Readings: Acts 5: 27-32 ; John 20: 19-31
Last Sunday I dealt with some of the personalities of the Resurrection including us. Today we concentrate on one person, Thomas. During the years I’ve been a bit hard on Thomas. The odds were against him. But the women and the disciples were exactly the same. They had to see Jesus to believe. They had an advantage because they had seen Jesus in this room with locked doors. When they said with one voice we have seen the Lord, Thomas would believe. After Jesus’ second appearance in that room, Thomas believed. St Ignatius said we believe in order to understand or we understand in order to believe. I have come to believe that both ways are right.

Sadly in our secular society most do not do either. They choose to believe in nothing, they have no values and are so self-centred. But the alternative is there. The words of Joshua ring out across the years - Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house- we will serve the Lord.

Let me tell you a bit about my story. I had started to go to Church a couple of years before the 1959 Billy Graham Crusade. Those two years were a search and then on a Saturday night during that Crusade in Sydney I said - My Lord and My God. Eight months later I was called to be a minister. Within weeks I entered the Evangelists Institute within the Central Methodist Mission. I candidated for the ministry. I started studying at the University of Sydney. My faith was tested and the experience of Thomas crept in. I was strongly influenced by Professor Charles Birch, a Methodist lay person, who spoke a lot of sense. He was a great preacher and speaker. At that time Bishop John Robinson from Durham had a great influence through his book Honest to God. But it was not until I was ministering in congregations that I focused upon my faith against and I understood what Jesus meant Thomas, you have had to see me to believe, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. This became the experience of the Church.

What I am saying is that there’s lot of Thomas in me. This is from a sermon called Scars Reveal Resurrection by Chris Polhill. Jesus shows them his hands and his side, shows the hideous piercing that nails and spear have inflicted, and the second time he comes to the upper room he not only shows his wounds and scars but invites Thomas to touch them. The very fact that Jesus has to do this tells us that just seeing Jesus wasn’t enough: it was too shocking, too mind-blowing, too confusing to see Jesus standing there clearly alive – when they knew he had died by crucifixion. It is the reality of the scars and wounds that Jesus bears that reveals to the disciples the extraordinary truth of the Resurrection. It is the reality of God with us; it is the difference God makes; it is the confusing change that turns our ideas upside down- but gives us life and hope again. WE ARE EASTER PEOPLE.

Thomas wasn’t one of the heavies. We don’t know where he was when Jesus first appeared. But he was certainly there for the second. But it didn’t end there.

He wrote a Gospel which didn’t make it into the bible. He travelled and finally went to India. Kerala is the only Christian Indian State. The Mar Thoma Orthodox Church is there. There’s a church in New Delhi close to the University where I have stayed. His influence lives on in that Church and every Christian. May we join Him at the table of our Lord.