March 30, 2008 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK
Acts 2: 42-27 + Psalm 118 + 1 Peter 1:3-9 + John 20: 19-31
Every year on the Sunday after Easter we tell this story. If I asked you to quote Thomas the Apostle, I would bet the debt of this church that all but a handful of you would only be able to say: “My Lord and my God” or “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in his side, I will not believe. If that was all Thomas had to teach us, the lesson would be simple: “Be careful what you ask for.” This is also the Apostle who said: “Lord, we do not know where you are going.” And even more courageously when Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, Thomas said to his apostolic companions: “Let us go with him and die with him.” No one ever remembers his moment of courage, but his moment of doubt is unforgettable. We all know what it’s like – you do fifty things well, make one mistake, and that’s all people can talk about. Why is that? Some trick to deflect attention from ourselves? I suspect so. How interesting it is for a less than perfect human church to tell the story of a doubting apostle. But the story is told year after year, and I believe it is so because there is something important for Thomas to teach us.
First, Thomas teaches us that faith does not exclude doubt and questions, nor does it exclude moments when we wonder whether God is truly with us and faithful to God’s promises. Our experience in life leaves us very aware that God can seem distant and unresponsive. Illness strikes, a job is lost, a home burns, a loved one dies and we wonder where God has gone. Real Faith is never clear and unchallenged. Faith may lead to certitude, but not always a comfortable certitude of logic and proof. Most of the time, it is the certitude of one who trusts, not one who knows.
Second, Thomas teaches us that we receive faith in and through the community of parents, friends, and church. It is not a private matter. Thomas found faith because he returned to the community and trusted enough to show up the following Sunday. Ultimately, he testifies to the facet that our faith must be rooted in our own experience of God, in a personal acceptance of God and commitment to God. We cannot simply believe because someone else believes. Our faith must be founded in our own deepest convictions.
Third Thomas teaches us that faith is not simply an assent to doctrines and propositions. Thomas had no creed to accept. In fact, the apostle Thomas did not know the Apostles’ Creed. He had no idea that Jesus had two natures united hypostatically in one person. He had not figured out that there were three persons in one God. He was totally unaware that 10 days earlier, at Jesus last supper, the bread and wine had been changed into the body and blood of Christ. Thomas would have flunked a quiz on first grade catechism. Yet he shows us that, while it is necessary to “believe that” certain doctrines are true, we must first “Believe in” God, the God revealed in Jesus. Thomas’ faith was a personal response, a graced surrender to the risen Jesus as his lord and savior and an acknowledgement that Jesus spoke the truth when he said, “I have the power to lay down my life and take it up again.” As John sees it in his Gospel, faith for Thomas was an expression of loyalty, faithfulness and allegiance to Jesus. It was a radical act of trust and a personal commitment to Jesus and Jesus’ invitation to new life. Thomas teaches us that, in the end, we believe because we know we are loved. We believe in the one who loves us.
The Gospel story does not tell us whether Thomas put his fingers in the wounds of Jesus or touched his side, but he did meet Jesus face to face. That is how he heard the call to faith and where he found the strength to believe and live out that faith as an apostle and martyr. We are invited to meet the Lord face to face in work, sacrament, in community and in the poor and the needy. Christ is always in our minds inviting us to touch him and believe.
I think the church puts this Gospel before us every year to encourage and suggest that the risen Christ is still with us, and those troubled by doubts belong here. Thomas the Teacher suggests that they might only ask, and then look. Touching may not be important, but looking and seeing with love is the beginning of that faith we all admire and desire.