Thomas the Hero; John 20:21-31

 

Rev. George Miller

April 24, 2022

John 20:21-31

 

Today is a bittersweet day.

 

After 19 weeks of being immersed into the watery, light-filled world of John, we come to our end.

 

No more woman at the well, no more picking up your matt to walk. 

 

After today we set sail for the Book of Acts and Paul’s letter to Philippi, with so much treasure to unearth.

 

Today we have one last glistening jewel from the Gospel of John.

 

What a jewel it is.

 

In my opinion, today’s scripture is one of the most misunderstood and poorly nicknamed.  Thomas is an unfairly maligned character, because I think Thomas is a hero, and someone we can emulate.

 

It’s been about 10 days since Thomas and the disciples shared their Last Super with Jesus.  10 days since Thomas saw his teacher arrested and sentenced to death.

 

It's been about a week since Mary Magdelene went to the tomb and found the stone rolled away.

 

A week since everyone but Thomas was visited by the resurrected Christ.

 

Imagine what the past 10 days may have been like for Thomas.  How hard they may have been to process.

 

One minute Thomas is watching folk sing “Hosanna!” while Jesus rides into town, the next there are police officers and soldiers coming to arrest him.

 

One day Jesus is turning water into a wine, and then he’s thirsty on a cross.

 

How does one process that?  How does someone like Thomas makes sense that a man who healed could be killed?

 

Thomas is supposed to believe Mary when she says the stone’s been rolled away?

 

He’s supposed to believe some guys locked away in a room saying that Jesus walked through a door and said “Peace be with you?”

 

Thomas does not believe them, and rightfully so.  Would you believe them?

 

If this story happened to you, and you didn’t have a 2,000 year old Gospel, and the letters of Paul, and a lifetime of Christian preachers filling in the gaps, would you believe them?

 

Let us not judge Thomas or weigh upon him a nickname of judgement. 

 

Thomas is a person, just like us, trying to process recent events of a most traumatic kind.

 

His way of choice is through his intellect.  Thomas choosing to seek quantified truth does not mean his faith is any less than.

 

Thomas’ story is rich because it tells so much while leaving room for our imagination.

 

People ask “Why wasn’t Thomas with the disciples the first time Jesus appeared?”

 

We don’t know.  We can guess.

 

Put yourself in his shoes.  He just experienced a community-wide traumatic event.

 

One thing we’ve learned from COVID, is that trauma affects individuals and communities in different ways.

 

During COVID we’ve seen folk be in denial, going on with their daily lives.  We’ve seen people go into seclusion, never emerging from their cocoon.

 

Many of us have been somewhere in between, depending on the day.

 

Perhaps Thomas is the kind of person who deals with trauma by being alone.

Perhaps he felt it was safer to be separated, just in case the cops came for them next.

 

Some people grieve best in groups, some folk thrive by being separate.

 

Whatever the reason, it was Thomas’ choice to make, and he should not be judged.

 

Then we have today’s reading. The gang is together.  They tell Thomas “We’ve seen the Lord.”

 

Thomas says “Unless I see, unless I touch, I will not believe.”

 

Good for Thomas!  Good that he wants assurance and tangible facts. 

 

Good that he has the sense God gave a goose not to go along with mob mentality and to think on his own.

 

Thomas is not about to believe something so inconceivable, so ridiculous, so…. wonderful, without seeing it for himself.

 

This isn’t a lack of faith.  This is the faith of discernment. 

 

This is the faith of someone who likes to process things, who likes to act from their head and not just a highly emotional heart.

 

Thomas is like the Woman at the Well.  He’s not about to get a bucket to fetch water, unless he knows who he’s gathering water for and what kind it is.

 

Just as Martha and Mary go to Jesus to state their feelings, Thomas wants to go toe to toe with Jesus before he believes.

 

Some people find God in a sunset, some people find God by learning how a sunset works.

 

Thomas is the latter, and his faith is no greater or lesser than Peters.

