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I think the whole notion of using the word, undertaking, sounds like an arduous task, but that’s what today’s lessons are beginning to teach us. What we must not forget is that faith is a mystery of the heart that the mind wants to solve. All of the Sundays in the Easter season are teaching us about faith—its messiness, and the human condition. The human condition, we cannot escape from but should learn and spiritually grow from! As best put, it is a war of the soul, it vexes the human spirit to change, to grow beyond the self for the sake of God and others.
In speaking of the war of the soul, I am surprised that
we don’t have a comparison conversation between the story of the Old
Testament’s Job and the New Testament’s Thomas.
Here were two people who were most definitely challenged by their faith,
challenged to realize and understand why things came to be… The key difference between them was that Job
didn’t have the assurance and knowledge of the Resurrection to help him take
that grand leap of faith and be restored by undertaking the challenge of
“living Hope!” Christ is our living Hope that once we relationally understand
Him at the core of that first church, the heart, is when we can persevere, move
forward—onward in spiritually struggling with being, becoming hopeful, or
better put, hope-filled.
In some senses, you could conclude that Job more or less
got wound up in the crucible of the trials and suffering that he underwent at
the hands of the Evil One and God. His
heart and mind were far from knowing or hoping for a savior, Messiah… He was, more or less, a tortured soul. Perhaps what he only had in common with
Thomas was that maybe he was what you would call a bit of a pessimist. What is
a pessimist anyway? They’re the glass
half-empty people. They’re the one saying
in the back of their minds… it will never work!
“Never say never,” is a lovely starter to reconciling ourselves to
confess our faith, not only to God but truly to ourselves to carry on. Never say never is actually as beautiful as
hearing what we heard Jesus say in the Gospel to the disciples: “Peace BE with
you.” Jesus knows the human heart,
though we hide in our willful solitude, thinking He doesn’t. Isn’t this most often true?
In our “fix it, consumerist society,” we have tried to
find ways around confronting the war within our hearts to reconcile our faith
in order to undertake Hope—LIVE hope. We have therapists, “happy” pills and
self-help platitudes of shallow comfort… that are, truth-be-told, merely
man-made solutions that do not address the “heart” of the matter. These are all
but shadows to the greatest peace we have to calm the soul, this peace is
Christ Jesus! This reminds me of a difficult counseling case I had at the
beginning of my ministry. It was
difficult on two levels, since it was someone I knew before my conversion
experience, someone in the art and poetry world, and now I was counseling them
in my new spiritual-self as a minister of the Gospel. This person tried to commit suicide.
From what they had shared with me, in arguing with a
well-meaning friend, as well as drinking to drown out their hopelessness, they
flung open their second floor apartment window and perched upon the ledge for a
moment or two. It was a bright and sunny
day but they said they couldn’t see the sun shining, it was as if they were
looking into utter darkness. Of course, the cops were called and all they could
tell them was if they tried it again, they would be humiliated and reported on
the local news… Not too comforting or
assuring of anything, right? Thankfully
this same well-meaning friend reached out to them and had them come to my
church as well as had them start coming to AA.
Alcoholics Anonymous actually offers some very powerful
subliminal Christian messages to their program.
The twelve steps begin by acknowledging our human condition—our frailty
to succumbing to things we cannot control, this leads to hopelessness. Control and surrender are a part of that
spiritual sword, we sharply fall to either side upon, when it comes to moving
forward, enduring the challenges, and sufferings of faith. This person was agnostic, as I once was
before Christ resurrected my heart to BELIEVE in things I never saw myself ever
reaching… Right there, was my own
struggle with “never say never!”
Take this now into thinking about poor Thomas and the
remaining disciples… Here was a man who
knew and witnessed the horror of what the crucifixion does. He most certainly knew Christ suffered and
died. What he didn’t know or didn’t
witness was what the other disciples did, Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus literally
appearing before them! Even upon hearing
that Jesus had returned, Thomas just couldn’t make that leap of faith to accept
it, he had to witness it, period. He needed to “solve” his doubt. This is simply being human. The solution he
originally chose was to go off into his loneliness and grieve Jesus. The person I was counseling thought that
escape via death was their only solution to their hopelessness… In fact, they saw all that they even created
as Art and poetry, as moments of grief and death. That is very sad when you think about
creation, when you think about God and all Good gifts He has indeed given us!
