Thomas' Defense Reflection and Poem for 23 April

A Reflection for II Sunday of Easter All Saints’ Episcopal, Southern Shores, NC April 23, 2017 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Acts 2:14a, 22-32 1 Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31 Psalm 16

Thomas’ Defense

Let me start off with a quote from Frederick Buechner; The Face of Jesus;

The earliest reference to the Resurrection is Saint Paul's, and he makes no mention of an empty tomb at all. But the fact of the matter is that in a way it hardly matters how the body of Jesus came to be missing because in the last analysis what convinced the people that he had risen from the dead was not the absence of his corpse but his living presence. And so it has been ever since. 

Let’s use that quote to approach the Doubting Thomas story differently from its usual point that you need to banish doubt. Thomas had doubt; but so what? We all have doubt, for doubt is the shadow of faith. Without a shadow, everything is one-dimensional. Shadows give depth, allowing one-dimensional ideas to come to three-dimensional life. It is like weightlifting. Muscles are developed by adding weight and resistance which brings about growth. It is like study - the only way to learn is to admit I do not know. In life, the only way we are able to enter into healing is when we first admit that we are powerless. Faith grows in the struggle with doubt. Doubt is not the enemy, it is the opportunity to grow deeper in faith. I admit to having doubt only on days that end in the letter “Y”, for each day I enter into the wonderful struggle to find awe in all of creation, to find the living presence of God in my life or, as the writer of the passage from 1^st Peter for today thanks God, “a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection.” Each day I am like the father of the child possessed by a demon in Marks Gospel who cries out, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!” Doubt moves faith from an intellectual assent to some theological principles to the fullness of life where faith is acted out in life, or as the Psalmist for today sings, “You will show me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.”

You know the story. Thomas has a previous engagement – he’s probably in hiding - and misses the first meeting of the Disciples. In that meeting, Christ Jesus shows up and the Disciples marvel at the event. The boys look up to Thomas and tell him that he really missed something for the body of Jesus appeared in the room, where the doors were locked out of fear of the authorities. Thomas says, “Boys, you have got it wrong. I am not interested in a body, I want the wounds.” 

 

I tend to have an affinity with the disciple Thomas, and as I meditated on him, I think Thomas had been mourning while in hiding, lamenting the death of his friend and his own cowardice, but more importantly, a lack of meaning in his life. “Who am I without my purpose, my mission?” He had been with Jesus for years, and he understood that this man Jesus had God’s presence in him and Jesus’ mission had been to show that God was present in all the brokenness of this world. God, through Jesus with the Spirit of the creative energy of God within him, was redeeming all things, giving life to the dead, and entering into the wounds of the world to bring about healing.

When Thomas comes to the next meeting, he puts his fingers and hands into the wounds and claims his meaning in life again. As a follower of this Risen Lord, he is not just to sit in locked rooms ruled by fear but to take his hands which have been blessed by the living presence of Christ and touch the wounds of the world to bring about the healing in which God calls us to be involved - do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

Thomas is a symbol of the church, the living presence of God, that refuses to hide in buildings but agrees to go out into the world to bring to a deeper reality the presence of God to our own wounds and to our brothers and sisters in God.

Today we are taking some time for some good friends to share how they expand their own agendas to be icons of Thomas into this broken world, to convince people of the living presence of Christ. We will also distribute the proceeds of the All Saints After Dark proceeds to help our friends who join with us in mission to bring healing of mind, body, and spirit in our community.

Thomas’ Defense

I have to touch the wounded hands

place my hand into his wounded side

not denying death or prove he is alive

or claim membership in religious bands

but I touch him to enter fully into my life

accepting my complicity in our betrayal

when the world’s pain was in our denial

when we dismissed a vulnerability of life

overlooking preciousness in each moment.

He entered into all facets of life’s messes

placing hands in/on wounds as he blesses,

redeeming all things as part of at-one-ment.

Let me follow him with hands inside placing

entering as he into world’s wounds embracing.