Where was Thomas?

Fortunately I didn't have to ask where was everyone else. Normally the Sunday after Easter is a low attendance Sunday but at Bethlehem we had above average worship attendances - WOOHOO!! Though I was a little worried when at 10 minutes to 10 there was the choir and maybe 6 other people in the building.

So my sermon was based on the gospel lesson: John 20:19-31. In a side note on my adventures in Biblical story telling, I did memorize the gospel but was having some difficulty reciting it that morning (probably could have used one more day), including forgetting the very important line "Do not doubt but believe" so I stood at the pulpit just in case I needed to refer to the text, which of course I didn't. Though it was not an accurate telling but at least 80%.

I do apologize, I found multiple typos in my written text which I use on Sunday mornings but that copy got tossed and I need to run out the door in a few minutes so I don't have time to edit the sermon currently. So fair warning, there are probably more typos than normal, but let's be honest, there are always typos in my sermons. Hope you can get past them and enjoy:

Where was Thomas on that first Easter evening? Why wasn’t he with the rest of the disciples in that locked room? Apparently the disciples were afraid to walk about the streets of Jerusalem hence why they were in a locked room. They were afraid for their lives, afraid that they would be the next to be crucified. They were confused about what to do next, their leader of three years was just killed. The stories, the promises he had made them about heaven, eternal life, the Son of God, have now seemed to them to be just that – stories. The man they thought was the messiah had been killed as a political prisoner, as a enemy of the state. And one of their own, one of the people that they considers a friend, a brother was the one who betrayed Jesus, the one who turned him into the authorities.

The disciples had probably been in the house with locked doors since Friday evening. And now it was Sunday evening. That morning Mary Magdalene and some of the other women came to them telling them some wild tale about the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid is now empty and that Mary had seen and talked to the risen Jesus. That Jesus is alive again. And yet they were still in a locked room, frighten, confused, maybe even a little heart-broken. And then Jesus appeared to them. But where was Thomas?

Had he abandoned the disciples? Did he try to catch the first caravan out of Jerusalem? Was he so afraid for his life that instead of hiding he ran? Well that doesn’t make a lot of sense because he came back later to hear the disciples’ story of seeing Jesus. And then he was still around a week later when Jesus reappeared to them.

So where was Thomas? Maybe he had gone on a food run. They had been holed up in the house for three days. Their food supply was running low, so maybe he went to go get some sandwiches, or to the market to buy some bread and a lamb, they would have been half price since it was now after Passover. But it was evening, most of the shops would have been closed, unless he purposely went late in the day so to avoid the majority of people since he was afraid for his life.

Or maybe Thomas wasn’t there because he went to go see the empty tomb for himself? He had heard the story of Mary Magdalene and the other women, he had heard Peter’s tale of seeing the empty tomb. Maybe Thomas too wanted to check for himself. Maybe he understood what the empty tomb meant. Maybe he didn’t see the need to be hidden away because Christ is risen! Maybe he wasn’t there because he was being more faithful than the other disciples. Imagine Doubting Thomas being the faithful one!

Regardless why Thomas wasn’t there that first Sunday, that first Easter evening, later he hears the other disciples stories. He hears that they had seen Jesus alive again. They hear about the wounds in his hands, feet and side. And he doesn’t believe them. But he doesn’t give up on them either. A week later he is still with the disciple, still in that stupid locked room.

But maybe that is why Thomas didn’t believe the disciples. Maybe it wasn’t that Jesus was alive again that caused his unbelief, maybe Thomas’ unbelief was because these disciples had seen the risen Lord and yet there they were in that locked in that stupid room. They had seen Jesus alive again, walking and talking, they had received the Holy Spirit and been given the power to forgive sins and yet a week later they were still locked in the room acting like it was still Good Friday. Their messiah was back, the words he had told them about the Son of God dying and coming to life again has come true. They had seen the living Lord, and yet they were still locked in the room. They had experienced the resurrection and yet they were still locked in the room.

Maybe it wasn’t the disciples’ words that caused Thomas to not believe but their actions. If they truly had seen the risen Lord, if they truly had seen the messiah, if they truly had received the Holy Spirit, if they truly were given the power to forgive sins, if they truly experienced the resurrection shouldn’t they be out there, out on the streets of Jerusalem telling others about what they had seen, telling others how great God is, forgiving the sins of the crowd who called for Jesus’ crucifixion, forgiving the sins of Pilate, the Pharisees and the Sadducees would captured Jesus and sentence him to death? If the disciples truly believed what they had seen, shouldn’t they have been out there telling others and not in the locked room waiting for people to come to them?

Maybe that is some people’s problem with Christianity, why they find it hard to believe in the Risen Lord. They hear the stories that Christians have to say about the Risen Lord, about Jesus in their lives, about what Christ calls us to do. They hear the stories from scriptures and the stories that people claim occurred in their own life that they attribute to the Holy Spirit and to God intervening in their lives – miraculous medical cures, a friend or neighbor keeping them from the brink of emotional, mental or financial disaster.

But yet they see Christians who allow the poor to remain poor, who refuse to not just give money to the panhandler on the street but to even look at them. Christians who allow food to rot in their kitchens each day but never give a spare can of food to a food pantry or help out at a soup kitchen. Christians who want the best medical care for themselves but publicly speak out against having universal health coverage because it will affect the amount of taxes they will have to pay or because it would mean a longer wait at the doctor’s office for them. Christians who talk about how we should support the widows and orphans, and yet they never visit their elderly mother in the nursing home. Christians who talk about the risen Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit but their actions do not follow their words.

And we are no better than those hypocrites, those disciples. I am no better than those hypocrites, those disciples who talk about how great it was to see Jesus but then do not listen to his words. In many ways we are locked in that stupid room. We are locked in this church. We expect people to come to us. Yeah we send out food to Redding Social Services or household goods to Lutheran Social Services. But it has been multiple years since I last served a meal to a homeless person. How about you? I don’t think I have ever been to a nursing home to just volunteer and hang out with the residents. Sure I have been to them to visit someone I knew, I even worked at a nursing home for a summer, but if I ever did anything like that it was when I was still in Girl Scouts. When was the last time you volunteered to care for the elderly or for orphans, especially people that you did not know? When was the last time our faith, the words that we speak, the creed that we recite each week match our actions? Maybe you have done something like this with in the last week but for the majority of Christians who are at church today, this low Sunday, the Sunday after Easter, when the true Christians, the hard core members come out, for the majority of us, our words often do not match our actions.

We are still the disciples lock in a room waiting, wondering and worrying about what to do next. We have seen the risen Lord yet we wait for more. And yet there are Thomases out there, people who are clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, supporting the elderly and orphans who have not seen Jesus, do not believe he is risen, but yet continue to do what they do because they know it is right.

But we have seen the risen Lord, we have received the Holy Spirit, we have been given the power to forgive sins. And that is what we as Christians have been called to do. That is what we as Christians are hoping to do. And we don’t need to continue to wait for Jesus to reappear, for Christ has already appeared to us. The Holy Spirit has already been given to us. We have already be commissioned to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, care for the sick, support the elderly and orphans. So isn’t it time that we leave the locked room and go out to not just tell other, not just shout to others, but to proclaim to others Alleluia Christ is Risen!