"Touch and Go" Low Easter 2017

Poor Thomas! Ever since that episode in this morning's Gospel Reading, he's been getting a bad press in sermons and Bible studies. He'd been stuck with the nickname of "Doubting Thomas". For close to two thousand years, we preachers have been giving old Thomas a hard time on this Sunday after Easter.

"Old Doubting Thomas who couldn't believe unless he saw the wounds-- we all need a stronger faith then that." Or, "Don't be a Doubting Thomas in your religion". We've made him into a negative example. But truth be told, I think Thomas deserves a better shake than he's gotten over the centuries.

Probably the worst thing you can say about Thomas was that imagination wasn't his strongest suit. He was the kind of person who called a spade a spade. He was a realist, maybe a bit of a pessimist as well. But basically Thomas was just a hard-headed, feet-on-the-ground, glass-is-half-empty kind of guy.

I don't know, maybe he was from Missouri. We all know the type. I’m married to one of them—someone from Missouri I mean. A solid, no-nonsense, everyday, meat-and-potatoes kind of person. Maybe he simply wasn't too quick to believe in fairy stories.

But Thomas did believe in Jesus. A bit earlier in John's Gospel, we read that when Jesus announced to the women and the Twelve that He was about to go to his death in Jerusalem, everybody was taken back. All the others sat around in shock. wondering what to do, but Thomas reacted. He rose to his feet, looked around the circle and announced that if Jesus was going to Jerusalem to die, then, "Let us join him and go die with him." No, not much imagination-- but a whole truckload of loyalty.

Then, at the Last Supper--The Lord again got onto the topic of his coming Passion and Death. Jesus began spouting all kinds of lofty and beautiful and obscure language about how He would go away soon, but that it wouldn't last forever. Jesus began describing how He would prepare a place in God’s mansions for His friends and followers.

Then Jesus told them that He would be waiting for them when they got to where He was about to go---where there would be plenty of room for everybody—in the mansions. And he added, that when they all got there too, they'd all be together again, with him and with God--there, where He was now going, just as He and God were together--where they all were now, presumably. But they, of course, knew the way to where Jesus was going. And of course, Jesus added, they also understood all that He was speaking of, and one day they'd all be there with him themselves. (Where He was going, that is—the previously referred to place with plenty of room.)

Nobody breathed a word. Maybe because nobody wanted to the first one to ask Jesus what in the world He was talking about. But Thomas couldn't hold back. He couldn't just sit there and pretend that he got Jesus' point, when the plain fact was, he didn't get it. What he did understand however, was that Jesus was talking about leaving them. And if Thomas knew one thing it was that where Jesus went, he wanted to be there, too. So at the risk of appearing a bit dense, Thomas jumped in, feet first.

"Excuse me Rabbi, but I'm afraid you've lost me here. Would you mind saying all that again--this time in plain language? Personally, I don't know where it is that you're talking about going. But I do know that I want to go with you—wherever that it. So tell me please, what path do I take? What road do I follow? Which way do I take to get to where you're going?"

Thomas wasn't much of a theologian, but he loved his Lord. And then he fed Jesus probably the great straight line of all time. "Which way?" He asked. And Jesus—being Jesus, couldn’t pass up a teaching moment—or a punchline—and especially a pun.

"I am the way", Jesus replied. And Thomas let it go at that. But I can't help but wonder if Thomas still didn't get what Jesus was driving at. Jesus wasn't a road or a street. He was a dear friend, a holy man, a wondrous healer and a beloved teacher. But from Thomas’ point of view at least, it was too bad that Jesus would now and then insist in speaking in riddles.

And then, in the next few days, all of Jesus’ followers worst fears were realized. All of the things Thomas and the rest had secretly dreaded, all of the things Jesus had previously spoken of in parables and riddles came crashing down upon them. And now, all of a sudden, Jesus was dead—just as dead as He’d said He would be. Thomas was sure of that. No doubt faithful, loyal Thomas finally ended up at the cross, and saw the body taken down. There was no doubt of it, Jesus was dead.

