Showing Up Thomas

John 20

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.

Here’s the scene.  Eleven guys in their late 20’s… early 30’s have been stuck in a room for a week… together… in the Middle East… with no running water.  Their best friend Jesus was horrifically killed and they’ve been reeling ever since.  The smell of empty takeout boxes, stale Bud Lite, and despair fills the room.  One of them, Thomas, goes out to get pizzas and when he comes back, the other 10 guys tell him in a super excited, overly dramatic way, that while he was gone Jesus came and visited them in the flesh. 

Now, put yourself in Thomas’ sandals.  Your 20-30 year old guy-friends… friends who’ve been cooped up drinking bad beer and living on take out for a week, tell you that your dead friend came for a visit while you were gone.  Do you believe them?  Yeah, me neither!  I don’t blame Thomas AT ALL for doubting his bros!  But here’s the incredible thing about Thomas that we always ignore in the rush to give him a hard time for doubting.  HE KEEPS SHOWING UP.  In spite of the horrors.  In spite of the soul crushing depression.  In spite of his bros and their crapola.  In spite of Peter continuing to buy bad beer for the group.  Thomas keeps showing up!  And in his dedication to showing up, regardless of how he felt, he eventually had the opportunity to see Jesus.  Showing up matters. 

The same thing happens here in this sanctuary you know.  When we show up here, in spite of all that the world is throwing at us at the moment… when we show up here… we too have the opportunity to encounter Christ.  In the bread and the wine, yes… but also in this gathered community, because together we are, in some mystical way, the living and life giving Body of Christ for one another.  

That’s why showing up is so incredibly important.  But when we go one step beyond showing up and find a way to be TRULY PRESENT for one another… that’s when we’re not just seeing Jesus but BELIEVING Jesus.  Remember, “believing” in the Bible isn’t an intellectual, brain case, reasoning thing.  That idea didn’t start until the Enlightenment.  In Biblical times believing was a whole body… whole being thing… following the one you loved.  Walking in a particular set of footsteps… doing your best to live as they lived.  That’s why for us, being present walks us even deeper into faith than simply showing up.  Being present means taking some time beyond this hour in the pews.  Opening our eyes and our ears and actively checking in with one another, at coffee hour, with a text, over the phone, with a card.  Because like Thomas, when we show up and THEN when we take the little extra time and effort to be TRULY PRESENT with one another, it is in THOSE times that we are really walking the Jesus Way of living.    

Showing up.  Being present.  They may not sound that impressive, but the truth is, those two things are where full on Jesus level ministry begins!  Jesus spent his time showing up, being present, and reaching out to the lost, last and least of this world.  He leaned into relationships with those folks that it took WORK to be around… the outcasts, the diseased, the unclean.  Jesus moved boldly and fearlessly TOWARD those folks and listened to them, HEARD them, and lifted them up.  For the disciples, doing that with Jesus in the lead was hard.  Doing that after Jesus’ death… well it got so hard all they could do was to sit in a room eating take out and drinking bad beer!

In the end it took Christ’s risen presence… more than once… to move them, IN SPITE OF their fear, back to the WAY he had always led them to live in the world.  It took Jesus showing up and being present with them to realize that even though it was different than it was before Good Friday, Jesus was STILL with them… and us… always.

 

Thomas was able to be moved out of fear and back into the world because Jesus kept showing up and Thomas kept showing up too.  They both kept showing up to the community they had formed together.  They remained committed to being present with each other… even with all the horrors they had seen.  And here’s the REAL miracle… they kept showing up even though Peter kept buying cheep beer!  This is the story, not of Doubting Thomas but of Showing Up Thomas and I pray that in our showing up… in our being present with one another… we too will continue to encounter the risen Christ time and time again.  Amen.