Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Peace be with you!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
Wait… Some of you may be sitting
there thinking… wait… we said this last week. We already celebrated Easter. The
stone has already been rolled away. We’ve heard the Good News. We sang that
song. The Easter Bunny and Easter Beagle have laid their eggs. The Submarine
Christians are back at home, waiting to surface again at Christmas. We ate the
ham. We had the family gatherings. Easter is done.
Nope. Easter
has only just begun, and Spring is finally here. Yes, it’s cold, wet and rainy
and Northern Minnesota has a freshly fallen layer of snow, but we’re here. In
this sanctuary, we’re here, celebrating the resurrected Christ. Hallelujah! For
some of us, it’s been too long since we’ve been able to say that. Hallelujah!
Some of you may be doubting that we are still celebrating Easter. Some of you
may be doubting that Spring will ever come. Doubt. It’s a strong word.
Poor Thomas.
How could he have known; how could he have experienced? The Risen Christ walks
into the room with ten of the eleven, through a locked door and says, “Peace be
with you.” He shows them His wounds, and gives them the power of the Holy
Spirit. Thomas walks in later, missing out on the whole experience. The Mary’s
saw the empty tomb. The other disciples saw Christ and His wounds. Thomas
wanted that experience too. Thomas wanted to experience the Risen Christ.
Do you ever do
that? Do you ever walk into a situation, after a really good story was told,
and you want to know what the story was, but once told, it doesn’t have the
same magic? Did you ever want to see a great movie, but by the time you get to,
everyone else has seen it and no one wants to talk about it anymore? I still
haven’t seen The Desolation of Smaug…
But even
though everyone else has heard the story and seen the movie, you still want to
know what happens. That desire is still ever present in your mind. Doubting
Thomas was not doubting at all. Thomas wanted to experience the Risen Christ,
and that’s it. He wanted a piece of the pie too.
"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."
We all have our doubts, our
reservations. We look before leaping. When we buy something, we generally know
what we’re buying before we actually buy it. We do the research, read the
reviews, and heed the warnings. We test drive cars before we buy them (if they
drive), and we watch trailers before we spend the million dollars to watch the
movie in the theatre. This is called prudence.
This is a wholly necessary practice to do. We
need to be cautious in making decisions. When we take on huge responsibilities,
we have to do our research first. As much as I’d love to wear that stole and
have my own parish in the middle of nowhere, I can’t. I need the education and
the experiences of seminary before I can go out there and finally live out my
vocation. There are times that we need this due diligence for our own good.
When we don’t do the due diligence
and think situations through, problems arise, and are sometimes fatal. In the
early 1970’s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration developed the
Space Shuttle program. The early prototype that was used for test flights was
named Enterprise, after Star Trek fans
petitioned NASA to name the first space shuttle after the USS Enterprise. However, this
Enterprise was not to become the
first orbiting space shuttle, but another test vehicle was outfitted to be a
second orbital vehicle after the first orbiting space shuttle, Columbia. This
second space shuttle was known as Challenger. After nine successful missions
into space, the tenth mission on January 28, 1986 was to be Challenger’s last.
Seventy-three seconds after lifting off the ground, Challenger exploded,
killing all seven astronauts aboard.
After investigating the cause of
the tragic accident, investigators discovered that a faulty O-Ring was what
caused the explosion. This faulty O-Ring was brought to the attention of NASA
before the mission, but in a meeting held before the mission went underway, the
issue of the faulty O-Ring was dismissed. You see, in this meeting when the
faulty O-Ring was discussed, members of the meeting slowly agreed with each
other that it was a problem that could be overlooked. There’s a phenomenon in
communication known as Groupthink, when members of a group start to agree with
each other too quickly, and issues are overlooked. Decisions are made without
dwelling on them long enough, and the group starts to dysfunction by over
functioning. Where was Thomas in the group meeting discussing the O-Ring?
Where was Thomas when the United
States decided to enter a war with Iraq based on false intelligence and
whispers of the infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction? Where was Thomas when the
United States decided to deregulate the banks, slowly throwing us into the
global recession that we’re only just now getting ourselves out of? Where was
Thomas asking, “Hey, let’s look at this here a second. Let’s think about the
ramifications of what you’re saying…”
“Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul
rejoices; my body also rests secure.”
