Making It Real

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday April 11, 2010, the Second Sunday in Easter.

Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

These days there is a tendency to value learning by experience over other forms. Often this is important, sometimes not so much, other times it’s darn near impossible. This tendency has been expressed by the question, “Why is it that if someone tells you that there are one billion stars in the universe, you will believe them, but if they tell you a wall has wet paint, you will have to touch it to be sure?”[i]

So frankly, should we be so surprised that Thomas wanted to see and touch Jesus? Here it is, right there in scripture, “So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’” This immediately becomes the Christian equal to a “Wet Paint” sign as far as Thomas is concerned. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

It is from Jesus’ own mouth that the word “doubt” is attached to Thomas. This is how the expression “Doubting Thomas” entered our vocabulary. Still, the resurrection wasn’t going to be real for him until he was able to have the same experience the other disciples had shared. C’mon, can we blame him? In his own way, Thomas was ahead of his time, he was told that “wet paint” had come to visit and he wasn’t going to believe it until he was able to touch it himself.

Praise be to God, Jesus offered Thomas just this opportunity. Jesus arrived, offered his peace for the third time since the resurrection, and said, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” So Thomas reached out and touched his rabbi, his teacher.

It makes me wonder, was there still swelling around the injuries he sustained? Were the wounds still damp with his blood? Was there still a feverish warmth in his hands, feet, and side? Thomas touches Jesus and his reaction is more than just the contact, there is a visceral connection. Touching the wounds that are truly holy and in a blessed way still fresh, he responds in an informed yet primeval way. He sees that the paint surely is wet and proclaims for all to hear, “My Lord and my God!”

This is often the place in both the scripture and the sermon when preachers often focus on doubt again. Jesus proclaims to the disciples assembled in the sealed room, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” So often we hear this story as one of doubt, but scripture is not about us, it is about the Lord God. The heart of this story is not the doubt of Thomas, but the generous offer Jesus makes him, the offer to make his faith as real as his touch.[ii]

Again, praise the Lord that Jesus gave of himself, giving Thomas the same experience that he gave the other disciples, all of whom believed because they first saw. In the end, Thomas’ faith is more important than the grounds of his faith. Jesus presents himself saying “Do not be unbelieving, but believe.”[iii]

Of course, as we thank God for these experiences, this is the last generation that will be able to see and believe Jesus up close and in person. The ascension of the Lord will come sooner than later and those who will believe will believe without seeing Jesus in the way of the disciples.

In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” Douglas Adams, an author of absurdly humorous science fiction, wrote that the biggest problem with time travel is not meeting yourself at another place in time, or even becoming your own grandfather. He maintains that any well adjusted family will be able to contend with someone being their own grandfather.

No, according to Adams, the biggest problem with time travel is grammar. How do you conjugate a verb for something that should have happened but did not because someone ate a piece of cake that they should have left well enough alone? Well, scripture, and in particular the Greek New Testament offers just this sort of quandary in our reading today.

Our question is, “What does scripture mean when it uses either disciple or apostle?” Is there a difference? How important is that difference? The answer, it depends. Don’t you just hate it when that’s the answer? In the Greek New Testament and particularly in our gospel reading today, there is a distinct difference.

In Greek, the word we translate as disciple can mean pupil, student, or apprentice. Since we translate Rabbi as teacher, it is appropriate that the resurrected Jesus would call those he met as his disciples. Another definition of disciple means adherent or follower. Since they had followed Jesus in his life and now in his resurrection life, this definition would also be appropriate.

In our reading today and in the gospel of John in general, when John uses the word “disciple,” he means it to describe the followers of Jesus. It is also important to note that John doesn’t use any expression like “the twelve,” or as in the case of this reading, “at most the ten of the twelve since Thomas isn’t there and we can pretty much assume Judas has hung himself by now.” John’s gospel uses this word to describe his pupils; all who follow Jesus, every single one. This following aspect is particularly important.

This “following” aspect is important because where the word disciple comes from a noun that is related to following a teacher; the word apostle comes from a verb meaning to send. Apostles are the ones who are sent by the Lord God into the world to share what they are called to share from the Lord God.

One more time, to be a disciple means to be a follower. To be an apostle means to be sent. To Christians this means being sent by God. In our passage, Jesus comes into the locked room, meets the disciples and scripture tells us, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’”

Jesus lives because he breathes new life into those disciples through the gift of the Spirit and commissions them to continue his work.[iv] Jesus continues to live because he breathes new life into us through the gift of the Spirit and commissions us to continue his work. In the church, like those who have received the breath of God, Jesus sends us into the world to share the Good News of the gospel with those who are thirsty to hear it.

For John, the church’s ongoing life as a community of faith, as the people who continue Jesus’ work in the world, is derived from Jesus’ Easter promises and gifts.[v] As the people who continue Jesus’ work in the world, we receive the Easter promises to take God’s word into the world. As Jesus gives the disciples his Spirit, his breath so that they would have the gifts they need to go into the wild, wild world; we receive these gifts too.

In a 1990 graduation address, Cornell University astronomer Carl Sagan urged Lehigh University graduates to embody what they know about the environment. “Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are by an accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet.” Do something.[vi]

In the same way, these first Christian disciples, these who become the first apostles sent into the world, are the first graduating class of the church. These Christians are given their commission, they are sent to do something. Far more valuable than an Ivy League sheepskin, they are then equipped with the one thing that enables them to do anything; the breath, the Holy Spirit of God.

They will not be able to present Christ to the world in the same way Christ presented himself to them. Christ presented himself physically, bodily to them; this option is no longer available. Instead they, and we, we represent Christ to the world. It is important for us that we represent Christ in the world. It is we who are now Christ’s body in the world. By the word of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to show the grace and peace of God to the world.

In a world that insists on touching a wall that is covered with signs that say “wet paint,” it is up to us to paint the world in ways that people will reach out and touch. This is how we make our faith real for ourselves and for others, by representing Christ’s love and forgiveness in the world. In Christ’s grace and peace through the power of the Holy Spirit, our witness makes Christ real to the rest of the world.

Someone once said “When you ask your lover for a kiss, you don’t expect a piece of paper with ‘A Kiss’ written on it. Description, definition, interpretation, and [forensic] analysis of truth to find out ‘how it's made’ still gives us only part of the story.”[vii] When our faith is real, we go beyond the written word and represent the Living Word. We must become Christ’s body in the world so that others may see that our Lord lives.

Our Lord lives just as surely today as he did those 2,000 years ago when he presented himself before his disciples; when he empowered them with his Spirit, his breath; and sent them into the world with his grace and peace. Scripture tells us that Jesus did many other signs that are not written in this book. It is up to us to continue doing these signs by the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is when our faith is made real that we have life in his name.

[i] HomileticsOnline.com illustrations for the topic “Experience.” http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1207. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
[ii] New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol .IX, page 852.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] NIB, Ibid, page 848
[v] Ibid.
[vi] HomileticsOnline.com, Ibid
[vii] HomileticsOnline.com, Ibid