Second Sunday of Easter

As an imaginative child, I always wondered about the penultimate sentence in this passage. This is not the only time in the scriptures where the author effectively writes, 'there is more to the story, but this was all we could fit.' The authors of Kings and Chronicles do that often, along with some of the other gospel authors. This is how we explain some of the variances in the different stories, different authors heard different stories, different authors thought certain stories were more important than others, and so on.

Speaking of which, this story of poor "Doubting Thomas" is only found in the Gospel of John. While the other gospel authors share that many of the disciples did not believe Jesus was risen in the first hours or days of Jesus' resurrection, the author of John only shares this story. One of the ways in which this story has power is that it acknowledges doubt directly. In the other gospels, the disciples don't believe until they see Jesus, but no one mentions their doubt. Yet, we know that acknowledging an emotion is important work in moving forward.

Doubt in of itself is not a bad thing. Doubt allows us not to be completely gullible and is helpful in times of discernment. Doubt in some way is a true precursor to faith because if we are basing our faith on facts, then it isn't faith at all. In our passage for today, Thomas and Jesus confront the reality and blessing of the moment in their exchange about doubt and belief.

Doubt is not the only emotion we need to address this Easter. With the Pandemic going on, we all have emotions we are trying to deal with, and sometimes don't want to acknowledge. Doubt, grief, anger, fear, worry, disgust, or maybe even relief or joy or other emotions which perhaps don't feel like emotions we should have at the moment, but they are things we will have to acknowledge in order to move forward.

On Facebook I have seen a lot of my colleagues start to name things they miss right now about church life and so forth and I started to feel bad because I don't miss all the same things as they do. But then I have had different experiences in my life and I am a different person. So, In order to be truly honest with myself during this time I started page in my journal here with two lists on it. Things I actually miss right now and things I don't miss right now. And part of my work has been thinking about how to move forward without some of the things I don't miss about life before the pandemic. 

Jesus is calling us into a new reality, and now is a time we have a moment to think about what that new reality really could be. We are going to be faced with options when we start to return to our old abilities, and not all of our old habits are perhaps healthy or necessary in the future. God may be working for the best during this time of hardship, to test or grow or allow us to see new things which we have an ability to change in the future.

After a month of shutdowns and social distancing, we all have our doubts about what life will look like moving forward. And while we have some time before it will return to any semblance of normal, we are able to start imagining what God has in store for us for good. While we know the stories of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday do not look like they are going to end well, we also know what the end is, an amazing turn around, a huge surprise (despite being told ahead of time it was going to happen). We know that Easter is coming every year, even when we get caught up in the terrible stories of the betrayal and crucifixion. The same is true for us in our own lives. We tend to get caught up in the terrible stories of our lives. We get wrapped up in the betrayals and the pain and the sorrow, so that even if we know there is going to be an Easter, something good is going to come out of what we are experiencing, we forget and Easter is a surprise all over again.

Whether we can see it or not right now, God is calling us into a new Easter. There will be good things which will come out of this time of pain and suffering. God walks with us through this sorrow, even as Jesus walked through the terrible stories of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. As we keep walking, we will find Easter. Waiting for us, whether we believe it or not.

We are in the season of Easter, the season of impossible things. Jesus invites us forward into a new world, a new reality. One in which God makes the impossible, possible; the ordinary, extraordinary; and where there are so many good stories, they can't all be told, some of them just have to be believed.

Amen.