Courageous Thomas is at it again

Sermon for Calmar Lutheran and Springfield Lutheran Churches

Scripture: John 20:19-31

            Why was Thomas not in the room with the disciples?

            For me, that question turned the doubting Thomas story upside down.

            What was Thomas doing?

            The disciples are in a house with doors locked “for fear of the Jews,” John says. The Jews—you may know—are their own people. The disciples were Jews; the chief priests were Jews; the ones who chose Barrabas over Jesus were Jews; and Jesus himself was a Jew. Besides Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers, everybody in the crucifixion scene was Jewish. The disciples are afraid of their fellow chosen people. What’s more, they are right to feel this way. They just crucified their own messiah.

            So, where was Thomas?

The most likely reason Thomas was gone in my eyes probably would have been our first guess if we knew him as “Courageous Thomas” and not “Doubting Thomas,” because I suspect Thomas had to be the one who was out braving the streets full of people who were looking for disciples. Thomas would have been the one in the market buying food and to the well to draw their water, and Thomas would have been the one sniffing out whether anybody was going to drag them off before Pilate next. Not only that, Thomas was alone—or at least none of the other male disciples were with him.

As far as I am concerned, the big question in this story is not about Thomas at all, but rather, why Jesus chose that moment to appear—when there was one disciple missing?

If we were pressed to guess the kind of people Jesus would appear to post-resurrection, I suspect we would pick the faithful and the courageous. I think most people believe that in the current times as well—that Jesus shows up to people who are faithful and courageous, perhaps even to the powerful given how many of our political leaders claim to have a special relationship with God. We do not act as if God comes to the ones huddled in fear—to the lowly and the little. I also suspect we assume this is how God works because this is how we would do it if we were God and not because scripture bears witness to God ever acting this way. Consider Jesus’ ministry: Who is he always going to? The least and the lost, the lowly and the belittled—a woman at a well, a Samaritan, the unclean, the poor, the sick. Some of those folks were courageous in their own way, but none of them were heroes, all of them were lacking in some obvious way. For that matter, Jesus called the disciples from among the rejects—young men who were not good enough to continue the study of the Torah, who instead were working as fishermen and tax collectors and builders, the blue-collar men of the day. I am hard-pressed to think of a single example of Jesus showing up to the powerful. Jesus always picked the outsiders!

Backbone Cave Stalagmites

So, who are the outsiders in this story?

Not Thomas! It is the rest of the disciples—the ones living in fear.

The disciples are the lowly ones—the disciples are held captive by their own fears. In that moment, the disciples need Jesus more than Thomas, and Jesus comes first and foremost to put an end to fear. After all, the very first words from the angel in the empty tomb to Mary Magdalene and the other women were “Do not be afraid!”

There was a time when fear of hell and damnation was a pathway to faith, but that ended on Easter morning. Now we have a God in Jesus Christ who has already gone there and come back to rid us of our fears. Jesus comes to the poor, sad, lowly disciples first—not Thomas—because Thomas has the courage to be outside in a dangerous world, doing what needed to be done. But here’s where it gets really interesting: Thomas’ courage is also not enough. I suspect the Gospel of John lingers over Thomas’ to remind us that brave though we may be, we are not saved by our courage either. The moral of the story is not—do not fear, be courageous, because that will save you. No! It is not the strength of our willpower that redeems us but the grace of God through Jesus, who showed us humility by walking the way of the cross. This story is not about Thomas—it is about Jesus—and it is about the very human reaction that the disciples have to an impossible situation. Some fear—at least one has some courage—but all need grace to find their faith.

It is the same at Ewalu—courage follows faith; faith follows grace. Our campers don’t start with courage—quite often campers begin with fear. I mean, camp is a scary place! Especially the first time you show up! Camp is full of unfamiliar people and traditions and stories, not to mention sleeping away from the safety of home. If you come from a loving, safe family, then being away from that family is scary, and that fear is healthy! If you are used to being indoors, then being outdoors can be scary. If you are accustomed to twelve hours a day of screen time, then sixteen hours a day of face-to-face interaction is terrifying. The truth is that every kid comes to us lacking—just like the disciples! So many of our campers are afraid you are going to ask them a question about the Bible—just like many of you are, I suspect. Many of our campers feel deep down that they don’t fit in. Many have been told that something about them is wrong or broken or that they should be better. For all these kids, coming to a place that deals with real questions and real faith is terrifying at first. This is why so much of our focus in the first 24-hours of camp is on techniques to assure our campers that they are in a safe space before we even begin to till the fertile ground where they will discover the God is growing something in them. It takes time and effort.