 

Thomas says “Unless I see and touch I will not believe,” and here’s the cool thing- a week later Jesus appeared,

 

and he said “Thomas- put your finger here and see, reach out and feel.”

 

Jesus has no problem doing what Thomas needed in order to believe.

 

Just as Jesus empowered one man to walk and another to see, Jesus manifests to Thomas in a way that offers him wellness and empowers him to encounter God in a way that makes sense to Thomas.

 

How awesome to have a Savior who knows who we are, knows what we need, and is willing to appear to us in a way that we can see, we can believe.

 

For me it may be at the sea, for you it may be a garden, for another it may be a miraculous healing.

 

For Thomas, it was the concrete and tangible that empowered him to believe, and for his faith to be secure.

 

And hear what happens-

 

Thomas says what he requires.

Jesus provides.

Then Thomas makes a proclamation-

“My Lord and my God.”

 

These are not empty words.  This is a not a testimony forced upon him.

 

These are the words of someone who got to experience the Resurrection in a manner that makes sense to them.

 

Nowhere does it say that Thomas actually touched, no place are we told that he reached out to feel.

 

What we do know is that Christ gives Thomas what he requires, and Thomas responds with the most unique testimonies in all of the Bible- “My Lord and my God!”

 

This is the only time in all 4 Gospels that Jesus is addressed as God.

 

These words are said by Thomas, the who was originally absent, the one who needed to process the whole thing.

 

He becomes the 1^st person known to call Christ Lord and God.

 

There are those who believe even though they do not see.  There are those who testify based solely on what they feel.

 

But God bless those who think with their mind.  Thank God for those who experience the Lord through logic.

 

Everyone is unique, everyone will experience Christ a unique way.

 

Since everyone is unique, Christ is made known in diverse ways.

 

Since we are made to be in community, to live and strive together, we benefit when all kinds of people, with all different ways of experiencing faith, come together,

 

To proclaim,

To share,

To show the world,

 

That Christ is not nor dead,

But that the resurrected Christ is here

Forever and ever.

 

So as we bid goodbye to John, may we not bid farewell to all that we have learned, all we have encountered.

 

For the Jesus who offers you the chance to be made well, is the same Christ who will gladly make himself known.

 

Are you ready to see, touch, know and believe?

 

Amen.

How the Resurrection Builds Community; John 20:1-23 and 21:1-14

 

Rev. George Miller

April 17, 2022

John 20:1-23 & John 21:1-14

 

On April 3, a storm came through our county.  The next morning, FaceBook was filled with posts of Avon Park people showing photos of the damage.

 

LarryBob’s neighborhod near Lake Glenada was hit with softball sized hail.

 

I drove to Lake Glenada to see.  It was the worst thing I’d seen since Irma.

 

Branches down.  Shiny sport cars with cracked windshields.  Metal awnings with holes punched through.

 

Homes of the elderly residents with up to ten broken windows.  Blue tarps and plywood covering sides of building.

 

Larry was with a group of men, ranging in all ages, cleaning up.  Debris picked up with a Case Tractor, powerwashing homes, chainsawing wood, walking down the street with leaf blowers.  Women cleaning their yard.

 

There was LarryBob, helping out, saying hello to everyone, checking to see how neighbors were doing.

 

LarryBob not only represented himself, but he also represented our church very well.  So much so that people contributed to our beard campaign.

 

I came to the LarryBob’s community unprepared to see the devastation, but was uplifted by the camaraderie.

 

Something tragic had happened, yet there was this community that came together, serving, fellowshipping, and empowering one another.

 

Talk about wellness; about picking up your mat to walk; about life after destruction.

 

How life can go on by the coming together and not by the tearing apart.

 

Could this be what part of the Resurrection is about, is this an aspect of Easter joy?

 

Lake Glenada’s folks experienced a great storm in the evening, but by the light of a new day, camaraderie and teamwork had come their way.

