The Rhetoric of John's Gospel Is Profound

2 Easter Sunday  Cycle C      April 27, 2025

Acts 5:27-32 Psalm 150

Revelation 1:4-8  John 20:19-31

Lectionary Link

I would like to highlight the rhetorical purposes of the Gospel of John. We may have a pejorative view of the word rhetoric; it seems to be limited to using shameless techniques to manipulate for purposes of politics or for the purpose of trying to sell something or to dupe people into doing something bad for manipulative self-serving motives.

Rhetoric more broadly can be understood as the purposeful use of language products such as speech, writing, and body language and ceremonial actions to persuade people about recommended values.

While this is called Doubting Thomas Sunday, the punchline of the Doubting Thomas pericope highlights the entire rhetorical purpose of John's Gospel: These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

The very word belief or faith in New Testament Greek, pistos, expresses the goal of rhetoric in Aristotles work of the same name, the goal of rhetoric is persuasion. Being persuaded about one's highest value is the essential meaning of faith or belief. Pistos, the New Testament Greek word for belief or faith, is also the Classical Greek word for persuasion. The notion of belief as being persuaded is retained in the New Testament use of the same Greek word.

It is not far fetched to suggest the rhetorical purposes of John's Gospel for a couple of reasons. The writer states a very self conscious writing purpose; this is written to persuade or to bring the readers and listeners to faith or belief. Since it was consciously composed and edited by an educated and literate writer or writers, one assumes that such writers knew the literature of their period which was available from Homer, Euripides, Plato, and Aristotle to Virgil to Cicero as well as the Hebrew Scriptures, yes, but read in the Greek translation, the Septuagint. Further, John's Gospel is concerned with some basic concerns of rhetoric. Rhetoric has to do with the purposeful use of language. John's Gospel begins with language: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And everything came into being by the Word. And the Word was made flesh and live with us.

This is an obvious insight about having language. Language is the presumption that occurs with seeing, knowing, feeling, and consciousness itself. You say a baby does not know language; but a baby is born into an environment that is already pre-coded by the language users who preceded the baby. The Bible requires an assumption about God, namely, that God is a language user, as God is seen as using speech to create the world. The Word being made flesh expresses a most basic insight, namely that we cannot help but anthropomorphize. We are limited to human experiences so we assume that everything and everyone is in some way like "human beings." So we use metaphor and analogy to even name God.

The Greek word for Word in John's Gospel is logos and it means language plus being the structuring and organizing first principle of existence. And the Logos has Word products. It has speech acts, writing or textual products, and Logos also constitutes our body language in how we act.

John's Gospel deals with each of these Word products of Logos. Jesus said, "My rhema, my speech acts, my spoken words are spirit and they are life." The Gospels all assume the life of an actual Jesus who produced speech acts or teaching that somehow became transmitted in the traces of oral traditions. The Gospel writers as well as Paul believed that they had the mind of Christ and so they spoke in the name of Christ, believing that such preaching was a channeling of Christly values for their communities. My words are spirit. Spirit is a metaphor for wind or breath, signifying an invisible but affecting reality. The words of Jesus are the inside job of spirit which can change and reconstitute our interior beings so that we can act out in Christly deeds.

How does John's Gospel present body language deeds? The Greek word is ergon or works. Good body language in John's Gospel is living a fruitful life whereby one's deeds match up with the spirit words of Jesus which gives birth to a repenting life on the path of perfectability. One of the main works as stated in John, is in fact, to work at belief in Christ. "This is the work of God, that you believe in the One who God sent." God as language user, does work within us, to bring us to belief and persuasion about the Jesus, the Godly Messenger.

There is also a Johannine nuance to ordinary work and the different and unique work of Jesus. The works or ergon of Jesus in John are called signs, semion. This is a very rhetorical term, the same Greek word from which we get the discipline of Semiotics, the study of signs and symbols and their use in interpretation. The Gospel of John presents the works of Jesus as Signs, as a way to designate his singular uniqueness in being the value setter for the associations of people who came to gather with an identity formed by the Risen Christ in their presence around a banquet table with people committed to living with peace and forgiveness.