There
may be times when I seem smart, but I struggle in school. I’ve gotten where I
am because of my perseverance and effort, but there are plenty of times where
I’ve struggled in class. You see, There is no way I should be here. Against all
odds, I’m here in front of you, preaching. I’m finishing my first year at
Luther Seminary, and well on my way of attaining a Master of Divinity. I
graduated last year from Saint Cloud State with a 3.18 GPA, a low B average. I
graduated from Morris Area High School 7 years ago with a 2.6 GPA, a straight C
average. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Last week, I was diagnosed with
Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD. I was told that those with ADD often don’t
fare well in high school, and usually don’t enter a 4 year university. If they
do study at a 4yr school, they tend to not graduate. If they do graduate, only
3% of those with ADD enter and finish grad school. But it is possible. I had
faith in myself that I could get this far. My parents, teachers and mentors
have faith in me, and I rely on that faith to keep me going. With this recent
diagnosis, I can label my struggles and rely on the support of others. The
Psalmist writes today,
“Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul
rejoices; my body also rests secure.”
I am secure in my faith, in the
faith of others, and the support we all share. We all need support, so here I
am.
Here
I am, I front of you, against all odds that were presented to me all but a week
ago. For the longest time, I thought it would take me the longest time to get
here. For so long I had been saying, I’m on my way to seminary and I have X
number of years left before I can get there. Now I’m saying, “Yes, I’m in
seminary, but I have X number of years left before I can have my own call.” In
two weeks, that number decreases by one. I’m getting there, and I have to do
Thomas’ due diligence and take my time. I have to make sure. This year has been
a year of making sure. I’ve known for a few years that this is where I’ve
needed to be. I’ve needed to be in seminary, but this year, it’s been a process
of making sure, of looking at Christ’s hands and feet at Luther Seminary. I
needed to “Come and see”, just to make sure.
Seminary
and ministry are elements of life that need to be experienced before you can
know for sure that one can do this for the rest of their foreseeable future.
Sure, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe,"
but I would add that those who “Come and see” are also blessed. Ever since
Martin Luther was able to mass produce the Bible in the common tongue with the
help of the Gutenberg press, we’ve been able to “Come and see” for ourselves.
We’ve been able to look upon Christ’s hands and feet for ourselves.
There are
times when we can’t afford to think. When life presents us with limited
options, we shoot from the hip with the option we think is best. We make a
‘leap of faith’ that everything will work out. There’s no room for Thomas in
these situations… or is there? Thomas was utilizing his faith when he outstretched
his hands and felt Christ’s wounds. There will be times when we need to feel
the wounds, and that’s okay. We need to experience what others have
experienced, for that is community. Thomas was a part of that community of the
disciples, and he needed to reconnect to this community. It was Thomas’s faith
that propelled him to ask to see Christ’s wounds, not his lack of faith.
It all comes down to faith. Faith
is what drove the disciples to the Upper Room. They may have been frightened,
but their faith in Christ held them together in their community. It was Faith
that led Thomas to the Upper Room. It was faith that drove Thomas to ask to see
the Risen Christ’s hands and feet.
It is my faith
in gravity that prevents me from scaling high buildings. I have faith that
Earth is spinning and that our planet is large enough that gravity holds me to
the ground. Does it make me any less of a human being to JUMP every now and
then just to make sure I can come back down?
I have faith
that Jesus Christ died and rose again for my salvation from sin. Does it make
me any less of a Christian if I sin boldly now and then? Martin Luther famously
suggested that we sin boldly, saying, “Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong,
but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the
victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here,
for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however… are looking
forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign.”
For that is the promise of Easter:
That our Risen Christ died on the Cross for our sins, and rose again on the
Third Day. We are saved by God’s grace through our faith. We may need to look
upon the wounds of Christ now and then, but we are certainly blessed if we
don’t. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Look upon the wounds of your Risen
Christ, and belong to this community we call Christianity. For we are defined
as Christians because of this Easter miracle. Jews and Muslims believe that
Jesus lived, taught, preached and died. It is Jesus’ resurrection on the Third
Day that separates from the other two Abrahamic faiths, but unites us as
Christians. For there are many dividing lines that are drawn between Christian
denominations, but this Easter miracle unties us all. So look upon the wounds
of your Risen Savior. Have that communal experience that Thomas was looking
for, and live in the splendor of God’s grace, love and mercy.
I leave you with the end of John’s Gospel. “But there are
also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down,
I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be
written.”
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah.
Amen.
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