Readings: Acts 4.32–35; Psalm 133; 1 John 1.1 – 2.2; John 20.19–31
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Football – are you a football fan?
I know some of you are, even if you do support odd teams.
And perhaps, like me,
you sit and watch Match of the Day every Saturday night.
There was a game on the programme a week ago,
and the highlights of the first half were very brief –
almost nothing to show.
But the second half was very different:
full of action as the two teams
(Sheffield United and Fulham)
shared six goals in a thrilling 3‑all draw.
It had been, the commentators and pundits noted,
a real game of two halves.
“A game of two halves” is something of a football cliché –
and it’s also a good summary of our gospel reading this morning.
We heard how, in the first half,
Jesus appeared to the disciples,
on the evening of the first Easter Day.
But Thomas wasn’t there,
and he didn’t believe the others when they told him;
no, he wanted to see for himself.
And Thomas wasn’t afraid of expressing his doubts.
Their teacher dead and buried – and now alive again?
“Well, I’ll believe that when I see it!”
And you know what?
I reckon that’d be the reaction of most of us.
And a week later we get the second half:
Jesus appears again and says,
“Here I am; you didn’t believe it was me;
well look, here are my wounds;
go on, touch them.”
And you may have noticed that the gospel doesn’t say
that Thomas did touch Jesus
or put his hand in the spear-wound on Jesus’s side.
No!
When he sees that Jesus is present
Thomas’s doubt is overcome
and he immediately exclaims
“My Lord – my God!”
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Here are our two halves:
in the first half Thomas doubts Jesus;
and in the second half Thomas recognizes Jesus.
So, first, Thomas doubts Jesus.
I don’t know about you,
but I find that believing in Jesus still leaves room for doubt.
Having doubts doesn’t mean that faith is lacking.
Doubt is a natural aspect of our faith.
It is natural to question,
to think,
to wrestle with uncertainties,
and to seek understanding.
Doubt can deepen our faith rather than weaken it.
That’s because doubt isn’t the opposite of faith:
doubt is the companion of faith,
the other side of the same coin.
My faith in Jesus isn’t about certainty;
it’s about trust.
Faith in Jesus,
belief in Jesus,
means that we place our trust in him.
That’s the promise that was made at our baptism –
“do you believe and trust in God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit?”
And trust is about having confidence in someone,
placing our reliance on them,
knowing that they will always be there,
there to help us.
Ultimately, Thomas did place his trust in Jesus.
And when we believe and trust in Jesus
we too know we can rely on him,
even when we doubt.
And we can know that what Jesus says is trustworthy.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
And after the doubt, what does Thomas do?
He recognizes Jesus.
Recognizing people is one of the fundamental things
that we do as human beings.
Thomas recognized Jesus,
and we too have the opportunity to recognize Jesus,
to recognize the presence of Jesus.
And although there are a number of such occasions,
I want to suggest just a couple of times and places
when we can particularly recognize that Jesus is with us.
So one place we might find Jesus
is when we read the bible,
and especially when we read the four gospels that tell Jesus’s story.
When we tell the story of Jesus,
when we tell the stories about Jesus,
when we tell the stories that Jesus told –
then somehow Jesus is present with us in the telling.
And foremost among those occasions
is when we gather on a Sunday morning
and hear some of that story read,
some of that story proclaimed.
It’s a bit of the service we mark with special solemnity:
we stand (if we are able),
we sing “Alleluia” as an acclamation,
we carry the gospel book in procession
and turn to face the reader,
we burn incense and solemnly cense the book,
and we make a sign of the cross.
The book is lifted high for everyone to see.
All these little signs point to the importance of this moment –
that as we hear the story of Jesus,
the story Jesus told,
then still Jesus is alive here among us,
as he was when his first hearers,
people like Thomas,
gathered around him on the hillside,
or beside the lake,
in the market place,
or at dinner,
and he spoke to them.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
And another opportunity for us to recognize the presence of Jesus
is also here in this service.
We recognize the presence of Jesus
as we break bread together.
Now “breaking bread” is a turn of phrase,
an idiom.
It’s not just about literally breaking bread,
it’s the whole action of sharing a meal together.
And that’s what we are doing here.
Yes, okay, it’s become a symbolic meal –
a small piece of bread and a sip of wine –
but it is a meal that we share together,
a meal that we share because Jesus himself told us to.
And told us to remember him as we share it.
And as we share that meal,
as we break bread together
and remember that Jesus died for us,
then we recognize that Jesus is here among us –
just as he was with Thomas and the other disciples
when he broke bread and shared supper with them.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
And Jesus tells us
that when we minister to those in need,
we are ministering to him:
And, you know, Jesus didn’t worry
whether someone had paid their Temple taxes or not;
he didn’t worry whether they were a woman or a man;
a slave or a slave-owner;
a faithful Jew or a Samaritan,
or even a centurion in the occupying army.
Jesus bluntly tells us
that when we share God’s love
by ministering to someone in need
then we are ministering to him.
Here too we will find Jesus.
So I want to leave you with this thought for the week:
who will you recognize Jesus in?
Who will you minister to?
And who will you allow to minister to you?
Like Thomas,
may our encounters with the risen Christ
transform us,
transform those around us,
and transform the world.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
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