John 20:19-31
Easter 2A by Joseph Parrish

This week has been very eventful for me, in good ways and bad ways. First the bad news is that I was with my last remaining relative of my parent’s generation as he was dying Thursday night, my Dad’s brother, my uncle, died after nearly six days of refusing hydration or food--he was in the end stages of Parkinson’s Disease where he could no longer talk, swallow, or even open his eyes. It is a terrible disease that has environmental links--the herbicide paraquat and the insecticide rotenone have been conclusively shown to produce Parkinson’s in certain test animals. And my uncle during his work on the Lunar Module for the first astronauts’ moon landing in 1969 lived in the area of Florida where massive amounts of insecticides including DDT were being liberally sprayed to control the mosquito population.

The good news is that I was able to reconnect with my cousin, his daughter, her son and her husband in Colorado where my uncle was near Aspen which I got to visit for the first time. To see the 20 to 40 million dollar houses there and the spectacular ski areas were sights to behold. In Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where my uncle and my aunt lived the temperatures were up to 64 degrees last week and all three feet of snow had melted, whereas in Aspen, a little over half an hour away, the snow was still piled up to eight feet high. The contrast was surrealistic.

The disciples after the crucifixion also had something incredible happen as the risen Lord appeared on the first Easter Sunday to ten of the disciples--Judas had hung himself, and Thomas was away. The terrible crucifixion had somehow been reversed by God, and Jesus lived again. And I know my uncle who suffered terribly at the end has now gone to be with his Lord and our Lord, never to have to suffer again, praise be to God.

But of course in the midst of elation, the downside was that Thomas did not believe his brothers when they told them they had seen the Lord. The news was too good to be true, Thomas seemed to reason. He wanted proof, and he really thought they could not produce it.

  • John Jewell tells the story of Virginia who “was 19 years old and pregnant when she went to live with her 15th set of foster parents. Her case file read like a textbook example of neglect, abuse and bureaucratic failure. She sat silently in a chair, hands neatly clasped, staring into her lap. The foster parents, whose three children were in school, had been appraised of Virginia's story and promised that this placement would be ‘temporary’. (Temporary was the story of Virginia's life.)
    Finally, the foster mother said, ‘Are you frightened, Virginia?’
    ‘Kinda,’ she replied without looking up. Then, ‘…I've been in lots of homes.’
    ‘Well,’ the sympathetic woman tried to reassure the bewildered young mother-to-be, ‘Let's hope this time turns out for the best.’
    Virginia's reply is one of those statements that sticks to your soul -- it was flat, without change of tone and without Virginia even looking up – ‘Hurts too much to hope.’ ‘Hurts too much to hope.’”
Thomas had hurt too much to hope that the good news of the resurrection could really be true. When one’s friend is dying, hurt just hurts too much to hope. But as we sat with my uncle, we spoke to him about all sorts of things, his great grandchildren, his son, my other cousin whom I unsuccessfully tried to get into Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York before his cancer was too advanced. My uncle could not talk, or open his eyes, but he could weep, and he did shed tears as he remembered his son’s early death. My cousin also had been in the midst of all that insecticide spraying as a young boy in Florida where his dad was working to make a failsafe system that would return the astronauts back from the moon’s surface. The moon walkers would have only one chance to start the Lunar Module’s single engine—it was the one part of the moon exploration that had no backup. The President of the United States had even prerecorded a televised note of condolence to the families and to the nation should the engine not ignite and lift the module back off the moon’s surface. There was no alternative. So the team that worked on the Lunar Module had to make it as failsafe as any craft that had ever been designed, and that took many hours and a lot of hard work.

The resurrection was also a failsafe plan. Jesus would have to rise from the grave in exactly three days, according to all the Old Testament prophets, and as the Psalmist said, he would have to rise with his body “uncorrupted”, that is, with a body that showed absolutely no signs of decay after three days in a tomb--impossible without the intervention of an incredible miracle. And Jesus couldn’t raise himself, only his heavenly Father could do that. So the weeping for Jesus must have been terrible as they all saw him die. What are the chances he would ever be seen alive again? Zero? But indeed he was seen by the Ten disciples.

What does it take for someone to have faith? Does it take seeing the dead raised? Or does it take hearing about the dead being raised? The text of our Gospel lesson for today admonishes us to hear the good news of the resurrection and believe without further proof. But the skeptic in us lies beneath our surface, and we, like Thomas, want to touch the prints of the nails in his hands and put our hand into his wounded side split by the soldiers spear as he confirmed that Jesus has really died. Blood and water had spilled out. Jesus’ had a real body, and it was most certainly dead. The puncture through his side into the heart assured that Jesus could not possibly get up from the cross or from his grave. In a way the soldier guaranteed himself and us that the body would never rise again. But of course it did, Jesus did rise.

