Being married to a lawyer, strange things come up in our dinner conversations… like the time that the FBI delivered money in a brown paper bag to Walter’s client who was an informant on drug dealers and corrupt law enforcement officers smuggling along the coast of Georgia…. Or his dealing with the antique and art dealer Jim Williams who was the focus of the tell-all book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Or even the time that he got an Innocent judgement for a bar waitress after she killed her boyfriend when she shot him between the eyes in the darkness of her trailer! Yes, he has some amazing stories.
And somewhere among the many tales and lessons he has told me…was his telling me about how inaccurate eyewitness accounts of crimes can be. Yesterday, I found an article in Science magazine that makes a point about evidence and proof. In 1984, Kirk Bloodsworth was convicted of the vicious murder of a nine year old girl and was sentenced to the gas chamber — an outcome that rested largely on the testimony of five… yes, five eyewitnesses. After Bloodsworth served nine years in prison, DNA testing proved him to be innocent. Such devastating mistakes by eyewitnesses are not rare… according to a report by the Innocence Project. The Innocence Project researchers have reported that 73% of the 239 convictions overturned through DNA testing were based on eye witness testimony. One third of these overturned cases rested on the testimony of two or more mistaken eyewitnesses. How could so many eye witnesses be wrong?
While evidence is clear that eye witness accounts are very inaccurate, they still continue to be used as powerful evidence in court. So maybe this is why poor Thomas… who has been incorrectly dubbed as doubting Thomas for hundreds of years…. Was not so wrong to ask for evidence… empirical evidence that his Lord was really alive and walking around …and not depend on the eye witness account from others. He was not doubting Jesus but knew that he needed to see for himself the risen Lord before he could testify to others what he knew with accuracy and truth. He needed to see and hear and be in Jesus’ presence himself.
But today’s readings have a much bigger story to tell than whether Thomas was a doubter or a believer. It is a story of the gifts that Jesus gave his followers… gifts that would comfort them, give them purpose to keep going, and then provisions for their journey.
So let’s go back to the beginning of our gospel reading from John. The disciples have gathered in their hide-away room … disturbed, confused, and fearful. The events of the last week had overwhelmed them. The Bible says that they were filled with fear. The Greek word used here is photon from which we get the word phobia. A phobia is an irrational and unthinking fear… bordering on terror. Imagine these disciples, gathered in the upper room behind locked doors trying to decide what to do. Their world had been turned upside down. They had left their families, their jobs, their friends… everything that they knew and was of comfort to them.. to follow this charismatic healer/preacher. And within a day of entering Jerusalem in triumph amid cheers and shouts of Hosanna! Save us!… Christ was betrayed, scourged, and murdered before them. The man who knew of things and did things that were beyond the disciples conceptual understanding, was killed .. along with his promise of paradise and glory and peace. The movement had come to an inglorious confusing halt…. Leaving behind a group of followers who were fearful and confused and inept with what to do next… trying to make sense of all that had happened and to make decisions on what to do next.
And as they sat… or stood… we are not told which…. The risen Jesus himself came into that locked room with the answers. He brought them what they needed to believe and to recover and to move forward. Jesus came to them in the midst of their fear and stands among them. And the first words out of his mouth were Peace be with you.
In Hebrew the word for peace is Shalom which means “completeness, welfare, health.” It is a state in which everything is as it should be. In Greek the word for peace is Eirene which in this case means “harmonized relationships between God and humanity” (Vines Expository Dictionary). Jesus comes into the midst of these most INharmonic, INcomplete folks to give them the gift of being at peace with themselves, each other and with the world.
This is the peace that Paul calls, “The peace that passes all understanding.” We use this phrase in our daily office and in our Mass as a reminder of this relationship with God. The celebrant says, The peace of the Lord be always with you. And our response …. And also with you. And Deacon John dismisses us with the words, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” We remind each other of the peace that Christ has given to us…. Just as he did in that upper room.
Next Jesus gave purpose and direction to these lost and confused disciples… a reason to keep going. In vs. 21 he says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” They may have thought that Jesus’ and their ministry had ended with his death… but Jesus lets them know it is just beginning. He came to them and showed them his wounds, not to prove who he was but to show them who THEY are and what lay ahead… Now his words from the last three years begin to come together to make sense. Words like “take up your cross and follow me,” and “losing one’s life for the Gospel.” They are being told that they will be following Jesus and the way of the cross… even if it means their death.
And finally Jesus gave them provision for their journey: He breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And with that, Jesus gave them the ability to heal and forgive others of their sins.
Jesus gave them these three gifts: peace, purpose and provision to continue the calling that they had left their livelihood and family and friends to answer. And it is the same peace, purpose and provision he has given us.
Just a few days ago we saw Peter deny even knowing Jesus out of fear… today we see 12 disciples huddled together behind locked doors out of fear of the Romans. And yet, once Jesus breaths the HS into them, we see them traveling the entire Roman Empire preaching the gospel. Only one of them died a natural death. They knew what they were facing to follow Jesus. And yet, Their fears were put to rest when they were filled with the holy spirit that gave them the determination… the fire… to testify to not just what they saw but what they KNEW.
In our reading from the first of several letters by John the Evangelist… one of many readings we will hear throughout Eastertide…. John testifies to what has been seen and heard and understood. He connects with the senses of understanding: He declares to his readers about “What we have heard…. What we have seen…. What we have touched…. What has been revealed to us…..Concerning the fellowship with the Father and his son Jesus Christ.
This is the reason that our sacraments of baptism and communion are so powerful. We feel the presence of God when we hear the words of institution, when we hear the pouring of the baptismal water, when we taste the bread and the wine, when we touch the cup. Not just seeing, but experiencing.
John refers to fellowship with God… the same fellowship that is described by the Greek word I mentioned earlier… Eirene… peace…having a harmonious relationship with God. John says that we cannot have this relationship with God if we walk in darkness. He says in his epistle that if we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship … Eirene…with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.
So the homiletical question is what does this mean for us… this Eastertide…. Just days after the resurrection and weeks before Christ returns to the Father?
Sometimes I give titles to my sermon. This one I titled “Practical Thomas” because I wanted to stress the point that Thomas was not a doubter but a thinker. He was someone who wanted facts to make good decisions. You know, he really would make a GREAT Episcopalian! We too are a group of analytical thinkers. We want to weigh evidence, do the research, apply basic logic to all that we believe. And evince and proof we do have. We experience the Risen Christ in our Eucharist. We hear Go’s voice in our meditations and prayers. We see God in everyone we meet. We feel God’s presence always. And we trust Thomas and the other disciples we questioned and then knew with great grace… and we say “My Lord and my God!” Blessed are we who have not seen Jesus face to face and yet believe.
Amen.
Sources:
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. Letters of John. Encyclopedia Britannica, August 21, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/letters-of- John.
Fairless, John and Delmer Chilton. The Lectionary Lab Commentary. The Lectionary Lab. 2013.
Lane, Earl. Science DNA Evidence Was Life Line for Exonerated Death Row Survivor Kirk Bloodsworth. October 29, 2014.
Vine, WE, Merrill F Unger, William White, Jr. Vines Expository Dictionary. Thomas Nelson Pub., 1996.
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