 

In their unified existence, there was laughter, jokes, encouraging words, acts of unselfishness and generosity.

 

Camaraderie.  Community.  Coming together.  Finding courage to move on.

 

That’s what we’re discussing today.

 

The last time we met was Maundy Thursday.  As the lights dimmed and darkness crept in, the world seemed hopeless and devoid of God.

 

In John’s telling of the Gospel, we see how being scattered and scared seeped into the people.

 

Peter denies being a follower of Jesus.  Mary Magdlene comes to the garden alone.  The disciples fearfully hide out, sequestered behind locked doors.

 

This storm of Crucifixion had rained down upon the world, making everything look bleak and impossible.

 

Jesus, the one walked beside, offered wellness to, spoke with, and showed new way to be a kingdom, has been

 

Betrayed

Humiliated

Shamed

 

Silenced.

 

…Or so the authorities thought.

 

What the Roman military didn’t realize and the Temple Priests clearly forgot,

 

Is that God cannot be silenced.

The Gospel cannot be stopped.

And the Holy that dwelled within Jesus could not be discarded like trash.

 

For though Friday was bleak, and Saturday seemed to last forever, Sunday arrived, and God recreated the world again.

 

One aspect of this recreation the Resurrection caused was a stronger community.

 

In John 20, Mary Magdelene is at the place where Jesus is buried.  Seeing the stone rolled away, she makes haste to the disciples to tell them the news.

 

Later, as she stands in the garden, she weeps similar tears that Mary and Jesus had shed.  Distraught, sad, alone.

 

Then she hears a voice; a familiar voice calls out her name.  She discovers she is not alone, she is not abandoned, but Jesus, her Rabbi, is right beside her.

 

The storm of the crucifixion has turned into the reuniting of dear friends.

 

Later, the disciples are behind closed doors, petrified, afraid for their lives.  Will they be next?  What can they do?  Is their ministry to be over forever?

 

But Jesus appears to them.  He calms their inner emotional storm.  He says “Peace be with you” just as he had offered them assurance when they were in the boat.

 

The Resurrected Christ breathes upon them the breath of Life, encouraging them to forgive, a week later providing Thomas the assurance he needs.

 

In chapter 21, we watch how this rag tag group of men have begun the healing process.

 

The disciples leave behind their fear filled room, no longing hide behind a locked door, and they go fishing.

 

There they are, in public, upon the sea, where anyone, priest, peasant, police officer can see, and they fish.

 

And they are naked.  This seems like such an odd detail for John to mention, but it makes sense.

 

First, their nakedness brings us back to the Creation.  Adam in the Garden, not ashamed.

 

But it also means something else. 

 

A person does not go naked if they feel vulnerable, ashamed, or in fear.

 

Peter’s nakedness can symbolize a newfound freedom, an innocence, a sort of safety that he has felt since the Resurrection.

 

The empire  tried to kill their spirit by killing their King, but since the Resurrection, the disciples have refound their spirit, refound their joy, their will to live, and they have refound a way to be in community.

 

During this moment of bravery and boldness, innocence and nakedness, Christ appears to them by the shore

 

With an encouraging word, he empowers them to pull out a net full of fish.  With the invitation of a loving parent, he says “Come, and let’s eat.”

 

And Jesus, who the world tried to kill, feeds this community of fishers and tax collectors and doubters with bread and with fresh fish.

 

After they are fed, Christ tells Peter to feed the sheep and follow him.

 

In doing so, Christ creates a whole new community that learns to live, lead, and to love by his example.

 

The Resurrection creates a new community where wellness can be offered to all, by all. 

 

Where each person is empowered to feed; empowered to offer wellness.

 

Each person is filled with the Holy Spirit to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with the Lord.

 

For centuries folk have wrestled with the Resurrection, what does it mean, why does it matter, how did it happen?

 

Today, after all we’ve been through for due to COVID, and after what was witnessed at Lake Glenada, the resurrection can be about God creating community.

