Easter 2, St Thomas, Rev Canon Ann Philp
To unravel this story of Thomas in less than 5 minutes is almost impossible but firstly I need to say that this is dramatic story and has more than one layer of meaning.
Firstly one needs to say that the day on which it is all said to occur is the Sunday after those first disciples came to believe that the man who had died was now alive and was moving amongst them. I do not believe this is coincidence. Rather church from the very beginning took Sunday as its holy day, met for worship and received Christ in the Holy Eucharist...this story is as much about all that as it is the story of any individual...after all Thomas ends up saying My Lord and My God...a much bigger statement of faith than any of the others have made...even Peter. It is the day on which Jesus is recognized and will be recognized over the years to follow. It is the day on which we give thanks that God is amongst us.
Which brings me to something else...these earliest of Christians have as their inheritors the Syrian Church who have always put Tomas at the heart of early church leadership...look up Syrian church on the internet and you will find dozens of references to St Thomas...Thomas was key, he along with John and Peter were the undoubted leaders...Thomas had to be sure.
Taking the story at face value, it must have been difficult for Thomas and it is much to his credit that even if he doesn't have assurance for himself about Jesus being raised, he stays around people who do and they stick with him. It is not about Thomas dissociating himself from those who are sure nor about them withdrawing from Thomas...far from it...their joint experience is strong...practically and culturally.
Nor do those who are sure rush in with facile assurances or pressure...for we know that in the end that those who question are also the ones if they are as open minded as they claim are the ones who find God at very great depths.
After all, just because Thomas hadn't seen Jesus didn't mean that Jesus wasn't raised; it was just that Thomas hadn't seen him yet...or more importantly had not met him at depth. And if at times we doubt that God is with us at or has heard our prayers, it doesn't mean that God isn't there, it is just that we are not aware of God's presence yet. And eventually Thomas risks wholehearted commitment to the person he recognizes as his Lord and his God...and risk it is.it take courage both to doubt and to commit... to meet Jesus is know for sure and to know that even if we get the details and the doctrines wrong we know he is there for he has met us at a level where it counts most.
What is the gospel writer's answer to doubts and unbelief? It is to immerse ourselves in the Christian story and to be open to come to believe - an interesting phrase that suggests belief is not always easy. It is very easy for us today to read these stories of resurrection appearances and to consign them to history. But the thing about salvation history is that there's a time warp involved, the past and the present touch each other and we are caught up in it too. In the Exsultet at Easter we sing 'this is the night' when you delivered us, not 'that was the night' and in a few minutes in the Eucharist we will pray that the bread and wine may be to us, not just remind us of, the body and blood of our Lord. So we need to look carefully at what happens as a result of the resurrection appearances, because we are in the story.
And where can we begin looking for the resurrected Jesus. It is as I suggested last Sunday...where Thomas starts ...by looking at his wounds...for his wounds are our wounds and the wounds of those around us. If I dare to reach out and touch the wounds of my neighbours with love and care and with genuine self giving, I will find that I have touched the wounds of Jesus himself...and all that is left for me to say, is My Lord and My God.
What difference do the resurrection appearances make? After the first appearance Jesus breathes on the disciples and says 'receive the Holy Spirit'. That should ring bells because it recalls and repeats the stories in Genesis 2 where God breathed Adam into life and in Ezekiel 37 where the Lord caused breath to enter the dry bones stacked up in the valley. As once God breathed life into lifeless bodies, so now Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit's life into the exhausted disciples. This is the beginning of the new creation when our story of human failure is turned by God into a new story as Jesus Christ, fully human, recapitulates it, undoing our past failure.
You will remember that hymn written by cardinal Newman, 'O wisest love, that flesh and blood which did in Adam fail, should strive afresh against the foe, should strive and should prevail. O loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame a second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came.'
That is the Easter message; God in Christ has rewritten our human story and is breathing new life into his creation . We are part of that new creation.
But this is also John's Pentecost story when the disciples receive the Holy Spirit ...not for him the story of the upper room but here in the intimacy of belief and doubt of sorrow and joy, of fear and courage...and Jesus tells them 'If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any they are retained.' That is a clear indication the disciples are to be out in the thick of the world where sins need to be forgiven: the world in its shame and fear, its horror and corruption, helping people to find forgiveness and to come to believe in Jesus Christ risen from the dead.
As I said last week at evensong...we believe, we are commissioned...we are sent out to do the job...and given the power to do it...
Rev Canon Ann Philp