But then came this strange report of an empty tomb from Mary and the other women. And then, this unreal occurrence as the rest of them sat around in the upper room with the doors barred and the windows shut. They had gathered there, scared stiff of the Romans, scared stiff that they'd be the next ones nailed to a tree, but too lonely and sad to separate and scatter back to their old lives in Galilee. Suddenly Jesus walked through the locked door.

He said "Shalom". He wished them his peace--just as He had at the Last Supper. And then He showed them where the nails had pierced his hands, where the spear had stabbed his side--just to convince them that it really was him. Then He breathed his Holy Spirit into them and was gone.

Thomas hadn't been there. It just goes to show that you never know who might show up in church on the one Sunday you decide to sleep in. We have no idea where Thomas was. One good thing about not having much imagination is that you're far less likely to work yourself into a panic when things get tough.

Maybe Thomas really was sleeping in. Or maybe he was off in the park feeding the pigeons and thinking things over. Maybe he was taking a long walk, trying to figure out what to do next with his life now that Jesus was dead. Maybe Thomas just ducked out for a sandwich and coffee. Maybe he was the one making the run to the local McDonald's for supper. In any case, he wasn't there.

When Thomas got back, and when the others told him what had happened, his reaction was about what you'd expect. Maybe it was because he doubted. Or maybe it was because he didn't have enough faith or imagination or whatever it took. Or maybe Thomas doubted because of their reactions.

They claimed to have seen the Risen Christ. They said they'd talked to him, been touched by him. Jesus had been raised up from the dead! And what were they doing about it? Were they out telling the world? Were they proclaiming the good news in the streets? Were they shouting it from the housetops?

Reading the Scriptures, it looks like all that the disciples were doing was hanging around the Upper Room waiting for Jesus to show up again. They gave no signs, no indication. They made no witness that this marvelous Resurrection had meant anything at all in their everyday lives. They gave no evidence that the Holy Spirit had been breathed into them. They were just sitting there, reveling in the after-glow of their recent mystic experience and waiting for their next spiritual high. That was why Thomas couldn't believe that they had really been confronted with their Risen Lord. They weren’t acting like it!

Whatever the reason, Thomas made it clear. He wasn't going to take their word for it. He would not just settle for simply seeing Jesus. He, Thomas, would want to touch the scars, he would insist upon sticking his finger into the wounds before he'd swallow such an improbable load of nonsense.

Maybe that sounds hard-headed to us--not to say a bit macabre. You'd think that the word of his trusted friends would be enough for Thomas. But it wasn't. Faith, you see, is ultimately a matter of show and tell.

True faith is a matter of showing one another where it still hurts and telling where we've been healed from where it used to hurt. True faith does not conceal the struggles, or deny the doubts. Rather, it accepts them as a part of the price of full and authentic human living. Faith is brutally honest about the pain of life, and about the pain that can come in the process of believing. And real faith goes on believing, even without having all the answers to all the mysteries and tragedies of life. Show and tell.

Thomas must have understood that in a way that the others did not. Sure, Thomas was having doubts--doubts are part and parcel of the process of acquiring a living, dynamic faith. We read the story and we assume that Thomas was having trouble believing that Jesus had come back to life.

But maybe Thomas was having a lot more trouble dealing with the question of why Jesus had to die in the first place. Thomas must have remembered the sight of Jesus hanging on the cross and known that it must have hurt. He knew that Jesus had died--not pretend died, not in a deep sleep, nor in a coma, but died DEAD.

Sure Thomas had doubts. Who wouldn't? What an absolutely illogical, improbable, utterly ridiculous story! That a good man like Jesus would have to die for and be raised up by a good God from death for us! An innocent man? A teacher, a healer, a loving man like Jesus? Why did He have to die? And even though He did get raised up, why was it all necessary in the first place? Why?

