Loon-a-palooza

John 20:19-31

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.

Tomorrow a solar eclipse will be visible along a swath of the country from Texas to Maine.  While the moon has, from time to time, ever since there was a moon, come to a point in it’s orbit where it passes between the earth and the sun and has cast a shadow on the earth as a result, this has not kept the right wing conspiracy theorists from their appointed rounds.  On the contrary, they’ve seemed to take this very normal thing and turned it into some kind of Loon-a-palooza!   

From the path of the eclipse forming the Hebrew letters that signify the end of the world, to the ushering in of a new world order led by billionaires, to an opportunity for masons, occultists, satanists, and gnostics to perform rituals that will do unspeakable things, or NASA’s “rocket launch” that is ACTUALLY a cover for the government’s worship of an Ancient Egyptian snake god… the conspiracy theorists have, in this past week, cranked Loon-a-palooza up to eleven!  

But this coming week’s craziness over a shadow, and today’s Gospel lesson do give us an opportunity to talk about how the Church has handled conspiracy theories in the past.  The first opportunity is in the way the Gospel of John and his community use of the phrase, “The Jews”.  While John didn’t intend this phase to be used to create an antisemitic conspiracy theory (John and his community were Jewish, after all) it’s been used that way by the church and others in genuinely horrific ways over the centuries.  For that, parts of the Christian church including our parts, are now trying to make amends and figure out how to keep that misuse from moving forward.  

Some suggest just eliminating that phrase and substituting something else, such as “The Judeans” but for me, the best way to address this conspiracy theory is to address it the same way we address any conspiracy theory.  Ask questions.  Use our minds, and intellect.  Consult with experts, do the research, and share the truth.  When we do that we find that in John’s community “The Jews” were shorthand for the religious leaders who had sold out to the Romans and were doing whatever they needed to do, right or wrong, to stay in power.  

So, with some good questions and research into those questions and the use of a relatively few brain cells, we can easily find out BOTH, that NASA is NOT using the eclipse as a chance to worship an Egyptian snake god AND that John did NOT intend for anyone to demonize or persecute people of the Jewish faith!  With that knowledge and understanding we are now able to do our part to ask forgiveness for the sins of past generations, repair the rifts with our Jewish neighbors that we’ve inherited, and build new, healthy and fruitful relationships with our Jewish neighbors going forward.    

That idea that asking questions, using our minds and intellect and sharing the truth is the best way for us to combat all sorts of destructive conspiracy theories is actually EXACTLY what we see Thomas doing in today’s Gospel!  Thomas, very understandably, told the rest of the disciples that he wasn’t going to believe… he wasn’t going to give his heart to the idea that Jesus had been raised from the dead… he wasn’t going to buy into their conspiracy theory without using his brain, doing the research, and seeing for himself.  Then, when Jesus showed up the next time, it looks to me like Jesus was just fine with the way Thomas handled that unbelievable news!  Jesus didn’t shame Thomas.  Jesus simply showed him the evidence.  Jesus didn’t get mad at Thomas for not leaving his brain at the door.  Jesus didn’t chastise him for asking questions.  It seems to me, when you set aside all that’s been drummed into our heads over the years about "Doubting" Thomas and just read the text, Jesus was just fine with the way Thomas came to believe.  Jesus, it seems, is just fine with Thomas using his intellect and experience to not just immediately dive into the deep end of a crazy conspiracy theory.  Jesus seems to be just fine with Thomas bringing his brain into that locked room with him and not just hanging it on a hook out in the hallway.  So once again, in contrast to those attending Loon-a-palooza this week... reason, experience, hard questions, and intelligence turn out to all be VERY welcome EVEN by Jesus. 

I would like to be able to tell you that this week’s Loon-a-palooza will be the world’s last… but it won’t.  But what I can tell you is that as you go about your day to day lives, both inside the church and out…  and as you think about things both secular and religious, taking your God given brain with you into any room including this one, asking questions of any kind, even the hardest kind, and taking the time to talk to experts and do the research using your intellect and experience... doing that is not just OKAY with God, but is FULLY and COMPLETELY endorsed by God in Christ Jesus in the resurrected flesh!  

It is okay to doubt.  It’s okay to ask questions.  It is absolutely required for you to take your brain with you into every room you enter.  Because if we don’t learn anything else from this story, we should learn that when God wants to show us what we need to see, God, it seems will find a way.  So blessed are those… blessed are us... who have not seen exactly as Thomas did… but who have come to believe because God, in one way or another, has found a way to show each of us the risen Christ none the less.  Amen.