April 7, 2013
Preached at Milwaukee Mennonite Church
http://www.milwaukeemennonite.org/
© 2013
In 2008 when I was the pastor of Central
Christian Church in Dallas, TX, Merrill and Janna joined the church after he
had been diagnosed with terminal cancer as the climax of a reluctant journey to
faith after Merrill had retired as a successful investment broker. God, church
and religion seemed unnecessary until confronted with premature mortality.
Merrill was particularly reticent about claiming faith in Jesus in a time of
crisis after a life of ignoring God. It seemed Jesus claimed Merrill and Janna more
than that they claimed faith. I was privileged to accompany them.
That summer we had been planning our vacation
that would take us to Candy’s Dad in Minnesota. A day or two before we were to
leave, Janna called to ask me to come to the hospital since the doctors didn’t
think Merrill would last the day. As I sat with the gathered family, Merrill
seemed to rally, and the family went to lunch. Janna told me to go home, and
she would call if anything changed. I had barely eaten lunch when Janna called
to say Merrill had died while we were all away. Of course, I went back to the
hospital immediately to be with Janna and the family. After a little while, they
left the hospital feeling rather useless. Janna asked if I would stay with
Merrill until they took him to the hospital morgue. The hospital chaplain and I
spent most of the afternoon in silence and quiet conversation alongside Merrill’s
bed.
Janna insisted that we not change our
vacation plans. She would be happy to have the Associate Pastor, Todd Boddy,
conduct the service for Merrill. Thanks to modern technology, I was able to
give my own brief remembrance at Merrill’s service with my cell phone from
Candy’s Dad’s living room in Minneapolis. Several times Janna told me how
important my presence was at both hospital and funeral, even though I felt I
had been absent.
Thomas missed out on being with the other
disciples when Jesus appeared to them Easter evening. Here we are a week after
Easter, in the evening. Will Jesus to show up? I suggest that Jesus extends
grace for shaky faith through those who think they have missed out spiritually.
I’ve heard plenty of preachers criticize
Thomas for not being with the disciples Easter evening. However, none of that
is even hinted at in the Gospel. John 20:26-31 simply says…
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.”27Then 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.” 28Thomas
answered him, “My Lord and my God!”29Jesus
said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
30Now
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book.31But
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.
Thomas missed out before. When Jesus told the
disciples Lazarus had died, in John 11:16 Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we
may die with him.” At the Last Supper when Jesus said he was going to prepare a
place for the disciples, in John 14:5 Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where
you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus obviously knew about Thomas’ doubt, but
he did not scold. Instead, he invited Thomas to touch his wounds and see that
it was him. We all know that when young children say, “Can I see that?” they
mean, “I want to touch it.” With eloquent storytelling, the Gospel does not say
whether Thomas touched Jesus. Some commentators make a huge point that Thomas
didn’t touch, but I’m not so sure. I suspect the ambiguity is intentional.
When John’s Gospel reports Jesus’ healings
and works of power, it does not call them miracles but signs. They are not
offering proofs to support our faith. Rather they point to who Jesus is.
Similarly, I don’t think Jesus was proving something to Thomas but offered a
sign that he could be trusted for eternal life. Thomas, with all his doubt, still
is a sign to those who believe without seeing. By missing out, not only on
being with the others on Easter evening, but also missing out on immediate
faith, Thomas still invites us to trust Jesus.
In college I read Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory. 45 years later
my recollection of the story is vague. Its main character is the unnamed “Whisky
Priest” who has many personal moral and spiritual failings but persists in
trying to serve the spiritual needs of poor folk in Tabasco, Mexico despite the
violent opposition of the Mexican revolutionary junta in the 1930s. The “Whisky
Priest” is something like Thomas. He would disqualify himself as a Christian and
priest, yet he brings grace to many others who missed out.
The Christian
Century recently published an interview with author Pico Iyer whose recent
book The Man Within My Head reflects
on Graham Greene. Iyer said that Greene called himself a “Catholic agnostic” who
had faith (emotional connection with God) but not belief (rational convictions
about God). Iyer calls him “the poet laureate of the half-believer, or the
person who longs for belief.” (March 20,
2013, pp. 10-11)
Greene had gone to Tabasco, Mexico in the
time of the revolutionary junta. He wrote about that in Lawless Roads out of which The
Power and the Glory came. He said he first started to become a Christian because
the faith of the peasants assumed such proportions that he couldn’t help being
profoundly moved.
A man whose wife is a church elder once came
to see me. He told me he would really like to have faith but just can’t seem to
get there. Could I recommend something for him to read? He quickly amended his
question. I don’t need arguments for God, Jesus or the Bible. I’m convinced
about all of that already. What I need is to know how to release and trust.
Whether they say it or not, I believe a lot of people are like that, and Thomas
is their apostle.
Jesus told Thomas that we who would believe
without seeing would be even more blessed than he was. I suspect most of us
would like to have been present to see the risen Jesus. How are we more
blessed? We are those who have missed out spiritually through whom Jesus extends
grace for our shaky faith.
While I was in the middle of preparing this
sermon, a friend sent me a link to a 2009 Esquire
article by Shane Claibourne addressed to his “non-believing, sort-of-believing
and used-to-be-believing friends.” He wrote of walking with some out of town
friends in downtown Philadelphia. They encountered a street preacher standing
on a box, shouting through a bull-horn alongside a coffin with a fake dead body
in it. The preacher was saying that everyone was going to die and if you didn’t
believe in Jesus you’d go to hell. Some people snickered. A couple of teenagers
tried to steal the fake body. Claibourne said he wanted to jump up on the box
with the preacher and shout, “God is not a monster!” He wrote that he has
become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through
fascination.
We all encounter Thomases every day: people
who are hungry for faith but just can’t seem to get there. They don’t need to
be convinced; they need to be surprised by Jesus as Thomas was. In reality, we
are a lot of Thomases sitting here as well. We’re sure we missed out
spiritually. Jesus isn’t scolding you. Jesus is waiting for the right time to
surprise you.
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