Sermon - 2019-04-28
How many of you have ever had an experience like this? Everyone else seems to have knowledge or an experience that you were left out of. A time or moment in which everyone else around seems to have it all together and yet you are the one person in the room, the one person who does not have the experience and know that you seem to be left out. Have you ever had that experience in your life? For many of us, we have a moment that leaps to our minds.
Today within the Gospel lesson, we hear of Thomas declaring to himself and to others (his own friends who he had known for years of travel). So these are not strangers, these are men who he had known for years, they had meals together, and they had shared experiences that through conversations and challenges. I remind you of this because throughout the ages, Thomas is now known as Doubting Thomas. Thomas becomes defined by this one experience of being left out. When his own friends tell him something, he does not believe.
However, looking at the experience of Thomas it is so much like our own experience. Others tell us something that it is a struggle for us to comprehend or think that it could be true. For what we have already experienced and known to be true, outweighs the words that our friends are telling us. So we return to what is familiar, what we know, and what is safe for us. Yet our friends are adamant, they are overwhelmed by an experience that changes their life for the better.
Others experience something that has changed their life not in a positive way but in a negative way. This change has changed their perspective, and also change the way they interact with others. For each and everyone of us are fighting a battle every single day. A battle that others may not know about, may not have experienced, and yet it is only through interactions that our flaws and wounds become known. Now in our own society and in the world that surrounds us, we are told that we need to be strong, we can not show weakness, we should not show our wounds.
Yet Christ comes to us and declares to you and to me, look at my wounds. These are the wounds that I have born for you. I have these wounds so that you would know that we are reconciled. So Jesus tells Thomas and to us, touch and feel, know and believe.
Now still many of us have someone in our life or perhaps it is even us that we are still like Thomas. I want more than the touching of wounds….I want to see healing. I want more than hearing Jesus that Peace is with me…..I want to experience peace. Yes, this is the desire for us to move from conversation into action. That you are feeling that calling into the Kingdom of God to bring the calling of God into this world. That when you feel or see the wounds of others, you would actually bring the healing and God’s name into that person’s life. That when there is turmoil and strife in this world that you would stand idly by but move into the situation to bring peace and comfort to those who are afflicted.
Today within the Gospel lesson, we hear of Thomas declaring to himself and to others (his own friends who he had known for years of travel). So these are not strangers, these are men who he had known for years, they had meals together, and they had shared experiences that through conversations and challenges. I remind you of this because throughout the ages, Thomas is now known as Doubting Thomas. Thomas becomes defined by this one experience of being left out. When his own friends tell him something, he does not believe.
However, looking at the experience of Thomas it is so much like our own experience. Others tell us something that it is a struggle for us to comprehend or think that it could be true. For what we have already experienced and known to be true, outweighs the words that our friends are telling us. So we return to what is familiar, what we know, and what is safe for us. Yet our friends are adamant, they are overwhelmed by an experience that changes their life for the better.
Others experience something that has changed their life not in a positive way but in a negative way. This change has changed their perspective, and also change the way they interact with others. For each and everyone of us are fighting a battle every single day. A battle that others may not know about, may not have experienced, and yet it is only through interactions that our flaws and wounds become known. Now in our own society and in the world that surrounds us, we are told that we need to be strong, we can not show weakness, we should not show our wounds.
Yet Christ comes to us and declares to you and to me, look at my wounds. These are the wounds that I have born for you. I have these wounds so that you would know that we are reconciled. So Jesus tells Thomas and to us, touch and feel, know and believe.
Now still many of us have someone in our life or perhaps it is even us that we are still like Thomas. I want more than the touching of wounds….I want to see healing. I want more than hearing Jesus that Peace is with me…..I want to experience peace. Yes, this is the desire for us to move from conversation into action. That you are feeling that calling into the Kingdom of God to bring the calling of God into this world. That when you feel or see the wounds of others, you would actually bring the healing and God’s name into that person’s life. That when there is turmoil and strife in this world that you would stand idly by but move into the situation to bring peace and comfort to those who are afflicted.
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