John 14:1-14

[Jesus said,] “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go there to prepare a place for you, I will come again to take you to myself, so that where I am, there you will be also. And you know the way to the place that I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father, also. And from now on you do know him and you have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and still you do not know me? Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father? These words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me. But if you do not, believe because of the works themselves.

“Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Father might be glorified in the Son. If, in my name, you ask for anything, I will do it.”

Since it’s NBA playoff season, I came across what is apparently a phenomenon in the world of the NBA post-game press conference: dumb questions, asked by sports writers of NBA players, after a game. There are compilations of them all over YouTube, but I found this one – kind of short and sweet – thanks to Jimmy Kimmel.

So, we’ve all heard, I suspect, that “there’s no such thing as a dumb question.” I’ve said it before, in classes and Bible studies and whatnot; to adults and kids; to other people’s kids and my own, I’m sure. And it’s mostly true. If they are genuine and heartfelt and curious, there really is no such thing as a dumb question. This is the way any good teacher should approach a student; how any mentor should engage a protégé; any guide should embrace a follower; any messiah should encourage a disciple, maybe. But some people – kids and adults alike – and apparently sports writers and reporters after an NBA basketball game – put that notion to the test? (I’m looking at every teacher who’s ever had a Class Clown in their midst. And anyone who’s ever been the Class Clown, too.) There really can be dumb questions waiting to surprise even the most patient teacher or player among us.

Anyway, I kind of wonder if Jesus wasn’t thinking something along these lines when he was being questioned by Thomas and Phillip in this morning’s Gospel. I’m not sure you could call them “Class Clowns,” but Jesus seems sort of surprised, if not exasperated … maybe even disappointed … by their questions.

Jesus offers up what seems to be a preconceived notion, a no brainer, something he expected they would have understood. He’s like, “And you know the way to the place where I am going.” But Thomas gives us our first hint about his doubting ways when he wants to know more. “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” He wants a little more clarity, it seems. As is his way.

Phillip wants to see something else, too … something more, something different, something better than what he’s already witnessed. “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied,” he asks. “Come on Jesus, just show us this ‘Father’ you’ve been praying to and talking about and that’ll do it. Just make it clear and we’ll know … it’ll all make sense … then we’ll be satisfied. That will finally make all the difference.”

And Jesus is like, “Guys. You’ve seen it. Don’t you know? Remember when I turned that water into wine? Remember when I drank from the well with that woman in Samaria? Remember when I saved the life of that boy who was sick and that time I helped that lame guy walk after 38 years? Remember when I turned that other kid’s lunch into a feast for 5,000 people? And when I stood up for that woman who was caught in adultery? When I gave that blind man his sight and raised Lazarus from the dead? Remember when I washed your feet, for crying out loud! Have I been with you all this time, Phillip, and still you don’t know me? You still Don’t get it? You still don’t understand? You still don’t see?

In Jesus, what had been invisible could now be seen. In Jesus, the power and presence of God showed up living and moving and breathing, in the world. In Jesus the divine who had here-to-for been unknown became knowable. In Jesus, so many of our questions turned into living, moving, breathing answers.

And the questions weren’t answered by well-crafted sermons, or by theological treatises; by Q & A sessions in between worship services, or with crystal balls, either. Jesus answered the questions of his day and age by all of that living and moving and breathing … by being in the world. I think this is why the disciples didn’t always get it and I think it’s why we miss the point sometimes, ourselves.

Questions about grace were answered when Jesus forgave the unforgivable and welcomed the outsiders others refused to make room for.

Questions about mercy were answered when Jesus healed the sick and shared bread with the hungry.

Questions about justice were answered when Jesus spoke out against the hypocrites and turned over tables in the temple; when he empowered women, welcomed children into his presence, and when he broke bread with outcasts and sinners.

Questions about love were answered by the cross and questions about God’s power over all things were answered by the empty tomb.

What I get out of today’s Gospel – and the questions the disciples raise – is not simple answers, which are always tempting and maybe what we’d prefer. What I get out of this morning’s Gospel is a different way of finding answers. Jesus didn’t sit around arguing about who might be right and who might be wrong. He didn’t debate the theological merits of the questions the disciples were asking. And Jesus didn’t shout the answers or scream the instructions IN. ALL. CAPS. from behind a keyboard, by way of a post on social media.

Jesus became the lessons his life was meant to teach. He practiced and personified the way, and the truth, and the life of faith everyone wanted to know more about.

Jesus didn’t just talk about grace – he extended it to anyone and everyone.

Jesus didn’t just offer up “thoughts and prayers” about justice – he worked for it.

Jesus didn’t just dream about mercy – he shared it.

Jesus didn’t just sit in worship or around tables to read and study God’s Word for his own benefit – he preached and proclaimed it; he passed it around and poured it out in the form of himself, like so much bread and wine, to whoever would receive it.

Jesus didn’t just preach about the love of God, I mean. He embodied it.

And that’s our call, too – for ourselves, for each other, and for the world around us.

This morning, we’re sharing “first communion” with some of our young people and we’re baptizing Clive Blackmon, too. Like Thomas and Phillip, these young people can and should come to us with all kinds of questions about the place and presence and power of God in their lives and in this world.

And I hope they will learn from all of us – not just by what we say and teach and preach, even – but by what they see, feel and experience about the lives of faith they witness among us. They will learn about grace by who and how we forgive one another. They will learn about generosity and sacrifice by why and how much we give of our time, our energy and our money, too. They will learn about justice and service by the work we do in the world. They will learn about love by those we welcome among us.

And so will we.

