Believe
John 20:19-31
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19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “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.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Back in 2013, two British comedians started a new church in north London. They called themselves the Sunday Assembly but they were more commonly known as the Atheist Church. Completely secular, this church community still gathers each Sunday. They enjoy music together - ranging from Stevie Wonder to Beethoven, to Queen. They hear inspiring readings from books like Alice in Wonderland. They hear talks on subjects from psychology to physics. They work together on community service projects and share meals with one another in community potlucks. What began in one congregation in London now includes over 70 chapters in 8 different countries. Obviously, this idea has tapped into a very real, fundamental, and I might add, God-created, human need for belonging, community, and purpose.
There’s actually a lot that we have in common with these Sunday Assembly groups. The church has long known how incredibly important community, wonder, and compassion are in our lives. The church has long known that a meal together can be sacred space and that music and stories have great power to transform and transcend.
Yes, there is a lot that we share - the Sunday Assembly church has even had its first conflict and split - so we even share that!
But at the heart of our gathering here, is this story (and the great mystery) of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that changes everything about who we are and why we gather.
About the same time that the Sunday Assembly church began meeting in London, another local atheist group sponsored an advertising campaign that placed large signs on London buses that read “There probably is no God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life.” (I always laughed a little when this was the sign on the bus I rode to church).
One British author reflected on this ad campaign, pointing out that this message only sounds hopeful to those lucky few people who are sheltered or naive enough to live such easy happy lives with the means to relax and enjoy. He imagined how this message would sound to the majority of humanity waiting at bus stops all over London. “There probably is no God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life” is not a hopeful message to the single mother working two jobs while taking care of her sick mother, standing in the rain at the bus stop waiting with the groceries she could barely afford. It’s not a hopeful message to the 18 year old homesick refugee scrambling to learn English while moving from shelter to shelter each night waiting for his asylum request to eventually be approved in a system completely beyond his understanding.
“Stop worrying and enjoy your life” you say? Seeing this message plastered on buses driving by rows of homeless rough sleepers exposed the emptiness and hopelessness of that message in an unmistakable way.
At the heart of our faith is the story of a God who put on human flesh and dwelled among us. Who knew our pain, who is with us in suffering and even shared in our death, but who also invites us to new life and sends us out filled with the breath of creation. At the heart of our faith is the story of an empty tomb and a risen savior, declaring that light and love and life ultimately have the final word, even when the darkness feels overwhelming. That is much better news than the message on those buses!
But as outrageously good as this good news is, it’s also, for many of us, hard to believe. A crucified man, the son of God, who came back from the grave? The rational side of our brains struggles to comprehend. We want proof. We want facts.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the new movie just out in theaters called ‘The Case for Christ’...which is based on the 1998 book by the same name about a Chicago Tribune journalist who set out to disprove Christianity and ended up being converted himself after putting together what he felt like was a reasonable and convincing foundation of proof for the historical life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His book, and now the movie are widely celebrated in some circles as putting forth a convincing, and thoroughly rational case for Christ.
Now, I’m not going to dismiss the experience of so many who have found great value in this kind of study. But, I’m not convinced that there exists any kind of evidence or argument that makes this story completely rational and easy to believe.
In fact, all four gospel accounts tell stories of those who personally witnessed Jesus’ miracles and still disbelieved, of those who heard Jesus directly, and still walked away. It seems that faith is a bigger mystery than just what our eyes can see or our minds can rationally comprehend.
And so here we are this morning, at the end of John’s gospel after that first Easter and we find the disciples in this place of fear and doubt.
Mary Magdalene has come back from the tomb telling incredible stories about seeing with her own eyes Jesus, alive and well! But Mary’s news sounds too good to be true, and so we find the disciples still full of fear, safely behind locked doors. Doors locked to the possibility of hope. Doors locked to the possibility of new life. That is, until they too see Jesus with their own eyes. Jesus, who despite their locked doors came and stood among them speaking words of peace and filling them with the spirit.
But then there was Thomas, (who chose the worst time ever to go for a walk!) missing the visit from their risen Lord. Despite the testimony of the disciples, Thomas adamantly refuses to believe until he sees for himself the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side, forever earning him the name ‘doubting Thomas’ (which is silly because none of the other disciples believed before seeing Jesus themselves either). But in any case, despite his doubts, Thomas, for some reason sticks with the disciples for another week. I imagine that week was filled with countless attempts from the other disciples to win Thomas over, to make a Case for Christ. I’m sure they told the story over and over again a hundred times. And yet, Thomas could not believe it until, once again, Jesus stood among them, and once again spoke words of peace. Turning to Thomas, Jesus showed him the wounds in his hands, eliciting from him the ultimate faith-filled confession: “my Lord and my God!”
And Jesus says to him, “Don’t be unbelieving, but believing...Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Usually, we have to use our imaginations to find our place in this story, but this time we are located quite directly. We are the ones who must believe without seeing. We are the ones John writes these words for - “in order that we too might come to believe that Jesus is the messiah, the son of God, and that through believing have life in his name.” All throughout John’s gospel, we are called to believe. Jesus performs signs so that the people might believe. He teaches in order that those who hear might believe. He dies and is raised in order that we might believe. He appears to Thomas and the disciples in order that they might believe. “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life.” This invitation to belief is central in John’s telling of the story, in fact, John uses the word for believe nearly 100 times.
But John also makes it clear that we are not left alone to figure it out. We have the witness of Scripture, we have the witness of the community around us, we have the personal experience of the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. We are given plenty of help with this believing business, but still...what exactly does John mean by ‘believe’?
Over the years we’ve done a good job of intellectualizing this idea of belief - as if believing is only a matter of the brain agreeing with certain facts. Pray the right prayer, say the right confession and you are a Christian! Even more dangerously, the church throughout the centuries has used a set of beliefs to measure boundaries, to mark who is inside and who is outside, where doubt or disagreement had dire consequences.
But I’m sure that John had something better in mind when he calls us to believe, and it has more to do with trust than it does with certainty. As much to do with the heart as it does with the brain. And it involves all that you do with your life, not just your theology.
Next week we are looking forward to hearing from Brian McLaren after many of us just read his book ‘The Great Spiritual Migration” in which he challenges Christians to migrate from an understanding of Christianity as a system of beliefs to Christianity as a way of life. Which is exactly the invitation on offer to us in John’s gospel, where we are called to believe in the person of Jesus Christ and not in a list of doctrines. To believe in a person is to be invited into a relationship.
When Jesus called his disciples to follow him at the very beginning of John’s Gospel, they knew nothing about Jesus. Those first steps were taken with no understanding or knowledge, but because something compelled them that they could not explain and had to pursue. Jesus simply invites them to walk with him, to get to know him on the road. To abide with him. And when they have questions about who Jesus is, the invitation is extended: “come and see.”
So here we are, 2000 years later. Many of us as full of faith as we are filled with questions. Many of us remain behind locked doors of fear and doubt. Many of us wishing that Jesus would just come and stand among us as he did for those first disciples. And to us, Jesus extends the same invitation - “come and see.” “Abide in me as I abide in you.” And again, like those first disciples, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into us as he did those scared disciples on that first Easter, saying to us also “as the father has sent me, so I send you.”
We are a people who have been sent out. Faith does not grow behind locked doors searching for certainty. Truly, it’s in our sending, and in our going (despite our doubts), that we truly come to believe, to trust, and to learn what it means to have life in Christ’s name. On this second Sunday of Easter, may we learn to follow. May we learn to leave the locked room in order that faith might become a way of life and not a system of beliefs. May we learn what it means to be sent into the world filled with the breath of all creation. Amen.