2nd Sunday of Easter

March 30, 2008


Does Your Key Work?


The state of Missouri is known as the “show me state” - show me and I will believe.

In other words, if you can’t give me tangible proof I won’t believe it.

On the afternoon of Easter, the risen Christ appeared behind the locked doors where his disciples were hiding in fear for their lives.

We can hardly imagine their absolute astonishment when Christ said “peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so send I you”

They saw him, they heard him speak, they saw the nail prints in his hands, they saw the mark of the spear in his side.

Talk about proof of the resurrection!

How could they help but believe.

However, one of them wasn’t there - Thomas - who, from the way he responded, could have easily come from central Missouri.

When Thomas shows up the disciples give the ultimate message of Easter - “We have seen Lord.”

Now, keep in mind that these are Thomas' closest and most trusted friends.

Thomas sticks his nose in the air and says “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.”

So there. I will not believe.

Sounds a little frighteningly familiar, doesn’t it.

I wonder how often we have made such statements about God?

My preaching mentor, Father John Andrew, ironically the rector of St. Thomas Church in New York very aptly describes the scene:

“Thomas will not move an inch until he has not only seen but handled the evidence.
He is not prepared for hearsay.
Personal testimony from not one by ten disciples and the women meet with a wall of stubborn denial.
His faith has been reduced to the quantitative.
He will not believe unless he can see and touch and measure with his eyes the wound damage, explore the wounds themselves and assess from the totality of his calculations the truth that his emotional friends are falling all over themselves in their frenzy to declare to him.
Faith cannot flourish in this straight jacket.
Tie down faith to evidence that is quantifiable, that you can weigh and measure, and when you are done, it is not faith you have but evidence.”
(Andrew, John: My Heart is Ready, pages 131-132)

So, Thomas, who had bravely declared at one point “Let us go also, that we may die with him” refused to believe.

Well, he got his comeuppance a week later when Jesus confronted him.

Please note that Thomas didn’t touch the nail prints, all he could do was stammer “My Lord and My God.”

And then Jesus said “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Dear hearts, let’s be honest.

There is a lot of Thomas with each of us and there is a lot of Thomas concerning Immanuel Church.

Yet, on that Easter, Jesus was referring not only to Thomas but to us when he says that those who have not seen believe, and the key, dear hearts, to our life in the risen Christ is faith.

On this second Sunday of Easter, do we carry the key of faith that brings us into the presence of the risen Christ, a presence that is no less than the presence of Christ with his disciples on that first Easter?

The key of faith is a vital lifeline for us especially when things seem dark, life becomes unmanageable, and we find ourselves slowly sinking into a quicksand of fear, helplessness, and despair.

In today’s lesson St. Peter hits the nail on the head when he tells us that Christ has given us “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials so that the genuineness of your faith - being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Christ is revealed.”

Faith - more perishable than gold - faith that results in praise and glory and honor.

Dear hearts, on this second Sunday of Easter, we must ask ourselves if we have that kind of faith.

Honestly, sometimes, it is hard to have, when the going gets tough, and the quantitative evidence points to a downward spiral whether in our individual lives or as a congregation.

So, how is our faith?

If our faith were tested, would it be pure gold, or would it like cheap brass, and simply melt away.

Once the father of a possessed boy asked Jesus “Lord, increase my faith.”

Perhaps that should be our prayer as a congregation and as individuals in this Easter season.

St. Paul also challenges us by saying: “We are always of good courage, we know that while we are home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Faith, then, is the key to the door of the heart of God.

Even when we are locked behind doors of our own fears, the risen Christ so desires to step into the darkness of our lives and to whisper into the depths of our souls “peace be with you.”

And, as Christ whispers into our souls, our faith will turn to hope and hope to trust, and trust to knowing that no matter what, our lives are in the presence of the risen Christ.

Henri Nouwen once wrote:

“Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness.
Hoping and knowing that there is love, it is trust in tomorrow, it is falling asleep and waking again when the sunrises.
In the midst of a gale at sea, it is to discover land.
In the eyes of another it is to see that you are understood.
As long as there is still hope there will also be prayer, and you will be held in God’s hands.” (Nouwen, Henri: Eternal Seasons, page 128)

Dear hearts, isn’t’ that what Easter is all about?

Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, alleluia!

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