1 Peter 1:3-9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, 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 that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

 A New Birth into a Living Hope

 Introduction

You know, we do the same thing every Sunday, basically. And that is, we get back in touch with the timeless and eternal. And what we do in church is very much like what the early Christians did in the first century. It’s all based on that practice, that form and structure. We read scripture, we sing, we pray. And this is the tradition that has been happening for over two thousand years.

Doubt is a driver

This morning we take a look at doubt in this story about Thomas. A lot of times doubt gets a bad rap, you know? It’s from this story that we have the expression, “Doubting Thomas.” And “Doubting Thomas” has a negative connotation. It’s not a compliment to call someone a “Doubting Thomas.”

And yet, doubt is not necessarily a bad thing, because doubt can be a very powerful driver. Doubt is like a churning fire in your belly. Doubt can drive you to find out. There is an unrest. Doubt. Questioning. There is a longing to know. Doubt is the discomfort that drives inquiry. You want to know.

Going to seminary

Ten years ago I entered seminary. I threw myself into it. I really had no idea where I would end up. But there were some things I wanted to figure out. Something was driving me. Once and for all, I wanted to get some answers to my questions. And so I spent hours and hours, reading in the library, studying, writing, looking for my answers.

Could I really believe this stuff I’d been hearing my whole life. Religion. You know, Christian theology? Was there anything there for me? All this talk about God. I was at a place in my life where I could really dig in and look for answers to my questions. And so I took four years and disappeared in the seminary library. And it was a blessing, really.

Doubt is questioning belief

Doubt is the questioning of belief. Doubt is a skeptical attitude toward a belief. And I was asking questions about doubt and belief. I was asking questions like, “What is belief, anyway?” What is a thought? What is a word? What is anything? I was really pushing the limit.

And I got to a place in my inquiry where words of any kind didn’t make sense any more. The only thing that made sense was no words. The absence of words. And that’s where I started to find some peace. But it was doubt that drove me there. Doubt helped me find my answers.

Notes on the Lectionary

Today is the second Sunday of Easter. We continue in our study of Matthew this year, And yet, today we have a reading from John’s Gospel. So, you may be wondering what is going on.

Well, we are following the lectionary. The lectionary, the calendar of readings for the church year, is organized on a three-year cycle corresponding with the three synoptic gospels. The synoptic gospels, as you know, are Matthew, Mark and Luke. They are similar. They have a similar point of view. Syn-optic.

But John is quite different from the other three Gospels. And so, the makers of the lectionary shaped the calendar of readings with this in mind. A year of Matthew, a year of Mark, a year of Luke, with the readings from John interspersed during the Holy seasons of Advent and Easter. So we read through all four Gospels in three years.

That is way more than you wanted to know about the lectionary. But that is why we are reading from John’s Gospel during the season of Easter, the next few Sundays up until Pentecost. And, we can make some comparisons with Matthew along the way, so Matthew will continue to be our home base this year, so to speak, and yet we will take an excursion away from home and venture out into John’s Gospel for the next few weeks. And then, to make things even more interesting, we have this reading from 1 Peter. So, let’s begin there. We’ll begin with 1 Peter. And you’ll see how this all fits together.

First reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9

1 Peter is a letter from the church in Rome to the churches in what is now Greece and Turkey. The letter was probably not written by St. Peter himself but written in his name by his followers in Rome. Our text this morning is the letter’s opening blessing, sending encouragement in the face of trials. The letter was written sometime near the beginning of Domitian’s reign, that is, the Roman Emperor Domitian, who ruled from 81 to 96 AD. Domitian demanded to be worshiped as God. And because the early Christians refused to worship him as God, they were persecuted.  And so knowing this, these words really resonate:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” A new birth into a living hope. This, of course, is the promise of Easter Sunday morning, when the two Mary’s found the empty tomb, as we read last week in Matthew’s Gospel.

 Second reading: John 20: 19-31

 Now, John chapter 20 begins with John’s version of the resurrection in which the risen Christ first appears to Mary Magdalene. We read, “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him,” she says. And then, she turns and sees him. At this point, she runs to tell the others, “I have seen the Lord!”

But the disciples don’t really believe Mary. They gather in a house somewhere and lock the doors “in fear of the Jews.”

Let’s pause here a minute because we need to understand this, “in fear of the Jews” as a reference to specific Jewish leaders, religious leaders in power at that time. It’s not referring to “all Jews everywhere.” In other words, the disciples were not trying to hide from “the Jews.” In fact, they were Jews themselves. So this, “in fear of the Jews” is not a statement about all Jews, rather it’s about the religious leaders at the time. It’s important to understand this because this line, and others like it, have been used by so called Christians to promote antisemitic hatred. Remember, Christianity has nothing to do with hatred. Christianity is a path of love and forgiveness.

