This sermon was delivered to the congregation in Holy Trinity, in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 23rd April 2017: by Gordon McCulloch
(A Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Our reading this morning are: Acts 2:14a,22-32 1 Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31 Psalm 16
Please join me in my prayer. Let the words on my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to you O Lord. Amen.
Introduction:
Today’s reading is very familiar to everyone, even for those in other religions, … because the term “Doubting Thomas” is almost an everyday expression, … so in agreement with Callum from last week, to give you something new, … something that you have never considered before, gave me quite a problem, … however, I think I have something for you, but I will need to deliver it in three separate parts. … The first by using an Old Testament approach; … the second by using the more familiar Old Testament approach with Jesus “thrown in”; … and finally, … a New Testament, a version with power.
Old Testament manner
So let us begin in an Old Testament manner, a manner which clearly makes Thomas a failure, … because Thomas doubted the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. … And this was made worse, because Thomas knew what Jesus was capable off; … yet he somehow, stubbornly refused to believe it, and … many sermons have been delivered in this manner of condemnation.
And yet, I have heard other sermons saying we are too cruel to poor Thomas as he did want to believe that Jesus had risen, … but just did not want to get his hopes up, just in case it turned out to be false. … I suppose it is like winning the lottery say, I suppose, … where we would say something like, “I will not rest until I see the money in my hand or my bank account”. … However you look at it from these points of view, there is still doubt.
So regardless of how you see Thomas, the emphases is on him doubting, … and not believing that Jesus had risen, …and I am sure there must have been many sermons delivered over the years with the minister or priests shouting down at the congregation, “you miserable bunch of sinners, you must believe, or you will be sent to hell”; … and we can just imaging those sermons. … And then: the congregation asking themselves, … “how am I meant to believe, and … what exactly am I to believe in”; because you never see anyone showing you how to do it. They will tell you to believe, or that you are not believing hard enough.
It is annoying, isn’t it? … Yet it is very complex subject, but notice the emphasis is on us believing, and this is backed up by Matthew 17:20 which says, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you”. … Eh!
So all you need then, … all you need is this tiny piece of mustard seed faith to move whole mountains. So if you cannot get this tiny bit of faith, you cannot believe; … which means you cannot do it; and if you cannot do it, … then you must be a miserable sinner and therefore deserve to be sent to hell. That is the simple logic of it.
Yet, we are all here today because we are “believers”, and I for one am not going to condemn anyone, but this is the Old Testament way of looking at things, … where we are to believe in God, and where God will sit around waiting on us believing?
As you all know, that approach is flawed, because we read this morning that, “the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews”, … the disciples were locked in because they were afraid for their lives; and that no amount of believing would empower them otherwise.
This simple believing is basically New Age thinking, and there is a book called the Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale which I read many years ago, and I agreed with him, but after reading it, I totally lacked the power that positive thinking was meant to give, … and I am sure that I was not the only one. … Without power, or anointing, we are wasting our time, so I would say, do not listen to somebody who tells us to simple believe; … or as the American evangelists say, “believe and receive, or doubt and go without”. Make up your own mind on that one. Now, let us now look at this same Old Testament approach, but with Jesus thrown into the equation.
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Old Testament approach, but with Jesus thrown in.
Thomas to many people is the definitive everyman, … because there is bit of Thomas in each one of us, and with this in mind, … we noticed Thomas missing a few other things as well, … and what Thomas missed has much to teach us.
And the first thing Thomas missed was Peace, … because the first thing Jesus said when he appeared to them was "Peace be with you”. … Jesus knew they were frightened, he knew they were bewildered and powerless, and so he said "Peace be with you”, and that was to give them a bit of relief and comfort and put them at ease.
Now it is possible, that these disciples were in the very same room as where they had the last supper a few days before, (it is possible); and this room may have reminded them of what Jesus said before he went to meet with his accusers: … “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. … Do not let your hearts be troubled, … and do not be afraid”; … and with hindsight, it appears that Thomas missed all that, … because he was troubled, … that blessing of peace must have went right over his head, because he was not at peace.
Secondly, Thomas missed another “P”; a P for pardon, because after Jesus bestowed peace upon them he said, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; … if you retain the sins of any, they are retained". … Jesus had forgiven or pardoned the disciples of their sin straight after he bestowed peace upon them; … however, he gave them, (and us too of course), a sort of condition to this pardon, because God cannot fill our cup with forgiveness if it is already filled to the brim with bitterness. So Thomas also missed out on the pardon of Christ, because there is a bitterness in his tone, … a bitterness that he did not meet with the risen Christ.
And thirdly, by not meeting with the risen Christ, he missed out on the meeting in the glorified Presence of God, … and that must have hurt. … Peace, Pardon and Presence; … Thomas missed them all, and in their place, he demanded a substitute for them, something which our cynical society constantly craves, … and that is another “P”, and it is a “P” for Proof”. Thomas demanded proof.
And this is why I must conclude that Thomas must be the definitive everyman, because although graced with apostolic sainthood, he is all like us all, … because in our struggle to maintain the Christian life, we all miss out on the Peace, Pardon and the Presence of Jesus at times, and in return, we have all tortured ourselves over Proof.
