|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Acts 2:14a, 22–32 |
|
1 Peter 1:3–9 |
John 20:19–31 |
The lessons after Easter remind us that the meaning of resurrection was not immediately clear, and did not promise the disciples the permanent exhilaration of a mountain top experience, All the gospels report resurrection appearances of Jesus, but they don’t match up with each another. Each Gospel editor seems to have been given a distinctive strand of the tradition. Even when we take all the resurrection appearances together, the realization that Jesus was alive and had risen from the dead was very definitely a gradual process.
From today's Gospel, it is obvious that the implications of Easter are just beginning to be apparent. There is a promise of more astonishing signs and revelations to come. For the moment, many of the disciples are back together, but they are behind locked doors, and they continue to be very much afraid. Jesus does come among them, and their spirits are lifted, but when his presence is no longer sensed, plenty of questions still remain.
Thomas has been away. He returns and joins fellow disciples who share the news that they have experienced Jesus’ living presence. Yet Thomas readily senses an ambivalence among them that only serves to raise questions about the reality of the resurrection for himself. Thomas is honest enough to acknowledge that he must deal with his own ambiguity. It is a week later, that he then experiences the presence of the living Christ as he is together with another gathering of disciples. Thomas knows that Jesus’ presence is real, but it is not like a sudden flash of lightening that banished or denied all his doubts and fears.
Jesus never reproves Thomas for not being one of the first witnesses of the resurrection. Jesus never says to him "Well, if you had been here instead of out taking a walk around the Mount of Olives, you would have been spared all your doubts." If anything, Jesus says, "Blessed are those who seem to be on the outside.” Both before and after the resurrection, Jesus consistently reached out to outsiders and welcomed them in. I suspect Jesus is also telling the first disciples, “Make sure that your initial euphoria or your new found joy does not belittle or add to someone else's' struggle to sense what you already have come to believe.”
The Easter season is not like the conclusion of a television series, tying up all the loose ends, and explaining all the mysteries and contradictions of the living Christ among us. Easter inevitably sends us from whatever comfortable and cozy spots we have, to outsiders, and always keeps before us those who have doubts and are still waiting and wondering. In one sense Jesus would never have locks on any doors in the community of faith.
Thomas is the disciple who reminds us that Easter does not just call us to gather and rejoice in the warmth here inside, but to have some concern and patience for those who are still looking for signs of new birth. Easter, like spring, is sometimes delayed and halting.
In these weeks when the young morning sun seems to warm the air, I want to drop everything and head out fishing. Thomas is whom I'd choose to take along as a fishing companion when a benevolent sky can quickly be covered by hostile clouds, bringing a gale of icy snow, causing you to wonder why you ever ventured out so early in the season. Thomas is the one who would understand one’s complete lack of success. Thomas would approve if you wished to move on to a more sheltered spot, not because you think there are any fish there, but just because it is more protected from the wind, and there are some nice logs to sit on while opening a thermos of coffee by a fire. Thomas would understand if cooking a hot lunch under a grove of evergreens suddenly became more attractive than casting over the water and if things got too bad, the tiny local restaurant in town would be ok for a meal, and a small motel down the road would be fine for a night rather than camping in a frigid tent on the shores of a lake.
Thomas is the saint for those of us whose strongest virtue is neither patience nor prudence. He is for those of us who are sometimes impulsive, and sometimes feel left out. Thomas is the guide for us who experience faith as a evolving course complete with some ups and downs. and stalls and discouragements. Thomas would never have made fun of my slowness at discovering what many people around me already knew. Thomas would have understood those of us who live in upstate New York, who will never take early signs of spring as definite assurance that it will never revert back to winter. Nevertheless, I think Thomas would have really enjoyed living here. Hence Thomas is really the one tough and deserving enough to be the disciple for upstate New York, and is why it is a blessing his memory is honored right after the euphoria of Easter Sunday.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
