Faith

Easter 2A, 4/27/14

Confirmation Sunday

John 20:19-31

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, you are our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

The disciples had a complicated relationship with Jesus. They alternated between loving him, questioning him, overstepping the bounds of their relationship, and outright doubting him.

This morning we heard the extremes of the relationship between Jesus and the disciples. The disciples are fearful the evening of that first Easter. They’ve locked themselves up behind closed doors. Then Jesus appears to them and they rejoice. Then Jesus commissions them – he sends them into the world to continue his work – and the disciples don’t go. The following week they are still locked up in the same room. So the disciples were disobedient.

That second time that Jesus visited the disciples – one week after the first Easter – Thomas was there. And Thomas offered the most direct statement of faith that we get from any of the disciples. My Lord and my God!

Fear, joy, disobedience, faith – today’s Bible story has it all.

Where do you find yourself in this story?

We’re like the disciples, you know – we are followers of Jesus too.

Even though we’re all Christians here, and we’ve all hopefully experienced God’s love and Jesus’ presence at some point in our lives, we probably don’t find ourselves that close to God in every single moment.

Like the disciples, we have good days and bad days – good weeks and bad weeks. Sometimes God’s promises seem a little more real than other times… sometimes we find ourselves seeking proof of Jesus’ love for us.

Can you relate to the fear of the disciples who locked themselves up? To their disobedience in failing to respond to Jesus’ calling? To Thomas’ profession of faith, once he finally gets the chance to see his risen Lord?

Fear, joy, disobedience, faith… these are all normal experiences for Jesus’ disciples, and they are normal for us as well. The Christian journey is not always easy.

We’ll have some amazing, life-changing experiences and we’ll encounter bumps in the road.

Welcome to the journey, confirmands. Consider this fair warning for you. As you keep following God now into adulthood, sometimes things will seem really great. Sometimes you’ll know    for sure    that God is working in your life.

And sometimes you won’t. Sometimes you’ll try to pray and have a hard time finding words. Sometimes you’ll have doubts about your faith. But that’s OK. God’s followers have always had a rollercoaster ride in faith, starting with the very first disciples.

But we don’t remain Christians because our lives on this earth are necessarily made any easier by following God.

We remain Christians because Jesus calls us just like he called those first disciples, and he gives us a mission, and we know that our job is to follow through on that calling and that mission even when we have our doubts.

There may be times for each one of us when it’s difficult to see Jesus, when it’s difficult to believe in his Resurrection. But that doesn’t make it any less real. And if we remain open to the possibility that God will be more active in our lives in the future than in the past, we just might have the opportunity to get proof of the Resurrection.

That’s what happened for Thomas.

He doubted the other disciples’ experience of the risen Christ – he thought they might have been playing a trick on him. But he stayed with the community and remained open to the possibility that Jesus would show up again.

And Jesus did come back. One week after Easter, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, locked up in their room, hiding. Thomas finally got the proof that he needed, to actually see the risen Christ in person.

And then Thomas makes the statement that Jesus is God. This is a huge jump, that none of the other disciples had made yet. But now that Thomas has his proof, for him there could be no further doubt. This Jesus, his Lord, is also his God.

The question that faces us today is the same as the one that the disciples faced the evening of that first Easter Sunday. It’s the same one that Thomas faced a week later.

What difference does the Resurrection make in our lives? 

Jesus rising from the dead is the founding event of Christianity.

You might think that Christmas would be the first Christian holiday… but that day was nothing special until Jesus did something extraordinary. At first, Christmas was nothing more than the birth of another Jewish prophet.

But Easter – that is when Jesus broke all the rules of how God was expected to interact with humans. An innocent man died and then defeated the power of death. Easter changed everything. It’s the reason we even exist as a church today.

So what does the Resurrection mean for you?

I asked this question at the Council meeting last Monday. Answers were thoughtful… the Resurrection means total upheaval, fulfillment of promise, hope, new life and forgiveness. Among other things.

But we’ve had 2000 years of church history to reach those thoughtful answers.  Put yourselves in the shoes of the disciples on that first Easter evening. What did the Resurrection mean for them?

         Based on today’s story, it meant fear. Doubt. Confusion. Inaction.

Even after the risen Christ had appeared to 10 of the remaining 11 disciples, even after Jesus had done his best to give them courage and a purpose, those 10 disciples stayed locked up in a room. They didn’t tell anyone about Jesus rising from the dead, except Thomas, and he didn’t believe them.

Do we ever behave like those 10 disciples?

Think about it.

If Jesus really has risen from the dead, and has given us new life and hope and a purpose and forgiveness and all kinds of good things… has his resurrection changed the way we live our lives? Would anyone know, by looking at us, that we have received such wonderful gifts?

Or are we still locked up in a room for fear of other people?

What difference has the Resurrection made in the life of this community? What difference does Jesus conquering death make for our church?

Council had some answers for this question too, and you can read this month’s Newsletter article to find out more.

But I want you to think about your own list right now. Feel free to jot down answers in your bulletin.

Does the Resurrection matter for us?    If so… How so?

And if so… how will others ever know about it?

How can we tell other people about the wonderful gifts that Jesus’ resurrection brings to us? How can we show our new life to the world?

We talk to each other about the meaning of the Resurrection from time to time. We show off new life within our own walls when we have baptisms – or on days like today when we celebrate a confirmation, which is actually a public affirmation of baptismal promises.

But how many of us really come to church every Sunday expecting to meet Jesus in the breaking of the bread? In the proclamation of the Word? In singing together our story of faith? Did you expect to meet Jesus when you got out of bed this morning?

I don’t know if Thomas expected to meet Jesus that evening ages ago, a week after the very first Easter.

But I do know that when Jesus showed up, Thomas allowed him in. He allowed Jesus to change his life and his priorities.

The disciples didn’t go out into the world until after Thomas believed in Jesus as God.

I’m guessing that Thomas was so excited about this revelation that he couldn’t help telling other people about it… and the rest of the disciples followed along behind him, perhaps with a little less courage, but with just as much experience and with just as valid stories to tell.

Their lives had been changed, just like Thomas’ had. The other 10 simply needed a little nudge to get out the door.

Did Thomas doubt that Jesus had been raised from the dead?

Yes. He did. He’s been stuck with the nickname Doubting Thomas for millennia.

But Thomas also made the greatest profession of faith in Jesus that can be found anywhere in the New Testament.

Thomas allowed his doubts to be proved wrong.

He opened up the locked doors and – and he didn’t let Jesus in, because Jesus was already able to get in behind those locked doors.

What Thomas did was to let Jesus out.

He talked about Jesus to other people – he must have done so, or we wouldn’t be here today. Someone made those disciples leave the locked-up room. The turning point in the story seems to be the faith of Thomas. Once Thomas came to believe, the Christian story could no longer be hidden behind locked doors.

Young people, as you are confirmed today, are continuing the journey of faith that was begun when your parents brought you to be baptized. But now, you’re taking responsibility for your own faith journey going forward.

So here is my prayer for you as you take those next steps. May you have a faith like Thomas.

When you see Jesus, may you believe in him enthusiastically!

And when you doubt your faith, may you continue to remain with the church community, waiting and hoping for Jesus to inspire you again.

May you always remember to let Jesus out into the world, sharing your faith with others so that they may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing they may have life in his name.

Actually, that is my prayer for each one of us.

May we live always in the knowledge of the Resurrection and the difference it has made in our lives. May our faith be life-changing for us and for everyone we encounter. May we have faith like Thomas.

And may God give us courage to bring that faith to the world.

Amen.