Thomas Encounters Jesus!

(John 20:19-31)

Susan R. Andrews writes when I was a student: "When I was in seminary, Doubting Thomas was my soul mate. Jesus kept "appearing " to my fellow students within the rich stories of the Christian tradition. But like Thomas, I never seemed to be there when Jesus arrived."

Oh, I know what she means. Jesus seemed to be appearing in prayer, bible readings, silence for every other person in the training college, they all had great tales to tell of being touched by Jesus.

Not me. He seemed to take a detour when he came my way. For me faith was more like looking through a dust and bug spattered windscreen of an eighteen wheel road train in the Gibber Desert, I knew Jesus was out there some where, but like the road he was hard to see, let alone feel.

An encounter with Jesus is not something you can import from another person, book or song. You have to encounter Jesus yourself. People can tell you all about their experiences, but if it’s not happening for you, its not happening.

Thomas missed the first time Jesus appeared. It was 8 days after Jesus death and Thomas joins them in the room. No doubt he was quizzed and pestered to believe. But Thomas maintained his integrity. He had given this whole scenario some deep and critical thought. Yes, he wanted it to be true but logic mediated against it being true.

Modern people need proof. It has to be true, true meaning provable, testable, concrete, not the unchangeable meaning of being sitting underneath our treasured rationality. True here means something like to be certain. It is what our young people want and we want it because it gives a sense of being in control of our lives. Nothing uncertain can be countenanced because it can’t be true.

Thomas, though, simply wants to own his faith for himself and puts himself in the place to test his logic, in the room where Jesus had appeared before. He was not closed to the idea, and in the best critical thinking practice, was prepared to dialogue with the possibility that Jesus was alive.

And Jesus Turns Up. The truth is that Jesus just keeps turning up for those who genuinely desire to know him. Elisabeth Johnson writes: " As he came back a week later for Thomas, Jesus keeps coming back week after week among his gathered disciples -- in the word, the water, the bread, and the wine -- not wanting any to miss out on the life and peace he gives." And we know, from experience, how real that is. It is what draws us back here every week. It is not about the liturgy, although the liturgy is important. It is not about others in the congregation, though they are important, it is not about the choir though the choir is important and it is not about the priest, though he or she is important. It is about the fact that Jesus keeps turning up and I, you, discover something new about the resurrected Jesus, just by being here.

Jesus doesn’t chastise Thomas. He doesn’t tell Peter to excommunicate him for his lack of faith. He doesn’t leave Thomas hanging out to dry, another failure to put beside Judas. No, Jesus turns up and offers his presence and his body for Thomas to inspect. He doesn’t. He doesn’t have to touch Jesus. He knows without needing the evidence he said he needed.

When truth comes, we know. We don’t have to test it, try it out or prove it. It just is. Thomas gets it and abandons his need for scientific proof saying, “My Lord and my God!” 

This Encounter Reminds Us That Bodies Matter.

Christianity has a poor record with bodies. In the philosophical duality we bring to our world, western people have seen the material as an opposite to the spiritual and body as inferior to soul or spirit. Many early forms of Christianity treated the senses of the body as evil and something to beaten down. There was no room for the body in a religion that was focussed almost entirely on the hereafter. Even the great St Francis of Assisi, the father of ecological spirituality commented that he had wished he had treated the donkey better. The donkey was what he called his body.

Yet the body plays a major role in spirituality. Greg Carey suggests: "The resurrection story implies that bodies matter. Jesus’ resurrection is not merely a spiritual thing – the apparition of his ghost, or his ongoing spiritual influence. The Gospels all insist that the resurrection includes Jesus’ body.”

The medieval mystics, particularly the women mystics such as Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Mechtild along side John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart recognised the role bodies played in encountering God. Julian of Norwich’s classic work, Shewings, is simply the record of her encounter with Jesus as a result of illness and its impact on her body. Bodies are not be worshipped, sculpted to the point of the ridiculous as is the modern trend. They are to be respected as the receptacle of the spiritual.