Thomas craved certainty, clarity, and proof, … and I don’t blame him: because we can understand that the empty tomb, and the reports of his fellow disciples were simply not enough; (they could be a wind up, after all we do not know), and if we are honest, this would not be enough for us either, … because the quest for proof to bridge the gap between us, … and the living Godhead has always been with us throughout the ages.
So, we must ask then, … was Thomas really a disciple, because he was so ordinary, … he is so much like us? … Was he just going through the motions of discipleship? … Well I think not because, we read later in the passage that Jesus did make a point of appearing to him on another day, … and how many of us have experienced that?
[And from the other passages this morning, there is another “P” that I should mention and is of Permanence; because the resurrection of Jesus has demonstrated the undisputable permanence of God: Jesus was more than a prophet, and more than a teacher; He was more than a King; … He is the permanent son of God].
Thomas did eventually get the final word by saying Jesus is “My Lord and My God”, which means Thomas received his request and was satisfied. … Now, all this is very good; but did you notice, the emphasis is still on us. … All the work has still to be done by us. … Does God not take a part in this?
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A New Testament version of the story.
Well, to move on, he does, … so we will now will look at this story from a New Testament version, and I am going to begin with a great saying I learnt many years ago and I love it, and that is … “Religion is about mans relationship with God; where as Christianity is about God’s relationship with man.” … This implies that religion is about what man can do to impress God; … where as Christianity is where God’s impressed on us mere morals. … This is where God stoops down to meet with us mere mortals.
The two homilies that I have just spoken are good enough for now, but they are all about what we do for God; and in both cases, we are simply asked to believe; … I mean, does God sit about waiting on us believing, and then say, “well he seams to be believing enough now, I suppose I better do something”. Naw, … we need more, because we can relate to those terrified disciples in that locked room that day, ... because we know they were all believers as well, and that was clearly not enough, because they were totally powerless to do anything, … and they certainly did not know what to do next, not what to believe in.
But before continuing with our story, let us skip a few years ahead, and consider the fact that the first generation Christians, … unlike us, … did not hesitate to preach the good news of Christ's resurrection, … and they did so with verve and conviction, … so much so, that they converted hundred of thousands of people to this new Christian faith. … So you must conclude that something, somewhere had changed, because we do not have that same drive and enthusiasm, … nor the power.
Yet we know the disciples later spoke with power and authority, but today we read they were afraid and powerless even though they had witnessed many great miracles performed by Jesus.
Peter had walked on water; … everyone of the 12 disciples, including Judas had brought healing to the sick in the name of Jesus; … each one of them had commanded demons to come forth from the possessed, … and many more had eaten of the bread and fish that seemed never to come to an end, … in feeding the multitude.
The disciples had witnessed all this, and so too had taken part, but after Good Friday they found themselves powerless. They could not even look after themselves, … let alone do what the Lord had commanded.
So how did these disciples suddenly become empowered? … Well when the risen Jesus appeared to them, … he blessed them, and he forgave there sin; … and verse 20 of John 20 tells us that … “he then breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit”. … He “breathed on them” on them. … Think about it, … this man who had just risen from the dead, suddenly breathing on you; it is kind of scary, something from a horror movie. But that is what the bible tells us that happened.
But this is extremely important, because the bible constantly refers to God breathing on something, and whatever God breathes on, is well and truly blessed. It becomes anointed and empowered. … And as you know, every single occurrence of God’s breath in the bible is a direct reference to the Holy Spirit himself, … and the Holy Spirit is the one with the power. … Do you remember God stooping to breath onto the clay which formed Adam in the book of Genesis, and then God saying he “was well pleased”. That is only one instance of his breathing, there are many more.
Jesus too, breathed the power of the Holy Spirit" onto his disciples, and with this power he said go and preach the Gospel, the good news to the world. … And as one commentator put it, “he gave power to the powerless”; he empowered them with courage to do his will, … and we all know the hymn which asks, “breath on me, breathe of God”. … We today, desperately need some of that power, but it is power that will only work in doing God’s will through us. … It is not power for us to use for ourselves, although we do grow healthily from it, but it is power from God, for God. … So are we all here this morning to ask Jesus to breathe on us, and empowered us, … to do His will? I will let you answer that one yourself.
I will now end with a quick quote from James Hudson Taylor; the famous Christian missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission; (a large mission indeed), he said and I quote, “I used to ask God to help me. … Then I asked God if I could help Him. … Finally I ended up asking God to do His work through me”. He goes on, “when you come to believe, … that the service is “God working through us”, … you will understand that serving others is the highest calling of all. The truth is not a place where others serve us, but a place where we with gladness, are empowered to serve others”.
Now that is a place where I would like to be. Amen.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that he took our sin and convictions to that cross and we thank you that through him, you are now able to communicate with us.
Father it is obvious this morning that we all want to serve you, but we are being held back by various ailments and affliction. … …
Father we do want to serve you, and we do want you to serve others through us: so we ask this morning that you breathe on us; … all of us, … empowering us to do your will with gladness, … and a cheery heart.
Father we ask that your power flow through us this morning, so that others maybe blessed with your presence.
We pray too for Simon Rundell who helped me put this sermon together by his inspiration? God bless him and his ministry.
We ask in Jesus name, Amen
