I love St. Thomas...both my sending parish and the saint. I love that I was attending seminary being sent from a parish named for the one who wanted an experience of the risen Christ for himself, and not just the glorious reports from other people. I love that Thomas is like a scientist, cautioning that he desires peer review (namely his) before he'll accept that Jesus has risen from the dead.
Mostly, what Thomas wants is what we all want: we want that cool experience of knowing such a deep and profound love in our lives. Here's the sermon....
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Fear of Missing Out.
The shorthand is FOMO…and it speaks to that sense of feeling like
other people are leading better lives or having more experiences than you are.
It’s a little bit like the old “keeping up with the Joneses.” And
with Facebook and Instagram and other social media…it’s become a real thing
that causes stress in people’s lives. People turn to these platforms to figure
out what their friends have been up to…and will scroll and scroll through
photos…and memes…posts…all the while feeling as if other people are doing more
important or interesting or fun things.
Other people get to see the cool stuff!
I can imagine that Thomas is suffering from some FOMO in this account
from our Gospel. For whatever reason…all the rest of them have locked
themselves up in a room. The text says “for fear of the Jews” but as I’ve said
before, all these disciples are Jews themselves, so let’s be clear: they’re
afraid of the ones who are in cahoots with the Roman authorities.
And you know the emperor’s men must be angry to find that the body
of that Jewish upstart Jesus has gone missing. I mean, this has scandal written
all over it.
So the disciples are huddled together. They’ve heard from the women
and from Peter that Jesus has risen from the dead. That alone probably has them
scared because that’s not normal. One commentator even suggests that they may
be frightened of Jesus. Afterall, they said they were going to be on his side,
but when the authorities showed up, they went running to save their own skins.
Is Jesus angry?
Is he going to punish them for deserting him?
Some may even be wondering if this is story they’ve heard is true.
Again…it’s pretty outlandish and far-fetched.
As they’re wringing their hands…with their knees knocking… and
their hearts beating faster…Jesus shows up.
Not as a ghost.
Not as a shadow.
He appears inside the locked room.
If they weren’t already afraid…this would definitely have given
them a jolt.
The doors are locked. How’d he get in here?
(Oh, silly disciples: if Jesus can overcome death on the cross and
the grave…do you think a locked door is going to keep him out?)
Jesus…probably sensing their fear…greets them with “peace be with
you.”
It’s probable that he used the phrase “Shalom Aleichem,” which we
translate from Hebrew into “peace.” But shalom aleichem carries more meaning
that simply “peace.”
It conveys a wish for the person to be made whole.
That seems important given all that has happened to the disciples
in the past week.
They’ve been through heavy trauma…the type of earth-shattering
experience like remembering President Kennedy’s assassination…or 9-11…or even
the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
Their world has started spinning off its axis. They know their leader
was killed but now they don’t know where he is. They intellectually understand
the resurrection, but where is he?! Their sense of security is gone. That’s why
they’re in a locked room.
Now the resurrection is made real as he stands before them…this
figure who is not a figment of their imagination.
They see his hands, his feet, his pierced side. As their initial
shock is wearing off…and they realize that it’s really him…he again wishes them
“shalom aleichem” and breathes out the Holy Spirit on them…with the instruction
that he’s sending them out.
Carry on, my dear ones.
Do all that I taught you to do.
Go forth…and show yourselves as followers of Jesus.
And…importantly…forgive. Forgive unbelief.
This shalom is forgiveness…forgiving them of their fears…and
emboldening their faith.
So…all this took place without Thomas being in the locked room.
We don’t know why Thomas wasn’t there.
Maybe he was late to the party or got lost looking for the hideout.
But for whatever reason…he missed this visit from the Messiah.
And when he does get up with the others…they are all a-buzz with
excitement.
They couldn’t stop telling him “We have seen the Lord!”
They gave him all the exciting details…all the nuances…what the
holes in hands and feet looked like.
If they had had social media in those days…this would have been
“trending” all over the internet…with hashtags galore.
And Thomas would have had that nagging feeling…the anxiety that
happens when you’re not “in the know.”
He would be having that FOMO moment.
He’d missed the really cool thing that just happened.
“Oh, yeah,” he says. “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.” We can almost hear the “So there!” at the end of that statement.
Thomas gets called “the doubter” as if that makes him some sort of
inferior disciple. But I don’t think he was any more of a doubter than the rest
of them.
Or frankly…any more of a doubter than any of us.
It’s a very rare person of faith who at one time or another didn’t wonder
about some aspect of our story…about God…about Jesus. One of the blessings
about being in the Episcopal Church is that we are followers of Jesus who say
it’s OK to have questions and to ask them. As I’ve said to many a person
exploring their faith, “I’m pretty sure God enjoys your questions because it
means you care enough to ask.”
Thomas’ insistence on being let in on the cool stuff is no
different than what anyone of us wants when we go seeking after God.
We want to know that this incredible source of Love is real and
that this promise that “I’ll be with you to the end of the age”…is not a ruse.
Thomas is one of us. And expresses our same fear of missing out
when others seem to have had such remarkable experiences of the Holy One that
we haven’t had.
But Thomas does something bold. If you think about his statement,
he makes the ask. He wants Jesus to show up for him, too.
And Jesus responds.
One week later…in the same way as before defying all attempts to
lock the doors…he shows himself to Thomas. If Thomas really was such a
doubter…a non-believer…he might have stuck his hand in the holes in Jesus’
body. But his words show that he never really doubted who Jesus is.
He exclaims, “My Lord and my God!”
You can’t get any surer of Jesus’ status than that.
There is no shame in this story. In fact, John even notes that part
of the purpose of sharing these encounters with Thomas and the others is to
help us to see that by seeking, by asking, by insisting on having an experience
of Jesus we don’t need to fear on missing out.
Jesus will show up.
Maybe not standing there with holes in his body, but maybe in the
form of a stranger giving us a hand or the sun breaking through after several
gloomy cloudy days. Or maybe we play the role of being Jesus for another person
or creature in need of help.
Acts of kindness…friendliness…generosity. That’s the cool stuff we
need in the world today.
In the name of God…F/S/HS.
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