Peace be with you. My name is Danny Bradfield. I use he/him/his pronouns. And I’m pastor of Bixby Knolls Christian Church.
I have some questions.
Preachers are supposed to have answers, I know; but I have questions.
The first question I have is: where was Thomas?
It was Sunday night; it was the same day that began when Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb. She was there before sunrise, and - upon discovering that the tomb was empty - she had gone and told two of the male disciples, who then went and saw the empty tomb for themselves.
Then, after the other two had left, Jesus himself appeared to Mary.
Now, it was evening, on that same day. Ten of the disciples had gathered together. Thomas wasn’t there; and Judas, I assume, wasn’t there; but the other ten were.
Where was Thomas? And, now that I think about it: where was Judas?
The gospel of Matthew says that, after Judas betrayed Jesus, Judas felt guilty and hanged himself. If that is true, it is perhaps the saddest part of this whole story. Because Jesus loved Judas, too. Jesus washed Judas’ feet. Jesus lived and died for Judas.
No one is left out of God’s love.
So, probably, there were probably ten disciples gathered together that evening. They were gathered behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities.
With only ten of the twelve disciples there, the band of disciples was incomplete. The events of the past few days - the trial and the execution of Jesus - had literally torn their group apart.
In fact, it’s more than just the fact that two disciples were missing, and that these twelve were now ten. The twelve named disciples represented the twelve tribes of Israel. They were twelve, because that was the number of all the tribes when Israel was whole, when Israel was a unified kingdom. And they - these twelve disciples - were helping Jesus create a new kingdom. A new and improved Israel. The kingdom of God, a kingdom of peace and wholeness and justice and equality for every person.
Which is why there had to be twelve.
But if they were now ten instead of twelve, what did that mean for the kingdom? What did that mean for a world of shalom, a world where every person mattered, a world where every life was recognized as holy and beloved and worthy? ...
This leads me to another question: What about us? For the past year, we haven’t been whole, either. We’ve been separated, at least physically.
And at first, we wondered: can we survive this separation? Can we survive having our community, our body, be broken apart like this?
Then, almost miraculously, we realized we were surviving. But as the pandemic continued on and we remained separated for much longer than we initially thought, we wondered: how long? How long could we continue like this? How long could we survive, worshiping, when we weren’t all together?
And now, we are gathered together, but some of us aren’t here yet. Like the disciples on Sunday evening, we are all together, but we aren’t all together. Not yet….
Ten of the disciples were together on Easter night, and it had been a very long day. Easter had taken place, but they weren’t all together, and they still hadn’t seen Jesus (only Mary had), and they were still afraid.
So very afraid.
And then Jesus came and stood among them. He appeared among them, and said, “Peace be with you.”
He showed them the places on his body where he had been pierced by the nails and the sword. And they were filled with joy.
And he again spoke words of peace to them, words that weren’t a wish or even a prayer, but a statement of fact. “Peace is with you” is probably a better translation. Then he breathed on them the Holy Spirit, and - before disappearing - spoke about the importance of offering forgiveness.
Forgiveness? Who were they to forgive?
The Romans?
Judas?
Thomas?
Themselves?
Forgiveness means restoration. Sin damages or destroys a relationship, but forgiveness restores relationship. In these Easter passages, Jesus talks a lot about forgiveness. We’ll hear him talk about forgiveness again next week...
Anyway, when Thomas arrived (I still wonder where he was at), the other disciples told Thomas that they had seen Jesus.
Now, maybe Thomas was already feeling left out because he wasn’t there with them when it happened. This didn’t help.
“Jesus appeared to you, did he? While I was away? Well. Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side where the sword pierced him, I won’t believe.”...
Now, I admit, I have a soft spot in my heart for Thomas. After all, for whatever reason, he missed out. He wasn’t there.
We’ve all experienced that, haven’t we? Being left out? Everyone was invited to the party… except you. And maybe you didn’t even want to go to the party, but still… it would have been nice to have been invited.
