April 22, 2001

April 22,2001

Second Sunday of Easter

Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church

Pastor Ole Amund Gillebo

People are different.
Church people are very different.
Our fellowship consists of many personalities and a variety of opinions.  Our life experience differs and we are in different spots in our life span.
We are people of doubt and faith.
This is in order. Thus testifies the variety of creation.
Life is an interaction or an opposition between differences and contrasts.

This was the case of the disciples.
Today it is about Thomas. He was a bit special in the group. He was something for himself. He always had two thoughts in his head at the same time. He had both doubt and faith.
Once Jesus said to his disciples: Believe in God and believe in me. I go to prepare a place for you. You know the way to the place where I am going. Then Thomas opposed and said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? (John 14:1-5)

In the Gospel for today it is told about what happened after Jesus’ resurrection and Thomas says, "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."

It is good that Thomas is one of the disciples. He is the skeptic. He is the disciple with two minds. The fact that he is named "the twin" does not mean that he has a twin brother but rather that his faith has a twin, the doubt.

He was not together with the other disciples when the Lord appeared to them on the first day of the week. During one week he was doubtful and questioning, "They are saying Jesus lives. Is it really true that the one who died on Good Friday is raised from his tomb? Why is he not visiting me? I am the one who is in great need of it," Thomas might have been thinking. Thomas was desperate, a Latin word de-speratus which means separated from hope. He was very confused.
But is not Thomas a bit peculiar? If he had stayed with the flock and not separated himself when he had seen and heard. Is there not something completely wrong with this guy? You are right. And at the same time he was very normal.

God had to put a lot of extra effort on this disciple as he needs to do with many of us. Sometimes we are peculiar and require something extra from God. What is sufficient for many others is not for us. We expect something else.

The Gospel of today is not a story about Thomas and his doubt, but rather about the faithfulness of Christ toward Thomas when he did not have any faith any more.  He is faithful when we are faithless!
He appears to us where we are in our lives. When we are seeking him and questioning, He responds, Here I am! Come to me and I will give to you, I will show to you. He has promised to meet with us in his Church and in his word. He has promised to hear our prayers.

I know this illustration is not good:  When I was very young I heard about a gorgeous Pastor’s daughter from Sunnfjord. What was reported to me I thought was too good to be true. I really doubted.  But when she arrived in Gudbrandsdal and said, "Hi, here I am" I was convinced.

With his doubt Thomas seeks for the certainty of faith. He really wanted to believe.

Doubt is not any risk. The doubt does not want to run away but is looking for the twin the faith. The doubt does carry a lot of belief.

God’s Church is for living people with faith and doubt and with sorrows and joys, sins and defeat, joy of life and song of praise. Church people are seeking Christ and can not stop being related to him.

Christianity does not ask if we can, but what we can not, we can not separate from Jesus Christ. The Christ who has marks of the nails in his hands! They are his identity. When we are focusing on his wounds the faith is coming in spite of the doubt. Then the certainty and joy is coming. Then we begin to sing the hymn of praise, "When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain, Your touch can call us back to life again".

Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716