The other day in unpacking yet more of my seemingly
never-ending library… I unwrapped my
ordination chalice. That will always be a
wonderful moment of hope and assurance for me.
That chalice would make the very first official time I would consecrate
the elements of Holy Communion, revealing the mystery of why we come to the
table… For every time we eat and drink from the cup of salvation, we are to
remember and realize the death of our Lord and the profound Grace that would be
spiritually overflowing from that chalice to lead and strengthen us daily! Amen
and Alleluia, I say. The communion hymn I used for that service as well, was from
the movie Godspell. It was the song,
‘All Good Gifts.’
Our Psalm for this morning is Psalm 148 which is all
about creation and being confessional about all that God’s grace has provided
us—this is faith. The kind of Joy we
spiritually realize in faith, has the same root word in the Biblical Greek as
the word Grace. That moment when Thomas proclaims, “my Lord and My God,” is his
amazing moment of realizing God’s Grace as a healing balm to his grief and a
wonderful assurance of why we have come to believe, live for Jesus as His
disciples! All Good Gifts come from
heaven above… Is one of the lines from
this song from Godspell.
Living Hope, which is a part of the messiness of
persevering faith, beckons us to come to terms with spiritual rebirth, conversion. As a child of genuine conversion myself, it
is all about witnessing and realization.
It is the building blocks to the whole person through Christ. It is a
rebirth to love, because Christ is at the center of our lives and has cleansed
us from the unforgiving bitterness of the self-concerned life—it is realizing,
beyond the self, the sacrificial love and life of God. The person I was counseling needed to do this
for themselves. Empathy is a spiritual
gift, for from my own life’s story, I knew where this person was about their
art and creative writing.
In hanging dozens of pictures in our new home here, I
must confess there were moments of grief and remembering… BUT there were also many reassuring moments
of witnessing God continually leading my heart to know why I am in the here and
now, preaching, teaching and leading others to His Gospel! This is the New Nature breaking through in
guiding us to be hope-filled, in guiding us to see and know, the Son shining
brightly in that spiritual battleground, the soul. So you see, we all have
those “doubting Thomas” moments constantly, daily but here, we are gathered
together—living in Hope, worshipping God and sharing our Christian journeys in
fellowship together—how wonderful! How inspiring! Never say never, even in this here and now,
for a New horizon awaits for us to cross as His Body—His Church, in the world.
Thomas may have learned this the hard way but went on to
lead an amazing life as a missionary to India bearing the Gospel abroad. In fact, all of the disciples went on beyond
the Book of Acts introduction to their journeys, to build, most spiritually and
literally, the church in the world.
Christ commissioned them, He was at the center of their hope and their
genuine faithfulness to His Gospel, we have witnessed, carried on for 2,000
something years. Commentary writer, William Barclay said of today’s Gospel that
when Christ commissioned and absolved the disciples with, “peace be with you,”
He was also saying may God give you every good thing. All good gifts flow freely from the power of
the resurrection. Grace conquered death
and is continuing to work upon us… here and now. Never saying never, is a start.
Let us Pray,
Gracious and loving Lord Jesus
You continue to help us
With the battle in our soul to live Hope
You continue to shower us with Grace
To realize our rebirth and to never say never
May we rejoice and share
All Good Gifts you have given through the New Nature
To undertake and realize out of love for You and our
neighbor
In Your most holy presence throughout our lives
We pray to You—
AMEN
April 23rd, 2017; Second Sunday
of Easter; Year A; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M.
Collins
Psalm 148; Acts 5:29-42; 1 Peter
1:3-9; John 20:19-31
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church, Las Vegas, Nevada
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