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Homilies by Rev. Andrew Collis unless indicated otherwise.

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Easter 2, Year A
South Sydney Uniting Church
April 23, 2017

1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

‘Two keys to the kindom’

Let’s attend to our Gospel for today -- from the second to last chapter of John. It’s a familiar text and yet there’s something elusive. The text appears to pull in two directions. God be with you ...

One reading is critical of Thomas’ disbelief and stresses the words of Jesus as words addressed to readers, to us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” This reading chides Thomas for his proud individualism. Alluding to John’s image of the vine as a symbol of community, it teaches: “No individual is a free agent, but is one branch of an encircling and intertwining vine whose fruitfulness depends on abiding with Jesus” (Gail O’Day) …

Another reading, however, lauds Thomas for honesty -- perhaps for bravery (he is not cowering with the Ten behind locked doors when the risen Christ first appears). This reading stresses that Jesus doesn’t rebuke Thomas for knowing what he needs. It also delights in Thomas’ confession given, as it happens, without touching the wounds of Jesus’ hands and side -- the high Christological confession of the gospels: “My Saviour and my God!”

Which reading for you today is the more compelling?

Perhaps the two readings, the two strands, are important. A weaver might refer to the warp and weft of the story’s fabric. It’s interesting that Thomas is nicknamed Didymus or “Twin” -- there are two of him! The sceptical one and the bold one.

Faith in the risen Christ is no simple matter. Faith doesn’t come easily for any one of the disciples, not really -- not for Mary Magdalene, not for the Eleven male disciples to whom she bears witness, not for the Ten who remain in fear, behind locked doors, despite seeing the risen Christ and receiving the Spirit.

Perhaps what we’re given here is not so unlike our own experiences of conversion --ambiguous, dynamic, part scepticism/timidity/pride, part boldness/creativity/openness to wisdom. Thomas is a figure we can relate to. Because he is "real and honest" as we say in our mission statement, he can grow and change. He can assert his needs and respond to the witness of others.

Can you think of an experience of conversion that conforms in some way to this pattern?

At the risk of mixing metaphors, there are two keys to the kindom, two means of unlocking or accessing a kindom of peace ... Asserting particular needs and responding to the witness of others, brothers and sisters in community. Healthy scepticism (including the scientific method celebrated by "nerds" on the march in cities around the world this weekend) and bold confession.

On Holy Thursday, some of us were bold enough to claim more culturally relevant analogues to foot washing -- warm greetings, hugs, hand towels, hand shakes -- while recognising the validity of Jesus' teaching on equality and servant leadership.

Women of faith have been critical in calling out sexist notions of self-sacrifice, which reinforce a patriarchal status quo -- insisting on a plural and inclusive understanding of the Christ event -- of Christa community and intercarnation -- while affirming the embodiment of divine love. John's Gospel, after all, speaks of spiritual rebirth (Mother God/Spirit) and of a Saviour whose body (crucified and sensual, maternal and queer) is offered as food, for nourishment.

We might say something similar of overcoming a certain speciesism, both sceptical and faithful with respect to a Word made flesh -- material, universal flesh. To see the vulnerable Jesus is to see the suffering of all sentient beings. To see divinity streaming from the One wounded unto death (as Christ intimates to Thomas in John 14), the One who remains with us in a new mode of presence (sacrificial Lamb, Eucharistic bread, forgiveness, peace) is to see beyond merely human value systems.

Where are you in the process of believing and doubting, striking out on your own and drawing close to others?

Have there been major shifts in your understanding and practice of Christian faith? These are moments of clarity, excitement, joy -- moments of recognition/reaffirmation: “My Saviour and my God!”

Uniting Church scholar Dorothy Lee refers to John 20 in terms of “vivid signs of the Spirit’s activity”. She sees the text as a kind of web -- a web of faith and life: “By identifying with the faith of Mary Magdalene, readers are drawn into the centre, where, in company with the gathered disciples, they meet the risen Christ behind locked doors, hear the words of peace, see the wounds, receive the Spirit, and are given the mandate for mission and the authority to forgive sins. The reader encounters the symbols of Easter faith and is invited to reinterpret his or her own struggle with death from a radically new perspective” (Dorothy Lee,Flesh and Glory, 226).

What I appreciate today is the space given that all might know salvation, or “life in Jesus’ Name” as John has it (v. 31). The text, the fabric, the vine, the web, is meant to “help”, is meant to be helpful, that all might "believe" -- the sceptical and the bold, the fearful and the courageous, the ashamed and the forgiven -- that all might imagine -- unlock, access -- a kindom of peace, or, as we pray, a “rule of love” that “renews the earth”. There’s a Spirit at work on the eighth day!

The eighth day is now …

As we continue to seek the risen Christ in prayer, in hearing the word and sharing at the altar-table, and in serving the needy among whom he was and is so often found, our faith and confidence continue to be nourished by strange encounters with this One who lives and yet who remains both ever-present and ever-elusive.

All of us are on a journey, and no two of us experience conversion in precisely the same way. As Thomas experienced, Jesus comes to us in our fears and responds to our doubts that we might have the faith to take the next step.

And just as happened for Thomas, the conversion of our lives leads us into the mission of transforming the world, for we too, with all the uncertainty and ambiguity of our experience of the risen Christ, are the ones to whom he gives his Holy Spirit of healing and reconciliation.

In what way is your story like that of Thomas? Sharing your story of conversion, your testimony, can offer encouragement and hope to others … Amen.

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