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.

Post-tramatic Stress and Post-resurrection Appearances

2 Easter  B       April 12, 2015

Acts 4:32-35   Psalm 133

1 John 1:1-2:2  John 20:19-31

Lectionary Link 

  Post-traumatic stress syndrome has become a common feature of our psychiatric news because of the horrors of war.   Can it be there are devastating human experiences from which we never recover?  Can the past mark our present and future in very unhelpful ways?

  Is there something patently unfair about the Easter experience?  Why did the friends of Jesus in the post-traumatic stress caused by his arrest and horrifying death get to have these post-resurrection appearances of Jesus just three days after his death?

  How come Christ could make post-resurrections appearances to his friends alone or in groups and why cannot our recently departed loved ones return to give us such reassurances of their immediate well-being?  Does the uniqueness of the post-resurrection appearances to the disciples of Jesus seem so unfair?

  What about the issue of a post-event syndrome; the return of the repressed in a future event in one’s life?

  What about the post-event syndrome of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ?

  Only a few were privileged with such sightings; Were these sightings post-event syndrome of an illusory nature; were they events of a chimerical Christ?  Could they be something like the syndrome known as “folie a deux,” the shared illusion of two?  If an illusion is shared by more than one person then it has more objective status.  One person can be crazy if one experiences something out of the ordinary but if two people share something then the one is absolved of the “individual” craziness.  One may resort to “mob” behavior to characterize the experience of mutual consensus by a group of people.

  How do you and I feel about living off “second hand” fumes of the resurrection of Christ?  We are so far removed from the intimate immediacy of the post-resurrection appearances; how can we think that we could have a valid experience of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ?

   How many of us have had post-death manifestations of recently departed loved one?  And if we have, would we even feel comfortable to admit to them because we want to avoid being called crazy?  Yes, we do admit that loved ones return to us in dreams and so dream space is an acceptable place for re-encounter with departed loved ones without being regarded to be too crazy.

  There is something unfair about the post-resurrection appearance of Christ to his disciples.  Why cannot every person who has had a post-traumatic stress syndrome experience some subsequent post-event experience which will heal the scars of loss and trauma caused by the traumatic event?

  Why can’t every soldier in battle know a post-resurrection appearance of all who are killed in battle and have a friendly meeting to have coffee or a drink together as reconciled friends?

 Why isn’t the post-resurrection experience of Christ replicated for each and every one of us in our events of stress caused by the horrendous effects of such permissive freedom in life which allows almost anything to occur?

  These questions are not just our questions?  They were addressed in narrative forms by the Gospel communities and this is most poignantly expressed in the story of the doubting Thomas.

  Is “being there” a  superior experience to knowing about being there second hand or by hear say?  The experience of Jesus with his disciples was so unique that if you weren’t there, your experience is impoverished and inferior, so you have good reason not to believe in the same way as an eye-witness because your experience is inferior and lacking.

  Were you there when they crucified my Lord?  No you weren’t.  Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?  No you weren’t.  Were there when the Risen Christ appeared to the disciples?  No you weren’t.  Were you there when St. Paul had an experience of the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus?  No you weren’t.  So just accept your impoverished experience of the Risen Christ.  It is second hand hearsay and so you are not responsible for having the same quality of faith that the disciples had.  Phew!  That lets us off the hook for being really faithful.

  The Gospel writer of John  presents Thomas the Apostle as an example that being there is the preferred and superior experience.  But the Gospel writer has the Risen Christ proclaiming the blessed state of the faith of people who were not there and yet who still had faith because of word of mouth reports, but finally because of the technology of memory called writing:  "These things are written so that you might believe……"  How intimate is a written report?  Well, most of us know how to get very intimate with some of the things we read.  Did you ever curl up with a novel and have your brain sizzle with how the arrangement of words can evoke the Sublime and change the chemistry of your brain to experience a passionate presence?  In the old days of the art of letter writing, did not such personal letters to you evoke the art of another kind of presence of a different order?

