Open doubt

April 28, 2019  *  John 20:19-31

Today, the Sunday following Easter or Resurrection Sunday, and there’s two things you can count on:  one is the attendance (by comparison to last Sunday) will be low.  Hence the tradition of the Sunday after Easter being coined “Low Sunday”.  Due to the lack of enthusiasm in attendance, many churches observe what is called “Holy Humor Sunday” on this day…funny hats are passed out in the narthex, hymns are celebrated by the playing of kazoos rather than singing….  It sounds crazy but it’s actually a celebration with its roots in early Greek Christianity. 

The other constant on the Sunday after Easter is the subject of the Gospel lesson:  the Apostle Thomas.  We know him chiefly as “Doubting Thomas”, because he doubted the identity of Jesus until he poked around in Jesus’ wounds a little bit, because seeing is believing. 

The more I thought about this, the sadder I became.  What else do we know about Thomas?  Is this all he ever did – was doubt?  Was he no more than someone used to make a statement about faith?  Would I be comfortable with being remembered by an adjective?  What adjectives would surround my identity?  Pastor Tim…which would match up with Thomas’s vocational title of Apostle…much like you would be (NAME EXAMPLES FROM THE AUDIENCE); but that doesn’t capture the essence of “doubting” Thomas.  So, on my tombstone, would it say “Here Lies Cynical Tim”…or “Tim whose facial expressions didn’t know how to use their inside voice” or “Pop culture obsessed Tim”, or “Wore Rock Revival Jeans Past His Prime Tim”.  You get the picture. 

Do I want that?  What would your name be?  How would you go down in the history books?

What’s even sadder is the only mention of Thomas in the lectionary is on this “Low” Sunday!  Thomas is not one of the primary Apostles.  He only shows up in 4 verses aside from today’s lesson, two of which simply list him by name as one of the twelve, then when Jesus announces he will go to heal Lazarus, Thomas says “Oh yes, let’s all go, so they can kill us all”, and the other  Jesus is talking about the way to the Father, Thomas says “No we don’t know where you’re going…how can we know the way then?” (paraphrasing).  The picture I painted in my head was a little bit cynical, a little bit sarcastic…and completely someone I could identify with.  He was a Jewish man, probably from Galilee, whose name means “twin”, yet we don’t know whose twin he was.  In one verse he is specifically listed with Matthew, and in another, Philip.  Lore exists that places him in the woodworking or carpentry vocation prior to becoming an Apostle. 

So we’ve looked at the appearances of Thomas, and we all know what he’s famous for…but what happened after?  We know he was in the Upper Room when the Holy Spirit came, but what then?

Many Rabbinic and historical texts exist surround the continued life of Thomas; some have been substantiated, some have been adjudicated heretical.  The account of Joseph of Arimathea records Thomas as being the sole witness of the Assumption of Mary (Christ’s mother) into heaven; being that we know not what became of Mary at her death, this text remains a mystery.  It is said that the rest of the Apostles were with Mary at the time of her death, but Thomas remained where he was and later came to the place where she was buried where he witnessed her bodily assumption into Heaven.  From the sky she removed and dropped her “girdle” (the rope belt that adorned her waist), which Thomas collected.  It is assumed that the assumption and the physical relic were made available to Thomas directly because of…yep; his doubting nature.  This relic is kept in a reliquary in Italy and is displayed 5 times a year. 

Thomas sailed to India between 43 AD and 50 AD to spread the Good News and establish Christianity to this region of the world.  It is said that he started seven churches, baptized countless families and ordained teachers and leaders.  Some records do reflect his not being alone, which would certainly almost be the case, since Jewish law required two witnesses, and we know the Gospel text of Jesus commissioning the 72 persons to go in pairs to spread the Gospel in His name.  One historian records Bartholomew as Thomas’ counterpart to the East.  Remains of some of the buildings Thomas had a hand in still stand, and scholars agree that he was a grand builder, being a skilled carpenter by trade.

Thomas was martyred in 73 AD, with conflicting accounts that he was either run through by a sword or a spear by the command of an Indian king.  He was buried with an intact spear, which lends most scholars to believe the spear was used to end his life. 

Simply casting Thomas in this shadow of “doubt” is a serious injustice; it diminishes all we’ve heard this morning, and it sets the tone that doubting is bad. 

I don’t necessarily think all doubting is bad.  Doubt can be marred with fear, closed mindedness, pride, and laziness, yes.  Dishonest doubt can falsely claim the authority of reason.  But there is another type of doubt; honest doubt.  The want to believe, but struggling with the hard questions, and the hard circumstances.  The unwillingness to accept the easy answers.  In contrast to the closed, dishonest doubter, the honest doubter is open and eager to go the distance before committing too easily. 

We find Thomas, this honest doubter, “stuck”, if you will.  He just wasn’t able to move ahead like the others.  There’s no evidence here that he actually did touch the wounds on Jesus’ hands, feet, and side; perhaps he did, perhaps not. 

