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.”
John 20:19-31
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.
My sermon from the 2nd Sunday of Easter (April 11, 2021) on John 20:19-31.
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The Sunday after Easter is typically considered a “low” Sunday at the church. And, if you think about it, that makes sense. Our Easter celebration was full of fresh flowers, special music, fancy hats, and Easter baskets buried in way too many chocolate bunnies. It takes a lot of energy, work, and effort to make Easter joyous especially in the midst of a pandemic. The musicians, the choir, the office staff, the volunteers, and everyone who worshiped online or outdoors – we – whether we realized it or not – gave a lot of ourselves to help each other re-experience the gift of Easter. So it’s totally okay if we feel like we need to take a breath after such a big event. And our attention might be drawn towards other things happening in our life right now. Maybe we have a lot of cleaning to do since we spent the last year mostly at home. Or maybe there’s a giant pile of mulch sitting in our driveway begging us to spread it around the house. Those are a few of the things we get to do during the season of Spring. Yet there might be other things happening in our life making it hard to breathe. There’s that health scare, leaving us and our family feeling incredibly anxious and scared. There’s that ongoing conflict we’re enduring with our loved ones because change is something we all do. And then there’s the reality that we live in communities filled with people who don’t look at the world in the same way. When you add up all life brings and then throw in an ongoing pandemic, it’s sort of amazing any of us has the energy to sit with God. Worship takes effort – and there are times when life gets in the way. So a low Sunday is not an abnormal Sunday. Rather, it is a sign we all have lives to live – and we don’t always have the energy to worship in-person or to open up the church’s facebook page at 10 am on a Sunday. That doesn’t mean being with God isn’t important or that we shouldn’t make worship a priority or that I’m giving you an out when you choose not to be with your faith community. Instead, I’m acknowledging it takes effort to worship and that all of you are a sign of what that effort looks like. But there are days when we are drawn elsewhere – and that’s something Jesus understands very well.
Because as we heard in our reading from the gospel according to John, Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus visited the disciples the evening after the tomb was emptied. In John’s version of the Easter story, Mary Magdalene was the first to see that the stone blocking the tomb had rolled away. She ran and told Peter and the beloved disciple what she saw. They came and confirmed Jesus’ body wasn’t there. Both of them returned to the place where they were staying but Mary stayed. Jesus then revealed himself to her – and she, at first, thought he was a gardener. Yet when he called her by name, she saw what God had done. Jesus gave her a message to share with all the other disciples and so that’s exactly what she did. But Jesus didn’t say he was going to visit them that evening. All they knew was that Mary had seen the Lord and I bet they wished they had seen him too. So when Jesus showed up – that moment must have been bonkers. They had all seen Jesus arrested and killed. They had, in the midst of terror, fled from his side. They witnessed the authorities in this world try to end Jesus’ story. Yet there Jesus was – and their grief, wonder, confusion, and joy must have spilled out all at once. They saw Jesus’ hands and side still wounded – which meant the fullness of Jesus’ story still mattered. It meant their experiences of pain, loss, guilt, and anxiety – were valued – but wouldn’t be the end to their story. Each disciple, in that moment, knew that everything they had gone through was now wrapped up in hope. The text tells us they rejoiced but that word is way too small to describe what they experienced. God’s story would continue – and with the giving of the Holy Spirit through the breath of Jesus – each of them would carry that story into the world.
So I wonder what it felt like to be Thomas when he met up with the disciples after all that happened. We don’t know why he wasn’t there when Jesus showed up but I think scripture gives us space to add in any reason we want. Maybe he had an errand to run or a family member who needed his help. Maybe he was at the doctor, getting something checked out or he was off taking his kid to their next big sporting event. Or, since it was the first day of the week, Thomas might have been at work. I want you to think about the last time you were unable to gather for worship. Think about your reason – and then give that reason to Thomas. His response to his friends, then, makes sense. All he wanted was their experience – which included more than just a visit from Jesus. He also wanted the chance to be there when Jesus showed up. And that meant he needed the opportunity to keep all his attention on God. Every other responsibility and need would have to be taken care of so that he could be where Jesus promised to be. But he, as an individual, couldn’t make that happen. What he needed was a community willing to take care of him so that he could experience Jesus in an intentional and life giving way.
And that brings me back to the quote from bell hooks I mentioned last week. When she was asked to define love, she said “Love is a combination of six ingredients: care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust.” Care can look like many things but it can also be our giving others the opportunity to be in the place they need to be. We all are pulled by many things drawing our attention away from what matters most. You each have your own health, housing, food, and financial needs that need to be met. And we all live in a culture that measures our value based on the amount of things we produce. You might not have the time, energy, or resources to create an intentional meeting with God. But what might help you do that is if a group of people took it on themselves to make that happen. They could cook a meal for you so that you didn’t need to go to the store. They might mow your lawn, pick up your laundry, or schedule a vaccine appointment when those become available in the middle of the night. A community can use its resources – including people and money – to help each other have that kind of energy and time. And I think that might have happened the week after the very first Easter. Because, unlike the previous week, Thomas was there. He still hadn’t seen Jesus nor did he have the experiences all the other disciples had. Yet the community did not hold that against him. He was part of a faith community big enough to hold a lot of different experiences of God. Mary’s meeting of Jesus at the tomb did not mean she was more valued than him. Rather, Jesus had gathered them together to care for one another – no matter what. They might have taken it upon themselves to help Thomas be in the place where Jesus was the week before. And so when Jesus did show up, Thomas was able to do something no one else had done up to that point. He declared that Jesus was not only the Lord and not only God – but that he was also “my Lord and my God.” By making sure the people within the community had the time and the energy to be with God – they witnessed a new vision of who Jesus was for the world.
So a low Sunday is never really a low Sunday. Rather, it’s an opportunity to experience Jesus and a chance to recommit ourselves to caring for one another. We get to ask what we can do to help others worship and wonder what might need to change so that everyone has the opportunity to see the love God has for them. That can sound scary because we were able to worship today. We probably would have been in that room on the first Easter evening 2000 years ago. But could we, would we, and might we realize that because Jesus has claimed us as his own – we then are called to look for the Thomas’ in our midst – and do our part to make sure they get to spend time with God too?
Amen.