Rev. Jennifer Whipple
Congregational Church of Brookfield (UCC)
“Show Me the…Marks”
April 19, 2009
John 20:19-31
Acts 4:32-35
Prayer: May the words
of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our minds and hearts gathered
together this day, be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our
Redeemer. Amen.
When I read the scripture lessons for today a scene popped in my mind
from the 1996 motion picture, “Jerry Maguire.”
There is a scene in the movie when Jerry, a big-name sports agent who is
having an almost mid-life career crisis, is on the phone with the man who
remains his only client, Rod Tidwell. Rod
is dancing around his kitchen repeating what he calls his family motto and
making Jerry scream it back to him through the phone.
“Show me the money!” “Show
me the money!” Jerry is so
desperate to keep Rod as his client that he does just that…screaming the
phrase over and over again.
All I could think about reading this scripture account again was a
desperate Thomas in an upper room with his companions and the risen Christ.
Except his scream, of course, would have been, “Show me the marks.”
Show me the marks. Prove to
me you are who you say you are.
Thomas is kind of like Jack from a “Jack in the Box.”
Each year the week after Easter he pops his head out once again to
receive the criticism that makes for his nickname – “Doubting Thomas.”
We have heard the phrase before, no doubt, and we more than likely have
used it at one point in time or another as well.
But each time I preach on this text I gain more and more respect for
Thomas, as more discoveries are made about who he may have been and what he was
doing back in the day. Instead of
Thomas, called doubting, I would like to spend a little bit of time reflecting
on the Thomas who was courageous and bold in the face of the difficulties that
the disciples were facing in the days after Jesus’ crucifixion.
I learned two new things this past week about Thomas – two things that
he did that may very well escape our realization if we get caught up in
reprimanding him. The first one
seems obvious. You see, Thomas is
not in the room – behind lock and key – the first time Jesus comes to the
disciples. You may be thinking, “I
thought you said you were going to point out something new.”
But the disciples were locked away with fear and trembling of what might
happen if they were to be caught and found out as Jesus’ followers.
Only Thomas was out and about in the world – perhaps the only one who
was willing to take the risk of sharing Jesus’ message – or at least of
taking the first step beyond fear and trembling.
He was the only one who was courageous enough, willing to step out in
faith and be somewhere other than the locked upper room.
Second, Thomas is the one who tells Jesus that he needs to see the marks
in order to believe, so it may seem like Thomas’s faith was conditional.
But when you really sit with this passage it appears that, for Thomas, it
was more a matter of making a connection – and for some of us “connecting
the dots” takes longer than others, as you may know.
In fact, Thomas didn’t even need to actually see or feel anything in
order to proclaim Jesus as “My Lord and my God.”
He exclaimed it after Jesus said it would be okay for him to see the
marks of the nails and put his hand in the wound in his side, but Thomas
didn’t actually do those things. He
just needed a few moments to make the connection between what his eyes were
seeing and what his heart knew to be true – the reassurance that the disciples
were not left on their own, to fend for themselves.
Thomas did what any of us would have done – asked for a bit of time to
think things through. And, in doing
so, he allowed for Jesus to impart a blessing that is for each and every one of
us here this day – thousands of years later.
As one translation says, “Even better blessings are in store for those
who believe without seeing.” Blessings
for those like us who now believe without having experienced Jesus in the flesh
but in spirit. Thomas was the only
one of the disciples who was brave enough to both go beyond the locked doors of
that upper room and to share his true thoughts and needs with Jesus.
Jesus could very well have been infuriated with the disciples for hiding
out, or at least with Thomas for needing a second visit and extra proof.
After all, he had gone to the cross for them, and knew in doing it that
he had been betrayed by one, denied by another, and abandoned by all.
He could have taken a page out of Jerry Maguire’s book in another
conversation with Rod Tidwell, where Jerry says, “I am out here for you. You
don't know what it's like to be ME out here for YOU. It is an up-at-dawn,
pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about, ok?”
But instead of getting angry or grumbling all he does is blesses and
gifts the disciples with peace, forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit to accompany
them on the great journey for which he commissions them.
“Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you.” It
seems as though Jesus needed for Thomas to have been away the first time in
order to fulfill his plan. So
even when they are still locked in that room again a week later, this time with
Thomas present, he again proves the reality of who he is and of God’s love –
then continues with more blessing.
