+John 20:19-31
With the recent death of Kurt Vonnegut, Indiana’s own Bard of Sci-Fi, fantasy and satire, I am reminded of a quote attributed to him where he said: ‘I am an atheist (or at best a Unitarian who winds up in churches quite a lot).’ One of the churches he tended to wind up in frequently was St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue in New York City, where my friend and seminary classmate regularly gave him communion at the altar rail, as recently as only a couple months back. Perhaps Mr. Vonnegut’s admission as to his own faith’s ambiguity is proof-positive that the wideness of our God’s peace and welcome is wider than the constraints and expectations of Human thought.
Maybe that’s why our gospel lesson is so comforting on this second Sunday of Easter, what is often called Low Sunday or Thomas Sunday in honor of out faith’s own sainted and beatified doubter. Every year, on this very Sunday, dating as far back as the Middle Ages, this Sunday’s Gospel lesson has been devoted to telling the story of Doubting Thomas; as if to acknowledge that after the Resurrection, doubt would naturally follow and nodding our heads liturgically to the reality of doubt in our faith. With that being said, Thomas has always had an essential role throughout the Gospel of John. His function in the Gospel is to be both a sounding-board and a foil to Jesus. One gets the image of Thomas almost like Kramer from Seinfeld , where he is always setting up Jesus’ punch-line. He’s never around when he’s needed most or he’s present when you just wish he’d go away, like at Jesus second return to his disciples turned apostles.
Thomas’ function in a classical three-fold comedic role, sort of like the every good joke has three characters or consists of a series of three. His first position is that of a zealous follower of Jesus who with great bravado, offers to die with his beloved teacher as they approach Bethany, only six days before Jesus’ own death on Good Friday. Jesus’ responds to Thomas not in words, but in action; and shows him what death is like when he raises, their friend Lazarus from the dead (John 11:16). Scene two takes place at the Last Supper. Jesus is giving his monumental ‘Last Discourse’ (a farewell speech that goes on for chapters and the event we celebrate at Maundy Thursday) and he gives the Disciples the new commandment of Love. Jesus says that he going is going away and is preparing a place for the disciples. Enter Thomas: ‘Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way’(14:5). Jesus responds to him by saying, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’(14:6). Finally Thomas’ role is complete when he professes that he won’t believe in Jesus’ resurrection until he sees the wounds and ‘puts [his] finger in the mark of the nails and [his] hand in [Jesus’] side”(20:25).
Yet for all his initial bravado and loyalty crashes down into a spiral of skepticism and doubt, it is on ‘Doubting Thomas’ whom the Gospel writer bestows the honor of being the first to explicitly proclaim Jesus’ Divinity, ‘My Lord and my GOD’.
There is something heartwarming about our faith that allows a skeptic to have a large seat at God’s table, even in the living Presence of our Lord. Notice that Jesus, in the face of the disciples’ anxiety and in the face of Thomas’ doubt and skepticism, greets his distressed disciples with simple greeting of ‘Shalom, Peace be with you.’ In effect Jesus, already broken and blessed; is given back to his followers. Jesus becomes the reconciling force that breaks through the locked doors of fear and widely embraces us in our doubts. Jesus, our lord and our God, our Prince of reconciling peace mends our brokenness and holds our pieces with his loving Peace. He comes among us and welcoming all people to his table of mercy and grace, each of us as remedial saints….
There is no doubt too great that keeps you from being embrace by God’s peace, there is no fear that can keep you lock away from God’s invitation to wholeness, there is no death too great that can’t be assuaged by God’s peace.
Hear these words today: the opposite of faith isn’t doubt; the opposite of faith is fear.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor and theologian as well as concentration camp victim, wrote:
God goes to every man when sore bestead,
Feeds body and spirit with his bread;
For Christians, pagans alike he hangs dead,
And both alike forgiving,
Alike forgiving.
Just as Christ died for all people, so also is he alive for all. Jesus rose today for the saints the sinners, the faithful and the fearful, and for the occasional atheist within us. Know today, that God’s embrace is wider than any of us can ever imagine and broader than any barriers we construct. Take heart, come to God’s magnificent Table of Grace and Mercy set for saints, sinners, doubters, skeptics and sometimes even atheists.
AMEN.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition, edited by F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, p. 1612.
Text of Bonhoeffer’s poem is from Oak Grove Presbyterian Church sermon collection www.oakgrv.org , accessed on April 12, 2007.
