Psalm 16
I Peter 1: 3 - 9
John 20: 19 - 31
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, May 1, 2011.
“GETTING WHAT WE NEED”
(Homily texts: Acts 2: 14a, 22 – 32; John 20: 19 – 31)
Back in my seminary days, I had a spiritual director by the name of Dabney Carr. That would the Rev. Dabney Carr.
Dabney was a fine priest in the Virginia tradition. That is to say, he would rarely be seen wearing a clerical collar. Coat and tie is fine vesture for a Virginia priest. And, he would be just fine being addressed as “Mr. Carr”. “Father” wouldn’t have suited him at all.
One day, Dabney said this to me, “Gene, my prayer would be that God would give you what you need, not what you want.” Then he added, “Those two things are different.”
I’ve never forgotten what Mr. Carr said that day. I never will.
Getting what we need, not what we want….there’s deep spiritual truth in this understanding of how we are to walk the way of this life with Lord.
Essentially, as we consider the gospel text before us – which we hear every Second Sunday of Easter – the account of Thomas – “doubting Thomas” (or, more properly “unbelieving Thomas”), the matter of getting what Thomas wanted, and what Thomas needed, lies at the heart of Thomas’ demand and Jesus’ gracious provision for him.
Thomas said, “Unless I see the print of the nails, and place my hand in the print of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
In this statement, Thomas is stating what he wanted. But, it seems, he is also stating what he needed: Thomas needed proof of the resurrection.
You and I need proof, as well. More on that in a moment.
On closer examination, Thomas’ demand goes beyond what the other ten disciples had gotten in terms of what they needed, for the other ten said that they had seen the Lord.
Thomas says that he not only needs to see, but to touch.
In so doing, Thomas goes one better on his fellow disciples. Thomas also reflects the attitudes of the day which so many who had encountered Jesus held. On one occasion, they said to Jesus, “What sign will you show us?” They wanted proof, some miracle, which would give them what they wanted in order to believe that Jesus is who He said He is.
Not much has changed, has it, in this respect? We want proof that Jesus is who He said He is.
All of this begs the question: “Just why did Jesus provide Thomas with the proof that he wanted?”
I think the reason is that Jesus needed Thomas, and was willing to provide Thomas with the proof of the resurrection that Thomas demanded, was because Jesus had a ministry in mind for Thomas.
In order to be a witness (the Greek word for “witness” is martyr) for Jesus, and particularly a witness of Jesus’ resurrection, Thomas had to have a resurrection encounter with the risen Christ. The other disciples also were witnesses of the resurrection….Peter, in our reading from the Book of Acts, says that they are “witnesses of these things”.
That’s where you and I come in….
Jesus needs us to be a witness, a martyr, of His resurrection.
The Lord has a ministry in mind for each one of us. In fact, at our baptisms, we are ordained into a ministry. In our Baptismal Covenant, we agree to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.” (Book of Common Prayer, page 305)
How do we get the proof that we need?
One way is by reading and studying the Word of God written, the Bible. As John tells us at the end of chapter twenty, “But these (the record of Jesus’ teaching, miracles, death and resurrection) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”
Another way is by regular worship and receiving of the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. For when we regularly receive the Body and the Blood of Christ, we are strengthened for our journey, we are renewed in body, mind and spirit (we become what we eat!), and we receive a pledge of eternal life.
Still another way we receive the proof we need is in associating with other Christian believers, as we see the Lord at work in other’s lives. Sometimes, this work takes on dramatic proportions. Dramatic healings, deliverance from the powers of evil, or victory over addictions all qualify as dramatic proof of the Lord’s power over the forces of evil, sin and death. That same power that the Lord demonstrated on Good Friday and Easter Sunday over everything that would destroy us, and would separate us from God, is still His power today.
At other times, the proof can be seen in the slow and gradual reshaping that the Lord’s presence within a person brings about. We are being renewed, day by day, as the Holy Spirit reworks us from within.
How about you, how about me?
We need the proof that everything having to do with the Lord Jesus Christ is real. We need to see – with the eyes of faith – the print of the nails and the wound in the Lord’s side.
We are especially blessed, John tells us, if we come to believe, even though we have not physically seen.
Getting what we need – the proof that the written record which bears witness to the events in the Lord’s life – is the essential power source for the ministry that God the Father has in mind for each of us.
Each of us has been assigned some sort of a ministry, a ministry we cannot do on our own power. The power of the Lord’s resurrection lies behind all that we do, think or say. Returning to the idea with which we began, and applying it to the ministry God has in mind for us, we could say that we need the power of the Lord’s resurrection in order to carry out the ministry that lies before us.
May the Holy Spirit enable our believing, that we may serve the Lord with singleness of heart, and in His power alone.
AMEN.
