Thomas the Brave!
This sermon can be listened to here
Gate Pa – Year B 2nd Sunday in Easter,
Readings:
Psalm Psalm 133
First Reading:
Acts
4:32-35
Second Reading:
1
John
1:1-2:2
Gospel:
John
20:19-31
What
I want to say:
Lets stop calling Thomas “Doubting Thomas”. It distracts us from
what is going on in this story.
The resurrection is God’s Big Yes to the way of the cross. In the
way of the cross we are reminded that all people are made in the image of God
and we are invited to see God’s image in all people. In the resurrection God is
faithful to all the covenants, that through Israel humanity is renewed and
creation restored.
In the resurrection we are invited to live in the way of the cross
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
I’m a big fan of Thomas
I think he gets a really hard time –
with this Doubting Thomas thing
As someone said on Tuesday – poor Thomas
This is the same Thomas who only a few
days earlier
when
Jesus announced he was returning to Judea because his friend Lazarus had fallen
asleep (aka died)
è Thomas says “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
How is Thomas any different from any
of the other male disciples?
-
Mary Magdalene told
them she has seen the Crucified Jesus risen
-
and they hid in a
room in fear
-
even more afraid
when Jesus appears in their midst
-
doubting
disciples we might say
-
poor old
disciples
I’m not even sure that Thomas is
doubting
What is going on here?
2. Thomas and the resurrection
first thing to note is that Thomas is
not looking for proof of the idea of Jesus risen
not saying – give
me some proof of this idea and I will say it is true
not about
apologetics – being convinced of truth of the resurrection
He wants to experience what Mary
Magdalene experienced
He wants to experience what the other
disciples experienced
so that he might affirm again
“Let us also go, that we may die with
him”.
He had been willing to lay everything on
the line for Jesus
including
his life
He was willing again
But he wanted to make sure who we was
laying everything on the line for
-
unlike other
disciples who stayed in relative safety of the Mediterranean
-
He travels
through Persia and in to South India
everything changes when he experiences
the risen crucified Jesus
way
of crucified Jesus is affirmed
risen
Jesus still has marks of crucifixion
and so nothing changes
What do I mean by that?
3. The Problem of the Cross
we live in a world which deeply values
the powerful, the important, the wealthy, the successful and large, and lately
the famous.
-
even in church we
deep down value the large growing churches with famous pastors/vicars
-
rest of us kind
of aspire to be like those big ones
we live in world affirms our right to
use violence and force to protect ourselves and our interests
-
even a lot of
Christians
which makes the cross a problem
should make Jesus a big problem
None of these things are part of the
way of Jesus
-
affirmed Torah
that says we are to love Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and/by
loving our neighbour as ourselves
o
then in parable
of good Samaritan taught that neighbours included everyone we feared, despised,
even people most feared and loathed
§ in case of story above – including Jewish neighbours
§ demonstrated that by honouring and blessing Samaritans, tax
collectors, prostitutes and other sinners with no requirements of repentance
-
then taught that
those who aspired to be leaders were to serve those they were to lead
o
demonstrated that
by washing disciples feet as a slave
-
said that God’s
way was the way of vulnerablitiy,
§ of powerlessness
§ of love
§ not of retaliation and violence
§ not coercion and force
o
demonstrated what
he meant by allowing Romans to execute him on a cross
§ death that was supposed to strip him of all meaning and value
§ force us his followers to let go of their ideas about who he was
and who God is, and about ourselves
-
Taught those who
wished to follow him and live way of God
o
do so by walking the way of the cross
-
taught that all
of this is part of the kingdom of God – which was and is starting now and in
this world
but as that story shows, too often
those who profess to be his followers have not embraced his way
why?
I think because of the resurrection
4. The Problem of the Resurrection
too often we reduce the cross as the
means to make God happy with us again so we can get into heaven
and we understand the resurrection as
fixing the all that troubling stuff about Jesus death
and we can get right back to
describing God in ways that make sense to us
God the
all-powerful,
reigns in
splendour
punish those who
offend God
all those alternatives Jesus lived are
lost
and it becomes business as usual
which valuing power and might and wealth
and all those good things
and has sadly included pogroms against
Jews all in name of crucified one.
But for Matthew, Mark Luke and John
resurrection did not fix the cross
it was Gods big tick to the way of the
cross
it was God saying “tino tika” to all
that Jesus said and did
-
that our neighbours include all who share our
humanity
o
all who are made
in the image of God
-
that to follow
Jesus is to serve, not to be served
o
to be generous,
compassionate, self-giving
o
as Jesus was
generous, compassionate, self-giving
o
as God is
generous, compassionate, self-giving
That’s what changed for Thomas and all
the disciples
resurrection was an affirmation that
everything that Jesus had taught and lived
including
his death on the cross
was the way of God
so nothing changed
back to business as usual
living God’s radical love
as heard from reading from Acts
as we see in ongoing story of Thomas
the brave.
5. Conclusion
invitation from Thomas is not to get
too stressed about what happened
instead we are invited to open
ourselves to see and hear risen crucified Jesus around us
at work in our world
at work in us
inviting us on the way of the cross
way of God’s unrelenting love
when experience risen Jesus
we are to know that the only way to
life in this world in this way of love
any other way leads only to more
violence, more squalor, more pain, more death
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