March 30, 1008
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The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church Pr. Per Inge Vik Easter 2, 2008 John 20, 19-31 This text has taken us to the first 2 Sunday services in the whole church history. First it was the evening service on the very Easter day. Frightened disciples gathered behind locked doors. But Jesus made his way, mingled with them and changed everything. Next it was the Sunday service a week after. Our service today is the last Sunday service so far, in an unbroken chain of gatherings where He who rose, has come. Whether the doors were locked or open, that doesn’t matter. He has come and spoken his presence. So many things are similar then and today. Peace be with you, was Jesus’ first words as he entered the room. The opening greeting at the start of our Sunday service is the same: Grace be with you, and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has been given to us. As Jesus gave his Spirit to his disciples that day. The word about forgiveness for sins has been given us, too. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Imagine this. We as a church have got the power to forgive and retain sins in His name. Likewise we have the worship and the creed, the confession to The Resurrected One. My Lord and my God, was Thomas’s creed that day. And imagine this, as the Father has sent me, so I send you. Every Sunday as we have received the blessing, we are sent out with the words, “Go in peace, serve the Lord with joy!” This text builds a bridge over 2000 years. The care Jesus showed to the one who had a hard time to believe that day, comes towards us too, in the middle of our situation. We who can not see the Resurrected and Living one, we are blessed according to the word of our Lord. Have you believed because you have seen me? Jesus said to Thomas, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. We thought it was the opposite: Unblessed, troubled are we who do not see. Fortunate and blessed were those who could see. But no! What a great comfort to us: Jesus declares those blessed who believe without seeing. The disciple who is in the spotlight in this story catches me with fascination. I think about his nick name and why it was so hard for Thomas to believe. Well, the first time the disciples were gathered, and Jesus appeared to them, Thomas was absent. In the evening of the first Easter day. For some reason that we do not know, Thomas was not there. As the others conveyed what had happened, that Jesus came and were together with them, then he straightforward declared, I will not believe.. He felt left out. There can be several reasons why Thomas could not really believe what the others said. His absence caused him trouble, simpy that he was not there and experienced what the others did. And what about his character? I have been wondering if Thomas had a special orientation. He was not what we in Norwegian call “godtroende”. In other words, he didn’t easily accept things. Some humans are like that. They need obvious reasons, even proof before they can accept anything. I think of Thomas as such a person. What do we know about Thomas? In John’s gospel he is mentioned 4 times. Something special is that 3 of the 4 times he is mentioned, John adds a parenthesis to his name, Thomas (who was called the Twin). Why does this happen again and again, this information that he was called the Twin? It can be that he was a twin. That he had a brother or a sister, born on the same day. But as it is said here that he was called the Twin, it rather has another meaning. Thomas might have been “his own twin.” In Norwegian, the word for doubt and for twin are very similar, tvil and tvilling. I hadn’t thought about any connection here, until I got to know Thomas. And further I realized that it is the same in both the biblical languages, Greek and in Hebrew. Both the word “tvil” and “tvilling” come from the word, from the number two. A famous author in Norway, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje called himself “tvi-synt”. He had a double viewpoint on things. With Thomas it was something similar. Take another incident, at the table on Maundy Thursday where Thomas objects to Jesus, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? (John 14:5). Thomas got a clear answer, I am the way, the truth and the life. If Thomas hadn’t been fair and asked the question, we wouldn’t have that wonderful statement from Jesus! So our situation is the same as it was with Thomas in the beginning, we haven’t seen Jesus. We have only heard the testimony of the witnesses. With our own eyes we haven’t seen him. Still we are blessed! One more thing I want to mention today. Something that makes me glad. Last Sunday there were 10 disciples who knew that Jesus was alive. Today, the number has grown to 11. Thomas has been added. One more believer. And then the number of Christians has continued to grow. The testimony still needs to be conveyed, to make more people blessed. Thomas was eager to spread the good news about Jesus being alive. It is told that he traveled far eastwards. According to the old Christian tradition, he became India’s Apostle. The Church in India has a story about the apostle Thomas that is worth a thought. The king of India sent a rich merchant to the land of Israel to find a constructer that could build the largest and most beautiful palace in the world. The merchant met Thomas. He asked him, “can you build the most glorious palace in the world?” “O yes,” Thomas replied, “I can build a palace where God can dwell! Is there anything more beautiful than that?” So excited, the merchant brought him to his home country. The king gave Thomas a huge amount of money for the construction work. According to the story, Thomas spent all the money to help the poor, and along with that he preached the gospel about Christ. That was the palace, small people who adopted, humans who became a dwelling place for God. A temple of living stones. Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who was, is and will remain one, true God from eternity to eternity. Amen. -----------------------------****--------------------------- Intro: This Sunday was called White Sunday in the old church. Easter Day was the main Sunday for baptism in the church year. The newly baptized wore their white robes the whole week, included the 8th Easter Day, this Sunday. We can imagine the domination of the many white robes at this Sunday in the growing congregations with a lot of newly baptized people. That was the reason for the name, the White Sunday.
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