So they locked the door. And even so, Jesus appears before them and they are amazed. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says to them. And then, he says something so important. If you miss this, you miss the entire Gospel message. He says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” You see, we cannot be reborn into a new life when we are still carrying the anger and the grudges from our old life. Reborn into a new life. In this appearance to the disciples, Jesus summarizes the whole teaching. Grace, love, forgiveness. It’s all right there. A new birth into a living hope means totally new. Let go of all the old garbage.

And then, he goes through the whole thing again with Thomas. You know, Thomas really gets a bad wrap here. Because of this story, we call him “Doubting Thomas.” But they were all doubting, weren’t they? All the disciples were doubting. So this is something to think about. Jesus appeared to them so that they could have new life. This is the message of Easter, the message of the Gospel, the good news: “a new birth into a living hope.”

 Snake shedding his skin

You know, We live in a fascinating, wonderful world. It’s a very interesting world. The world of nature, I’m talking about. For example, snakes. Let’s talk about snakes for a minute. Here in Maine, we don’t have any poisonous snakes. But we do have snakes, and we have some big ones. I remember one time I was down by the old well, (where I lived in Norway, Maine) not the well we used for water, but the one they used to use to water the horses, down below the road, a dug well lined with rocks, that was down in the woods where I used to cut firewood. And I wanted to see if there was any water in that well, so I lifted up the cover and looked down into it. And yes, there was some water there. So, I put the cover back on it, stood up, and turned around, and then I jumped three feet into the air. It just happened. I felt myself lift off the ground. Because there, right in front of me was a snake. It was a tan and brown snake, wearing his camouflage, you know, and he was enormous! That snake really made me jump!

 Have you ever been walking through the woods and found a snakeskin? You know, snakes shed their skin several times a year. It’s called ecdysis [EK-duh-sis] “getting out of”. Snakeskin is made out of keratin, the same stuff our fingernails are made of. And keratin doesn’t grow. So every few months, a snake will outgrow his own skin! He has to shed the old skin. He will find a sharp rock or a stick, and scratch up against it to rip open the old skin. And then he wriggles out of the old skin and leaves it there in a single piece on the ground in one piece.

Ageism

 You know, as we get older, maybe you have noticed this, as we get older, younger people sometimes don’t always treat us the way we’d like to be treated. Do you know what I’m talking about? There can be some dismissiveness. We’re not as strong as we used to be. We can’t do all the things we used to do. We don’t walk as fast or talk as fast as we used to. And somehow, our opinions don’t seem to matter as much. Have you ever noticed. We get ignored. You know? Overlooked. It’s as if we become invisible, like a ghost. If you have ever felt like this, it’s probably not your imagination. It’s called “ageism.” It’s the most acceptable and widespread form of social prejudice. Ageism. Looking down on the elderly. And this treatment of the elderly is a major cause of depression based on feelings of worthlessness. As we get older, it becomes more and more difficult to know where one fits in, where one is valued, where one finds meaning in life.

Letting go of our old life

The truth is, we cannot cling to past versions of who we used to be. We keep getting older, and we have to let go of who we used to be. We try, but we cannot cling to past versions of ourselves. The truth is, we are not who we used to be anymore. But if we keep trying to be who we used to be, we will make ourselves miserable. And by the way, holding on to anger, being unable to forgive, this is clinging to past versions of ourselves. We have not let go of who we used to be. We are not ready to step into a new life. To step into this new life, we have to let go of the old life.

I think the key is to change our mindset. To see aging as grace. Aging is a gift because we are off the hook. We don’t need to perform anymore. We don’t have to seek validation anymore. We don’t have to prove ourselves anymore. In other words, we can be free. We can step into the freedom of being nobody important with nothing to prove to anybody. And so we can let go of the past, let go of past versions of ourselves.

Shedding the skin of our old life

In other words, we can be like the snake. Human beings don’t have scales made out of keratin that we can shed. But we do change. We change at an emotional and spiritual level. We are much more than just this body. When we shed the skin of our old life, we let go of all that old stuff. Often, this happens through pain. There’s a death. There’s a loss. A surgery, an illness, something falls apart and we have to let go of everything. Our life completely changes.  We have to let go of all our painful memories, our mistakes, our fear, the injustices, all the things that happened that we did not deserve. We put it all down. We let go, so that we can be reborn in grace.

Each moment is grace

And we do it again and again. Each new day we are reborn. Each moment, we are reborn into something new. If you can see this, it is grace in operation, grace functioning right now and all the time. Just see it. See how each moment is new!

This is grace. Grace is not an idea. Grace is not an abstract concept. Grace is a living reality. Grace is a thing that functions in each moment. It is a living reality. What am I talking about?

When you open your eyes and see the stars at night, that is grace. When you open your eyes and see a seagull flying over the water, that is grace. As each new moment arises to experience, we find that we are alive, and this is grace. We live in this grace.

We shed the skin of our old life, and we become who we are right now, in this chapter of our life. The earlier chapters are gone. Now, we can be born into our new life, the life that is ours right now. This new birth is like the snake shedding his skin. We leave the old one behind, and we move ahead, always moving ahead, until one day, we let go of it all, and we go back to God. Amen? Amen.