“God’s Last Laugh” April 7, 2024
“God’s Last Laugh”
Psalm 133
Acts 4:32-35
1 John 1:1-2:5
John 20:19-31
As I said last Sunday, this week marks the beginning of the Easter season also known as Easter tide. The official definition from Bible pedia tells us: “In Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the 50th day, Pentecost Sunday.” Now, there are those who might say. “Yeah, OK, but what’s the big deal ? This is just another cooked up event to justify more potlucks,” or something like that, but I would have to disagree. I would have to disagree because events like Easter tide are important. I mean, for the next six weeks or so we will be Taking a close look at the final days of Christ’s ministry on this earth. It was a unique time, But I guess that is fairly obvious as everyone who encountered Jesus during this time knew that he had been crucified, had died, and was buried; that is, unless they lived under a rock or something. This was the time when those who were freaked out by the resurrection as well as those who insisted upon denying it had come to terms with the hard truth: Jesus had risen from the dead. Many of these stories might have been overlooked or simply lost in the shuffle if we were to follow a lectionary that followed only the teachings of Christ before and up to his death. The period of Easter tide is important.
So, what a better way to start this season of Easter tide than with the story of our old friend , Thomas.
Now first off, I would like to say that we need to cut Thomas a little slack . No, I take that back; we need to cut him a lot of slack. This poor guy has been nitpicked and critiqued and chastised and analyzed so much over the years that we’ve cone to the point that whenever we hear the name Thomas in the context of a disciple of Jesus, we’ve been trained to think of only one thing: doubt. “Don’t be a doubting Thomas .” We were told as children. This man’s reputation even crosses the gender line. “Oh she is such a doubting Thomas,”, they might say. There are even scholars who question why this story was included in the gospels in the first place, saying that ‘It’s not relevant or germane’, whatever that means. But once again, I would beg to differ. In fact, I can totally relate to the man. , I mean. Think about it; let’s say that you are checking out at the grocery store when the checker says to you. “I’ve just seen Jesus. He just bought a loaf of bread and a pound of bologna.” Just think-what if? What would your reaction be? Would it be awkward silence or would you come back with some sort of comment like, “what, no mustard?”
My point is that of course, Thomas was bound to be skeptical; any of us would. As far as Thomas was concerned, this was hearsay and nothing else. But where Thomas made his mistake was to tell his friends that there was no way he would believe what they were telling him. His doubt had become the default position, you might say. They could have spent the night trying to convince him, but his position was set. (vs 25) Thomas blurted out, “, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.” First of all, that’s kind of gross but it gives us an idea of how he felt in that moment.
By taking the stance that he needed real flesh and blood and empirical proof, Thomas was closing the door on the power of the word, and this is why the story is so important for us today .
Thomas was closing the door on the distinct possibility that meeting the Risen Christ in the proclaimed Word and the celebrated sacraments, in the gathered Body of Christ, was as good as meeting the Risen Christ in the flesh, maybe better D Chilton
So, let’s unpack that just a bit. Jesus knew, and it’s fairly obvious, That he could not come to every single person in the flesh for the next several 1000 years. And so the importance of this time he spent with his disciples after the resurrection was tremendous. They were to be the apostles, they were charged to bring the good news for all the world to hear; they were charged to be the Christ in this world. So yes, it was during the short period of time between the resurrection and his ascension that Jesus prepared his apostles to carry on the most important work that has ever been done. There were some shock tactics used along the way, I’ll grant you that. But they were necessary to impress upon these men the importance of things to come. And it was all recorded; it was all written down either by those who had experienced the wonder of Christ first hand or by those who had a source who witnessed and testified to the many wonders of Jesus Christ. That, in a nutshell, is the power of the word.
But getting back to Thomas: it occurs to me that this story of Jesus visiting the disciples in a dark room is not really about doubt at all. Chances are that the other men in the room, who were scared to death by the way – chances are that they had their fair share of doubts as well.
So if we read between the lines, We are likely to come to the conclusion that the story of doubting Thomas is more about belief than doubt. Thomas was skeptical; that’s safe to say. But it was Thomas’ lack of belief in the words of the prophets as well as the warnings Jesus told them that kept him from embracing the joy of a resurrected Christ. And so for Thomas, it took the power of the spirit and the presence of Christ to snap him out of it. Come to think of it, we aren’t much different ourselves oftentimes. But we have a helper; we have the word of God.
Adam Hamilton is the senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the resurrection in Kansas City; a church that boasts well over 5000 members attending worship every Sunday. We have to wonder how a church that started out in a borrowed space at a funeral parlor could have grown to such proportions. Most of those in the know will tell you it’s because of Mr. Hamilton. So what’s his story? Did God come down from the heavens and breathe upon him the power of the spirit? Or like Paul, did Jesus come to him to tell him what he needed to do? What’s his story?
Well, it all started with a girl. Mr. Hamilton loves to tell the story about how LaVonne, who he was sweet on at the time, invited him to a youth group at her church. Hamilton claims that he could have cared less about any sort of church thing, but because of the girl he showed up faithfully every week. Funny thing is then after a few months he found himself losing interest in the gang he used to run around with and he started to go to regular Sunday worship for the first time in his life. And also, with LaVonne’s encouragement, He began to study this book they call the holy Bible. He studied it in earnest and to hear him tell the story, is remarkable.
There were no claps of Thunder, no flashing lights, no mysterious voice of God from the heavens. Only the gradual revelation to a bright young man that the word of God has been placed in our hands for a reason, and that is that we may come to know the joy of believing and in believing, we may come to know eternal life.
It seems to me that God doesn’t ask us to read scripture like a textbook. I don’t know, I think of it more as a diary: a retelling of encounters with Christ with plenty of sidebars describing how it felt. Because that’s the thing: our beliefs are not necessarily logical or academic . They live in the heart and they come from the heart and it is an open heart that will invite Christ in every time.
It was a man named Harvey Cox that once said, “Easter is that moment when the laughter of the universe breaks through.
It fades, of course, like a distant radio signal on a stormy night. A lot of noise and static crowds it out. But once we have heard it we know from then on that it is there. It is God’s last laugh.”
This little nugget of wisdom caught my eye this week first of all because I can’t help but to look for the humor in a situation no matter what the situation might be, but also because I can’t help but think that this is the perfect way to describe the moments that beliefs are born: “The moment when the laughter of the universe breaks through.” It is God’s last laugh. It is God’s last laugh, indeed.
Amen and shalom
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