Hello,
In the Lutheran church, as in a whole bunch of churches, the Gospel
reading for the Sunday after Easter is the story of “Doubting Thomas”. The story begins with the disciples
gathering in a locked room for fear that they, too, might wind up on a cross. No wonder they were scared to death
when they saw that someone had found them. Their fears, however, faded when the man showed them nail
wounds on his hands and a spear wound in his side, wounds which gave away his
identity. It was Jesus.
When they found Thomas, who wasn’t with them in that room, Thomas
possessed no greater doubts than they had held, and he asked for nothing
greater than what over came their doubts: Jesus’ wounds that he had incurred
upon the cross.
I don’t know why those who pick the scripture lessons to be read each
Sunday picked the “Doubting Thomas” story to be read the Sunday after Easter,
but if I was to guess I would say it is because doubt tends to be the
preliminary response to the story of Jesus’ resurrection: the women who looked
into the tomb initially had fear (a cousin of doubt), the disciples who heard
their story according to Luke thought it to be an “idle tale”, the disciple who
gathered in that upper room in fear, and Thomas who was told the disciples’
story……all initially held doubt….and maybe you, too.
There’s no denying that on the face of it, the story of Jesus’
resurrection carries with it great implausibility. Such things simply do not seem to occur in the experience of
our lives, and the painful things that we all experience do seem to occur with
far too much regularity. Did Jesus
really rise from the dead?
Far from chastising those who responded with doubt, Jesus invited
them…he invited them to eat with him, he invited them to touch his wounds, and
he invited them to see things differently….to see things not only through their
eyes, but through divine eyes….eyes of such ultimate love and mercy that the
implausible might be turned into the believable.
Christians gather for worship on Sundays, re-marking every week the
Sunday on which Jesus stepped out of that Easter tomb. Every Sunday is meant to be a mini-Easter,
a day that is not necessarily the gathering of the believers, but instead the
gathering of the invited….those who are invited to hear the resurrection story
and encounter the one thing that transforms plausible doubts into life changing
faith: Jesus cross-born wounds.
Every Sunday when we come to the altar we receive a piece of bread and a
sip of wine, given with the promise of Jesus, “This is my body, given for
you. This is my blood shed for
you.”
And who is the “you”? It is
the “you” who has been invited to his table…not because of what you find
yourself believing, but the “you” whom God wants to empower you to believe in
the unbelievable depth of God’s love and mercy for you.
I am convinced that doubts do not exclude us from Jesus’ love and mercy,
they never have. Rather they are
the very thing that draws Jesus to us with immeasurable love and mercy.
You are welcome….no….invited… every Sunday…doubting or doubtless to the
place we call “church”…invited not be me per se, but by Jesus who with his
cross-born wounds hopes to transform an implausible story into a dynamic, life
changing faith. Not for faith’s
sake, the church’s sake, or even for Jesus sake….but for your sake.
Fellow doubter….hope to see you at Jesus’ table on the next mini-Easter,
this Sunday.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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