Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Here we are on
the Second Sunday of Easter – a Sunday that has been traditionally a bit
under-loved. In the Anglican tradition it is sometimes known as Low Sunday... It
does pale a bit sat next to Easter. And yet there is some important work for
this Sunday.
The Gospel
Reading has the disciples hiding, as they seem to do a lot these days, in fear
of the authorities. The disciples have reason for fear – it is these same
authorities who crucified Jesus. Peter, in particular,
has lied through his teeth to deny Jesus, so great was his fear. Fear is a
big part of our Easter experience, but not a highlight...
Jesus comes
to the disciples and presents them with his wounds. Well – that is to say, most
of the disciples. Judas is gone. And Thomas is off doing something. So, Thomas
misses the close encounter with the wounds. He also misses the first stirring
of the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathes on them. These days it is not too clear,
but back then Spirit and Breath were absolutely understood to be the same
thing. In word and deed Jesus covers the disciples with the Holy Spirit.
Apparently,
Jesus makes a quick exit as we hear nothing more from him for the time being.
Jesus goes and Thomas returns. The disciples immediately tell Thomas that they
have seen the Lord. Thomas seems not to believe them – and why should he. What
they are telling him is impossible. He declares that if he doesn’t see the
wounds for himself, he will not believe.
But the next
week, when the disciples are once again hiding behind a locked door, Jesus
appears – this time with Thomas present. And Jesus makes the first move – he
goes right to Thomas and invites him to examine the wounds, even to go so far
as to put his fingers in them. John does not tell us if Thomas took up Jesus on
this offer... but Thomas is completely convinced.
It's an
interesting thing that Jesus knows exactly where Thomas needs to be met. No
challenges. No confrontation. Just Jesus essentially saying I know what you
need... come see my wounds for yourself. Our loving God in the person of Jesus
meets us where we need to be met. Not necessarily where we would like to be met;
or in the way we would like to be met; or in the way we find most comfortable.
Sadly, for
Thomas, this interaction with Jesus has come to almost totally define his
identity – Doubting Thomas. Over about two thousand years Thomas has become the
embodiment of doubt, even perhaps an archetype. And yet his actions are quite
reasonable. He just wants the experience that the others had – they saw the
wounds...
John is a
bit vague in the narrative. Is Thomas doubting Jesus? Is he doubting the
resurrection? John never tells us that. I suspect what Thomas is doubting is
the trustworthiness of his fellow disciples. He doubts that they have seen
Jesus. And let's be honest – the disciples have not exactly distinguished
themselves as the most trustworthy folks on the planet recently.
Does Thomas
earn his nickname “Doubting”? Who can say with any certainty. What we can be
certain about is that he takes his faith seriously. Jesus asks “do you believe
because you have seen? Blessed are those who have
come to believe and yet have not seen.” That would be us – and so I think we
owe thanks and gratitude to Thomas.
So, what do
we think Thomas may have come to believe? The most obvious answer is that Jesus
is Lord and Savior. What might that mean?
Well, it's
not all that long ago, last Thursday – Maundy Thursday – to be clear, that
Jesus gave us a mandate for how to believe. Jesus called it a new commandment,
but in fact it was, even then, a very old commandment: Love one another. The
new part is how Jesus clarifies: as I have loved you, so you are to love one
another. This is how we are to be known as followers of Jesus. It follows that
if we don’t love one another that we cannot be known as followers of Jesus.
But John’s
Gospel is not through telling us about love... A few brief chapters later Jesus
tells us that if we love Jesus, we will keep God’s commandments. All of this
occurs as part of the telling of the Easter story. Clearly John has linked
Easter with love. And it would seem we are called to do the same. God so loves
the world that his son, his only begotten son, is given to us.
But this
year part of the story has hit me a bit differently. Jesus and the Spirit and
God are one, so their experiences must be one. Jesus comes to dwell among us so
that we can gain experience of God, but also so that God can gain some
experience of what it's like to be human, truly human. Our response is to
crucify Jesus.
But even
after that, God still loves us. God, it seems, handles rejection better than we
do... We have done our very best to rid ourselves of God. Not only have we failed,
but we have failed to change God’s love toward us. God’s call to us is still
that we love God and love our neighbors and ourselves. This hasn’t changed
since the Book of Genesis. But at the same time, it appears that we haven’t
changed either.
In much of
the Hebrew Scripture, our response to anything we didn’t like was to fight. And
sadly, that hasn’t changed much either. When I was born the Korean War was
mostly over, but in fact, technically, North and South Korea are still at was. On
the heels of that came the Vietnam war. Then the Cold War, the war on drugs,
the war on poverty, the war on crime. War seems to be our go-to answer for
whatever we perceive as a problem.
This way of
thinking defines our culture – just as it defined Roman culture in Jesus' time.
It pushes our thinking into sorting our world into friends and enemies. But
Jesus call to love our enemies notwithstanding. We prefer to crush our enemies.
Where is the love in that?
In the
so-called war on poverty, poor people were enemy adjacent.
But the super-rich were not. And yet, the unjust conditions that create poverty
are surely not caused by poor people. Bill Gates and Elon Musk have much more
to do with creating poverty than all the poor people in the world.
The Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King made clear that as long as we fight in a model that has
winners and losers, the fighting can never end. For it will always be up to the
winners to defend their stuff and the losers will always be driven to try to
become winners... It's a horrific cycle that we have seen play out many, many
times.
