Sunday 15 April 2012
10.30 Cathedral Eucharist
2nd Sunday of Easter
Reverend Captain Mike Reeder CA
St John Ch. 20:19-end
On Tuesday 3 April I fulfilled the summons I had received to appear in court number 2 at Sheffield High Court. Ah I see you all looking aghast at the thought of the Cathedral Curate and St Luke’s Hospice Chaplain appearing in a court of law. It was an interesting experience, the high court judge in his robes along with the his colleagues, the solicitors of the Crown Prosecution Service in their wigs and gowns, the ominous looking dock and the two rows of seats in the jury box.
Well before you think that I now have a criminal record let me put your mind at rest. I was seated on the bench along with the judge and not in the dock. I too was dressed in my choir dress and on the other side of the Judge was the incoming and outgoing High Sheriff of South Yorkshire. My roll as Chaplain to the incoming High Sheriff was to say the prayers that marked the end of the swearing in of Mrs Julie Kenny as High Sheriff of South Yorkshire. It was my first visit to a court of law and the whole experience was very thought provoking. In a moment of daydreaming I looked at the books that were set out before me, books on different aspects of the law as points of reference for the Judge should they need it.
The basis of that court room and all that goes on in it is evidence, evidence that will prove or disprove a point, evidence that will convince a jury or a judge of guilt or innocence. As we come through the whole experience of Lent, Holy Week and Easter 2012 we have again had the God given opportunity of examining the evidence which is the bases of what it is to be called a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
And in some way the whole events of the Holy Week and Easter narratives are summed up in this one account of Thomas and is reactions to his fellow disciples telling him that Jesus is alive.
So in the next few moments let is look at
1. Thomas the doubter
2. Thomas the believer
1. Thomas the doubter
We do not know why Thomas was not with the others when Jesus appeared. From my experience as the Hospice Chaplain I can only guess that he was the sort of person who had to face grief alone. The other disciples needed each other; he just had to be alone. We are all different in grief, but let’s not be too condemning of him and his absence.
When Thomas next sees the disciples they place before them the evidence of their interaction with Jesus, but Thomas for reasons we may all too recognise does not believe the verbal evidence placed in front to him and comes out with the words that have come to be his signature “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.”
Last Sunday just as the Gospel fanfare had ended and the Bishop of Sheffield was about to begin his sermon, a very smartly dressed gentleman walked from the Parker entrance to this Cathedral across the front of the Cathedral and down the central aisle and out of the Cathedral’s main entrance. He was carrying two pieces of card. He said nothing. I gather that one of his cards said ‘Service God not mammon’ but I could not find anyone who could tell me what was on the other card. I and many others thought he was part of Bishop Steven’s sermon but as the Bishop began to preach I realised that no mention was made of the man or what was written on his cards. It was not until I asked Bishop Steven after the service that I knew for certain that the man walking though the Cathedral was in fact a protester. As the Cathedral was so full I am sure that many did not see the man at all. For many within the Cathedral and any who we told the story to they would have to believe the story to be true because of us and our eye witness account.
Thomas asked for evidence one week later he received it and became:
2. Thomas the believer
I am sure that as the week went by there would have been many, many conversations about the events of the previous weekend, but still Thomas did not believe. We all can only imagine what that week must have been like for Thomas.
But Jesus does appear again and Thomas is present and straight away Jesus addresses Thomas and addresses his unbelief by giving the very evidence that he asked for. Thomas was granted the same privilege’s as the other 10 disciples. Thomas says “‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? And Jesus then uttered the words that have if you like given to use that very same privilege Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’”
Richard Dawkins in his first book The Selfish Gene, written in 1976
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins) which popularized the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme. Which is and I quote “an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena.” http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
Dawkins said of faith and the story of Thomas “Another member of the religious meme complex is called faith. It means blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence. The story of Doubting Thomas is told, not so that we shall admire Thomas, but that we can admire the other apostles in comparison. Thomas demanded evidence. Nothing is more lethal for certain kinds of meme then a tendency to look for evidence. The other apostles, who’s faith was so strong that they did not need evidence, are held up to us as worthy of imitation. The meme of blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.”
I do not think that Dawkins has looked at the eyewitness accounts of the events around the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is plain to see from the written evidence that the other 10 did not have blind trust and they did like Thomas need to see for themselves. As we saw in the Easter Day Gospel John 20:8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. The resurrection accounts need to hold up to scrutiny and testing, and they do.
Those of you who were able to take part in the Easter Virgil and Confirmation here in this Cathedral will have heard the testimony of Brian. Brian said of his journey that had brought him to his confirmation “I began to read about religion and Christianity. I read many books on theology and faith, as well as plenty of others that were quite critical of the whole concept. I suppose it was my scientific mind that wanted to see both sides of the argument. Gradually I came to see the bigger picture and the logic of God and Christianity.”
Testimony given on Saturday 7th April in Sheffield Cathedral at the Easter Vigil and Confirmation
What of Thomas? Well out of his exposure to the physical evidence came a ministry that was to touch countless in his lifetime. Tradition has it that he went to be a missionary: some people say first of all to Africa and then, more certainly, to India, and he was martyred in the Far East, according to tradition. That’s a very big step from the Thomas who doubted the verbal evidence of his fellow disciples who followed Jesus around Galilee. He travelled further than Paul or Peter, or any of the other apostles as far as we know. But his quest to have the evidence placed before him has given to millions the opportunity to look at the evidence for themselves down the centuries. For it was his doubt that provoked John to write of the evidence presented to Thomas in his Gospel.
Conclusion
In conclusion let me introduce you to Thelma Howard who I may have talked about before but her experience speaks volumes about our reaction to the evidence placed before us. Thelma Howard was the maid to Walt Disney. Each Christmas Walt Disney would give her and envelope with a piece of paper in it. Thelma did not look at or understand what the paper was so she simply added it to a pile under her bed. After her death her relatives discovered the documents and realised that they were shares in the Disney Corporation worth thirty million dollars.
Do not let the evidence of Gods love be something you think of as something that you can put off until you have time, but do not take my word for it. Let me close with another extract from Brian’s testimony on Easter Eve: One of the great things about my journey to faith is that I have only accepted it after careful systematic questioning of Christianity. I had to be absolutely sure of its truth. Now I know that I have based my faith on firm unshakeable foundations.
Amen.
