worship this Sunday…

Though I couldn't articulate it at the time, I sometimes still feel the whiplash of the first Easter that I spent in a church. My body didn’t quite know what to do when I was expected to run at full speed  from death to respond that “He is risen indeed.” Even at ten years old, I knew the way that death and pain lingered. I don’t know about you, but I still feel the pull of these kinds of narratives and the pressure to stretch and twist my life to fit the arc of a particular “death to life” testimony and to be able to do so quickly. However, the post-resurrection narratives take many different shapes and leave plenty of room to linger in mystery without needing to ignore or explain away contradictions. It is here–taking wounds and our connectedness seriously– that new possibilities and new life emerge. It makes me wonder what could happen if we meet the contradictions of life, all that cannot be grasped, with seemingly contradictory actions at the pace that they need? Through the interactions of the risen and wounded Jesus with Thomas and the rest of his disciples in this weeks Scripture passage, we will wonder about the sacredness of asking, of presence, and of being connected to the wounds of one another. It turns out that there is much about the resurrected life, just like ours, that cannot be rushed past or erased. Could it be that leaning into these contradictions leads to the kind of love and spaciousness that we hope for?

John 20: 19-31 

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘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.’

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.