"The Christ Came Back" April 23, 2017

John 20: 19-31 In order to begin today, we need to put aside everything we think we know. Because that is the problem in this story, that is the problem we all have with Easter, that is the problem we have with faith. “Putting aside what you think you know.” Putting aside everything you think you know about “Doubting Thomas”. Putting Aside,… NOT forgetting about all together… but putting aside for now. This morning’s reading comes in contrast to the circumstance of Mary, Simon Peter and the other Disciple, that first new morning. Remember that at Dawn, Mary came alone, Jesus had told Mary not to hold him, not to cling to him, because he had not yet ascended to the Father, remember that, and put it aside. These events take place, on the evening of that day, the first day of the Week, when the disciples were Again Gathered in the Upper Room, but without Jesus, without Judas, without Thomas, the place where they had celebrated the Passover marking Freedom through Faith in God, Freedom from the Empire’s Oppression, but here now, instead of an Exodus, instead of a New Covenant, because of the oppression of their fears they were hiding behind a locked door. How often we hide behind our justifications, behind our logic and reason. We distance ourselves from life by the complexity of our arguments and words. When we feel too much, we use knowing. This week the News carried a Youtube Video from a photographic safari in Africa. It seemed a herd of elephants went to a riverbank to drink, and the littlest Elephant-child got its nose bitten by a crocodile. The more the Elephant-child pulled the more the crocodile refused to let go. The more the crocodile bit down, the more the elephant pulled. Ultimately, the whole herd began charging to stomp the Crocodile and it retreated, and the Newscasters reported that neither elephant nor crocodile were harmed. This reminded me of when our children were very little, before the days of Internet, WIFI, DVDs and CDs. One Easter, their grandparents sent us a set of Cassette Audio Tapes. Grandpa had recorded reading several of Kipling’s Just So Stories, about how the elephant-child got its long trunk; and there were also a number of songs, among these was one from the 1800s titled “The Cat Came Back”. Truth be told, the lyrics are horrible! Mister Johnson had troubles of his own, he had a yellow cat that wouldn't leave his home; He tried and he tried to give the cat away, he gave it to a man goin' far, far away. But the cat came back the very next day, The cat came back, we thought he was a goner But the cat came back; just couldn't stay away. A neighbor takes the cat across the ocean on a ship, the ship sank and the cat came back the very next day. A Boy sent the cat to the moon, but the rocket crashed and the Cat Came back the very next day. That then reminded me of this season of Easter. Most often we think of all the parables and teachings of Jesus, arguments for compassion, ethics, morals, righteousness, the quoting of Scripture; in our minds are stories of the miracles of his birth, of changing water into wine, feeding 5000, healing the blind, the lame, those with Leprosy; but in this season, we celebrate throughout the 7 weeks of Easter, “The Christ came back on the third day, they thought he was a goner but the Christ came back on the third day.” They abandoned and betrayed him, arrested and judged him, put him on a cross to die, but The Christ came back on the third day.” They took his body down from the cross and sealed it in a stone tomb, with guards outside, but “The Christ came back on the third day.” Despite the door to the Upper Room being locked for fear, “The Christ came back on the third day.” On the Road to Emmaus, at the breaking of Bread: “The Christ came back on the third day.” They fished all night, catching naught, believing he was dead and gone, “but The Christ came back on the third day.” Time and again in our lives, we believe God does not care, nobody cares, but yet again “The Christ comes back on the third day.” There are a set of problems with understanding our Scripture this day. Problems which begin with Thomas’ name: Thomas, Didymus, called the Twin. The problem is that in Hebrew the name Thomas literally means The Twin. In Greek, Didymus also means The Twin. While there are reasons to question and doubt, the story about a Virgin Birth, there has never been explanation of whose Twin Thomas was; and Dan Brown has not yet suggested that among Jesus’ brothers was a Twin. No, I think perhaps, what this is saying is that Thomas was part of two Communities. Communities are more than neighbors, friends and colleagues, they are the group which gives you identity. Our birth community establishes for you, our sense of right and wrong, and good and evil, hopes and dreams. By being part of the Church, baptized and claimed, you are part of the community we call the body of Christ. Thomas was one of the chosen twelve disciples, and also one of a group of realists, pragmatists who struggled to know and understand and explain. They believed in a duality to the universe, that there was this life, this reality that was evil, and a resurrection that was perfection. There are two other references we have to this disciple: first when Lazarus had died, saying “If he has only fallen asleep, he will recover.” Jesus told them plainly “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.” Thomas said to the other disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” And at the Table, when Jesus said “Believe in God, believe also in me! In my Father’s house are many rooms, I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.” And Thomas replied: “Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?” To which Jesus replied, “I am the way and the truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by me. If you had known me, you would have known the Father.” Thereafter, at the Last Supper, the Arrest, the Crucifixion, Thomas is not named. I believe that on that night when all the disciples abandoned Jesus, when Judas betrayed Jesus, when Peter denied Jesus, Thomas gave up. Gave up all faith in Jesus, gave up being part of the community and went to join the realists for his community. When the resurrection happened, when Mary and Peter and John went to the Tomb, Thomas was not there. When the Risen Christ appeared to the others, the Bible reports: “Thomas was not with them.” I believe that’s a loaded statement, that he was no longer part of the community. But a week later, he was there when Christ came to them, and here Christ offers the most realistic defense of faith. At times, we all question and doubt, but of all things Jesus offered: “Here are the wounds of my suffering, put out your finger and feel the holes of the nails, the wound of the spear, do not be faithless, but believing.” At which, Thomas is no longer identified as The Twin, because he declares what no one before had said: “MY LORD & MY GOD.” In the Roman Empire, only One Authority could be called LORD, Caesar. In Hebrew, only God could be called God, to name anyone or any other god this was blasphemy and idolatry. But Thomas’ pragmatic declaration is what all of us have sworn in Baptism and Confirmation, that “Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior.”