  • Sister Wendy Beckett is a cloistered nun whose work as an art historian has led to several books and television programs. One time when a television program of hers was about to air, she was interviewed on the radio show ‘Fresh Air’ by interviewer Terry Gross. Journalist Terry Gross is a wonderfully articulate woman, a terrific, no-nonsense interviewer most of the time. But when she interviewed Sister Wendy, Terry Gross was weirdly tentative and off her mark. Perhaps it was because Sister Wendy is devoted to absolute silence except when she's talking about art once every bundle of years. At one point in the interview, Terry Gross asked Sister Wendy, ‘Have you always believed in God?’ ‘Oh, yes!’ said Sister Wendy. ‘You mean, you've never experienced any doubt?’ asked Terry Gross, sounding dubious. ‘No,’ said Sister Wendy in her small but solid voice. ‘Why do you think that is?’ asked the incredulous interviewer. ‘Well, I'm sure it's because God knew I was too weak for doubt,’ said Sister Wendy. ‘I never could have stood it, so God kept it from me.’”
But Thomas was strong. Thomas could doubt, and he did doubt.

“Believing in what is not yet seen means we practice or behave as if it is already exists.” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” This is what leaders and visionaries do. They believe in something bigger than themselves and they begin to act as if it is so.

John Kennedy captured the imagination of the American public; he got us to believer that a journey to the moon and back was possible. We believed it, and it happened.

What about our church here? We have had our challenges, some said we would never survive, but we have and we have thrived despite many setbacks and problems. In a real way we have come back from the dead. We haven’t suffered from fire or earthquake, but we have several times in the past few years been torn asunder by the tornadic winds that sweep across the Newark Liberty International Airport from time to time. The winds and rains a couple of weeks ago broke out some of our windows and a part of the facade above the entry doors from Broad Street. And a couple of years ago the stucco wall of the Rectory was blown off when the winds rose to over 140 miles per hour with rain.

But thanks be to God we have weathered all our storms so far, physical, cultural, and social.

Thomas thought Jesus was a goner, however. One just does not come back from crucifixion. Crucifixion is certain, final, and efficient. No one returns to life after dying in such a horrific manner. So Thomas was simply a realist. He could not see how his brother apostles could have seen a dead man walking.

Our Diocese of New Jersey has done something quietly spectacular. We hosted Sister Helen Prejean as the keynote speaker at our New Jersey Diocesan Convention several years ago. She spoke about her experiences ministering to folks on death row in the prisons of Louisiana and her book entitled, “Dead Man Walking”, which had been made into a feature movie. Sister Prejean’s confidence that our diocese could have a real impact on the state government of New Jersey to stop our barbaric plans to kill criminals seemed so far fetched when she spoke then. But her fervor touched us, and we along with many. many others finally succeeded in overturning capital punishment in the State of New Jersey. And several other states are now seriously looking to New Jersey for leadership in this effort. So never say never.

Thomas said that in his own way as he acclaimed his Master, “My Lord, and my God!” The impossible had indeed come true. Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.

Thomas let us see into his heart of hearts, he did not hold back on his doubts, and his uncertainty became a model for us, hopefully to avoid, but in any event Christ showed us that we are not to be judged by the frailness of our faith even while encouraging us.

  • Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, quotes Garrison Keillor who narrates “A Prairie Home Companion” on Public Radio each week. Garrison Keillor said, “We always have a backstage view of ourselves. We let the audience see only the neatly arranged stage. But behind the curtain all kinds of things are lying around: old failures, hurts, guilt and shame, we hear that we are living in a shameless society, and that people are no longer bothered by shame. I don’t believe it. Shame plagues our souls. Psychologists tell us that shame sweeps over us when we overstep our abilities, or when our fantasy about who we would like to be encounters the backstage reality of who we really are.
    “Nothing is more crippling to our souls than working at hiding shame. We lock up more and more doors, sealing off more and more rooms of the heart to prevent our true selves from being discovered. We think we are keeping the world out, but in fact we are keeping ourselves locked in.”
Thomas was ashamed that he had followed a man who would be condemned and killed as a common criminal, between two criminals. And Thomas knew dead men do not walk, they do not rise from their graves. Yet, the Lord never berated Thomas for his questioning God’s power. Jesus never belittled the frailty of Thomas faith. Jesus only came to Thomas and held out his nail scarred hands of love. That was all it took. The open embrace, the non-judgmental look, the consoling words, “Do not doubt but believe.” And Thomas acclaimed Jesus Christ his Lord and his God.

Don’t let guilt or shame or doubt of anything else come between you and your Lord. He is holding out his hands to you today. Come within his warm embrace. Let him minister to you in your needs. Let him forgive you for anything. Let him love you eternally.

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.

(Comments to Joe at JOE.PARRISH@ecunet.org.)