April 11, 2021, Zwingli UCC, Monticello
(Here's a video of the sermon during the service.)
I think there’s a more important lesson, though. It is how a community holds together in the midst of disagreement. That’s a vital lesson for our time.
This was not a minor disagreement. Jesus’ followers said they had seen the Lord. Thomas said, “I don’t believe you,” Fake news, in other words. He might as well have called their leader, ”Lyin’ Peter.”
Calling somebody a liar is usually not a good way to stay in good graces with your friends. Yet there Thomas was, still with them a week later, when Jesus stopped by for another visit.
In a somewhat different version of the Gospel - this one featuring Winnie the Poor and Eyore.
Winnie looks quizzically at Eyore, who is saying, “It’s OK, we’ll still have lunch with you.”
I can kind of hear Jesus’ followers saying that to Thomas. Somehow, they kept him in the group even when he challenged their understanding of what was happening in their world. They kept him there for a whole week in the midst of what surely were some very strained conversations.
So we know this. From the very first days, there were disagreements among the followers of Jesus.
There were disagreements between the group gathered around John and the group gathered around Thomas – which may have something to do with how Thomas is portrayed in the Gospel according to John.
There were disagreements in that secret place where they gathered after Jesus’ execution and there were disagreements as the way of Jesus began to spread – disagreements among Paul and James and Peter that around the year 50 AD led to a gathering of Christians in Jerusalem to try to sort things out – and they did – at least for that moment, according to the New Testament book The Acts of the Apostles.
Centuries later, disagreements among Christians would lead to some bloody wars – including the battle that took the life of Ulrich Zwingli in 1531. His name lives on in this congregation.
Today, it still common for Christians to want to exclude those who think differently, they don’t want them to have the right to call themselves followers of Jesus. It happens on both sides of the theological and religious divides of our day.
That’s why I think the Gospel story of this week is so important. It’s important for us in church world and it’s important in a society where political divisions are fracturing us in really serious and occasionally violent ways.
In that first week, when Thomas challenged the others on the most fundamental reality of their lives – whether Jesus was still in their midst – they managed to hang together. I’m not exactly sure how they managed to do that. God’s grace, Jesus’ teaching – those things may have helped. But they showed the rest of us that it can be done.
The photographer hates the way these satellites are affecting our view of the stars in the night sky and he posted his feelings on Facebook. Others disagreed, of course, and the debate was on.
When one person posted a brief but sharp reply, the photographer answered: “When I see you in person sometime, we can talk about it.” Now that’s a novel idea – face-to-face conversation instead of barbs thrown on Facebook.
But his friend was not done yet. So the photographer replied again: “Hi, Jerry, next time we see each other in person let's talk about it.” He kept lowering the temperature of the conversation – and while the other comments reflected varying viewpoints, they stayed civil.
I’m not sure how civil the conversations among the apostles were as they faced off with Thomas during that week. Peter was pretty impetuous, after all. Thomas had a long history in the group of being a dissenter. But I like to think they took time to talk, not just to throw barbs at each other.
A few years after this face-off among the apostles, Jesus’ brother, James, wrote a letter to the early Christian community that caught the spirit they were striving for.
“You must understand this, my beloved,” James wrote. “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.”
“It’s not that simple…” it says.
We get so reduced to catch phrases in our time. Most of the issues we get into arguments about – let’s say immigration or guns or racial divides – are nowhere near as simple as both we and those we disagree with make them out to be. Sometimes we just need to stop and hear what the other person is saying, ask they why they believe what they believe, grant that maybe neither of us has the conclusive proof.
Thomas wanted that conclusive proof. All that the rest of the apostles could offer was their own version of what they experienced. They existed in that place of uncertainty – and no one could really convince the other until Jesus’ next visit. They just had to live with complexity for a week.
Here’s another phrase that I try to live by. I learned it from a pastor who taught me a lot about life. He had strong opinions about many things, but he was always willing to add this phrase: “Well, I could be wrong.”
It’s a reminder to me to listen to what those who disagree with me are saying, to seek the underlying principles that have led them to their conclusions, to question whether the way I prefer is really the only way - or even the best way.
Here’s another important part of that “I-might-be-wrong” phrase. It’s not one that I impose you on, as in “You might be wrong.” Yes, you might be wrong, but let’s keep working on understanding the different ways we see the world. And if you are not willing to do that, well, then at some point I have to shake the dust off my feet and move on.
It’s a kind of humility that goes a long ways in the midst of a disagreement. I’m not sure Thomas was ever willing to say, “Well, I could be wrong,” but the rest of the apostles gave him the time and the space to wrestle with his doubts.
Maybe they had also learned something from Jesus about forgiveness. He, after all, frequently shook his head at the ways his followers misunderstood what he was trying to say. Yet over and over, in the words he said and in the actions he took, he put forgiving others as we ourselves hope to be forgiven as a central teaching. Perhaps those followers gathered with Thomas were remembering that as well
Today’s issues do have moral dimensions that we hear in our ancient scriptures and in our contemporary reflections. When there is sharp economic inequality, we can hear the thundering of the Jewish prophets.
When there is indifference to what is happening to our climate and its effect on our planet, we can hear repeated Biblical exhortations to care for creation.
When people’s race or ethnicity is thrown at them to oppress them or lock them out of the opportunities of our society, we can hear the words of how we are all made in God’s image and how we are all one in Christ.
You know the issues – gun violence, health care, immigration, poverty, violence against women.
I hope those of us who call ourselves Christians can help add a moral dimension to the political dialogue while recognizing that there is room for many different approaches.
One of the things that attracted me to the UCC 21 years ago was its willingness to wrestle with the tough issues of religion and society, respecting and even encouraging disagreement from individuals and congregations without giving ground on its willingness to speak out on those issues.
Peter was never shy about speaking out, of course. Thomas stood his ground even when all his friends must have wondered where his loyalty was. Peter stayed connected to the Temple and to his Jewish faith even when the Temple leaders challenged and threatened him. Thomas stayed connected to the closest followers of Jesus and eventually had his own experience with the risen Christ to reinforce his belief.
For us, I hope we can take from these stories the value of working our way through the tough issues of our day
without demonizing one another,
without excluding those who disagree with us,
without shying away from taking a stand,
but doing so in a way that respects the patchwork quilt of experiences and viewpoints that make up our church and our society.
If we can do that, if we can reflect the best of that early group of Jesus’ followers – as contentious as they could be, yet staying together in their commitment to follow the way of Jesus as best they could.
May it be so.
Amen.