Sure Thomas had doubts. Who wouldn't? Frederick Buechner calls doubts the ants in the pants of faith. Who hasn't had them now and then? Meeting our doubts squarely, and dealing with them, or going on living with them if we have to does more than merely make our faith stronger. Doubts keep our faith hungry and searching. They are at the heart of living faith. Look what happened to Thomas!

Seven days after that initial visit, Jesus came back to them in that room. For all we know, the others may well have been sitting there waiting for Jesus all week long. This time though, Thomas was there. Thomas saw his Lord. Thomas heard his Savior call him by name. Jesus showed him the scars, shared the pain, offered to let Thomas touch him.

And in doing that, Jesus gave us a model for coming together in His Name. Show and Tell.

But that was enough. Now, seeing was believing. Now, no more answers were needed. The Risen Lord’s presence was enough. Even unimaginative, hard-headed, honest, doubting, loyal Thomas had seen enough. Now he knew that Shalom—that blessed peace that passes all human understanding that Jesus had promised. Thomas had passed through all his doubts and his questioning, and as he emerged from them, he fell to his knees in faith. All Thomas could do was cry out, "My Lord and My God!"

"My Lord and my God." The single most straight-forward, explicit affirmation of faith in the entire Bible. The most succinct and moving definition of who Jesus was and is, in the entire New Testament. "My Lord and My God". Maybe old Thomas wasn't such a bad Theologian after all.

From that day on, Thomas' life was changed. On that day Thomas the realist, Thomas the unimaginative, Thomas the questioner, Thomas the honest doubter became Thomas the man of faith. Thomas the Apostle, St. Thomas--father of the church in Asia. Legend says that Thomas rose from his knees and carried the Good News all the way to India. Even today the Christians of South India claim Thomas as their founder.

Show and tell--Jesus showed him and Thomas told—to the ends of the earth as am matter of fact. We all struggle with our beliefs. We all have awakened in the middle of the night and wrestled with a horrid, cold sense that the Universe is empty. We all are tempted occasionally to compromise our principles. We all backslide now and then. We all question and doubt at times. There's no shame, no sin in questioning. We’ve all been hurt or felt alone in the universe and wondered “why?”

It's part of the nature of our human-ness, of our faith. It's part of who we are. I suppose that if you and I would have had the opportunity to actually be there--to have met Jesus face-to-face, to have actually touched those scars, heard his teachings, witnessed those healings, then maybe we'd never have had any doubts. Maybe. But that's all beside the point.

The fact is, that like every other generation of believers that came after Thomas and the rest, you and I have not met Jesus face-to-face, in the flesh, here on this earth. So it's for us that the story of Thomas was recorded. That we might hear the witness--that we might encounter Jesus in our hearts and believe. There in the Upper Room, John records that Jesus told Thomas,

"Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe." That's not for Thomas. That’s a blessing for you and me.

When we fall on our knees in faith—blessed are we. When we keep on sharing, keep on telling the story in the face of rejection and ridicule—blessed are we.

When we question, when we struggle, when we doubt and don’t understand--and yet still go on--blessed are we. When we still go on seeking Jesus' face, still go on living for Him, still go on believing in spite of all the nagging doubts and unanswered questions--blessed are we.

When we finally stop looking for that rose garden he never promised, and simply give thanks for his presence in the tough times, blessed are we. When we recognize that we’ll never have all the answers, never be totally free from doubt in this world—blessed are we. When we don't understand it, when the answers won't come, or come and make no sense and yet we still believe, still go on--blessed are we. When we are touched—and we go forth—blessed are we. Let us pray.

Though we cannot see your face in this life, still Lord Jesus, we struggle to believe. We struggle to follow, we struggle to conquer our doubts, we struggle to still go on. Be with us Savior, and show us your face. Show us your face in the faces of loved ones. Show us your face in the face of friends and family, fellow church members and our models in the faith. Show us your face in the faces of strangers in need. Show us your face in our deepest hearts and in our everyday lives, that we might believe, that we might be blessed. Amen.