Sermon - 2014-04-27 - Camp Sunday

Today we are celebrating camp sunday, a day in which we receive a taste of camp in our worship experience.  A place where our children can go out of their busy life, and experience some of the great wonders that is God’s Creation.  They can experience another Christian community outside of our own congregation.  A place they are accepted, encouraged to grow in their faith, and meet other disciples from other communities.  

In our lesson today, we have a glimpse into the community where discipleships is formed.  We see them gathered together even after our savior and lord has been crucified on a cross.  The disciples relied upon one another for support.  They give care and protection for each other fearing what the Jews would do to them. They are only able to trust others who had been gathered and learned from Jesus.  They had locked the door.  Yet, it was in this space Jesus enters the room, and shows them the glory and honor God had given to him.  Raising him from the dead, bestowing upon him new life, allowing him to go, and speak to his own disciples, Jesus enters the room where the disciples are hiding.  However, one disciple was not able to be there with them.  Thomas was not there when Jesus came the first time.  

Since Thomas had been a part of the lessons and life of Jesus, he knew all about Jesus ministry and mission and for what that stood and what hope it brought.  Yet,  the last Thomas had seen Jesus, Jesus was taken before leaders of the synagogue.  Jesus was brought before Pilate and condemned to die.  Thomas knew that Jesus was put on a cross and killed by the Romans.  So when he heard that the other disciples had seen Jesus alive and among them. He did not believe them.  

For he was not ready to believe the words that Jesus had shared among them.  He wanted to see with his own eyes, hear with his own ears, and touch with his own hands.  Thomas needed to experience this  in order for him to believe that Jesus was indeed alive.  For this went against all that this world knew to be.  No one could come back to life after they were dead.  We have many today who must see, hear, touch in order to believe.  We need to experience something to have faith instead of blindly accepting something to be true.  But that is what faith is.  It is accepting something that is beyond our own experience and understanding.  For it is here, that we are bearing witness of Thomas going from a theologian to a disciple.  Going from what we know as a theologian to accepting what what we do not understand as a disciple

For a theologian is someone who studies God.  The word in Greek is literally broken down as God studier.  As someone studies words on a page we come to learn about God.  There are many in the world today that are just like this.  They want to see, hear and touch for their themselves. They begin to wrestle with concepts and ideas from words on a page.  But a disciple is someone who takes that knowledge, accepts it for what it is,  and applies it to their life.  Jesus gave his disciples, many accounts and lessons for them to know and to bear witness .  That is why Jesus came to be with them after his death and resurrection.  Now, he is able to show them the full glory and honor God had bestowed on him.  

As we hear about Thomas and the other disciples, we are reminded of the moments that we shall face in our lives as disciples.  The same doubt that the disciples faced we face in our lives.  The ideas we come to accept are wrong or don’t make sense when it comes to our faith in God.  God turns the world we know upside down.  It makes us think the work we do is for nothing.  We must trust God because everything we experience as new is not new to him.  God has heard it all before.  Sometimes, things don’t make sense until you experience them, but sometimes you have to trust God and accept them on blind faith.

The Word of God is purely and solely a gift given to us by God.  But it is one that we do not need to open or unwrap, but rather it is one to which we should respond. Jesus is this gift given to us.  Jesus is the one who did the work of our own salvation.  Jesus helps us understand the way to respond and share this new gift with others.  “Love one another, as I have loved you.”  Our faith in the work that God has done for us. This is the only response that God asks of us, but there are others around us who have not experienced God’s love.  Others who do not know the promise of Jesus Christ.  What it is to be in a community where it is alright to doubt.  A community where all will still be accepted.   In this way, we bear witness to the work God has done for us in our own life which others can see, hear, and touch through this witness experience.  

Yet thanks be to God that we have places where we can go, hear this word, and experience God’s love and knowing that this is true.  Amen.