Unless I See

Scripture: Psalm 16:7-11, 1 Peter 1:8-9, John 20:19-31

Message:  UNLESS I SEE

Deb Beutel, Lay Leader

Youth Sunday 

When I was working on my Certified Lay Minister Certification, I had frequent chats with my clergy mentor and former Pastor, Rev Mark Miller.  I recall once when we were discussing doubt that he casually mentioned that there was a time when some theologians taught that Christians could believe in the power of Resurrection without the reality of Resurrection. Of course, I thought this was ridiculous. However, I often think about this conversation when I read the story of Thomas, because, for Thomas, the power is the reality. You can’t have one without the other. And although we give Thomas grief for wanting to see Jesus’ resurrected body, I think he’s onto something. How often do we worship and believe in the idea of Christ’s resurrection without expecting to witness real Resurrection in our lives, our communities, and our world?

How can we as a body of believers sense and experience Christ’s resurrection? We tend to focus on sight in the story of Thomas, but what about the other senses? What does Resurrection smell like? Taste like? Sound like? How do we touch Resurrection? Embrace resurrection? How do we sing Resurrection to and with one another and our neighborhood? We may not see Christ’s wounded hands in front of us, but how do we notice those hands at work among us and within us?

Perhaps we need to actively engage our senses to notice God at work—to witness the reality of Christ’s resurrection, all around us in our everyday lives Monday through Saturday.  We can begin simply by paying attention to all the ways we engage our senses to worship the resurrected Christ who lives among us, to receive Christ’s resurrection life within us, and to go into the world to share the good news as people of the resurrected Christ.

So here we are going to focus on our text from John this week.  And what do we see - Good old Thomas. We’re sure glad he is there. He saves us from having to ask these uncomfortable questions. We don’t have to carry the weight of our doubts all alone. He paved the way for us. He stood there in front of the remaining disciples, who were still glowing from their encounter with the Risen Jesus, and said, “No.” He said, “I’m not buying it. I don’t get it. I can’t see what you see.” And in so doing, he legitimized all those questions that race through our minds from time to time.

I was leading and teaching the High School Youth in Sunday School and on their retreats as they prepared for Confirmation.   One Sunday night after playing some games, we were sitting in a dark corner of the YOUTH Room in the basement of Ebenezer UMC, just talking. One of the younger teens managed to say something like, “I’m not even sure there is a God, you know?” “Yeah,” another piped up, “It is kinda out there.” And before you know it, there was a general consensus that this God thing was pretty incredible and not particularly necessary for a good life, as far as they could see anyway.

Needless to say, I was stunned. Remember, I was just a volunteer, a lay person, I wasn’t ordained, I didn’t go to seminary, I didn’t think I had all the right answers.  I panicked for a brief moment as I thought about the need to come up with a smart viable answer that would motivate these young people.  Something that would help them believe.  What are you in high school—sixteen or seventeen? I was shaking, not sure how to deal with that, startled by their lack of certainty, their lack of belief. I pretty much became silent at that moment.

I had lots of examples but, how would my examples be relatable to these youth?  I had been through a divorce and had my heart broken so completely that I wondered where God was, but, he kept showing up in mysterious ways when I needed him most. I had stood by helplessly while someone I loved suffered through sickness the end of life during the loss of both of my parents, and God had been beside me throughout the entire journey and even inspired me as I spoke at their celebrations of life.  I had paid enough attention to the world around me to see cruelty and inhumanity on a worldwide scale, death and devastation, suffering and isolation and yet Jesus opened my eyes to also see the beauty and compassion and incredible Faith of many who had so much less that we have on numerous mission trips. 

I had grown up in the church, it was always there, God was always there, and I always felt his presence.  I hadn’t never even considered the point of thinking that Thomas’s position was the sensible one. It is the world’s question. Unless I see, unless I touch, I won’t believe. Doesn’t that make so much more sense? Isn’t that what we are taught in our academic endeavors, to trust but, verify? Aren’t we asked to substantiate our beliefs? So why do we give Thomas such a hard time, when he is the one who makes the most sense, seems the most like us?

Ironically,  I cannot for the life of me remember what I said to those doubting youth that Sunday evening so long ago.  But, I do know the Holy Spirit gave me the words and they obviously worked because the Youth kept coming back to Sunday school and to Youth Group.  God always equips the called!  I call that moment one of “God’s Glimpses of Glory.”

And getting back to our text for today, did you notice Thomas’s name in Bible stories? We call him “Doubting Thomas,” but that title never appears in the text anywhere. In the Bible, he is called Thomas the Twin. Isn’t that interesting? And we know nothing at all about his twin—such a major character, and we know nothing about this twin. It could be anybody. It could even be you.

Or me. We stand with Thomas more often than we would like to admit. We are his twin in our need for confirmation, of something to touch and hold on to. We need a connection to what we believe. That’s what we need and want, even when we can’t articulate it. The real tragedy in this story is in verse 24: “Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.” He was unconnected; he was cast adrift on a sea of doubt, worry, and uncertainty. That is one of the reasons we worship as a body of believers, for the connection to each other and to our savior Jesus Christ.

Maybe that is what Jesus was referring to with his words about seeing and believing. Maybe it isn’t simply about recognizing what we don’t have. As much as we might want to, we won’t get to sit at Jesus’ feet, hear his teachings, and see his miracles like the first ones did, at least not in this life on this earth.

But maybe there is more to it than that. Maybe Jesus is helping us realize that seeing isn’t really believing after all. Maybe he is hinting that being is believing. Maybe we come closer to believing when we are being like Christ, when we show our wounds to the world, when our hope leads the way then leads us to deeper belief in the one we call Christ.

The glory and celebration of Easter is wonderful and necessary to our lives of faith. But we can’t put all our eggs in that Easter basket. The world goes on. We’ve slept since then, and our perennial question arises: “Now what?”

Well, now there’s blessing—a blessing in being. 

And being a believer is a HUGE Blessing.  Especially be one who believes without seeing.  In 1 Peter 1:8-9, we are reminded:

“Although you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”