I’m wondering today if many of us aren’t honest doubters…either hiding what we need to move ahead from others, or advertising it openly for others to see.  Mary Magdalene was able to move ahead when Jesus spoke her name.  The disciples were able to move ahead from simply seeing the empty tomb and Jesus alive. 

What prompts us to move ahead?  Remember Jesus never asked for blind followers; all he asks for is a willingness, an open heart, not closed to belief or closed by belief, but an open heart where he can leads us from honest doubt, to honest faith.

Extravagance

5^th Sunday in Lent   *   John 12:1-8

This morning’s gospel lesson captures a significant moment in the final days of Jesus’ life.  Today we hear a story about love that is so incredible it’s extravagant and excessive.  The journey to Jerusalem that was predicted so long ago has, at this moment, become a stark, cold, reality as Holy Week approaches. 

We find Jesus today in the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus; a place of sanctuary, a place of rest, offered by close friends.  It’s six days before the Passover, meaning it’s the day before Jesus would be ushered into the city on the back of a donkey, under the cheers and accolades of the people who would place their cloaks and palm branches along his path.  But before that, we find Jesus sitting close to his friend Lazarus, as they share a meal together in the home he shares with his sisters.  Lazarus, as we know, had been sick; very sick.  So sick, in fact, that he succumbed to his illness and it took his life.  Right away, Mary and Martha, his doting older sisters (and if you have an older sister(s), you know exactly what I mean), they send for their friend Jesus.  They know who he is, and they know what he is capable of, and they know they need him to heal his friend Lazarus, their baby brother.  (Little trivia for you:  French lore reports of Martha and Mary, the wealthy sisters from Bethany, traveled as missionaries to France, and were noted to have been mighty dragon slayers). 

When word reached Jesus, he must have known what traveling to Bethany would mean.  He knew the prophesy better than anyone, and he knew the events on the horizon.  Equipped with this knowledge, he made a decision.  True to self, true to teachings, true to love, he chose to go to his friends in their fearful time of need, despite the warnings of his friends. 

When he arrived in Bethany, it was too late.  Lazarus was dead, and had been dead for four days.  Emotions were untampered and rearing rampantly.   “If only you had arrived earlier, Jesus” they lamented.  When Jesus asked where his friend had been entombed, they took him to the place with the caveat:  already there is a stench…he has been in there four days.  With a loud voice Jesus cried out “Lazarus, come out”!  And that’s exactly what he did…bound in his grave linens, the walking dead joined the living.

What an incredible feat; at the simple sound of his voice, the walking dead joined the living.  Imagine the attention this garnered…and imagine how word of this miracle spread like wildfire throughout the country. 

So, then, it’s no wonder that we would find Jesus sitting close to his once lost friend, breaking bread, enjoying the time they have together.  For while Lazarus had been restored to full life, it would come at a great cost, for no good deed goes unpunished. 

After dinner, Mary goes to the feet of Jesus, lets down her hair, rubbed a year’s salary’s worth of fragrant ointment on his feet, and wipes them with her hair.  Even in today’s culture that sounds bizarre; this would have been compounded in their culture.  Women didn’t let their hair down or leave it uncovered in the presence of anyone except their husband.  So here is Mary, in mixed company, touching a man’s feet whom she is not married to with her hair.  Scandalous!  However, this happens only after she breaks open what we would equate to $30,000 worth of essential oils with which to wash and anoint the feet of Jesus.  This is grand and excessive and over the top and viewed by some as wasteful.  For while Mary is making a sacrifice in the most giving of spirits, Judas makes a snide comment toward Mary’s extravagant oil…could this not have been sold and the money given to the poor? 

We are reminded, though, of the character of Judas, John telling us that he didn’t truly want to give the funds raised to the poor, he simply wanted a fatter treasury giving him greater funds to steal for his own use. 

Jesus defends Mary’s selfless actions, proclaiming she bought the nard (the oil) for the day of his very burial, for you will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. 

What an odd thing to say, but the words pertaining to the poor weren’t original to Jesus; he was quoting Deuteronomy 15, giving instruction that the poor will always be around, and we are to open wide our hands to them.  The words here of Jesus aren’t words of counsel, condemning nor justifying complacency toward the needs of the poor.  The theologian Stanley Hauerwas comments, the poor we have with us is Jesus…and it is to the poor that all extravagance is given.  The church always has the poor in its midst, and always treasures the life of the poor. 

So we return to where we began, with a prelude to the passion.  Mary’s action foreshadows the grim reality of Christ’s future, anointing his feet with sweet smelling perfume in a similar act done to prepare bodies for the grave.  The extravagant giving shown toward the sisters in the restoration of the life of their brother was ultimately the last straw for the Jewish authorities, who plot to end the second life of Lazarus.  Lazarus was of no direct concern to them, and I doubt they even knew his name; but the action of Jesus, witnessed by so many, was one more item on the list of things weakening their power and influence over the Hebrew people.  Their power was waning; the time for drastic measures is now. 

We are told that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend; through restoring the life of his friend, Jesus has, in fact, traded his life for the life of Lazarus.

But before that, we get a moment of reprieve as we celebrate the arrival of Jesus to the city, next Sunday.