The Same Longing - Thomas, Resurrection and FOMO

Psalm 16

John 20: 19 – 31

In today’s scripture we witness the third and fourth “revelations” of the resurrection.  In John’s account, the first witness is the women.  Then the women go and tell Peter and some unnamed disciples who show up at the empty tomb.  Those who have seen still don’t understand what it is that they have seen, and so many of the disciples are huddled behind a locked door, afraid of the same powers that had seized and crucified Jesus – why wouldn’t they be?  Couldn’t the soldiers and mobs come for them too? 

And then, as they are locked up fretting, Jesus appears among them.  No locked door has prevented his entry. And they are amazed. And suddenly they understand that the body is not missing – Jesus is NOT in the tomb. And therefore he is somehow alive.

And Jesus grants them peace and breathes on them…

Just as God breathed life into humanity at creation, Jesus breathes a new kind of life into the disrupted disciples.

But Thomas wasn’t there at the time. He might have been out collecting food. Or tending to someone who was unwell. He was on his own journey in the hours that followed the crucifixion.  He had things he had to do.

Of course, over the years, the Sunday after Easter has become notorious for the retelling of the story about “doubting Thomas.”

But is it really a story about doubt?

All of his fellow-disciples of Jesus have a story of encountering the risen Christ.  They have all marveled at Jesus who was dead but now is alive. They have seen his wounds and yet he’s walking and talking among them.

But Thomas hasn’t had this experience.

I think it might be a story of longing.  Or FOMO.  If you hang with some younger folks, you know that FOMO is the Fear of Missing Out.  Like if you don’t get to experience it, how do you know it actually happened. And you are really afraid that if you don’t have the same experience as the next person, you might be missing something REALLY important.

And really, don’t we all want and need our own experience of the risen Christ?

John Wesley had his heart strangely warmed on Aldersgate Street in London – a bodily experience of the assurance that in spite of his sins, God loved him completely.

Maybe you have a story about your own experience like this. And maybe you don’t.  And maybe even if you do, you need a reminder, especially in this crazy season of fear and uncertainty and anxiety and loss, that God loves you completely. That the risen Christ is with you.

But our journeys on this pathway are all different.  Some of us grew up in a church every week.  Some of us were baptized, confirmed and have served in the same church or same denomination our entire lives.  Some of us married into church. Others of us divorced our way back to church.  Some of us attend every Sunday and know our way around a bible.  Others of us not so much.  Some of us really want to get our hands dirty serving others and find the business of the church a distraction from our call to be the hands and feet of Christ.  Some of us feel closer to Christ when we are doing service. Some of us feel closer to Christ when we are reading scripture. Some of us feel closer to Christ when we are teaching or mentoring. 

All of us need to feel like God loves us.  Sees us.  Cares for us.

Some of us talk to Jesus. Others talk to the Creator or the Father. Others are most comfortable with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But like Thomas, we all have some longing, whether we have words for it or not, for the presence of the risen Christ.

Over the next months (yes, I said months – right into August!), we are taking a deep dive on what it means for us to truly seek to be disciples of Jesus Christ.  We are people of “the Way.” But that Way looks different for each of us, and that is ok. It is perfectly normal. As the community of Faith, we will be exploring how we Belong, Become and Believe. 

When we “belong” somewhere, we have found people who care for us and watch over us. We seek mutual well-being. It’s not just a social club…it is a place where we can bring the fullness of ourselves – the good and the bad and the ugly, and know that we will find people to bear witness to our experience without judgement. 

Belonging in a community creates a backdrop for our learning and growth.  We cannot actually be Christians in isolation. That might be especially hard to hear right now, but by that I mean that we cannot grow without relationships with other Christians with us on the journey. And so, belonging helps us to “BECOME.” It helps us to learn what care and love look like. It helps us to find mentors who can witness to their experience of God.  It helps us to learn this story of which we are all apart.  It helps us understand the true meaning of becoming the body of Christ – many who are part of a whole. It helps us to begin to really become parts of that body that are able to live into our commission to make love God and one another.

Finally, as we are part of a bigger whole that helps us to become integrated parts of the body, we begin to believe in newer, bigger ways because we are daily living into the Kingdom of God. We see glimpses of God at work more readily.  We see the wounds of the world and we also see the resurrection.

I think that is what Thomas’s story communicates today.

We all want to witness the resurrection for ourselves.  Just like Thomas.

Why a deep dive now while there is so much upset in the world?

Well, it seems like exact time we might be seeking a deeper connection.  This global pandemic has the power to drive home some key truths…

Life is hard. Bad things happen.  We are pretty powerless as individuals. Death is real.

But here are some other things that are true: God is real.  Together we make a difference – in tangible ways.

And so I'm going to invite you to put on your seatbelts for this journey. Let's agree to walk into this space together. Let's agree each week to wrestle with a new idea of how it is that we are continuing to become. Because we have this place where we're beginning to belong and we want to invite other people to join us. Now for this season our work is to focus on our becoming so that our invitation is to something we are experiencing ourselves.

These points on the journey to discipleship are outlined in the book, Becoming a Disciple: a Lifelong Venture by Adolf Hansen and Colleagues.

A disciple of Jesus Christ:

• Experiences the forgiveness and acceptance of God.
• Follows the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
• Demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit.
• Shares in the life and witness of a community of disciples.
• Serves in some form of ministry every day.
• Participates in God’s suffering and transformation of the world.
• Anticipates a future life in the presence of God.
• Yearns to lead others to become disciples.

We'll look at each of these things in the coming weeks and months. We'll take that deep dive together because somewhere we all have a longing to experience for ourselves - we all have a longing like Thomas to experience the risen Christ.

May it be so. 

Amen.

      

(Sources, Working Preacher - commentary on John for Easter 2 by Joy J. Moore; Becoming a Disciple: a Lifelong Venture by Adolf Hansen and colleagues, published by Abingdon Press.)