+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

It’s been just one week since Easter Sunday, and there are six more weeks of Easter which lasts until the Feast of Pentecost, this year on May 11^th. 

Except for next week, when the Gospel Reading is from Luke, our scriptural diet for the Seven Weeks of Easter this year, in the “A” Lectionary Series will be: First Reading: Acts of the Apostles; Second Reading: First Letter of Peter: Gospel Reading: Gospel of John (except for next week when the reading is from Luke, the famous story of Jesus appearing to the two men on the road to Emmaus).

So, go ahead and read those three books and you’ll be prepared for the stories that will come to us in the Season of Easter.

But this morning we have in our midst the story we have all come to know as “Doubting Thomas.”   It only appears in the Gospel According to John, written near the very end of the 1^st Century, 60 or so years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

The story comes in two parts, it’s another One-Act Play friends; the Gospel of John is full of them.  Here’s the One Act in two parts:

Part I

The same night after Mary Magdalene claimed to have seen the risen Jesus and talked with him, the frightened disciples secured themselves in a room behind locked doors.  Why?  They are fearful that the same people who had caused the death of Jesus would come for them as well. 

Gathered in fear and confusion, they are behind locked doors waiting, and in their midst, somehow, Jesus appears.  There he is, and what are his first words?  “Peace be with you.” 

Not anger … you left me down,

Not anxiety … I thought I could count on you,

Not fear … you better watch out for those occupying soldiers who took me to the cross, the same could happen to you,

But peace …

… the very words that we say to each other in worship, every week, every Sunday, every Eucharist:  “Peace be with you.”

Then Jesus offers the breath of Spirit (it’s all like a miniature Pentecost scene isn’t it?), then Jesus sends them on a mission, a mission of peace (interesting) beyond the locked doors … and on that Spirit-filled mission of peace,  Jesus talks about forgiveness, that thing in the church that is more difficult to talk about than anything else … forgiveness.  I like Eugene Peterson’s translation of Jesus words here:

“If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good.  If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”[1]

Peace be with you, the Father sent me, I send you and …  “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good.  If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”

That’s the end of Part I.

Part II, one week later …

Thomas, we are told, missed the whole thing.  He was off doing what?  Who knows … getting some feta cheese, or maybe doughnuts … it’s not important.  For the story to be the story, Thomas can’t be there, at least not at first … and so in John’s telling, he isn’t.  Thomas needs to see for himself.

But one week later, same scene.  Disciples.  Locked Doors.  (Haven’t they learned?) Ah, but Thomas is now present.  Jesus appears again.  And … he says the same thing, “Peace be with you.” (We’ll come back to that.) 

Then he finds Thomas and says, “You want proof?  Take a look.” Thomas does, he believes, and the author of John ends the One Act Play with a little explanation, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  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.”

Fade to black.  End of Story.

Well not really the end, because the purpose of this story in the life of the church, from that 1^st Century, down through the next 20 centuries, is to pass along the primary teaching of Jesus, from one generation to the next, from parent to child, from church elders to church youngers, from one person to the next … (that is what we mean by mission after all … pass along the story, tell the story) … and what is it?  Peace be with you.  Go and tell that to everyone you know.  And by the way, be forgiving.

You see so-called Doubting Thomas is in the story to show us that Thomas, like us, got into the mix with everyone else.  His need for seeing proof did not stop him from becoming one of those peace-making, story-telling, everyone-forgiving disciples.

Ah, but we are so afraid of doubt, or the need to investigate.  I’m often told, “Oh Pastor, I wish I had your faith!”  And I frequently answer, “I wish I had my faith, too!”  Doubt and Faith go together, they live together, they are constant companions on the road of life.

And when they don’t, we’re in trouble.  Someone said once, “Too often we close our minds to safe guard faith.”  We don’t want to look at the truth, because looking at the truth might call into question our belief, our highly held, precious to us stuff that we know for sure.

It’s like in the movie, Men in Black, where the character played by Tommy Lee Jones says to the character played by Will Smith after an encounter with aliens in New York City, says: “Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.”

Or, as someone else said, “When truth and belief come into conflict, it is better to change one’s belief.”

Thomas was certain that Jesus was dead for good, it was all over, there was nothing more to be done.  And then bang … new information, and Thomas changes his belief.  And, if you believe the legends, went off to India and started a whole branch of followers of Jesus there.

But in any case, instead of remaining shut up in a locked room with a locked mind, he allowed himself to be transformed by the resurrection, he found, that is, the gift of new life.

The same is true for us, or can be … that’s the point of today’s Story.  We have a choice of being locked up with our misinformed but very safe and secure thoughts and ways of life, or we can be set free to spread the word of Peace and Forgiveness and in so doing bring healing to the world, and those who live in it.

It’s never wise to end a sermon in the way I’m about to, but since I’m going to take up the discussion of all this again next week, in a continuation, let me just do it:

“Last week marked the 5^th anniversary of the United State’s invasion and occupation of Iraq.  It will take a long time to learn whether Iraq evolves into the first democratic government among the 22 Arab states, or disintegrates and destabilizes the Middle East even further … but this much is clear, after five years of war, the human toll has been catastrophic, the economic costs have been out of sight. And there seems to be no way out, and no end in sight.  The calculations of the war are something like $275 million per day, totaling somewhere around $500 billion.  Our Defense Department counts 4,000 American soldiers dead, 60,000 injured.  Rates of suicides among veterans of the Iraq War are climbing. 

And, knowing how many Iraquis have died is difficult, but some suggest at least a million have died, and four million have been made refugees.  As in all modern wars, innocent civilians have suffered the most.

So, a question based upon today’s gospel, “Peace be with you, Be filled with Spirit, Tell the Story, Forgive one another” might be: What might our world look like today if we followers of Jesus influenced our leaders to have instead put that same $500 billion in the Muslim world for health care, hospitals, schools, electricity, enterprise, and culture? … or spent that same money on our own citizens to help those with no health insurance, lift those in poverty, find new sources of renewal energy, invest in schools and education, and retain displaced workers suffering in a global economy?”[2]  Just some thoughts of how the Gospel that we hear on Sunday might have something to do with the Gospel we are called to live out faithfully the rest of the week.

How does this end?  And more importantly, how can we make it end?  As believers, how can we turn war into peace, anger into love, despair into hope, death into resurrection.  What can we do, what are we called to do?

The answer is informed by how followers of Jesus … listen to Jesus and follow Jesus and whether we take seriously the one who comes into locked rooms with the message of Peace, Mission, and Forgiveness.

To be continued …