Bodies, our bodies, the bodies of those we live with, of those in agony or in exile carry scars, just like the body of Jesus. And they are important. Wesley White writes: "Wherever there is a wound, Christ calls us to find belief by putting our finger there and to energise that belief with a life lived to reveal what is behind the wound." That is the reason for our scars and was the reason for the scars Jesus carried with him. They are not trophies of survival but testimonies to the truth that we are human, alive and infused with life to share so others to can live.

Thomas was far from a doubter who needed to touch the body. He saw. Not physically. His was a Spiritual Seeing which sees beyond the body. I am consequently amazed at the prevalence of such a seeing in our world, despite the fear many Christians have that it has disappeared.

We were sitting discussing the eucharist. These were my secular monks, year 9 & 10 students. They were having great difficulty with the idea of ‘eating Christ’s body and drinking his blood.’ Understandable really. Suddenly Corey, eyes wide with insight said, ‘I get it. It’s about respect, awesome respect for who he is!’ Spiritual seeing isn’t limited to those who believe. It is the providence of all, including Thomas, Corey and each one of us. It is beyond our vision and we see within reality what is hidden from those that only look for what can be seen physically.

David Ewart suggests: "John doesn't care what we see with our eyeballs. He wants us to SEE with our inner eye who Jesus really is. That in SEEing, we might believe; and in believing, we might have the life that is in Jesus."

Thomas sees with his spiritual self. There is no need to touch the wounds. Yes the body is important. But it is what we see that counts. We can look at another and see only a behaviour, a stereotype, a prejudice (all defined by us) and fail to see what is within, the true person. We fail to see the scars and ponder where they came from. We fail to see the possibility for both us in the connection of bodies. 

Jesus does. He keeps coming back, as he did for Thomas, to encourage us, to show us how to look beyond the surface and to encounter the real. It is a challenge, one we will fail over and over again, but when we get it right we will discover, as Thomas did, ‘My Lord and my God”.

Made in the Image of Your Desire. – Luke 16: 1-13

“And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly;”

I love this story. Like many of Jesus’ stories it makes no sense, no logical sense from where we sit. How can Jesus tell a story in which the hero is a conniving survivor who uses graft and corruption to build for himself social capital? A man who, when under pressure from the corporate watch dogs, does a deal with as many business connections as possible in such a way as those investigating applaud him for his business acumen. It doesn’t save his job but does maintain his income and his lifestyle.

Jesus was a good judge of human nature for we can all put names and faces to this man, people we have watched through the media be caught and yet miraculously comeback in the business world due to the deals they did with others which guaranteed them support when they needed it most.

A business acquaintance used to say to me that there ‘is no connection between personal ethics and business success, if you want to be successful leave your personal ethics right where they belong, in your personal life’, was his mantra.

In this story Jesus seems to give approval to the shrewd and calculating nature of the corrupt manager, as if that is something to be aspired to. What was Jesus saying and is it relevant in this modern age where greed is not only prevalent but often the only reason for people doing business, undertaking studies or pursuing goals? People are seeking instant success and will sacrifice their personal ethics for a shot at the big one.

I am an unusual person. I simply cannot stand reality TV and especially not talent shows or cooking shows like Master Chef. And Junior Master Chef – what is that all about? The exploitation of children for TV ratings, parent delayed gratification and some vague hope that success on a TV show at 11 will make you successful for life? Bizarre is the word and the only word I can use. Hasn’t anyone caught on – reality TV is about producers making money at the expense of others and has very little to do with valuing and developing human beings.

