I delivered this sermon on the Second Sunday after Easter, April 11, 2010 at Christ Lutheran Church in New Hyde Park.  The gospel text that morning was according to St. John the 20^th Chapter.  I believe it may offer comfort to those who may doubt God’s existence or love.  Peace, Pastor Bob Cederstrom

        ¹⁹ 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." ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." ²² When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."  ²⁴ But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ 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."  ²⁶ 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." ²⁷ 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." ²⁸ Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" ²⁹ 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."   ³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹ 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.

          The Gospel of Our Lord.

          I greet you with grace, peace, mercy and love poured into our lives by God our Creator and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  AMEN

          Christ is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!  Alleluia!

DOUBT!?

          Part of the candidacy process for ordained ministry into Word and Sacrament is submitting a sermon to the seminary faculty for their review and questioning.  Three years ago, I submitted such a sermon and it happened to be on this text.  The professors reviewed it and called me in for examination and inquisition.  By the simple fact that I am standing here before you, I passed the ordeal.  I thought it might be interesting to offer the same sermon from this pulpit today.  I updated a few of the details that are were relevant 3 years ago, but not today, otherwise it’s pretty much the same message I delivered 3 years ago.  I invite your questions after the sermon as well.

          They were hiding.  Grown men, the disciples of Christ hiding in an upstairs room with the door locked.  They weren’t just scared, they were terrified.  Picture the scene.  It was Sunday evening, Easter Sunday.  A few days earlier, three to be exact, they had seen Jesus arrested, falsely accused by the Jews, severely beaten and nailed to a cross by the Roman governor and his lifeless body laid in a tomb. As Jesus’ ‘inner circle’, they must have been devastated by these events.  As Jesus’ ‘inner circle’ maybe they thought they might suffer the same fate if the Jews found them.  Did they have a reason to hide, to be terrified? You bet they did.  They also must have felt tremendous grief and hopelessness.  When Jesus died on that Roman cross they lost a dear friend. When Jesus died on that Roman cross all their expectations, all their dreams died with him.  The disciples had invested all that they had into following Jesus.  They trusted that he would lead them to a new and better life, and now he was out of the picture. They thought Jesus was dead, buried in a tomb and they were afraid.  They put their faith in Jesus and now he was dead, crucified, horribly murdered, nailed to a tree.  Probably the only place they felt mildly safe was behind those locked doors.  How many of us look for safety by locking ourselves away when we are scared?  It can be a cruel and hostile world out there. But how long can we stay locked away, before our safe haven becomes our personal prison?  By locking ourselves away from the world, are we also trying to lock out God?  But there is no door that can lock out Jesus.  Jesus comes through that locked door where the disciples are huddled in fear.  Jesus intrudes into the lives of those disciples that ran away and hid like scared rabbits, even the great Peter – the Rock - denied knowing Jesus not once but three times.  Jesus intrudes into our lives when we are hiding, when we are scared, when we feel most hopeless.  For me that really is the Easter hope.  

          Looking at the records for previous years, I found that our attendance was up this Easter and throughout Holy Week. I think that increase might have a lot to do with fear and uncertainty.  The economy continues to struggle, with so many people out of work, we are fighting a war in the Middle East, we are witnesses to bitter political debates on health care reform, and it seems like an earthquake or some other natural disaster is in the news every week.  Our future is uncertain and so we seek out God for hope and for help.  For me the Easter hope doesn’t simply mean that the resurrected Jesus rose to eternal life.  It doesn’t simply mean that we will be reunited with our loved ones when we die.  It means that the very first thing that the Risen Christ does is return to those followers who have disappointed him and forsaken him.  The Easter hope is Jesus bursting through the locked doors of our lives and keeping his promise to be with us even to the end of the age.  What does Jesus do when he enters the locked room and finds his disciples hiding in fear for themselves?  He says "Peace be with you."  To those who have forsaken him, his closest friends and allies who have run away and hid, he says, “Peace be with you”.  And then he gave them a gift – a precious gift.  He breathed on them and gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit to abide with them and in them.  If you are ever looking for an example of grace here it is.  This is how our God works.

