Is your life different today? Is it radically different from eight days ago—Before Easter? Has the Good News of Jesus’ conquering sin and death changed you? Has the fact Jesus washes away your sins and breathes his Spirit in you at baptism made you a different person? Are you now a person who is more just and who helps bring in the Kingdom of God?
Where is your faith these days? How do you embody it? One thing that’s clear in the Gospel of John is that the disciples—Jesus’ first followers—were all over the map in their different types and levels of faith. Some faith is based on seeing signs and some faith needs no signs. There’s weak faith and strong faith. There’s shallow faith and deep faith. There’s faith that’s growing and maturing and faith that’s faltering.
In the Gospel of John, faith is not just a decision we make once for all. It’s a decision we make in every new situation. For example, we make a decision every time we come up against the powers of the status quo that favor the rich and oppress the poor. These are powers that are not of the Kingdom of God.
Look at Thomas. Now here’s a disciple who was courageous, spiritually wise, and devoted to Jesus. The tradition says he was the first Christian missionary to India. Perhaps he even wrote a book about Jesus called The Gospel of Thomas. But Thomas needed to see and touch Jesus’ wounds in order to believe. His faith journey was ready to go to a deeper level. But ever since then we’ve called him “doubting Thomas” and often see this somehow as a bad thing. But look at the other disciples in the Gospel of John. The beloved disciple believed something (but we don’t know what) with no evidence, except an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene believed because a man called her by name and she knew his voice. Ten disciples believed because they saw the risen Jesus. Thomas struggled some. He’d missed the other experiences and needed some physical proof. I don’t think Jesus faults him for this.
For some, faith comes gently and easily. For others of us, we struggle and wrestle with doubt. It was true then, and it’s true now…Faith comes in all shapes and sizes, and one is not necessarily better than the other.
Where is your faith today? How do you embody it? Does it matter in your life that Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into his disciples. He did it that day in the house, when he came through the locked doors and appeared to the 11 disciples. He does it each time one of us is baptized…“You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” He also does it over and over again in our everyday lives in an infinite number of ways. Jesus comes to us, appears to us, gives us Peace, bestows the Holy Spirit on our community, then sends us forth. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
We are now his hands and feet. His wounds. We are the voice of his forgiveness, his healing touch, and his word that speaks out when people are oppressed by the powerful. We are this now, and we come to know him more and more as we go about continuing his work in the world. We are now members of his body and that’s not like being a member of a book club or soccer team. It’s like being, in fact, one of Jesus’ limbs…an arm, a leg, a hand or foot. We are his only hands and feet now. We are Christ to this sinful and broken world! We are the ones to spread peace. To spread Good News. To bring in God’s Kingdom. So what’s it like to be surrounded by Jesus this morning? Just look around at your brothers and sisters here…It’s enough to change you!
Jesus knows we’re not all in the same place spiritually. For some faith is easy, and for some it’s hard. But no matter where we are in our faith journeys, he has died for us, saved us, given us forgiveness and ultimate Peace. And by breathing the Holy Spirit into us, he has SENT US FORTH changed…To spread that Peace and forgiveness…To spread God’s justice.
How do you personally/how do we at St. James spread God’s Peace, Forgiveness & Justice? What particular member of Christ’s body are you/we as a community? A contemporary spiritual director wrote,
“He still comes in everydayness. He still says, See my hands and my feet. Don’t avert your eyes from my wounds out of politeness or disgust. Look at them. Put your finger here. Don’t be afraid. Remember the incarnation. I came among you first in human flesh—flesh that can be hungry and fed, flesh that can be hurt, even killed. Flesh that can embody God’s love. He comes among us still, mediated through human flesh. See his hands, his side. Touch him, and see.”
(Margaret Gunther, Christian Century, April 12, 2004)
What happens when one of us/or when we as a community, like Thomas, gets to the point of recognizing the risen Christ, of calling him “My Lord and My God,” and of living our lives in a way that shows we really believe it? What happens is—We’re CHANGED. Our lives are radically different. We know we’re forgiven. We know that Jesus died and rose again for us. He conquered the powers of evil and oppression. We know we are his hands and feet. We’re here to spread God’s Kingdom. And empowered by God’s SPIRIT, we have LIFE and give LIFE in his name. Amen.
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