This can be hard, holy work, for sure. But Jesus promises that we’re up for it … that as believers we will do even greater works than his own. And I believe that, along the way, we will reveal and receive answers about our own faith – maybe even the ones we can’t always put into words – when we live and move and breathe as the very body of Christ – as the very love of God – as the very presence of the divine – in the world, and for the sake of the world, in the name of Jesus who showed us how to do it all in the first place.

Amen

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

You’ve heard countless sermons about doubting Thomas. Every year without fail, the text for the first Sunday after Easter is Jesus appearing to the disciples and to Thomas. And you’ve likely heard many sermons or had Bible studies about how Thomas shouldn’t be known as doubting Thomas for a variety of reasons: 1. the word doubt isn’t actually in the text because in greek that word is unbelieving; 2. it’s unfair that Thomas gets the moniker of doubting when in fact he has the strongest confession of Jesus in the whole gospel, “My Lord and My God”. And 3. shouldn’t the other disciples also have the title doubting? After all they heard Mary Magdalene’s experience of seeing Jesus, alive and outside the tomb, and they don’t seem to believe her until they see him for themselves. So Thomas isn’t asking for anything more than what the disciples had already experienced.

That's the pattern throughout the Gospel of John. Folks have an encounter with Jesus, they go and tell someone else, and that person then desires to have their own encounter. Andrew stayed with Jesus two days, then told his brother Peter about it all, who then went to see Jesus for himself. Philip followed Jesus, then went and told Nathanael. Nathanael thought nothing good could come from Nazareth until he too encountered Jesus himself. The woman at the well went to tell her people about her encounter and after Jesus stayed with them, the Samaritans said “it’s no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know Jesus is the savior of the World.”

That pattern persists after the resurrection. Mary Magdalene tells the disciples, but apparently men not believing a woman’s own experience seems to go back a long way in history. Her story isn't enough; they need to see it to believe it. And they do and they tell Thomas, but not only does he want his own encounter, he wants a little more. If there is any charge against Thomas it’s that he is perhaps demanding: seeing won’t be enough, I need to touch also! But who doesn’t want this? I mean don’t we all want to see, to touch, to encounter the Risen Lord? Of course we do and for a number of reasons: to quash our doubt, to strengthen our belief, to give us a story to share. Maybe you sat here last week, singing and proclaiming that Jesus Christ has risen, while in the back of your mind, you wondered, “is this really true? How could there be a resurrection, where is the proof?”

The problem we have, or maybe it’s the problem I have, with Thomas is not that he doubted or was unbelieving. The problem I have with Thomas is that I am jealous of him. I don’t care that he demanded more than his fellow disciples. I am jealous of Thomas because he demanded more and it happened. “I won’t believe unless I see and unless I touch”. And miraculously it happened. It’s as if on command, Thomas made the request, Jesus heard it, and made it happen within a week. That’s the problem I have with Thomas, I am jealous.

Aren’t you? Don’t you wish that Jesus met all your requests, that you could give commands when you had doubts or when something was wrong and Jesus would show up within a week? How many times have you pleaded with God, saying like Thomas, do this for me God, then I’ll “fill in the blank” only for God to not hold up God’s end of the bargain? God fix my marriage and we’ll go to church every week. Jesus heal my spouse, my friend, my parent and then I’ll believe you really are a healer. Show up in my life when I am afraid, grieving, stressed, hurting because my faith is weak and I need to know you are there. You did it for Thomas afterall… Aren’t you jealous?

It’s trite to say that God’s ways are not our ways. But it's true. And I don’t believe everything happens for a reason. We face evil, we make our own messes. There are some things we just can’t know this side of heaven: like friends dying young, loved one’s, or ourselves, suffering cancer, or a seemingly unfair world full of violence and greed. Yet, when Jesus shows up to Thomas in that house, he brings good news not only to Thomas, but to as well. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus calls us blessed, us… the ones who have not seen, the ones who make the request, the demands, and don’t get them answered like we want. The ones who have faced evil and cancer. The ones who are full of doubts and worries and stresses about life and faith and where Jesus is at in it all. Somehow we are blessed.

We’re blessed because we too encounter the Risen Lord, just perhaps not in ways we expect or are mindful of in the moment. For instance, feel Jesus' breath pass your lips and ears every time you hear or say the words, “I forgive you”, because it’s the resurrected Jesus who gives the disciples, and us, the mission of forgiveness, equipping us with the Holy Spirit to do so.

And every week here at this table, not only do we remember Jesus’ eating and drinking with friends, but we encounter the Risen Lord who says to us this is my body, my very self, given for you. So we come, we take the bread and the cup trusting that Jesus is really giving himself to strengthen and nourish us, for all that we may face.

And perhaps to some surprise, we see Jesus in other people. And I don’t mean your family or your friends, or pastor mark. No, we meet Jesus in those who bear his resemblance: the people who have nothing, those who are beaten down yet still living, crucified by those in power, and can’t help but show their scars. Dorothy Day, my favorite Catholic of all time, put it this way: “The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him. It is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love. How do we know we believe? Because we have seen His hands and His feet in the poor around us. He has shown Himself to us in them. We start by loving them for Him, and we soon love them for themselves, each one a unique person, most special!”

In this life, we may not see Jesus’ as Thomas did. But rather than be envious, we should ask, demand, request (whatever you want to call it) like Thomas. After all, Jesus did say to Thomas and to us, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

So request to experience the love of God and then go and ask for forgiveness because that’s where you will feel it most. Cry out to God for strength and grace and hope, and then come to the table, because that’s where God gives himself to us, each time, every Sunday, offering us all exactly what we need. Demand to see the Risen Lord and then go and serve your neighbor, because that’s where you will find him.

"Dumb" Questions, Faithful Answers

Close Encounters with the Risen Kind