April 24, 2022 – Second Sunday of Easter

“Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.…” (Rev 1:4)

Welcome to Low Sunday, the nickname given to the Sunday after Easter. I’m not entirely sure if we nickname it Low Sunday because it’s the first Sunday after all the pomp and circumstance of Easter Sunday and it feels less spectacular, or because of the traditionally low attendance at church today. In a way, the nickname — if it is due to the low attendance today — is representative of the juxtaposition of how we measure the success of religion and church in a worldly, rather than spiritual way.

Thomas… Good old Doubting Thomas… Every year on the second Sunday of Easter, we hear of Thomas who just couldn’t believe that Jesus had returned without being able to see, to feel.

I don’t know about you, but I have doubts all the time. I doubt whether I can get all of my work done in the time I have to do it. I doubt if I am a good enough father. I doubt if I’m a good spouse, supportive enough and accepting enough without judging. I doubt if I really am supposed to be here, now. And I — even I — doubt the power of God from time to time.

Doubt is huge. And since that very first Easter, everyone has known doubt is important. But our way of “doing” church makes it seem as if we run around excited for a week and celebrate, saying Alleluia, and then we doubt.

That isn’t really the whole story about doubt though. Doubt was intrinsic to the entire Easter celebration, from Maundy Thursday – when the disciples doubted Jesus’ gesture of having their feet washed – right through Easter Day.

Outside of Jesus’ trial, Peter betrayed Jesus, unable to leave, but unable to step forward. Doubt and love were in conflict within Peter. And today, we are like Peter when we see someone being bullied and we’re too afraid to step forward and stop it.

The disciples were paralyzed by the grief of Jesus’ death, by Jesus’ assurance that he would rise from the dead. It was Joseph of Arimathea who was able to handle the details of the burial. In today’s world, we’re just like the disciples when a loved one dies, hoping another member of the family will step forward and just take care of it all.

We don’t hear what exchanges actually took place amongst the disciples between Good Friday and Easter morning. But our humanness tells us that there would probably be long silences, punctuated by “if only…”, and “why didn’t we?”, and “how could they!?”. We know that they weren’t saying to one another, “Let’s just wait and see what happens!”

On Easter morning, doubt was there with them. Some, certain that Jesus had died for good, set out for the tomb to prepare the body. Mary Magdalene discovered that the body was gone from the tomb and told the others. In John’s account, Peter and John rushed out, racing each other to the tomb. John arrived first but did not enter, doubting. Peter rushed in, saw the folded clothing, and his doubts fell away. Mary needed more than absence and folded clothing; when she heard her name, she knew.

Thomas wasn’t with the others when Jesus came. And all their telling, all their amazement, all their joy, did not dispel his skepticism. Yet there was enough faith in him to keep him from leaving them and thinking that they were cuckoo. He proclaimed that he needed to touch to believe, but he stayed. If we think about it, Thomas’ reaction to the disciples’ excitement isn’t that unlike the other disciples’ reaction to the women’s excitement on the morning of the resurrection.

We’re told that Thomas means twin. Yet his twin, if he had one, never appears. What if each one of us is his twin? For each of us has our own doubts that sometimes cause us to get up and look at a situation that needs our attention and sometimes hold us back. Thomas’ doubts are persistent; our doubts, too, persist, and they have the ability to lead us to new discoveries about ourselves and our relationship with God. Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Thomas is a stand-in for all of us who want to see something for ourselves before we decide whether or not it is true.”

The disciples move through degrees of despair and doubt in company with one another in a long conversation, in which all things that they think and feel are transformed from curses into blessings. Even though the disciples doubted, they moved forward in hope and faith.

As we experience the resurrection of Christ throughout this Easter season, it’s important to let our doubts be present, but not to overrule our beliefs. We need to leave ourselves open to faith, even if we doubt it occasionally… or a lot.

Easter is about new life, about rising. Not about escaping with our life. But about walking in the power of God’s love. Even into death. And that’s what it has to do with each one of us.

“To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, … serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Rev 1:5b-6)