From Doubting to Confessing: A Sermon by Deacon Terry

​Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia.
Well, I guess all the excitement of Easter is over.
The new dresses have been put away, dinner at Grama’s house is over, and the Easter Bunny has gone home for another year.
Yes, this is the Sunday that each year we hear the famous story of Thomas, the guy who doubted Jesus resurrection.
It’s been one week since Easter, one week since the chaos and excitement, one week since the empty tomb, one week since our first “Alleluia. Christ is risen.
It’s one week after the resurrection and the disciples are in the same place they were Easter night.
So if the resurrection is such a big deal, such a life changing event, why are they still stuck in the same place?
What difference has the empty tomb made? How has it changed them?
Do they see themselves and their world any differently?
Has it done anything for them?
From what I see, at this point it doesn’t look like it.
They are in the same house behind the same locked doors as a week ago. What’s changed?
I wonder, one week after Easter, what has Christ’s resurrection done for us?
Is your life different?
Do you see and engage the world in new ways?
What difference has the empty tomb made in your life over the last week?
When I look at my life shamefully in many ways it looks just like it did last Sunday, the week before, and the week before that.
This makes me think a little bit.
Am I taking Jesus resurrection seriously enough?
Shouldn’t those disciples have been out shouting from the rooftops that Jesus is risen? Shouldn’t we?
After all death has been defeated.  – Is there any news bigger than this?
Why aren’t their lives different?
Why isn’t my life different after Easter?
Why am I stuck in the same place? Shouldn’t I be doing better than this?
After thinking on this maybe we should hear today’s gospel a little differently than in the past.
Here’s what I thinking:

• Christ’s resurrection is a big deal;
• The empty tomb is a life changing event;
• The resurrection does make a difference in our lives; and
• It takes time.

Resurrection takes time. It is not a one-time event.
It’s something we grow into. It’s a process.
I know for me – I never had that mountain top experience, when God spoke to me and set me on my Christian way.
My experience has been more like a slow methodical way up the hill. Like hiking, one step at a time – each step getting closer to the top.
By the grace of God we evolve into resurrected people through our relationships and the circumstances of our lives.
I wonder if we sometimes come to Easter Sunday and the empty tomb expecting to wake up on Monday to a whole new life and world.
I am guessing that you awoke on Easter Monday to the same life and world you had on Good Friday. I did.
It’s not because the resurrection failed or because Jesus didn’t do “the Jesus thing” , or that we are bad people.
It’s because the Jesus thing takes time.
Maybe we need to let go of the fact of the empty tomb and think about the story of resurrection.
There’s a difference between facts and story.
Facts inform the mind, stories touch the heart.
Think about it like this.
A fact is a snapshot of a moment in time.
A story is like a movie that takes us across time.
The empty tomb is a fact. Resurrection is a story. 
The facts of Jesus life are not the story of Jesus.
The facts of our lives are not the story of our lives.
The facts are just the starting point for the story.
Too often, we take the facts as the entire story.
That maybe what we’ve done with Thomas.
What facts come to mind when you hear his name?
He was a doubter. 
The fact that Thomas doubted may be the only fact that comes to mind when we think of Thomas.
It is so prevalent that we call him Doubting Thomas.
What if that fact, however, is just the starting point for his resurrection?
What if it is not his whole story?

• James the (brother of John): Beheaded by King Herod.
• Peter: Crucified upside down in Rome.
• Andrew: Crucified in Greece.
• Paul: Beheaded in Rome
• Bartholomew: Flayed alive and beheaded in Armenia.
• Philip: Crucified in Turkey.
• Simon the Zealot: Crucified in Armenia.
• Matthew: Killed by a sword in Ethiopia.
• Mark: Dragged through the streets by horses until he was dead in Egypt.
• Luke: Hanged in Greece.

Do you know the end of Thomas’ story? Do you know where he died?
He died in India. He was the apostle to the people of India.
He died a martyr after he was run through with five spears by five soldiers.
That doesn’t sound much like a doubter, does it?
It sounds like someone who grew and changed over time, someone for whom the resurrection of Christ was real, someone for whom the empty tomb made a difference.
His faith was no different than the others.
It just took a little time, I know it does for me.
We know about Doubting Thomas but what about Confessing Thomas?
Remember he said, “My Lord and my God!”
Somewhere between Doubting and Confessing Thomas, is the story of his resurrection life.
All that stuff about Doubting Thomas, the fact of his disbelief, is just Thomas’ starting place.
What is your starting place? What are the facts of your life?
If someone were to know you from work, what facts would they pick up on?
You’re a hard worker, honest, dependable.
Those are your facts.
But do they know your story?
You’re a Daughter, you’re a son, you’re a mom, a dad, a grama, a grampa. You’re a sister or brother. You’re a follower of Jesus.
You’ve struggled, you’ve achieved, you’ve failed, you love, you’re happy, your sad.
That’s your story.
Whatever your life is today, whatever our circumstances are, that’s the starting point for our story of resurrection.
So if you’re dealing with loneliness, sorrow, and loss, that’s you’re starting point and the place where Jesus stands with you.
If you are locked in fear, confusion, or darkness, that’s your starting point, that’s the room which Christ enters
If illness, old age, disability, or uncertainty are facts of your life, that’s your starting point and the place in which Jesus shows up.
If you feel lost, betrayed, disappointed, overwhelmed, that’s your starting point and the house Jesus enters.
If joy and gratitude, are the facts of your life today, that’s the starting point for your story of resurrection.
All those things and a thousand others are the many ways the doors of our house get locked.
Whatever it might be for each of us, it is just the starting point.
What are the doors that are locked in each of our lives? 
What are the things keep us stuck in the same place?
Don’t judge it as good or bad, right or wrong. It’s just where we are and it’s the place Christ shows up.
It happened twice in today’s gospel. Both times the disciples are in the same house behind the same locked doors and Jesus shows up. 
The walls and the locked doors of Apostles house could not keep Jesus out.
 And the walls and locked doors of our houses will not keep him out.
He steps into the midst of our house, through our locked doors, and breathes peace and life into us where ever we are and whatever our circumstances are.
Jesus meets us wherever we are in life; we like Thomas simply need to move from doubting to confessing.
 AMEN