April 22, 2001
Rev. Eugene Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
John
20:19-31
William Willimon,
the chapel New Testament professor at Duke University talks about one of his
early pastoral experiences: “My first church was in rural Georgia. I was fresh
out of seminary, eager to be a good pastor at my first parish. I was in
graduate school at the time, commuting out to the hinterland on the weekends.
On my first visit to one of the churches, I found a large chain and padlock on
the front door, put there, I was told, by the local sheriff. ‘The sheriff?
Why?’ I asked.
“Well, things got
out of hand at the board meeting last month, folks started ripping up carpet,
dragging out the pews they had given in memory of their mothers. It got bad.
The sheriff came out here and put that there lock on the door until our new
preacher could come and settle things down.’
Says Willimon,
“That sort of typified my time at that church. I would drive out there each
Sunday, just praying for a miraculous snowstorm in October that would save me
from another Sunday at that so-called church. I spent a year there that lasted
a lifetime. I tried everything. I worked, planned, offered, but the response
was always disappointing. The arguments, the pettiness, the fights in the
parking lot after the board meeting were more than I could take. ‘You call
yourself a church?’ I muttered to myself as my tires kicked gravel up in the
parking lot on my last Sunday among them.
“A couple of
years later I ran into a young man who introduced himself to me and told me that
he was now serving that church. My heart went out to him immediately. Such a
dear young man, and only 23. ‘They still remember you out there,’ he said.
“’Yeah,’ I said
glumly, ‘I remember them too.’
“’Remarkable
bunch of people,’ he said.
“’Remarkable?’
“’Yes. Their
ministry to the community has been a wonder,’ he continued. ‘That little church
is now supporting, in one way or another, more than a dozen of the troubled
families around the church. The free daycare center is going great. Not too
many interracial congregations in North Georgia.’
Says Willimon, “I
could hardly believe what he was telling me. ‘What happened?’ I asked.
“’I don’t know.
One Sunday things just sort of came together. It wasn’t anything in
particular. It’s just that, when the service was over and we were on our way
out, we knew that Jesus loved us and had plans for us. Things fairly took off
after that.”
Concludes
Willimon, “I’ll tell you what I think happened. I think that church got
intruded upon. I think someone greater than I knocked the lock off that door,
kicked it open, and offered them peace, the Holy Spirit, and forgiveness. And
now they are called, ‘church.’ We are church, not because of the buildings
we’ve built and cared for, not because of the choir, the organ, the preaching,
or the various activities. We are church because to us, even to us, Christ has
come and given us his gifts of Spirit, mission, and forgiveness, commissioning
us to give them to the whole world in his name.”
He has come, even
to us. Today’s text is very familiar, usually described as the story of
“Doubting Thomas.” Two words used together so often one might think that
“Doubting” was in fact Thomas’ first name! But to focus on Thomas and his
doubts, a better translation would be his unbelief - is to miss the point of the
story. For the focus is not on Thomas, but on Jesus.
We meet the
disciples on Easter night, and a sorry lot they are. Cowering like frightened
rabbits behind closed, bolted doors - scared, disheartened, and defensive,
hoping that no one in town will notice they are there. Not a lot of church
growth potential there. Not a visitors book or name tag board in sight. This
is a defeated group. Their leader has been killed, his mission a failure. But
then, everything suddenly changes. “Jesus came and stood among them and said,
‘Peace be with you.” And from that moment on, as I said, everything was
changed. A pitiful band of followers was transformed into a church, and neither
they nor the world would ever be the same.
What actually happened in
that closed room? We can never really know for sure. We could record the
entire encounter with a video camera and still not know. But something
happened, something dramatic, something life-transforming. And in their
experience of, their encounter with, the risen Lord, the disciples received what
they needed in order to believe. Indeed, not only to believe, but also to start
a church. Whatever happened in that room, frightened, disheartened,
disillusioned disciples, became believers who were now prepared to preach,
witness, sacrifice, even suffer and die.
And what the
Lord does for the disciples he also does for Thomas. In the words of J. Lynn
White, Disciples of Christ minister, “When we turn our attention to Jesus, we
realize that he is not judgmental toward Thomas. He does not chastise him.
After greeting all of the disciples with a message of peace, he focuses on
Thomas and offers him the gift Thomas is seeking. We have tended to hear Jesus’
words as a reprimand when he says, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands.’
However, there is nothing in the story itself that suggests this kind of
attitude. Jesus freely comes to Thomas and gives him what he needs, just as in
various ways he had come to the other disciples. In response to this
overwhelming act of grace, Thomas believes.
But Jesus isn’t
quite finished. Having given Thomas what Thomas needs to believe, Jesus then
adds, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Did
you feel it? The focus has just shifted. The spotlight has moved from Thomas
and the other disciples and now shines directly on us. We, the church, are now
the ones being addressed. We are the ones who, some 2000 years later, have not
seen, and yet are now called to believe. As he did for Thomas, can the risen
Christ break through the locked doors of our hearts?
Perhaps a
Christian pastor shouldn’t say this, but I have to tell you that I need to keep
reminding myself that there is Easter. I forget. In fact, I often live as if
there is no Easter. With my running around, my frantic activity, my feeling of
being overwhelmed - I’ll never get it all done; with my fears and anxieties, one
would think that I am all alone - that it all depends on me. Anyone else ever
feel that way?
And yet, the
Easter proclamation is just the opposite of that. Easter proclaims a loving God
who hears, who cares, who moves among us; a God who in stunning fashion moves
us, as individuals and as a church, from death to life, from fear to joy, from
despair to hope, from absence to a presence. We are not alone. It doesn’t all
depend on us. We have hope, not because of something that we have decided or
found or created, but because of what God has done at Easter. We have hope
because God has the last word - not evil or suffering or even death - but God.
And this God is alive, present among us, on the loose, on the move. And God is
not going to give up on us; God is not going to quit until we finally open those
well-guarded doors of our hearts.
That great
theologian, Woody Allen, once said, “I believe in eternal life. I’m just afraid
nobody will tell me where it’s being held.” Easter says, the experience of
Thomas and the disciples says, “Just look around.” It was not too late for
Thomas. It’s not too late for us. He is still among us and even though we have
not seen him directly, we have the promise that we, too, will be blessed, that
the risen Christ will keep coming back to us again and again and again, meeting
us right where we are.
Charles Blondin,
a Frenchman, was one of the world’s greatest tightrope walkers. A century and a
half ago, he crossed Niagara on a tightrope. After that feat, the year was
1859, he asked an onlooker, “Do you believe I can carry a man on my shoulders
across Niagara?” The man, breathless with enthusiasm, replied that he believed
he could. “Then,” said Blondin, “will you be the man?”
It’s been 2000
years since Thomas had his encounter with the risen Christ. But Christ comes to
us still and asks, “Will you be the one? Is the Easter promise for you? Is the
Easter hope for you? For I can raise up anyone from death to life and I can do
it right now! Will you be the one?”