The Gospel writers were promoting the art of resurrection presence of a different but equally valid order than the experience of actually being there.

  You and I can bawl like babies during a “chick flick” or some other cinematic presentation.   You and I can come to tears at unexpected times when observing the grief of others, even while we might in our own immediate loss be shocked to have any tears or response at all.   And so the post-traumatic effect of the artistic representation of events of grief or joy can have the effect of moving us to a cathartic experience of release.  And this is another kind of valid presence.  The early church knew this and they were in the Gospel narratives as literary artistic presentations already extolling the validity of the artistic presences of Christ.

  The superiority complex of physically being there has raised its head in the history of the church.  I think that the “being there” complex drove the church in the 11th century to develop the transubstantiation theory of the presence of Christ in the bread and the wine.  Bread and Wine were regarded to be changed to the physical presence of the body and blood of Jesus.  Why? because of this subtle belief that that regarded physical presence to be a superior and a most valid presence.

  Modern science forced many people of Christian faith into a “being there” complex.  The empirical parallel of modern science in history was to grant “being there” superiority only to accounts that assumed that if one was there they could be empirically verified in scientific ways.  So Virgin Birth has come to be viewed by many through modern biology; miracles and cure has come to be viewed in the ways modern medical science regards healing and cure.  And the resurrection has come to be viewed as a scientifically verifiable event.  And what was denied?  The art of story and the evocative art and equal validity of the Sublime presence which can only be known through the cathartic experience of the artistic event.  The faith of those who believed in artistic real presence has been regarded to be inferior to those who assumed all of the biblical events were events of scientific empirical verification.

  I believe that the Doubting Thomas story was evidence  of the early church granting full status to another order of Sublime Presence, which was in fact the full artistic response to the impact of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

  No one can go back and make historic event not happen or re-occur.  How do we integrate the past in the present in the best possible way?  We do so with artistic remembering through the entire range of artistic manifestation given to us as the creative gifts of our lives.

  For the early church the artistic re-enactment of a new family meeting in the founder’s meal was an artistic event.  Bread and Wine in the Eucharist are artistic elements which evoke a sure and certain real presence.  We find another valid presence in the words which we read, a literary artistic and real presence.  Another artistic presence is known as we learn the art of rearranging our interior lives to express and evoke the experience of peace and as we learn and practice the art of being peace makers.  In the experience of individual and community peace one can find the artistic evocative presence of Christ.  There is another gifted art which is truly divine presence indeed.  It is the God-given art of forgiveness.  It is the human tendency to retain each others sins and faults; it is the God given presence of Christ to be able to forgive one another.

  The doubting Thomas event signifies what also might be called a “Breath Transplant.”  Jesus breathed upon his disciples; they had died in their sadness at his death but then they were resuscitated by the Holy Breath of Jesus.  This story of the transfer of breath is the story of the realization of God’s Breath, God’s Holy Spirit which is always already within us to be released as we mobilize creatively the very essence of our life force.

  Today, we are invited to the validity of the art of the resurrection presences of Christ in our lives.  We are to be like the proverbial oyster; we are to let all of the irritating grains of our previous stress and loss be made into the pearls of the new artistic experiences of Christ’s resurrection graceful Presence under the guise of creative recovery with healthy and affirming outcomes in our lives.   
  But we also need to be patient to realize that some irritations will remain in our lives and in the lives of others forever.  Not everything will become a pearl in this life and so resurrection life means that we continue to care for one another in our continuing loss and grief.  Not everything gets resolved or finished or redeemed in this life and the resurrection of Jesus means we also have the faith to live with the unresolved issues that are a part of our lives.

  Let us not lock the validity of the life, death and resurrection of Christ into the being there experience of a few people two thousand years ago.  Let us know the artistic release and remembrances in the many ways in which the resurrection Christ can be morphed and interwoven within the specific experiences of our current day to day lives.  And let the resurrection energy of Christ make us all artists who are ourselves weaving webs of the presence of Christ to trap all in this maze and labyrinth of heaven on earth.  Amen.