Sermon - 2 Easter - 30 March 2008

Thomas is, and always has been, one of us. I feel he belongs at St Mary’s.

He is much loved though much derided by his nickname - Thomas the doubter.

Thomas is the one who stands there for the rest of us - in the middle of the hysteria of the disciples and says. “No, give me the proof”.

And in a way, today, the Sunday after Easter in the year 2008, what Thomas says still rings very true.

Last week we rightly sang our alleluias - amazed as the first disciples must have been at the news that the Lord was alive, but full of faith. The church was full, the flowers were lovely, the alleluias were sung with gusto the message was positive and certain.

But it is no bad thing to have Thomas say - Show me the Proof.

During the week, I overheard someone talking about Holy Week here, telling others about it. Trying to put into words what had happened. “You missed a treat, I heard someone say”. And the response was something like, “Well, I don’t understand what you are talking about, but I would like to have seen it for myself.”

Thomas lives.

And Thomas wanted to see for himself.

We call Thomas the doubter and that seems to put him down. Thomas seems to me to be one of the most accessible and most easily understood of the disciples. He wanted to see for himself and so do we.

We call him the doubter, yet just a few chapters back from our gospel this morning Jesus hints to the disciples that he must face something terrible in Jerusalem and sets his face towards the city.

And it is Thomas who set his own face in the same direction and promised the Lord to go with him to the end.

Thomas knew his friend Jesus was going to have to face something impossibly difficult and he wanted to go there. To see for himself. To share in whatever his friend was facing.

Doubting Thomas?

Courageous Thomas more like.

And courageous to stand up to the other 10 remaining disciples and to resist their apparent madness until he had worked it all out for himself. Not until he had encountered Jesus Christ did he really believe. Courageous enough to stand up for himself and his own views. Courageous enough to say no, let me see for myself.

Let me work it out for myself.

And there is a sense in which he gives us the model for what to do in this Easter season - it is great to sing along with the Alleluias on Easter day, but there does come a point when one has to say to oneself - what do I believe about all this. Is it true or isn’t it.

And if you are real person. A courageous person. A person like Thomas, you will probably begin to ask some questions.

And doubt, as we are ever reminded by modern theology is not the opposite of faith, but a catalyst that can get our faith reactions going.

Perhaps you are certain of your faith in the Christian Gospel. Or perhaps you are certain that you don’t believe a word of it. If you have no questions to ask then maybe your belief or certainty is merely dull doctrine of one type or another.

Questions, honest Questions have been a part of the Christian faith since Easter. Not Easter last week, but the Easter that kick started the whole business in the first place.

Last week’s stories were all about disciples running about a garden looking into the tomb for themselves. Wanting to see for themselves what the evidence was that Jesus was alive, risen and active in the world. They too wanted and needed to see for themselves. And Thomas was no different to any of them.

We would all like to see for ourselves. And we all have the right to say with Thomas - show me. If Jesus is alive, then show me.

Thomas wanted to see Jesus. And I guess that if we were to try to work out why we gather here week by week, that might be something that we think that we want too. We want to see Jesus in our midst.

And we are not the only ones. The world wants to see him, needs to see him too.

Needs to see that death is not a full stop. Needs to see that life is possible in the face of tragedy. Needs to see that healing and wholeness and love and passion in the midst of this broken world are all possible. Needs to understand why we can hear the alleluias ringing down the ages.

And needs to see that when we find these things in the everyday, we find that Jesus is walking yet and showing us both his love and his wounds. And if Christ were not risen, we would not be gathered here.

Amen.