The Second Sunday of Easter-The Rev Melanie Lemburg

 

Easter 2C_2022

April 24, 2022

 

        I’d like to start a campaign—to change the designation of our patron saint.  Instead of people calling him Doubting Thomas, I’d like to start calling him Need for Certainty Thomas.  Or maybe Evidenced-based Thomas?  True, it doesn’t quite roll of the tongue as well as Doubting Thomas, but I feel our patron saint has been horribly misunderstood throughout the centuries.  Because I believe that out of all the disciples, Thomas is the most like us. 

        Think about it.  The little that we know of Thomas is that he is a problem solver.  He isn’t scared enough to stay locked in the room with the other disciples when they are afraid they will also be targeted for death as Jesus’ closest friends.  Thomas is the rational pragmatist of the group.  So, when the Risen Christ appears to the disciples and Thomas isn’t there, Thomas wants to see it for himself.  He wants answers and certainty, and all they can give him is wonder and mystery.

        We modern people have grown accustomed to being able to find answers after a quick search in the palm of our hand.  We are accustomed to the place of science and rational thought in our modern world, which provide answers to so many of the deep mysteries our ancestors just had to live with. 

        We’ve been taught answers by the church since childhood, and when we show up here, it is often our secret hope to get more answers to the deepest dilemmas of our lives:  how to love those who differ from us? how and where to find peace in our frenzied, frantic lives? what is our purpose?

        I think at the heart of Thomas’s demand for proof is a demand for answers.  “What do you mean he’s back from the dead?  How on earth did that happen?  Maybe if I can see it, see him, then I’ll understand what has happened.”

        Thomas keeps asking the others for answers and all they can do in response is marvel at the mystery they have seen unfold before them in the person of the Resurrected Jesus.   When Thomas finally encounters the Risen Christ for himself, he asks him for certainty, and in response, Jesus shows Thomas his scars from his wounds—the mystery of new life out of brokenness.

        So today, what if, instead of being here in search of certainty, we opened ourselves to the mystery of God’s love, which is so much grander than we can even begin to imagine?  What if instead of answers we sought out uncertainty?  What if, here on out, we made a choice to come here not in search of answers, but rather looking for mystery?[i]   

---

[i] This homily was inspired by my listening to Brene Brown’s interview of Richard Rohr.  You can access it here:  Spirituality, Certitude, and Infinite Love, Part 1 of 2 - Brené Brown (brenebrown.com)