Nowadays it seems like we have every excuse to be like the disciples –
locked up in fear and trembling. Everything
is overwhelming – not knowing what to do at any given time on any given day.
We feel like things are out of our hands as wars rage around the world,
as gas prices rollercoaster around, as houses are foreclosed on and budgets
everywhere seem to be in crisis mode – not to mention our own personal
concerns: our own health, what will happen to future generations, work problems,
worry. In the midst of all of this,
how are we to find courage like Thomas, to live as people of faith who have just
celebrated the promise and hope of the Easter Resurrection?
What are we to learn from this story in scripture that makes its way back
to us each Sunday after Easter? Kate
Huey writes in her weekly reflection for the United Church of Christ called,
“Weekly Seeds,” “Whatever overwhelms us, God comes to us in the midst of
our fear and says, “Peace be with you.”
Whatever doubt churns in our minds, whatever sins trouble our conscience,
whatever pain and worry bind us up, whatever walls we have put up or doors we
have locked securely, God comes to us and says, “Peace be with you.”
Whatever hunger and need we feel deep in our souls, God calls us to the
table, feeds us well, and sends us out into the world to be justice and peace,
salt and light, hope for the world. We
can do it, if we keep our eyes open, our minds limber, and our hearts soft and
willing to love.” If we are
willing to share our true selves with God and allow ourselves to truly believe
and be guided by faith. “As God
sent Jesus, God sends us, too, into the world that God loves.”
Here in CT, as we know, Easter can just as likely correspond with what
seems like the 50th real snow of the winter as it can with the
promise of new life, but this year it seems to have worked in our favor – the
immediate world around us giving us a true example of resurrection. So what are
we to do as faithful post-resurrection people in our world today?
How is it that we will show the marks of our faith and our belief in the
Risen Christ. In our Call to Worship
today we spoke words of challenge and commission as well.
Christ lives! Let us love our
neighbors! Let us share God’s
abundance! Let us care for God’s
creation! Let us worship God!
The truth of the matter is that, in my experience of this congregation
and this church, we don’t often sit back on our laurels and wait until the
world’s circumstances and other people would dictate the right time to do
things. This church began an
Anniversary Campaign without settled pastors – the fruits of which we have
begun to see in the changes at the parsonage and the joy we share as we listen
to our refurbished organ and gather this afternoon to celebrate it.
When others would have said, “Wait!’
This community said, “What for?”
We have taken on the challenge of resettling refugee families, even in
times when many in our nation wonder whether accepting people from other
countries into our borders is the right thing to do in any way, shape, or form.
And yet we have responded, and are preparing to respond once again, to
the call to serve “the least of these,” people who are running for their
lives, much like the disciples, and struggling to survive at even the most basic
level.
God calls us, God’s Easter people, to step beyond the locked doors that
fear creates, and to love others and the world even as God does.
To be courageous and active in our faith.
To turn our words and belief into growth as disciples and actions that
show who we are. Today and every day
we have the opportunity to do just that, opening our doors and sharing our
hospitality with those who may be experiencing this day as one of difficulty and
challenge, accepting the call to help in our community with food donations,
litter and beach clean ups. Growing
in our faith through prayer and study – accepting the invitation to Bible
Study or the In-Between times, to a book group or Men’s Fellowship. We
are called to be of “one heart and one mind” like our early brothers and
sisters from the community explained in the book of Acts.
Even if we do not live as they did today, their radical community was
based in a resurrection faith. And
they understood that all things come from God and belong to God, therefore we
should be willing to share generously in whatever way might be possible in our
own situations and circumstances– whether through our time and talent, our
muscle or brainpower, or our money and material goods.
We are called to think creatively about the ways we can serve a God, who
is the ultimate Creator. We have the
opportunities, and there will be more to come. We
just have to say “yes” and see what amazing things can happen. We
are not called to be a group of people who gather together just because it is
the right thing to do or just because we like spending time with one another. We
are called to be a community of faith – transformed by what we hear in the
Word, and called to action. So that
when others see us they know who it is that we serve and who holds the ultimate
claim on us.
So when we are commanded, “Show me the…marks.”
Hopefully our response will be like those of Jesus and Thomas.
Here they are. Examine them
for yourselves, and see that we are who we say we are – a true community of
God’s beloved and courageous children willing to step out in faith – to live
and love and serve out in the world. Amen.
