The Rev. Charleston Wilson
In the Name of the Living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
What is your favourite passage of Holy Scripture?
But have you ever taken it a step further and considered what your favourite word in the bible might be?
Even if you haven’t really thought about that, I suspect it probably wouldn’t take a fancy Gallup poll to discover that many among us would quickly pick words like “love, forgiveness, Jesus, and resurrection” or “mercy, hope, faith or peace.”
And those are indeed great – even excellent – words.
Lately, however, I’ve discovered that I have a new favourite word. And it’s not, strictly speaking, a noun or verb or even an adverb or adjective: it’s the coordinating conjunction “but.”
And it turns out that, once you do some digging around, you’ll discover that many of the most powerful realities and turning points in the bible – the ones that really stick with you — begin with those three little letters, B U T.
Here are some of my favourite examples: (you’ll remember these)
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 5:8 “BUT God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. BUT perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. “
Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail, BUT God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
So, when you’re reading the Holy Scriptures and you come across the word “but” – that most powerful coordinating conjunction – that’s your signal (your cue) to buckle up.
And today is no different. Easter has happened; the stone has been rolled back from the sepulchre, and our Saviour has been raised from the dead.
Alleluia. Christ is Risen – go ahead; it’s alright – “The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia”
And He appears to the sequestered and frightened disciples and gives them the gift of His Holy Spirit for the work of Apostolic ministry. It’s an extraordinary scene.
But Thomas….But Thomas…- there’s our cue. But Thomas wasn’t there. St. John doesn’t tell us where he was; only that he wasn’t there, setting us up for something profound.
So the other disciples told him about what they’d seen. Then we get another “but” – “But Thomas said, ‘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.”
Well, another week passes, and guess what? Jesus shows up again, and St. Thomas is there this time. Our Risen Lord walks right up to him and says, in effect, “go ahead, put your finger here…and see my hands – my hands of love and blessing – and reach out and put your hands in my wounded side – my side pierced for you. And St. Thomas, as you know, exclaims, “My Lord and my God.”
Now, at this point let me insert my own “but.” But — but – this passage is not primarily about St. Thomas.
This is primarily about you and me and what we are going to do in the response to the empty tomb and a Risen Lord?
And like St. Thomas before us, I think that takes some getting used to.
You see, I’m convinced that once you’ve been in the dark of the tomb – whatever your tomb may be (depression, anger, jealously, you name it) – when the stone is rolled back by the power of grace – and when you begin to realize your sins are forgiven and death is conquered by His rising to life again — blinding, radiant light comes pouring in, and, for many of us, it’s initially traumatic before it is comforting.
Stick with me.
Recently, I was up way too late, and I couldn’t fall asleep. So I began watching, of all things, a You Tube video about this new LED flashlight that has more power than all the other flashlights put together – a gazillion candlelight or however they measure those things. I quickly got up, found my credit card and paid way too much to own one. It really is impressive! I’ll never own another Maglite again; this is the real deal.
Well, it turns out that Gus and Camille, being seven and six years old, like my new flashlight, too. A few weeks ago while I was sound asleep, taking a deep nap with all the curtains closed, and the room cold enough to hang meat, they tiptoed in my room and put it right in my face and turned it on full power and yelled, “It’s wake up time!” I was anything but comforted!
And so it was with St. Thomas. When news of the Light hit him – not even the full beam of Light Himself – he was anything but warm and fuzzy. He said, in effect, “You’ve all gone mad; the stone has not been rolled back. Unless I see it myself, I’ll continue in darkness.”
All of his hopes and dreams – the man he left everything in order to follow – had died. And all of sudden He is risen? Preposterous, he says! He resists the light.
And then, a week later, the stone is pulled back further and light – THE LIGHT – pours in. Our Risen Lord is standing right in front of Him. This time Thomas’s pupils – his spiritual pupils, if you will – adjust to the light, don’t they?
And he’s so overcome with joy and illumination that he must have practically fallen into His Lord, saying, “MY Lord and my God.”
The way I see it is that we have two options this Eastertide. We can recoil and run from the light of the Easter reality back into our darkness – again, just insert your own dilemma here – or we can exit the tomb, clinging to the power of the Risen Christ, and run towards the light, even if we’re temporarily blinded.
“The strife is o’er, the battle done, the victory of life is won; the song of triumph has begun. Alleluia!”
But (there’s that word again), but, do you believe this?
St. John tells us that he wrote down these resurrection appearances so that we might believe, and in believing, have life. No more tombs. No more death. And no more darkness: BUT life.
The stone is rolled away from the tomb. He is risen. Give it a try — walk in the light.
Sermon preached by the Reverend Charleston David Wilson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
3 April 2016
Second Sunday of Easter