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Second
Sunday in Easter ≅
Year A
Saint Paul's Episcopal Church
April 3, 2005
The Rest of the Story
Lessons
for the Day
X
Psalm 111 or 118:19-24
X
Acts 2:14a, 22-32 or Genesis
8:6-16; 9:8-16
X
1 Peter 1:3-9 or Acts 2:14a,
22-32
X
John 20:19-31
Homily
I greet you in the name of God our
Creator, Christ our Brother, and the Holy
Spirit who sustains us and empowers us to love and
serve them both. (Pause)
Amen.
And now for the rest of the story . . .
Radio broadcaster Paul Harvey has a pretty
good gig going, teasing us with half of a story -- often
the half we know least-well -- and then leaving us hanging
while he breaks for a commercial or two. We anxiously
await his return, wanting to know "the rest of the
story".
We
-- you and I -- made it through Holy Week with Jesus.
We enjoyed the triumph of Palm Sunday and experienced
Christ's outrage in the clearing of the temple. We
remembered Christ's washing of the disciples' feet and His
institution of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday.
We walked with Christ into Gethsemane,
where he was betrayed. And then we remembered all the
dizzying events of the next, horrific twenty-four hours:
arrest, desertion, false trials, denial, condemnation, and
beatings. And finally, the long and painful walk to
Golgotha, and the agonizing death on the cross.
We walked through all of this in our Easter
remembrance: the death on the cross, the hurried removal
of the body to prepare and bury it before sundown and the
Sabbath, the borrowed tomb, and the deep sadness of all
those who loved Christ.
We waited through that long, sad Saturday
and then -- last Sunday Morning -- we rejoiced in the
triumphant news of Easter Sunday:
"Alleluia.
Christ is risen.
The Lord
is risen indeed. Alleluia."
Easter
Vigil, BCP, page 294
Christ is up and out of the grave; death
has been conquered.
And now for the rest of the story! And
"the rest of the story"
-- as Paul Harvey would name it -- gives us pause.
We pick up the narrative right here in
today's gospel reading. "When it was evening on
that day . . . " the Gospel of John says, and the
Gospel is talking about Easter day -- the very day on
which Christ rose from the dead.
The disciples are locked away behind closed
doors,
afraid of the Jewish authorities. Jesus passes
through the locked doors and greets them with the
traditional Hebrew greeting: "Peace be with you!"
Christ shows them the wounds in his hands and his
side, and then he commends them to go:
"Peace be
with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
John
20:21b NRSV
And then Christ speaks to the disciples
of the Holy Spirit and of forgiveness, two messages
that convey the truth that -- without God's help -- none
among us can forgive.
Finally we get to meet Didymus -- the twin
-- also known as Thomas, and seared irrevocably into our
minds as doubting Thomas. And we all know
that story . . . or we think we do . . .
Thomas is the prototype Twenty-first
century Christian:
his is a data-driven faith. And so -- in John 20:25b -- he
asks for the facts:
"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."
John
20:25b (NRSV)
But here's the rest of the story
. . . the part that is perhaps less-familiar to us
all.
Earlier in the Gospel of John
-- in Chapter 11, right smack in the midst of the Lazarus
story -- Thomas also pops up. And this time he is
not tainted with the brush of doubt, but rather
painted with the flush of courage -- intrepid when
faced with the possibility of his own death.
In Chapter 11 of the Gospel of John, Jesus
knows of Lazarus' death and makes plans to return to Judea
so that Lazarus might be healed. Some of the
disciples try to dissuade Jesus:
"Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to
stone you, and are you going there again?"
John 11:8b
NRSV
And then -- a few verses later -- we hear
from our old friend Thomas. But this time
Thomas speaks not with doubt, but with
certainty:
"Let us also go, that we
may die with him!"
John
11:16b NRSV
And there's "the rest of the story"
-- the surprise turn, the unexpected misdirection that
always hooks us and keeps us hanging on until the end.
Doubting Thomas might well
be called Shouting Thomas:
"Let
us also go, that we may die with him!"
John
11:16b NRSV
So what do make of this contrast --
this juxtaposition of courageous Thomas with doubting
Thomas?
How
and
where do we find ourselves in
this story?
Perhaps Thomas shows us something about
our own humanity in presenting his all-too-human
response to the risen Christ. We are in all
parts of this story -- we are by turns intrepid
and doubting.
When Christ is clearly visible,
Thomas is intrepid and fearless -- willing to go to
Judea and die with Christ.
When Christ is apparently absent --
when God seems very, very dead indeed -- Thomas' faith
wavers and gives way to doubt -- a doubt we have all
tasted.
Let me say one final thing about doubt, and
about me, and perhaps even about you.
Many people -- people far smarter than me
-- have tried to tease out the relationship between
faith and doubt. On first blush the two seem like
polar opposites -- anchoring opposing ends of one
continuum. But closer examination rebuts this
notion.
Faith and doubt are not opposites
-- they are Siamese Twins, joined at the hip
in our life of belief. Doubt is a part
of our faith -- for our doubt only disappears
when we know. And knowing requires no faith.
So doubt is nothing to fear
-- nor is it anything to give in to. Just acknowledge
your doubt with a happy wave, and keep on moving like
Thomas -- ready to die with Christ in Judea.
And now a final word about our friend
Thomas. The balance of the disciples did not doubt
because they had already seen Christ's wounds.
They were not such paragons of faith; they just already
had their proof.
Why didn't Thomas have proof?
Because (as we've seen in today's Gospel reading)
Thomas wasn't there with the other disciples when
Christ appeared for the first time. He wasn't cowering
behind locked doors in fear of the Jews. Who knows --
perhaps he was out being intrepid again -- ready to
die for sure with Christ this time.
It is fear that is the opposite of faith --
not doubt.
Unlock the doors. Befriend your doubts.
Proclaim the good news of Christ crucified.
"Alleluia.
Christ is risen.
The Lord
is risen indeed. Alleluia."
Easter
Vigil, BCP, page 294
AMEN
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