And then there is another product of Logos, graphe, that is Scripture, or written text. Jesus of Nazareth was gone and could not be bodily seen. The Son of Man did not yet come in the clouds. The Day of the Lord, the parousia did not happen. How could the association of followers of Jesus be institutionalized for duration and stabilit in the meantime? Like the Jews had with their Scriptures, the followers of Jesus needed a technology of memory to make "visible" the words of remembrance about Jesus. And so the Johannine writer shamelessly promotes his own text. In the beginning was the Word, the Word became flesh, but the Word also became a Johannine text to provide a stable institutionally more permanent status for a community that had to accept that the delay of the Day of the Lord was the normal condition, and the memories had to be maintained and preserve. Text is a way of giving objective meaning a duration in time. The writer of John believed that the text about Jesus would be manifestations of the logos and rhema, the Word of Christ, that would continue to do an inside job on the readers and listeners and bring many people to belief in Jesus as Christ, and Son of God, uniquely appreciated by those of the banqueting Christ associations.

What does Scripture and writing not guarantee? Even though it is a visible and objective technology of memory, writing does not guarantee precise agreement by everyone about the meanings of Scripture. In fact, the history of Scripture readers proves that there seems to be almost as many meanings as there are readers.

What this means is that we should not be dogmatic about Scripture meanings and Creedal statements. We should appreciate their role as significant abbreviations of the profound Logos or Word of God. This profound Logos poetically understood is the Christ who is all and in all, and who affirms the unique Christ experience in everyone by the appreciation of the differences in time of new experiences by many new people.

And the significant point of the doubting Thomas story is that people who did not walk with Jesus, people who did not have post-resurrection interactive experiences with the Risen Christ, people who were not caught up in a Pauline third heaven experience, still have valid, blessed, and affirmed experiences of the Risen Christ, because the Logos, the always already Word of God, whom we confess as the great prior Language User is always doing an inside job within us. The question then is not whether we have word or language; the Gospel question is whether we are learning to articulate the great Word Phenomenon with the fruitful works of the body language deeds of love, mercy, forgiveness, and justice. Amen.

Sunday School, April 27, 2025 2 Easter C

 Sunday School, April 27, 2025     2 Easter C

Doubting Thomas Sunday

Question how can we believe in Jesus even though we can’t see him, hear him or touch him?

How does a child know that one’s parents are still present even when they don’t see them?

A child has other evidence that their parents are alive and that their parents still love and care for them even when they don’t see them.

That a child is sleeping in the same house provided by one’s parent means that they know their parents by the provision of a house for them.  They can see everything that a parent provides for them and know that their parents are with them.  They can carry a picture of their parents to remember what their parents look like.

Jesus wanted the early church to know that he was still as much with them as he was with the other disciples.  Jesus said that his disciples could know that he was with them when they experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit, when they lived in peace together, when they practiced forgiveness and when they read about him and his teachings in the Gospel.

All of these features of knowing the presence of Christ are shown to us in the Doubting Thomas Story.  Jesus was showing the church that even though some people got to see and touch Jesus, their experience of him was not superior to those who did not see and talk with Jesus.  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen me but still believe.”  The fact that the church has kept going for 2000 years is proof that many, many people have not seen Jesus but still believed him and have known his presence through his Spirit, through peace in their hearts and with their church friends, through practice of forgiveness.  And also through the reading of the Gospel.  The Gospel writer of John wrote that he was writing about Jesus so that the readers could know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  And people have been reading about Jesus for 2000 years and through the words they have come to know Jesus as being present in their lives is a real and special way.

Doubting Thomas  Puppet Show

Characters: Fr. Phil, Doubting Thomas, and Jesus

Father Phil:  Today, boys and girls we are going to meet a famous disciple and friend of Jesus.  But he is known for not believing things.  So his name is Doubting Thomas.  O look, I see that he’s here now.  Hello Thomas, how are you?

Thomas:  I’m not sure about how I am?  I just have some doubts about how I am.

Father Phil:  Well you do have a reputation.  Some people call you Doubting Thomas.  Is that true?

Thomas:  I doubt it.

Father Phil: Can you children say hello to doubting Thomas?

Children:  Hello, doubting Thomas.

Thomas: What children?  I don’t see any children.

