The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 20th Chapter
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.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 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.”
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.” 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.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 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.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 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.
Ah, the Holy Remnant! The ones who come on what is affectionately known as “Low” Sunday, this Sunday, the Sunday following Easter when clergy and people alike, most often vacation from the church and church attendance is therefore… LOW. When I thought about this Sunday, I thought that I’d love to surprise you all by packing everyone who came today into the church bus and taking a field trip to visit one of Maine’s Holy Shrines.
In Maine we are blessed with a number of holy shrines. Many, unfortunately, are only open seasonally. However, one of the holiest of these seasonal shrines just opened for the season! But, since we don’t actually have a church bus, the best I could do is get a few passes. So I've put some passes in the front cover of a few of the Bibles in the chairs in front of you. So, take a second and look and see if you got one. Hey! There you go! You’ve found one! Can you tell us all the name of the Holy Shrine you will be visiting? YES! Fielder’s Choice Ice Cream.
So my question for you is this; even though you can’t see it from here, do you believe in Fielder’s Choice Ice Cream? You do? Good! In your mind, do you believe that it is a real place and is now open for the season? Deep down in your heart, do you believe that the serving sizes are enormous and the “baby” size cone is as big as an actual human baby’s whole face? Do not doubt, but believe! So you believe? Yes? That’s GREAT! Because, since you believe, that means just hearing about it and believing it is good enough, right? You can give me back that gift card and just stay here and get Fielder’s Choice Ice Cream clear in your mind’s eye and in your heart of hearts and develop an inerrantly precise doctrine of dangerously large ice cream cones and you never have to GO! Right? Not quite. Huh?
So if talking about and studying and meditating and even theologizing on Fielder’s Choice Ice Cream in your head isn’t the same as physically, bodily, leaving this room and GOING there and enjoying a cone, then why have we come to think that simply studying and meditating and theologizing about Jesus is all there is? Why don't we want to GO and walk as Jesus walks?
I’m not sure how it happened, but it most certainly happened. Christianity has taken the word “believe” and made it only about what goes on between our ears, when in reality it’s infinitely more about what happens at the end of our legs. “Believing” for Jesus was not getting your thinking right. Believing for Jesus meant falling in line behind him on the path he was walking. Believing, in Jesus’ day, meant walking the Jesus walk, doing Jesus things and living a Jesus life, sacrificing like Jesus sacrificed and being transformed so that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Believing was not a “head” exercise but a heart, feet and hands exercise that begins with things like feeding the hungry, healing the sick, including the outcast and fighting injustice and becomes a transformed, new, abundant and never ending life!
So, if we've messed up “Believing” you might wonder if we've messed up “Sin” as well. I think we have. Sin is not so much a moral issue as it is walking/living/acting in the opposite direction of Jesus. Now sin, I think we can agree, isn’t a good direction to walk, to be sure, but to be honest, I’m not sure it’s the worst thing either! I think that’s what Martin Luther was getting at when he told us all to, “Sin Boldly”… he meant it's better to try and DO SOMETHING… TAKE A STEP… ANY STEP than to do nothing at all. Remember, Jesus is big on forgiveness. So there’s no shame it trying and learning you we're going in
the wrong direction and Jesus is also big on repentance, which means we all have an infinite number of chances to get turned around and start going the Jesus way.
So if sin isn't the WORST thing, what is? Reading this lesson, I wonder if “Doubt” might be worse. But not "doubt" like we've come to think about it. Because just like we get “believing” and “sin” wrong, I also think we get “doubt” wrong too. Jesus didn’t have a problem with the disciples then or us now having questions or being confused or even being skeptical… let’s face it, the disciples back then NEVER really “got it” but they ended up as Saints! No, I think what Jesus called “doubt” was more like living in a horrible place of indecision, paralyzed and afraid to move forward because you’re so worried you might go in reverse by mistake. Doubt is the disciples seeing Jesus resurrected from the dead and a week later STILL being locked in that upper room! Doubt is being stuck... endlessly grinding our gears, never moving forward or back but all the time wearing the teeth off the gears of this life we’ve been given.
In that upper room, Jesus wasn’t just getting after Thomas. He was getting after ALL the disciples… ALL of them… and all of us disciples too. He was telling them (and us) that it’s time to move! It’s time to unlock the door and put one foot in front of the other and start walking a Jesus kind of life... out there! Start walking the way Jesus is calling us to walk and when inevitably we discover we’re off course, when things don't quite go as hoped or planned... then let God turn us around and KEEP MOVING!!! No more grinding gears going nowhere fast, stuck in a stuffy, locked, fear filled room. We'll be MOVING!
Folks, it is fun to think of the Holy Shrine of Fielder’s Choice and in the middle of January, when it’s dark and cold and the people who run it are in Florida... let's face it... in January THINKING about it is the only option we have… thinking about it then, simply has to be enough. But when Fielder’s Choice is actually open, why would you just keep thinking about it? Why wouldn't you wash up the kids, gas up the car, pile in your friends and family and GO!
The sweetness of THIS life, a life lived connected to God in Christ is better than any ice cream cone, so let’s not just stay stuck in THIS locked room settling for a faith that lives in our heads alone. Let’s not just grind our gears moving neither forward nor back any longer. Let’s wash up in the Font, remembering we're all God's kids. Let’s come to the Table and get fueled up for the journey. Let's pile in our friends and family and step out Boldly in faith… Let's Sin Boldly! Let's GO! Let's walk the Jesus Way! Amen.
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