          Now what about Thomas?  We can’t talk about this text without talking about Thomas.  That poor disciple whose claim to fame is doubt.  He’s not around when Jesus intrudes on the disciples huddled in fear.  We don’t know exactly where he is, but when he finally does arrive the others tell him they have seen the Lord.  Thomas essentially tells the other disciples that they are full of baloney.  He tells them, “unless I see the marks of the nails in his hand and put my finger in those nail holes and stick my hand in his side I’m not buying your story”.  He wants proof.  He has doubts about their fantastic story.  Wouldn’t you?

          I talked a little bit about fear and what it does to us.  Now I want to spend a little time talking about doubt and unbelief.  Fear and doubt are related, they stem from us turning our backs to God’s Word and God’s promise, but I don’t think doubt is the same as unbelief - although doubt may certainly lead to unbelief.  Doubt can be a sort of spiritual abyss, a time and place when God seems absent or even unreal.  We all experience doubt in our lives - the death of a loved one, a broken relationship, the loss of a job, a prolonged illness, sometimes we doubt for reasons we can’t even begin to understand.  Take heart dear sisters and brothers, doubt is not a bad thing; actually doubt can be an essential part of the development of our faith.  Think about the effects of doubt in terms of pain.  When we feel pain we know that something is wrong with us physically and we seek help.  When we feel doubt we should also realize that something within our spiritual being needs attention.  In his book Wishful Thinking, Frederick Buechner wrote, “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving”.  The ants in the pants of faith – I love that expression.  God knows our need for reassurance.  When we come to God with genuine questions like "Who are you?" "Why should I believe you?" "How can I know that what you say is true?"— God doesn’t turn us away or condemn us for our questions. God embraces us.  Thomas doubted that Jesus appeared to the disciples but a week later Jesus appeared once again and this time Thomas was present.  Did Jesus admonish Thomas for his doubt?  No, Jesus told Thomas “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Jesus doesn’t reject Thomas, he doesn’t scold him, rather he offers him an invitation.  Even when we are faithless, God remains faithful.  As Christians we are committed to lifelong spiritual growth. A year from now our beliefs may be very different from what we believe today – they may be more fine-tuned, more tested, more balanced, more examined or there may be questions.  And it is our doubt, our questioning, our asking to see the marks of the nails in Jesus’ hands that allow us to grow in our faith. 

          This text is also a call for us to lead a life IN Christ, not a life AS Christ.  We need a clear understanding of our calling.  If we set up ourselves to lead a perfect life like Jesus we are setting ourselves up for failure.  God doesn’t want us to be Jesus.  God wants us to be the disciples, including Thomas, no matter how messed up they are or how messed up we are.  The Christian life we are called to live is in faith and in witness.  Jesus’ very words, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” are spoken directly to us.  Unlike Thomas and the others we have not seen Jesus.  We have not seen the holes in his hands.  We have not stuck our hands in his side. But we still encounter the Spirit of the risen Christ to this day, here in the presence of our worship, here in the proclamation of God’s Word, and here in the celebration of Holy Communion.  It is in this presence that the doors are unlocked and flung open and the fears that bind us and enslave us are cast aside.  It is in this presence that we join the world, the cruel and hostile world in which God lives with us and offers comfort to the people of God.  It is in this presence that the risen Christ comes to us, begs us and empowers us, to reach out beyond the doors of our church and spread the good news of his glorious resurrection to new life to the community.  How appropriate it is that we should proclaim this message on a day when we welcome so many new members to our congregation.  (NOTE:  we took in 11 new members this morning).  It is in this presence that we can begin to live the life God intended us to live, to embrace the ministry to which each of us has been called.  It is in this presence that we view Thomas and the others in a new light, as beloved disciples who like us have questions and demand proof.  When we come to the table this morning, when we feast on the precious body and blood of the risen Christ we get that proof.  Jesus is offering each of us the same invitation he offered Thomas.  See for yourself, I am real, I have risen.  Your doubts have strengthened you and brought you closer to me. “Peace be with you.” 

          Let us pray: Lord Jesus, through your death and resurrection, you not only defeated sin and the powers of death and evil – you came back to us, breaking through our locked doors, overcoming our reservations and doubts, calling us to follow you into newness of life. Keep coming to us, Lord, keep raising us from the dead, and keep empowering us with the power of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.