Father Phil: These children right here.

Thomas:  I doubt it.

Father Phil:  What do you mean you doubt it?  Look at these children here.  Can’t you see them?

Thomas:  I see some little creatures here, but how do I know that these aren’t space aliens?  

How do I know that they aren’t  Sponge Bobs?

Father Phil: Well, you have a serious doubting problem Thomas.  You could ask their parents.  They would tell you that these are their children.

Thomas:  But if you were a space alien parent, you might not tell the truth about your space alien children?

Father Phil:  Thomas, have a really serious problem with doubt.  Is something wrong?

Thomas:  Yes, I am really having some problems with belief.

Father Phil: Why?

Thomas:  Well, you know my best friend Jesus died.  He died a horrible death on the cross.  And his body was placed in a tomb.  And now his body is missing from the tomb.  And I don’t know what this means.

Father Phil:  Well what happened?

Thomas:  Well, my friends went to the tomb and they said they saw an angel and the angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead.  How can anyone believe that?

Father Phil: Well, that is pretty amazing.  Don’t you want to believe it?

Thomas:  My friends have teased me and I think that they are playing a joke on me.  They said that they have seen and talked with Jesus.  How can this be true?  And why would they say this to me?  I don’t think it is a very funny joke.  My best friend Jesus died and now my friends are saying that he lives again and they are saying that they have seen him and talked with him.

Father Phil: Well, what are you going to do?

Thomas:  I told them that I have my doubts.  I don’t believe them.  And I won’t believe them unless I can see Jesus and talk with him.  I want proof.  I want to put my hands in the scars on his body or I will not believe.  How can my friends tease me in this way?

Father Phil:  Well, maybe you should go and talk with your friends.

Thomas:  Well, they are having a meeting in a secret place.  They still are frightened and so they are meeting in secret.  I guess I’ll go and see them but I don’t like this joke they are playing on me.

(Thomas goes and suddenly Jesus appears)

Thomas:  O my goodness.  Is that you Jesus?  It looks like you but are you real?  Am I just dreaming?  Are you a ghost?

Jesus: Thomas, peace be with you.  It is I, Jesus your friend.  Look at my scars.  Put your finger out and touch them and feel. 

Thomas:  My Lord and my God!  It really is you.  I am so sorry that I did not believe.  I am so sorry that I doubted.

Jesus:  Well, now you can believe.  But many people will not be able to see me like you have and those people will still believe.  Look at all of these children here.  They have not seen me like you have but they still believe.

Father Phil:  And now Thomas has lost his name; he no longer is Doubting Thomas.   His name is Believing Thomas.  Don’t you like that name better.

Thomas:  I do like that name better.

Father Phil: Well, I like that name better too.  And you see all of these children.  They are Believing Children.  And now can you repeat after me, “I believe that Jesus is alive!”  Amen.

Children’s Sermon

  Today we read a story about a man named Thomas.  And Thomas has a nickname.  Do you know what his nickname is?  He’s called “doubting Thomas.”  What does that mean?  Well, it means that he would only believe that Jesus was alive, if he could see him, hear him, and touch him.

  Do any of us see, hear and touch Jesus today?  Do we believe that Jesus is alive?

  Do we only believe things that we can see, touch and hear?  No.  In fact some of the greatest things that we believe, cannot be seen, touched or heard.

  When you are not in the same room as your mom and dad, do they still love you?  Do your parents still love you when you can’t see them, touch them or hear them?  Of course they still love you.  And you can believe in that love.  So when you are at school, do your parents still love you?  Of course they do.

  I had a very special grandmother when I was young.  I just loved to be with her.  She was so much fun and she gave a nice birthday party and she always fixed special favorite food for us.  And she told wonderful stories and she sang songs with us.  And I knew that she loved me.  And my grandmother got old and she died, and it is very sad that I could not hear her, see her or talk to her anymore in the way I used to.  But you know what?  I still feel her love for me.  I still believe in her love, even though I don’t see her, hear her or talk to her.  I still believe in her love.

  After the resurrection of Christ, the disciples could not see, hear or touch Jesus in the same way.  But they continued to know that Jesus loved them.  They still continued to believe that Jesus was still with them in very special ways.  And how could they tell that Jesus was still with them?

