"Distractions and Doubt"
Revelation 1: 4-8; John 20: 19-31
Rev. Ryan Jensen
Associate Pastor
April 11, 2010
Welcome again to all of you “Sunday after Easter” faithful. It is indeed good to have you here with us. In addition to the end of Easter Sunday and Holy Week, we also depart this day from the study and sermon series on the Seven Habits of Disciples. Returning to the lectionary and reading up on today’s text, I came across a commentary that had this to say: “By now the Easter lilies have started to wilt. The ‘church alumni’ have come and gone and will not be back until Christmas. The preacher is exhausted. Those who help lead worship are worn out. Yet another Sunday is coming and the gospel must continue to be preached.”
To be honest with you, I am not really that worn out. Kathryn, George, Terry and company took the helm and I was able to sit out there with you. I am, however, bewildered that a commentary writer would acknowledge what some feel to be true: Holy Week is over and so we should go back to doing whatever it is that we do. Today is just another “less than critical” Sunday. Well, I do suppose it is difficult to follow the series of events that just took place. Maundy Thursday communion, Good Friday Tenebrae, the Easter Sunrise service that we mistakenly scheduled to begin well before dawn and of course the main attraction at 11:00 with worship, communion, flowers and beautiful music. But what about today? In the midst of this day known to many as Associate Pastor Sunday, what could be so important?
Diving in to John’s Gospel today, we discover an unusual setting. Despite our own circumstances with Spring Break, sunshine and blooming Azaleas, the disciples seem to situated back within the uncertainty of Good Friday. They meet in darkness. The doors are locked because they are afraid. But then something quite unexpected takes place: the risen Jesus appears and offers peace. He shows the disciples the marks in his hands and his side, breathes on them the Holy Spirit, offers instruction and leaves. Strange series of events, right? For starters, why did Jesus find it necessary to produce the evidence of his crucifixion? Surely the disciples do not really need to see a birth certificate or some other form of identification. The conclusion must be that the author is making these points so that he can make a stronger case when underscoring the scene with Thomas. Thomas, we will remember, was not there when Jesus made his appearance. Perhaps he’d gone for groceries. I don’t know. Whatever the reason, Thomas was absent when Jesus made his glorious arrival.
When Thomas returns, he is shocked to discover that he has missed the event. He missed the visit of all visits. He missed the game changing play in the tournament. He missed his child taking his first footsteps or uttering her first words. He missed that moment that other people just can’t stop talking about. He must be seriously bummed out. After receiving the report, Thomas tells his companions, “Unless I see for myself, I will not believe.”
And so there we have it. Thomas the unbeliever. Thomas the doubter. Thomas the disciple who should have known better. That’s how I’ve understood him over the years, anyway. We remember Thomas as the one who is worthy of shame and the one that Jesus asked, “Have you believed only because you have seen me?” I imagine that the words of Jesus brought about a little shame for Thomas. They would have for me, anyway. It’s like that feeling you get when your parents look at you and say, “I am not angry, just disappointed.” And to have Jesus lay that kind of thing on you? That’s tough. So from the outside looking in, we might share feelings of disappointment for Thomas before closing the book on this story and moving on to another. Shame on Thomas, let’s move on. But what if we looked at things differently?
What if we decided not to make Thomas out as the goat, but rather as the example to follow? Should we, like Thomas, feel justified and free to proclaim, “I want to see your face, Jesus. I want to see the marks of the nail, the gash in your side, I want to smell your breath when you breathe upon me the Holy Spirit. I want to know, for a fact, that you are who you say that you are.” Would we dare ask that kind of question? And if someone claiming to be Jesus stood in front of us and did indeed prove himself to be Jesus, would we have the courage to look him in the eye? If so, what then? Perhaps some of us would jump for joy and shout to the mountain tops, “My Lord and my God!” Perhaps others of us might begin to tremble, drop to our knees, and cry in fear, “My Lord and my God.” The thing is, I think we like to distract ourselves with Thomas and his unique situation because the alternative is far too real. The alternative is that Jesus is Jesus; fully human, fully divine. No, I think it is far easier to settle into our doubts and to become distracted with the story of Thomas, the one who doubts with us. Our interview with Jesus would be better if handed off to Diane Sawyer. She is trained to handle that kind of pressure. We could watch from a safe distance.
Distractions, like art, come in many shapes, forms, and colors. There are the little ones, such as the person who clicks her pen as if a it is a metronome. There is also the person who jingles the change in his pocket as if standing next to a red Salvation Army kettle. There are then the larger distractions. Last night in Cathedral Square, the cathedral’s carillon bells chimed in at 6:00 to compete with the Mobile pops concert.