At camp, we teach many of the same lessons the disciples learn locked up in the house. We acknowledge our fears. Fear is natural, but Jesus calls us beyond our fears. We move toward courage, but courage alone is not enough, because too many of us will put our willpower in the place of God, trusting ourselves to save ourselves. This works until it doesn’t, but when it doesn’t, there is nothing to catch us if I am only ever trusting in me. Jesus knows who he is dealing with—little campers like you and me, who just cannot believe that grace could possibly be real. It takes coming together, whether as a camp or as a church. When we do, we look at one another face-to-face and see we are all these lowly, fearful creatures in need of grace, and also, we bear in us the image of the God who saves us! So, we come together and what began with fear turns to courage when we come to know we are saved by grace through faith. Then, we begin to understand that all of that courage is grounded in the God who created us and loves us and saves us.

Of course, this does not mean our fears go away. One of the blessings of growing older is that you will shed some fears and will develop shiny, brand new fears. Faith is not a promise that we will never be afraid. Rather, faith is a declaration that our fears do not define us. We do need courage in this work, but it is courage grounded in something other than ourselves. It is the kind of courage that takes Thomas out into the crowded market, but it is courage also to believe in the God we often cannot see. That courage will propel this and every ministry into a future that only God can see. A future that will not be easy, but why did we ever think that was where God was leading us?

And what about those disciples who Jesus appeared to in their moments of deepest fear? They are a life lesson in the way of faith. Each and every one of them is eventually killed for their faith in Jesus—we don’t talk about that enough in the church—but it is vital to understand that t Jesus does not promise us a good, comfortable, long life. We are not promised comfort—we are not even promised that we will survive. What we are promised instead is that we will rise. It is incredibly easy to forget this as Christians. The fundamental promise of the Christian faith is not that we won’t die—it is that we will rise.

So, if you are wondering what we are teaching to campers at Ewalu, it can be distilled to that one point: You will rise. Bring your fears to the cross and rise with Christ into freedom. At camp, we proclaim the freedom of the cross, which is the promise that death does not hold the last word. And if you think that is a big subject to broach with 10-year-olds, yes, it is. It is a big subject to preach to adults. This is why camp is so powerful—almost never in their lives do campers have the requisite time and space to dive deep enough to discover what is true in their lives. This is why camp is such a fantastic complement to church time and faith time at home, because campers have the space to discover that they are created by a God who calls them beloved—and that this faith stuff is not abstract. For many, it becomes part of their core identity.

And that breeds courage! Campers find courage on the top of the zipline. They find courage paddling a canoe through a fast-moving river. They find the courage to turn off their flashlights and experience complete darkness—some for the very first time. Most of all, campers find courage by bringing their fears to camp and discovering over the course of a week away from home that they are more than they ever imagined through the God who created and redeemed them.

This happens at Ewalu, but I want to close this morning by speaking a truth that I suspect many of you need to hear as well: God comes to us in our fears wherever we are—not only in sacred places. Some of us need to get off our phones long enough to see it; others of us need to turn off the news; others of us need to turn off the radio. All of us need to leave our echo chambers. It is OK to have fears, but we are not to let them dictate our identity. We are people of the resurrection, so what are we afraid of?

Courageous Thomas—doubting Thomas. You and I are both. Thank God that Jesus came for both—moving us from death to resurrection. Today, I pray that you rise with Christ—not only one day, because I believe that will be true regardless. Rather, I pray that you rise with Christ today to live beyond your fears. After all, if God conquers death, then what is there to be afraid of?

Yes, that’s a tough lesson for campers, and for you and me, too, which is why we can’t say it enough: You and me—and all God’s campers—WE WILL RISE.