   They were used to arguing with each other; but when they live in peace with each other they knew that this peace was because Christ was still with them.  They used to hold grudges against each; but when they forgave each other, they knew that Christ was still with them.

  When I look at you, I can see you, I can hear you and I can touch you.  And you are wonderful to look at.  But you know what?  I can’t really see the very best part of you?  I can’t see what is inside of you.

And what is inside of you is your spirit.  It is your spirit that makes you a wonderful mystery to enjoy.  And that spirit of yours is always going to be young and new and fresh.  Even though I can’t see your spirit, I know it is most important part of you that makes you special.

  The friends of Jesus did not see the Spirit of Jesus; but it was his best part too.  And when they could no longer see his body;  they could still feel his Spirit with them.  And we can feel the Spirit of Jesus with us today.  We can feel it when we have peace and when we forgive each other.

  So remember today; we can believe in things that we don’t see.  The spirit of Christ is with us today.  And that is meaning of the resurrection of Christ.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

April 27, 2025: The Second Sunday of Easter C

Gathering Songs: Glory Be to God On High; Alleluia, Give Thanks; He is Lord, He Lives!

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Glory Be to God on High (Christian Children Songbook, # 70)

Glory be to God on high, alleluia.  Glory be to God on high, alleluia.

Praise the Father, Spirit, Son, alleluia.  Praise the Godhead, Three in one, alleluia.

Sing we praises unto Thee, alleluia, for the truth that sets us free. Alleluia.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles

But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 150

Praise him with timbrel and dance; * praise him with strings and pipe.

Praise him with resounding cymbals; * praise him with loud-clanging cymbals.

Let everything that has breath * praise the LORD.
Hallelujah!

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "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."  A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."  Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

  

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Song: Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks, (Blue Hymnal, # 178)

Refrain: Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to the Risen Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to his Name.

1-Jesus is Lord of all the earth.  He is the King of creation.  Refrain

2-Spread the good news o’er all the earth: Jesus has died and has risen. Refrain

3-We have been crucified with Christ.  Now we shall live forever. Refrain

4-Come, let us praise the living God, joyfully sing to our Savior. Refrain

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Anthem: He Is Lord (Renew!,  # 29)

1-He is Lord.  He is Lord.  He is risen from the dead and He is Lord.  Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

2-He is King.  He is King.  He will draw all nations to him, He is king.  And the time shall be when the world shall sing that Jesus Christ is King.

3-He is Love.  He is Love.  He has shown us by his life that He is Love.  All his people sing with one voice of joy that Jesus Christ is Love.

4-He is Life.  He is Life.  He has died to set us free and he is Life.  And he calls us now to live evermore, for Jesus Christ is Life.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: He Lives (Lift Every Voice and Sing # 42).

I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world to today; I know that He is living, whatever others say;  I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer, And just the time I need Him He’s always near.

Refrain: He lives.  He lives.  Christ Jesus lives today.  He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.  He lives, He lives salvation to impart!  You ask me how I know He lives.  He lives within my heart.

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christians, lift up your voice and sing.  Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ, the King!  The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find, None other is so loving, so good and kind.  Refrain

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Alleluia.  Alleluia.  Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia.  Alleluia

Do You Doubt Your Experience of the Risen Christ?

2 Easter Sunday  Cycle C      April 24, 2022 

Acts 5:27-32 Psalm 150

Revelation 1:4-8  John 20:19-31

Lectionary Link

Have you had a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ in your life?  Perhaps, I should ask, "Have you had a post-ascension appearance of Jesus Christ in your life?  Are you sure?  Can you tell me what it is?  Are you shy to talk about it?  Would you feel intimidated to talk about it?  Are you afraid someone might question the validity of your experience?  If the Risen Christ has become apparent to you; how so?  Is your post-ascension experience one that might be characterized as spiritual or an experience of the Holy Spirit?

 

Talking about such things might make us a little intimidated and worried about how someone else might judge our experience.  On the other hand, if one is boastful and bragging about a "profound" experience, maybe that would contradict the humility that should come with any divine encounter.