Distractions also take place over a long periods of time. When I was in college, these were for me the hundreds of things that took place outside of the classroom. There was the Student Ambassador Board, student government, Tiger football and basketball games to attend, my fraternity and all that came with it. There were intramurals, serving as homecoming chair, service projects, parties, socials, mixers, and the intrafraternity council. To supplement my scholarship, I also waited tables with a few of my best friends. So it was that we never went hungry and we always had pockets full of cash. There were moments when education and studying themselves seemed to be the distraction. The call to ministry was dormant during those years and it would be a stretch to say that Jesus took a backseat to all other things. Jesus wasn’t even in the car, as far as I perceived anyway.
At least in church, we can become re-centered and get back to what’s important, right? Well, it depends. Carol Howard Merritt wrote a recent column entitled, “Why Evangelicalism is Failing a New Generation.” Speaking of some mega churches that have “[taken] root in our nation’s religious landscape,” she gives three reasons why these churches are no longer attracting the vast numbers of young people they once did. She listed these reasons as: “pernicious sexism, religious intolerance, and conservative politics.” Notice that Jesus is not mentioned anywhere in this failure. So it is that some churches have decided that discipleship to Christ should look like discipleship to the Republican party. There are also those who have decided that discipleship to Christ looks like the Democratic party and all things liberal. For both, they run into the same problems and it is no wonder that some churches struggle to keep the members they have while trying in vain to attract new ones. We become distracted with the cares of the world while rarely seeking the face and footsteps of Jesus. We cater to the hopes and fears of Thomas and his situation while denying the counter-cultural world where the Good News of Jesus dwells. As with the great eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings, it seems as though we seek to avoid the gaze of Jesus, fearful that we might look upon something too threatening or too powerful to bear. Thomas, on the other hand, is one of us. He stumbles into mistakes and becomes the brunt of our jokes. Unlike the perfection of Jesus, Thomas offers familiarity.
So let us forget those other churches and what they are doing. What about this church? We just wrapped up a Seven Habits of Disciples sermon and study series. Do adopting and practicing these habits help in getting us back on course? Well, again, it depends. Methodist bishop and theologian William Willimon “[worries] that our infatuation with practices could be but the latest phase of atheism.” He writes, “Since God is now mute and absent, we try to locate a set of habits that will make us feel better about our situation.” I don’t know about you, but I began to squirm a little when I first took that in. What does it mean to compare Christian habits with atheism? Is that not a contradiction in terms? I believe that Willimon is trying to make the point that we cannot bury our heads in the sand while doing the things that we do. Yes, we can take on a set of habits, practices, routines, or whatever we want to call them, but they will do no good unless they point us to Jesus who, through the Holy Spirit, is alive among us. Let us remember the Pharisees here. They watch as Jesus performs miracles in helping those who are unable to help themselves, only to get lost in the details. They grumble, “Why does he hang out with tax collectors and sinners? And if he casting out demons, I guess it takes one to know one.”
Is this how we practice our habits? Do we get lost in the details of doing what we are called to do? Do our prayers become so routine that we forget the object of our utterances? Does Scripture reading become a study of history and a debate of theology or is it really an effort to receive revelation from the living God? Do we ever really pay attention to the words we sing each Sunday? So yes, I do think that habits can be the latest form of atheism if we allow them to distract us from the Christ who died, the Christ who rose, and the Christ who will come again. Willimon points us back in right direction when he concludes, “Christian practices are not primarily what we do. Rather, our practice of the faith is something that God does for us, in us, often despite us.”
This is the reality of the Christian faith. God does for us, in us, and often, despite us. Like Thomas, we have the free will to doubt, to make mistakes, and to fall short of perfect belief. Like every other church out there, this one can lose sight of who we are called to be and how we are called to respond. And that’s alright. It’s alright because God does not abandon us. God loved us before we were born and God’s love will go on forever. God sends a Son to proclaim victory over death and the Son sends the Spirit to remain with us at all times.
So was Thomas a scoundrel for failing to believe without seeing? Maybe so, but I don’t want to pick on him too much. I can be a scoundrel too, sometimes. Nonetheless, what we should remember is that Thomas was answered. Jesus responded to his call.
In a moment, we will ask for Jesus to answer our call as well. In that call, we will remember that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River and the Spirit descended like a dove upon him. We will remember that Jesus breathed upon his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” We will ask this same Spirit to breathe upon the people and waters of this place, that through Baptism, Leah will become a member of Christ’s body, the church. As such, she will be joined to Christ’s ministry of love, peace and justice.
She will be joined to you and to me and to the saints in all times and places. She will be joined to our hope and love in Christ. With Leah and with all who are sealed into Christ’s body, our responsibility is to become a distraction for good. A distraction of humility and peace. A distraction of love and discipleship. Despite our circumstances with Spring Break, sunshine, blooming Azaleas and other things that demand our attention, we can affirm loud and clear that God does for us, in us, and often despite us. We can wash away doubt by joyfully placing our trust in the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Amen.