Saint John 20:19-31
I cannot imagine what it would be like to have my name mentioned specifically in a Sunday confession of the church. I would be mortified!
I have enough trouble with the general confessions that we say every Sunday which remind me that I have sinned in “thought word and deed.” That is general enough not to cause too much anxiety but when we get to something more specific like “we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves” I get more antsy.
You probably can breeze through all this without any problem but I think of the shouting match I had with my real neighbor last week. I think of the times I have yelled at my friends. And please, don’t even mention the things I have said to people while driving!
The good thing is I have never been called out by name but poor Thomas has.
In the church we worshiped in on Palm Sunday here is what was said about him in the confession no less: “Thomas, servant of doubt, where are you?” And we were all supposed to respond: “I am here!”1
How would you like to be known as a “servant of doubt”? Sure, there are times when we all have doubts that creep in every once and awhile but we are not their servants. On the contrary we’d like to get rid of them as soon as possible and get back to making this uncertain life as certain as possible.
Poor Thomas is forever stuck with the moniker “servant of doubt”. But what if he isn’t? What if this whole episode is not about doubt but faithfulness?
The only thing Thomas is guilty of is absence on that first Easter evening when Jesus made one of his appearances to the whole group of disciples. They were all gathered together but Thomas is not there.
Perhaps he got tired of the endless speculation about what happened. Perhaps he was as confused - as we can sometimes be - by all the stories of resurrection encounters with Jesus. Perhaps he was just tired of staring at the wallpaper and wondering what to do. Perhaps he needed a breath of fresh air. We don’t know what Thomas was doing. All we know for certain is that he wasn’t in the room when Jesus made his grand re-entry into the disciples’ lives.
Upon his return all Thomas does is wonder if what his friends are saying is true.
Remember, what they are telling him is that his friend Jesus who was stone cold, definitely dead a few days ago is running around making guest appearances to everybody Thomas knows. Everybody that is but him.
We’ve been celebrating Easter for all of our lives and while the story has not lost one bit of its power hearing it for the very first time must have been an entirely different matter. This is not something that is taken in easily and Thomas is not sure he can believe it just based on word of mouth.
It is then, I believe, that faithfulness begins to appear. It is visible and invisible. Faithfulness is there in what is done and left undone.
The disciples who were there do not try to persuade Thomas that they are right and he is wrong. They do not berate him for being gone when the big moment came. They don’t even doubt the sincerity of his doubt. They just keep the faith for him and isn’t that what we do?
I am sure that there were lots of people who came to this church last Sunday that we won’t see again until Christmas. Where I used to attend we called them “CEO’s” for “Christmas and Easter Onlys.”
We may wish they were here every Sunday. We wish they would walk with us and discover that there is more to this Jesus guy than a manger full of baby and a tomb full of empty but they have decided that twice a year is plenty.
Our job is to do for them what the disciples did for Thomas. We are to keep the faith for them so that when they need it, when they want to have a real experience with Jesus, a place and a people will be there for them to do just that.
That is what the disciples did for Thomas and that is our work in the world - to remain faithful.
Thomas didn’t just doubt. He hung around. This is the second invisible moment in this story that we miss.
Thomas didn’t listen and dismiss the other’s story as being out of hand. He didn’t say, “Ah, you’re nuts!” or “What have you been smoking?” He stays with his community. Even amid his doubts he sticks with his friends. He lets their certainty buoy up his uncertainty.
We do that for each other too. In difficult times when those doubts begin to creep in, at our best, we are there for each other with a word of reassurance that all is not lost and God is not finished. We can say this because of the faithfulness of Jesus.
If you don’t remember anything else I say this morning remember this: Jesus was faithful too. Jesus never gave up on Thomas!
Jesus could have responded: “All right then, don’t take your friends word for it. Don’t listen to them for all I care.” He could have even said, “Listen I’m not going to subject myself to your cockamamie tests. Either believe or don’t believe but don’t you be poking me.”
Instead Jesus says: “Whatever you need Thomas. Poke, prod, ask, talk, do whatever you want. While your doubts may have rocked your faith a little I have never lost faith in you.”
It is then that the doubter, the one we have mistakenly labeled “the servant of doubt” makes “the supreme christological pronouncement of the Fourth Gospel” when he says: “My Lord and my God!” This confession, this acclimation, these words go far beyond any titles bestowed anywhere else in the Gospels. The greatest doubter has become the greatest believer.
As you know we follow a three year cycle of readings called the lectionary. Very few stories appear more than twice, most only once but every year like clockwork on the second Sunday of Easter we have Thomas.
As the sound of the trumpets have died out, as the crowds have returned to their normal size, there is the story of Thomas because he is us.
Sometimes we doubt. Sometimes we believe. Faith is a struggle. It waxes and wanes. Faith is sometimes strong and sometimes weak.
In this story we hear Jesus tell us. “Yes, you weren’t there to see my miracles first hand but here you are in church anyway faithfully working your way through your doubts and opening your eyes to faith.”
When that moment comes and faithfulness triumphs over doubt maybe we will be able to say with Thomas - perhaps in a shout, perhaps only in a whisper - “My Lord and my God.” And we’ll no longer be servants of doubt but servants of faith.
Thanks for listening.
Sermon preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church
Aurora, Illinois
28 April 2019
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