 

How God can even turn a tragedy into an opportunity for folk to come together.

 

How God can take a senseless, needless, unnecessary death, and find a way to bring about a sense of

 

wholeness, sense of hope, some sense of unity if we are open to it, if we can see it, and if we are able to find a way to leave our rooms and locked doors.

 

The Resurrection may mean something different to you, and next year it may mean something entirely different to me, but today, after last week’s storm,

 

Easter 2022 means, to me, how Jesus Christ, even when faced with death, is able to unite, empower, offer wellness.

 

How thanks to the Resurrection, God remind us that we are part of something greater, bigger, and better than ourselves.

 

For that, let us say, Amen.

Welcoming the Giver of Wellness; John 12:12-19

 

Rev. George Miller

April 10, 2022

John 12: 12-19

 

Over the past few weeks, we’ve discussed so many things.

 

What Jesus said.

What titles Jesus had.

How the Kingdom of God looks.

Not being afraid to feel good.

Feeling good about being happy.

 

Today, all these things come together.

 

Today we get to sing and shout Hosanna!

 

Today we get to smile and cheer, celebrate and welcome,

 

The Great Shepherd,

Sight Giver,

Storm Calmer,

 

Heavenly Servant,

King.

Jesus Christ.

 

After 3 years of ministry,

3 years of mountaintop feeding,

3 years of restoring relationships,

3 years of saying

“Pick up your matt and walk,”

 

Jesus,

Emmanuel,

The Living I AM,

Has made his way into Jerusalem.

 

To face the powers that be,

To experience injustice

head on,

And to rise from the grave,

 

Proving once and for all that

 

The Word cannot be silenced,

The Word cannot be censored,

The Word cannot be scared off.

 

The Word cannot be destroyed.

 

While the world assumed power can only come from mighty steeds and weapons of mass destruction,

 

Jesus Christ shows that all God needs

are branches culled from a tree

A humble donkey

Songs of praise

And people who believe.

 

In a world that assumed power comes

From more more more

 

Jesus embodies

That the Kingdom of God

Needs less and less

 

In a world that says

In order to be successful

You must be eating steak and lobster,

 

Jesus says that your mother’s stew

made with love and

plenty of potatoes

is enough

 

The actions of Jesus today

Shows that

 

Humility is strength

Joy is a balm to the weary soul

 

That songs of Hosanna

Can drown out the doubt of naysayers.

 

Jesus, on a borrowed donkey,

Welcomed with palms

picked off the side of the road,

 

is more King than

Ceasar on a mighty horse,

Pilate with his massive army,

Or any of Egypt’s Pharaohs.

 

Today is the day

In which we join with the

Great Crowd,

 

Of all those who came before,

All those who are here now,

And all those who will come after,

 

To shout and Sing

“Hosanna!”

Which means

“God saves.”

 

Today is the day in which we say

“Do not be afraid,

No matter what happens next,

Do not be discouraged,

By the crosses you come across,

Do not lose heart,

 

Because the Dawning of the New Age,

Is just about to begin.”

 

And perhaps what we can

Love the most

Is that in today’s reading

 

Jesus doesn’t say a single Word.

Jesus doesn’t have to,

 

Because for 3 years

His words,

His actions,

His service,

 

Has said all

That needs to be said.

 

So let us take a cue from Jesus.

 

As Psalm 118 says

Let us give thanks to the Lord,

For God is so good.

 

Let us give thanks to the Lord,

For God’s steadfast love

Endures forever.

 

Out of our years of distress,

We have called upon the Lord,

And God has answered.

 

With the Lord on our side,

What can mortals do to us?

With the Lord on our side,

We can look around in triumph.

 

Blessed is the one who comes

In the name of The Lord,

 

The Lod is God,

And God has given us light.

 

In other words,

Today we are

not afraid to feel good,

And today we do not apologize

for being happy.

 

And for that,

we can say “Hosanna,”

“Hosanna,”

“Hosanna!”

“Amen.”