I know Betsy always feels bad for Charlie Brown when he and his friends go trick-or-treating, and all Charlie Brown gets is a rock. Well, I feel sorry for Charlie Brown when he gets an invitation to Peppermint Patty’s Christmas Party, but then Lucy tells him that it must have been a mistake, that there were two lists, and he must have been put on the wrong list, because there’s no way he would have been invited.
It’s so sad to not be invited, to be left out.
Did you see the video in the news this week about the young boy crossing over into the United States, who was left wandering alone in the wilderness of the desert southwest because the group he was with ditched him? They just said, “so long, kid; you’re on your own.” And just like that, he was no longer part of their group. And he was left behind, lost, alone...
Why wasn’t Thomas there, with his “group,” when Jesus appeared? Was he left out? Was he not invited? Was he sent to the wrong address? Did they send Thomas out to get the pizza instead of having it delivered? I want to know: why wasn’t Thomas there?
As you can tell, I have a soft spot in my heart for those who are left out - and I think Jesus did, too.
That’s why I’m trying really hard these days to make sure that those who aren’t yet able to worship with us in our sanctuary still feel included, and part of the group. I don’t want anyone to feel like Thomas. I don’t want anyone to feel like Charlie Brown. I don’t want anyone to be left out.
Well, eight days later, the disciples were all gathered together, and Thomas was with them this time.
Still no word about Judas. John’s gospel isn’t clear, but maybe John assumes we know that Judas hanged himself…
Either way, we see that the group is not yet completely whole, but one step closer to being whole. They’re back up to eleven. Torn apart by the crucifixion, the group was slowly being put back together.
And doesn’t that describe us, at this point in time? Even though we aren’t all here in the sanctuary, we are one step closer to being whole. We still aren’t quite complete, but we also are not as separated as we were...
But what if, before Jesus appeared, All the disciples started singing a version of, “Were You There…”
And their verse went, “Were You There when he came into our midst,” and the next verse, “Were You There when he offered us his peace.” And the next verse: “Were you there when he told us to forgive?”
And poor Thomas… because he wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there.
The actual song, as many of you know, goes: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?... Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?...”
Don't tell anyone, but I never liked that song. It always seemed to me that it was trying to make me feel bad that I wasn’t there. But that’s ridiculous, because the song was written in the 19th century, so no one who has ever sung that song was actually there; I was taking it too literally.
Then I learned that the song was written by enslaved African Americans, and that the song as a whole is a metaphor which compares the suffering that Jesus endured to the suffering that slaves endured in the 1800s.
And when I remember that Jesus is present in every person who suffers, in every “least of these,” then I realize the connection, and the power of this song. And that I, if I want to “be there,” I simply need to go to those who are suffering, those who are hurt, those who are vulnerable and oppressed, and identify with them, and connect my life with their lives...and then, I am there.
I am there, and Jesus is there.
And then I realize that it’s all well and good if we are able to come together to worship, but if that’s all we do, and we aren’t reaching out to those in need, if we aren’t making ourselves present with those who are hurting, those whose lives are broken… then we aren’t really there.
If we hide ourselves away from the pain and the suffering of the world, then we aren’t where Jesus is, but if we go to where Jesus is, if we go to where Jesus is being crucified on a daily basis in our world today, then we were there; we are there.
I have another idea: maybe Thomas was invited. Maybe he was given the right address. But maybe he was hiding himself away from the pain and away from the sorrow. Maybe he was out, trying to find some distraction to take his mind off of everything. Alcohol. Sex. A day of fishing. Who knows?
But in the end, he was there. He came back to the room, to his fellow disciples, to the place where they were sharing their sorrow and their brokenness.
And he was there, this time,do when Jesus appeared. And he saw Jesus in their very midst.
And then, after that, the work of healing began. Eventually, those eleven would choose one more to join them, to take the place of Judas, so that they would once again be twelve.
And they would begin the work of building God’s kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven.
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