Sunday 23rd April
John 20: 19-31
The risen Jesus said “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have come to believe.”
I wonder – do you feel blessed?
Would you, on your more doubtful days, like a little of Thomas’ proof?
Do you believe without seeing, or have you “seen” in a way that is almost inexpressible?
Easter hymns
Someone said it was disappointing no big Easter hymns were sung last week.
I suppose hymns like:
“Christ the Lord is risen today –
Lives again our glorious king/ where O death is now your sting?”
It’s a triumphal hymn, full of Wesleyan confidence in life eternal.
“Once he died our souls to save/ where your victory, O grave?”
The tenor of the hymn is that Easter faith is all about afterlife, and the ancient dualism that people had souls that need saving. That belief has almost vanished from view with the modern emphasis on saving bodies, extending life as long as possible.
And what about that not-so-well-known hymn we sang after hearing the famous words of doubting Thomas ?
“The vision of his sceptic mind,/ was keen enough to make him blind/
to any unexpected act/ to large for his small world of fact.”
Its images and poetry illuminate our materialist world view. Tom Troeger gets to the heart of all that contemporary people, struggle with – the assumption that life is contained by our senses.
I love the line that evokes a child born deaf and blind, Helen Keller, who against all the odds learnt to communicate:
“Until his fingers read like Braille/ the markings of the spear and nail.”
And we’ll sing later one of my favourite Easter songs inviting us to join the resurrection dance.
Each are great hymns, which undergird our doubts and loves, as we sing our faith through them.
Resurrection stories
Each of the gospels ( and the New Testament as a whole) only exists because of the proclamation He is risen!
John offers us four encounters
- Mary Magdalene going to the tomb, and meeting a stranger who calls her by name.
- Fearful disciples behind locked doors and somehow Jesus appears in their midst, saying “Peace be with you.” That’s it – no questions about how did I do that?
- Thomas who cannot believe what he has been told for reasons we can readily appreciate.
- A final encounter at the beach where some of the disciples are fishing and again a stranger appears and calls out to them. They sit down to breakfast and slowly they recognise him and Jesus asks Peter three times ‘Do you love me?”
None of these are proofs, but experiences – and none happen in a church or a synagogue.
Charles Dickens began his novel, Hard Times with a school master demanding that his students learn the facts.
“Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.Plant nothing else and root out everything else … nothing else will ever be of service to them.”
Rationalism has never inspired religious seekers.
Facts are important, but not all-important.
Love, friendships, beauty, sacrifice, art, poetry, cooperation, music …. the list is lengthy are not facts, but intangible, sometimes unnameable experiences which change the universe.
I doubt if the Resurrection were proved it would be beyond doubt!
It is really important to embrace the reality that doubts and love are entangled together. Belief , (or beloving which is the root idea) doesn’t mean that there are no more questions, no more puzzles, no uncertainty.
Belief is a commitment to a way of life, as we explore the way, truth and life of Jesus in our times and place.
The growth of the early church
The ancient world was no more or less sceptical than our own. It knew the realities of death as a day to day experience. Death was the great enemy.
Luke’s account of the proclamation of the Resurrection finds itself working its way out in his account of how the post-Resurrection believers began to take the Message into their world.
It was received in a wide variety of ways. Curiosity, rejection, exploration, hostility, conversation all were realities as Christ-communities were planted in the Empire.
A Christian sociologist has estimated church growth. In 40AD he guesses at 1000 believers, a decade later ( the time of Paul’s letters) 14,000 and by the turn of the century 7,500 in a Roman Empire of 60 million people. That’s what is known as a minority!
Acts tells of the churches growing in fits and starts, struggles and trials, unity and conflicts as it enters the mission of Jesus – proclaiming peace, offering forgiveness , incarnating a new humanity.
It had no great plan, no vision and mission statement, and no orthodoxy.
It simply lived and preached the gospel of Jesus, about Jesus in the light of the great discovery: He is risen.
Thomas, revisited
And Thomas found that very hard to accept.…
His story is told in the legends of the early church in a book called “The Acts of Thomas”. It tells of how doubting Thomas was the apostle who went to India – rather reluctantly – in light of Jesus’ command (Matthew 28: 16-20) to go to the nations of the world.
“By lot India fell to Thomas who did not wish to go … The saviour appeared to him during the night and said, Fear not, Thomas, go to india and preach the word there, for my grace is with you. But he would not obey saying , wherever you wish send me, but elsewhere – I am not going to India!”
To this day there is a church which traces its origins to doubting Thomas , the Church of Mar Thoma ( and it has a branch in Melbourne).
Jesus called all who believed blessed who hadn’t seen. Those who embrace but haven’t touched. Those who respond to the words of mission: “Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” In our faith and doubts, in times which are propitious and others which make it hard to be Christians, in all circumstances.