Untitled Sermon

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B, Volume 2 Theological Perspective

How are we to know when God arrives if, in our doubt, our capacity for seeing God is sure to fail? John gives an answer to this question that brings us to the heart of faith’s peculiar form of knowing

It is Jesus who refuses to let dead bolts or chains block the movement of love toward the one who lacks faith. QUOTE

How are we to know when God arrives if, in our doubt, our capacity for seeing God is sure to fail?

When doubt crowds out hope, we can be confident that Jesus will come to meet us where we are, even if it is out on the far edge of faith that has forgotten how to believe

When doubt crowds out hope, we can be confident that Jesus will come to meet us where we are, even if it is out on the far edge of faith that has forgotten how to believe

Jesus who refuses to let dead bolts or chains block the movement of love toward the one who lacks faith. QUOTE

Jesus who refuses to let dead bolts or chains block the movement of love toward the one who lacks faith. QUOTE

He speaks the simple words, “Peace be with you,” and then asks his doubtful friend to put his doubtful fingers into the wounds that he, Jesus, bears from the nails and swords that destroyed his body only days before. What does this tell us about faith? When God comes, we will recognize God’s presence in those moments when peace is offered, in those moments when life’s most brutal violence is honestly acknowledged, and when, in the midst of this bracing honesty, we realize that we are not alone but have, in fact, been always, already found.

The next, however, he may come wearing beggar’s rags, reminding us that the love which saves is vulnerable and costly, and that the glory which awaits us is humble in texture and well worn in feel. At still other times, he may come to us wrapped in the wool shawl of the wise old grandmother who simply holds us as we weep. Whatever his appearance may be, though, we will know it is he if inside those golden garbs, street-faded rags, or warm knitted cape, we find not a logically argued response to our questioning faith but a surprising proclamation of peace and touching love that is stronger than even violent death itself.

The next, however, he may come wearing beggar’s rags, reminding us that the love which saves is vulnerable and costly, and that the glory which awaits us is humble in texture and well worn in feel. At still other times, he may come to us wrapped in the wool shawl of the wise old grandmother who simply holds us as we weep. Whatever his appearance may be, though, we will know it is he if inside those golden garbs, street-faded rags, or warm knitted cape, we find not a logically argued response to our questioning faith but a surprising proclamation of peace and touching love that is stronger than even violent death itself.

In the wonder of those wounds, he finds us.

Jones, S. (2008). Theological Perspective on . In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor (Eds.), Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B (Vol. 2, p. 404). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B, Volume 2 Exegetical Perspective

linking the resurrection of Jesus to the act of commissioning disciples for their own task.

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B, Volume 2 Exegetical Perspective

That their joy is not an end in itself becomes immediately clear with Jesus’ repeated words of peace and his commission, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The Gospel has already established that God sends Jesus and Jesus in turn sends the disciples (3:17; 13:20; 17:18), but here the commission is marked by the gift of the Holy Spirit

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B, Volume 2 Exegetical Perspective

His final words to Thomas, rendered by the NRSV as “Do not doubt but believe,” would be better translated as “Do not be unbelieving but believing.” The emphasis is on Jesus’ invitation to see and believe, not on castigating Thomas.