something kind for someone you love, then for a neighbor, then for a stranger (taken from an article in the Seattle Times).

Flickering Pixels...quote 1: "Christianity is fundamentally a communication event."

Oral traditions handed down. Visions, dreams, hearings (is that okay, to use that as a noun?) The birth of Jesus - God communicated to Mary via the angel, to the wise men via a star. Jesus told his followers and those who weren't why he was there. We must hear about the miracle of Jesus and those he performed prior to having the faith and believing. Then we are on our knees, praying to God, as little children and as adults. Though we don't have to be on our knees, nor do we have to speak at all for God to hear us. We go to church, hear the Word, read the Word, all the time communication is transmitted. Through this communication we understand.
But, is there too much communication? or not enough? With the media and technology, there are dangers of errors in communication, what is right and what is wrong, or not quite right? Which TV station is better, which web-site is better? So many sources available, the onslaught of information - what should we listen to in order to know the truth? This comes back to communication with God, open and honest communication with God, I mean if the psalmists could yell at Him, why can't we? We may not always like the answer, but we must keep communicating in order to learn and grow and spread the Word. Communication with/from God is part of a life-long journey.

John 20:19 - 31

The beginning of exegesis...
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 Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
Jesus and Thomas
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 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."
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." 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." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 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."
The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believed that Jesus is the Messiah,e the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

I. Select the Text = 1st Sunday after Easter
a. Text begins just after Mary found the empty tomb; and ends just before Jesus appears on the shore of the Sea of Tiberius.
b. Establish a reliable translation for the text: NRSV.
II. Getting Introduced to the text
a. Basic understanding:
Jesus has been raised from the dead - where was He?
Why has He not yet ascended to the Father?
Does he come on purpose the first time knowing that Thomas isn't there? Is this so He can make a point later?
Why doesn't Thomas believe his friends? Was he the loner they made fun of all the time? Did he stand out because he was different?
Did the other disciples not usually tell Thomas the truth?
b. Larger context:
Blessed are those that believe but do not see.
What were the other things that He did that weren't written?

Day 1 - Readings: Is technology value-neutral?

I don't think technology can be value-neutral. With the use of technology and computers in its most basic form, one almost takes for granted that everyone has ready access. In many instances this is not the case. Hence there is a social stigma placed on those who have and those who do not have access to computers and technology. Are members of a congregation going to feel inferior if they do not have access to the same power point programs used in the parish?
In the article, 'How the Internet Shapes Religious Life, or the Medium is Itself the Message', van der Laan discusses the use of resources on the Internet for sermon preparation. With the use of the Internet, are we short-changing ourselves by not using the time-honored tradition of exegisis, or is it simply another means of finding commentary? I think the problems arise when the use of others' ideas and ready-made sermons are out there for the taking, or buying. Does this cheapen grace? And, who's to say that the message in those sermons is theologically what the congregation needs? Hopefully the pastor can see though the artificial and find reliable sources with which to produce his or her sermon. The church can use technology, but must do so in a responsible manner and resist the temptation to be controlled by the web, and instead, control the use of the web.