Why would parents allow their 10-11 year olds to step any where near a Master Chef kitchen? These are children, little children, not little adults. These are children who have yet to develop an understanding of themselves in relation to the world and need space to be children to do that. I am constantly amazed (and have been for some time – this is not a new phenomena) at the confusion caused by parents and society who pressure children to be adults, way before they are ready. Today they are treated as equals, they are not; they are given choices and access to resources such as the internet and mobile phones that they do not need nor are ready for; they are allowed to wear styles of clothing and facial jewelry that are inappropriate for their age; they are applauded, awarded and treated as fledgling superstars or geniuses when they are simply precocious with an over inflated sense of self-importance, sadly, not necessarily of their own making. And no one ever says no to them for fear it will do some ghastly damage to their fragile egos. (OOOPS! I do!)

What happens when these young people find their dreams and hopes were just wishful thinking and they are left having to wash dishes at McDonalds, play guitar in pub bands or simply be unemployed and forgotten. We have an endemic of depression amongst young people and the blame sits squarely at the feet of those who have set them up for a fall. Their form of depression often is the result of them not getting what they thought or have been lead to believe by the adults in their lives, was or is rightfully theirs. And we are all implicit in this for we are apart of that society.

Breanne Potter offers an insight into how we might respond better on behalf of the children in our lives. She says;

I’m a member of Gen X, and my generation has it’s own unique set of characteristics and challenges, but thank goodness my parents taught me the value of my actions. They taught me that in competition, there are winners and losers. Everyone doesn’t get a trophy, and we always kept score. They taught me that you must practice and give 100% to win as well. I wasn’t paid to get good grades. I got good grades because they expected and would tolerate nothing less of me. I was taught the consequences of my actions. If I left my bicycle outside and it was stolen, then I would have to save my allowance (which I received for doing chores) and buy a new one. My parents scolded me when I was wrong and praised me when I did well. They also taught me that presentation matters. I remember a heated debate over my signature on my college applications. According to my dad it was too sloppy and I would never get into college with that kind of first impression. I did in fact get into college, but the lesson was still an important one.

It’s all about what we value. Jesus’ shrewd manager reminds us that what we value is what we will do everything in our power to protect. For him it was wealth, position and respect. He wasn’t interested in the finer points of life such as ethical behavior, life affirming values or respecting others. He would do whatever was necessary, including graft and corruption and the manipulation of others to maintain his place, or as it turned out, to better his position in society. At the end of this even his former boss admires him for his ruthless business acumen.

Forget Gordon Grecko and greed is good, this man adds, ‘greed is good and stop at nothing to get it!’ But as my father is oft to say, “You can’t make a good man out of a bad one with money”. It is what we value that will define us and we cannot have a foot in two or more camps. It becomes very uncomfortable.

Jesus smiles and says:
3No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Interesting choice of words – no slave – we are slaves to our values. What we value controls, owns, our life. We are what we believe in. We are slaves.

Jesus is clear when he seemingly congratulates the underhand activities of the wayward businessman. As Christians, we are to know what we believe, what we are slaves to, and to do everything in our power to turn that belief into a way of life which is rewarded both here and now and in heaven. We are either a part of the culture of our society or committed to the counter-cultural ethic of the gospel – we have to make a choice.

The prevailing attitude of our society is that the world owes us a living and we will manipulate it and others to achieve our goals. Unfortunately many Christians are unable to extricate themselves from this dilemma. Finding ways to interpret the Gospels to give respectability to greed, exploitation and bullying is at the very best a poor excuse for not making the choice.

It is not about us as individuals but us as a community, a community called to share at the well-laid table of Christ in what ever form that table may be laid. It is how we live out our allegiance to God’s creative compassion, which will distinguish us, not how materially well off or powerful we are. It is how we raise our children as children to be other focused adults, allowing them the time and the opportunity to become who and what they are meant to be and not what we want them to be – mini-me’s living out our missed opportunities. It is how we ensure we share whatever grace God has shared with us, with others.

Thomas Merton suggests:
“A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.”

Jesus says to you and I today to be shrewd in our how you live out what you believe for it is what you believe which will define how you live.