- Once there was a street vendor who sold hot dogs-- the best hot dogs in
town. Because he was hard of hearing, he didn't have a radio; because he
had trouble with his eyes, he didn't read a newspaper or watch much
television. But he sold delicious hot dogs. He started with a few signs on
the highway advertising them; every day he was at his favorite corner
crying, " Buy a hot dog, mister?" Soon the word was out about his great hot
dogs. He increased his meat and bun orders. He brought a bigger stove to
take care of his trade.
One day his son was home from college and decided to help out.
"Dad, haven't you been listening to the radio? Haven't you been reading in the newspapers? These are tough times. There's a recession going on. The stock market is collapsing. The dollar is falling. Nobody's buying hot dogs anymore."
"Gee," the father thought, "my son's been to college, he reads the papers and listens to the radio, so he ought to know."
So the hot dog vendor cut back his meat and bun orders, took down his few highway signs, and no longer went out with his hot dog cart. His sales fell overnight.
"You're right, son," the hot dog vendor said. "I had no idea times were so hard. We certainly are in the middle of a big recession."
Well, Thomas, even all the disciples, were caught up in a negative cast of thought, just like our man selling hot dogs. It took Jesus to come back and sweep away the cobwebs of doubt and fear with his one word, "Peace." It took Jesus to get his paralyzed apostles out of that upper room and back onto the streets, preaching the gospel. "But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you" (Mark 16: 7).
We can't sell Thomas short.
Honest doubt is not all bad. For a faith to be a mature, it must be examined. Hans Kung goes so far as to write, "We must at some time doubt seriously, absolutely seriously, to the point of despair." (2) An authentic believer is not afraid of questioning or subject to premature answers. Honest faith seeks mature answers and honest Christians who have doubted can make fine witnesses for the faith. As it's been said, "The believer who has never doubted will hardly convert a doubter." (3)
One commentator described Thomas like this: "The Thomas we meet in John's account was as resistant and rigid as rock. No leaving Jerusalem. No searching for the missing body of Jesus. Above all, no believing on the witness of what others had experienced. Thomas demanded his own experience."
"Give me your hand," Jesus says to him. What Cleopas saw in order to believe, what Mary heard in order to believe, Thomas must touch. Thomas must touch the wound made by nails and the wound made by piercing spear. Doubting Thomas did not remain a cynic. He asked for proof, and when he received it through the prints of the nails and the wounds in the side of Jesus, his doubt yielded to conviction. He fell before Jesus and exclaimed, "My Lord and My God!" Thomas did not allow his honest doubt to prevent faith from moving him to conviction. (4)
From that moment on, Thomas became an active believer. Tradition has it that he carried the faith to India "where he is revered as church founder and martyr." To this very day the Mar Thomas church of India claims Thomas as their founder. (5) We are called to engage in that same kind of action. Like the hot dog vendor, we will be successful when we get out and work; like him, we will fail if we listen to negative thinking.
"Woody Allen once said, 'I believe in eternal life. I'm just afraid nobody will tell me where it's being held.'" (6) It's up to us to tell Woody where eternal life is being held.
An illustration, dearly beloved by preachers, is the "Christ has no hands but our hands" story. The story goes something like this:
- In a little European village, there was a church that had a statue of Christ with out stretched arms to the world. During some battle of the war, the statue was damaged. Both of the hands were broken off. The church made the decision to replace the statue with a sign that read, "Christ has no hands but our hands."
Whether or not there is an actual statue of Christ somewhere in Europe with no hands, the story is heretical in the light of Easter. The hands of Christ have not been blown off. The forces of evil tried to end the life and work of Christ. On the cross, they thought they had done so. But Easter vindicated Jesus. He is raised. God will not be defeated by the work of our hands or the lack of work. God is not utterly dependent upon us for righteousness to be done.
Our hands may join with the hands of the risen Christ, but our hands will not replace his hands. (7)
A minister, Ruth L. Boling, recounts an event from her own life that, for her, helps explain what went on in the Upper Room.
- In December, 1994, my parents were killed in a car accident while overseas
in Jordan. My sisters and I were confronted with a rash of decisions to
make, all in the midst of grief's initial bombardment that so violently
racked us, body and soul. No decision caused us more anguish than whether
to view our parents' bodies, which had been returned to us in closed
caskets. Gail, the attorney, absolutely insisted on seeing them on the
.0001% chance that an error had been made. Martha, on the other hand,
vehemently refused to see them and insisted furthermore that none of us
should; the viewing would haunt us for years to come, she argued. I, the
middle child, played my family role and rode the fence, seeing both sides
of the issue without knowing what I myself wanted. Eventually we all agreed
to meet the next day at the crematory where each of us would decide for
ourselves.
The next day, just outside the crematory, we formed a circle and read out loud this very story of Thomas and Jesus. We prayed. Two of our husbands went in, came back out, and gently described what they had seen. Then Gail went in. She stayed for a long time. Indecisive until the very end, I finally asked Carlos to decide for me. We went in together. Martha remained firm in her resolve not to go in, but she waited for us steadfastly outside. Afterwards, the funeral director said he felt it was good that we had each done what we had done. He could tell by the change in our countenances and the contours of our bodies that the tension had eased. We even found a little something to laugh about as we got ready to leave.
The blessing for me on that day came in the form of a lion tamer to my imagination. The reality that I saw for myself was not nearly as debilitating as the imagined would have been for years to come. For Gail, the blessing came in the satisfaction of her lawyer's mind that, beyond all reasonable doubt, no mistake had been made. The blessing for her was also the chance to be physically with our parents a little while longer, to see and touch their wounds, a bit like Thomas did. As for Martha, her blessing was in her not needing to see. It was in her being at peace with that decision.
There were no miracles, no grand reversals that December day, but I believe the risen Christ was present with us both outside and inside the crematory. For we also read together from the scriptures how "we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (Corinthians 4:18-5:1) Each of us needed something different that day, and to each it was given. We were granted a certain peace, not as the world gives, but only as the living, risen Christ gives.
1) "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," Connections, Second Sunday of
Easter, April 30, 2000, (7 Lantern Lane, Londonderry, N.H. 03053-3905)
April 2000.
2) Kung, Hans, Does God Exist? pg. 72. as quoted in "The patron saint of
all who are last to know," Dynamic Preaching 15 (2): 42 (Seven Worlds,
310F Simmons Road, Knoxville TN 37922) April 2000.
3) von Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie Aphorisms, as quoted in Dynamic Preaching
pg. 42.
4) Ibid. 420
5) Ibid. pg. 43
6) "Relating the text," Pulpit Resource 28 (2): 26 (Logos Productions Inc.,
6160 Carmen Ave. E., Inver Grove Heights MN 55076-4422) April, May, June
2000.
7) Ruth L. Boling, "A new beatitude," Lectionary Homiletics 11 (5):42-3
(Lectionary Homiletics, 13540 East Boundary Road, Bldg. 2 Suite 105,
Midlothian VA 23112) April 2000.
(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)