 

And if this topic of the nature and validity of our Christ-experience is uncomfortable for us, we can take comfort that this was also an issue in the early churches.  In fact, the famous Doubting Thomas story addresses this very issue, regarding the validity and affirmation of post-resurrection experiences of Christ.

 

Not everyone in the early church saw and talked with Jesus in his lifetime.  Not everyone was privy to the very few post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, which indicate that he had a super-constitution.  He could be almost instantaneously between Jerusalem and Galilee.  He seem to be able to pass through solid doors.  He could appear to his disciple to be eating fish as a way of proving the substantiality of his afterlife.  The immediate afterlife of Jesus was to have super-appearances, even though they were very selective.

 

And what is a commonsense conclusion?  Being there and first-hand experience of the Risen Christ is better and superior to everything else.  So, in the churches where many people were having Holy Spirit and multifaceted appearances of the Risen Christ tailored to the immediate circumstances of their lives, the status and validity of their experiences might be called into question.

 

And so, the Doubting Thomas teaching story in the early church.  As we analyze the Doubting of Thomas, an important insight arises:  What did Thomas doubt?  Did he doubt the possibility of the Risen Christ or did he doubt the credibility of his close and personal friends who told him they had seen the Lord?

 

Can we appreciate that this is a community and fellowship issue, a loss of faith in the words of friends with whom he had walked and followed Jesus?

 

When Thomas heard the disciples report about the reappearance of Jesus to the other disciples on Easter, what if he had said, "Wow, that's great guys.  I'm so pleased to hear this good news."  If he had said this there would be no Doubting Thomas story.  So, his doubt was a doubt about the reliability of his friends' testimony.  In short it was a fellowship issue.

 

The Doubting Thomas story is a community fellowship issue, a sort of speculating about who has the greatest post-resurrection appearance.  And if you only heard about second-hand or read about it, then your experience is definitely inferior.  The Doubting Thomas story is about dealing with the tendency of the followers of Jesus to dismiss the validity of other kinds of experiences of the Risen Lord.

 

And the definitive words of the Risen Christ, channeled in the church was this: "Thomas, blessed are you for coming to believe in my Risen afterlife after having this "show me," experience," but blessed are those who have not seen in this way and yet still believe."

 

The Doubting Thomas story is not so much about Thomas' experiences as to indicate the significant evidences of encounters with the Risen Christ.  And what are they?  A Holy Spirit event.  Proceeding from the mouth of the Risen Christ was the Spirit breath of Christ, the Christ who said, "My words are spirit and they are life."  A sense of participating in Spirit life is evidence of the Risen Christ.  Also a sense of being sent by Christ.

 

Next, the experience of Peace.  Peace be with you, is what Christ said.  Peace within oneself deeply felt is evidence of the Risen Christ.  This has become a part of the Eucharistic liturgy; a passing of the peace as a sign of the community in concord and trusting the reliability of each others’ witness to the Risen Christ.

 

And evidence of the Risen Christ is the practice of the forgiveness of sin.  Jesus said, "If you retain sins of others they will be retained."  We should leave the practice of retaining sins and practice the way of peace which is the way of forgiveness.

 

What is another evidence of the presence of the Risen Christ?  The ability to come to belief through both listening to the inspired words of others and through reading the inspired words of others?  How many of us have had our most profound experiences in reading?  And in reading the Bible?  Spoken and Written words are ways of having the presence of the Risen Christ invoked into one's life experience.

 

The punchline of this Gospel might be called a shameless plug for the validity of the written words of the Gospel of John: "But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name."  The Eternal Christ is the Word from the beginning whose words in the mouth of Jesus are spirit and life, and whose words about him in the Gospel of John can become the evidence of the Risen Christ in coming to belief.

 

St. Paul had completely different experiences of the Risen Christ than Peter and the disciples, but he did not think that his experiences were inferior to the experiences of the disciple.  In fact, St. Paul believed that Christ was All and in All, and that means there is an endless varieties of post-resurrection appearances of Christ.

 

And that includes your experiences and mine.  And let us humbly accept the nature of our experiences of the Risen Christ, and hope that they indicate the presence of Holy Spirit, the sense of being called and sent,  the experience of peace, the experience of forgiveness, and our adventures in believing that we've experienced because the spoken and written word.  Amen.