Sausage Making behind the Doubting Thomas Story

2 Easter    B    April 8, 2018

Acts 4:32-35   Psalm 133

1 John 1:1-2:2  John 20:19-31

 Lectionary Link

There are two Sundays of the year designated as "low Sundays;" the Sundays after Christmas and Easter.  Often preachers who do not want to witness the stark fall off in church attendance, will save their egos by taking these Sundays off.    In 37 years, I don't think that I've ever taken a Low Sunday off.  And I have faced some brutally small crowds, so why don’t I take "low Sundays" off?  The Low Sundays, always have some of my favorite Gospel readings.  After Christmas, John 1:1 and after Easter, the Doubting Thomas story.  So, I've preached on both of these at least 37 times. And so, I do again today.

Why do I love the Doubting Thomas story?  I love it because I believe the story encapsulates the reality of what it means to believe in Christ after Jesus can no longer be seen and it provides us with insights about the validity of our own belief today.

One of the reason that you may or may not like my preaching, is because I generally delve into the "sausage making" process of reading the Bible.  This is like me interrupting a Disney animation movie for children and saying, "kids, you may like the story but stop and look at how this story is actually made.  Then I would show you South Korean animators working at computers putting together progressive frames of Snow White moving her hand slowly upwards.  And I would be excited about how the animation process works and say "isn't this exciting?"  And the kids would say, "Dad, just let us get back to the movie; your behind the scenes stuff is so boring."

And so today, you might be saying, "Just let me enjoy the Doubting Thomas Story...it's such a good story.  Don't tear it apart with too much analysis."

Sorry, but I think the analysis provides the relevant corresponding insights for us today in our lives of faith.

The Gospel of John was the last Gospel written.  It was written by preachers in the early church who inherited oral traditions about Jesus.  But they were writing for church communities which were gathering in the decades long after Jesus had gone.

The Gospel preachers were like St. Paul; they believed that they had the mind of Christ and when they spoke in the name of Christ, they believed their words were in authoritative ways,  the words of Jesus.  And those words were written down in the Gospels.

So, what was the big elephant issue in the room for the people of the community of the Gospel of John?

It is also the big elephant in the room for you and me today.  Your experience of the Risen Christ is inferior.  My experience of the Risen Christ is inferior.  Why?  Because we weren't one of the favored few who had the experiences of the post-resurrection appearances of the Risen Christ.  If we could have been with Peter, James, John, Thomas and Mary Magdalene 2000 years ago to see the Risen Christ, then we would have valid faith and valid belief because it is superior experience to have been able to see and touch the Risen Christ.

This same big elephant in our room lets us off the hook for having valid belief.  We are in the age of modern science; real truth happens because we can see, we can experience direct observation and we can repeat and replicate the experiment and get the very same results.  And since, we can’t see the Risen Christ, we don't really have to believe in a way that would inspire us to really transform our lives.

The writer of the Gospel of John did not let the readers off the hook.  The writer of the Gospel of John does not let us off the hook and let us wallow in an inferiority complex; "I didn't see the Risen Christ, therefore my faith and belief is inferior."  And if we feel this way, we let ourselves off the hook from being devout or from intentional embracing spiritual practice that would provide for continuing affirmation of the significant presence of Christ in our lives.

We cannot read the Doubting Thomas story without understanding the basic themes in the Gospel of John.  Remember before Jesus became Jesus, Jesus was the Word from the Beginning.  And the Word was God, and all things were created in the only way that humans can know anything because of Word; because of language itself.

In John's Gospel, Jesus also said, "My words are Spirit and they are life."

The doubting Thomas story presents the Signs of the Risen Christ?  He breathed his Spirit on the Disciples.  What is Spirit?  It means Wind or Breath.  But really what is the invisible essence within us that determines our lives?  Words are the invisible essence within us which constitute our lives.  The ministry of Jesus was to breathe Spirit-Words on his disciples to reconstitutes their inner lives which were put together by the arrangement of the words inside of them.  The words of Jesus are Spirit and life because they enter us to interdict our losing scripts and to rewrite our lives toward transformation and new behaviors.

Do you and I know the Risen Christ?  We do if we are letting the Spirit Words of Life of Jesus reconstitute our inward make up, the inward place which controls our choice and volition to motivate our actions.

Next, is seeing believing?  And what kind of believing is seeing?  Lots of people saw Jesus.  They obviously believed that Jesus existed, but they did not believe in him in a way that changed their lives.  Believing in the Risen Christ involves believing that is attended with life changing attraction and love.  We, as people, believe in lots of people who are present in our lives, but the people who really change our lives are those whom we believe in with love.  Belief with love is what changes our lives.  Belief with the motivation of love changes our lives.

The Doubting Thomas Story is all about affirming the people who did not ever see Jesus or have a post-resurrection appearance of Christ, yet still had belief with love for Christ whose spirit-words and witness got inside of them and changed their lives.

The Gospel of John writer channeled the oracle words of Jesus about those who believe without seeing, and I paraphrase:   "Thomas, you're a skeptical scientist.  Why didn't you believe the words of your friends?  Why, didn't you believe the love in your heart for me, your mentor and friend? You could have....but just think about all of the people who will not have such an experience of me...They are blessed for believing without seeing.  Why?"

"Because in their loving belief of me, they have known my peace, they are living in forgiveness with each other and not retaining each other's sins, and my spirit-words are changing their inner lives.  So, they are blessed in their belief."

John's Gospel is all about how the Spirit=Words of Christ create believing love for the Risen Christ which transforms our life.  And this can happen in a third level of the life of Words?

What is the first level of Words?  It is immediate experience when we see and identify in face to face encounter in the present experience because we already know the words for what we see and feel.  We only see actual encounter through the screen of words which identifies what and whom we are seeing.  The second level of word experience is what lawyers call "hearsay."  We hear the words about Jesus and in hearing these words we have life changing belief.  The disciple friends of Jesus told Thomas but he did not believe their "hearsay." And what is the third level of words?  It is the written text.  The writer of the Gospel of John in the Doubting Thomas story affirms how we can come to loving belief in the Risen Christ through reading the Gospel of John: "These things are written so that you may believe and in believing you may have life in his name."

The eternal Word of God in the Spirit=Words of Jesus are active and alive in the written word of the Gospel in changing peoples' lives, so the written words of the Bible can be validating proof of the Risen Christ.

I am really excited about all of the dynamic meaning that is present in this doubting Thomas story.  I hope it gives encouragement to us about the blessed validity of our experiences of the Risen Christ, about 2000 years later.  I hope that the encouragement gives us inspiration to devote ourselves to further spiritual practice so that we will not miss the further reconstitution of our inner lives by the Risen Christ, whose words are Spirit and Life. Amen.