We are still in the Easter Season and this means the Sunday Gospel lessons continue to tell of the appearances Jesus made to the disciples after his resurrection. He came to them on the mountain at Galilee, he walked with them on the road to Emmaus, he cooked fish for them on the beach at daybreak, and he broke bread with them at table in Emmaus. The Gospels clearly want to show that Jesus was raised from the tomb.
Last Sunday I preached on the resurrection. My text was from Luke 24, when Jesus came and stood among his disciples and invited them to touch and see that it was indeed he and not a ghost. "Look at my hands and my feet," he said, "It is I myself. Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."
After church a woman from the congregation met me in the Grand Hall with a profound thought. The story from Luke reminded her of another resurrection story in the book of John -- when Jesus appeared before all of the disciples except for the disciple Thomas. Thomas didn't believe a word of it. "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe," Thomas told the other disciples.
A week later Jesus came and stood among them again and this time Thomas was present. Jesus showed Thomas his hands and his side. "Stop doubting and believe," Jesus said.
"My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed.
"Isn't it interesting," the woman on Sunday said, "how even though Thomas did not believe what the other disciples were saying about the resurrection, he was still allowed to be with them."
Her point was clear. One does not have to believe in order to belong. The early church left room for doubters; today's church ought to do the same.
I've been reflecting on that conversation ever since Sunday. It was a week later that Jesus appeared to Thomas. On one level that tells me that a lot can happen in a week. Somebody shows up Sunday after Sunday because they want their children to be taught good Christian morals in Sunday School, but he really doesn't believe — never has. Next Sunday something happens. Suddenly he's walking the aisle and the preacher has that deer in the headlights look like, "What is he doing? We've talked, I know he doesn't believe." But he does. One Sunday he doesn't and the next he does. A lot can happen in a week.
In the liturgical calendar Easter is more than one single Sunday. It's fifty days — seven whole weeks. Easter is a whole season.
The church mothers and fathers used to call the Easter Season the Eastertide. I like that. Easter is like a tide. It doesn't come all at once. It washes ashore, wave after wave. It doesn't hit everybody at once. The tide is inevitably rising, but it comes in its own time. You can't rush it.
I imagine that there are plenty of folks reading this who feel a little like Thomas — doubting, skeptical, not quite sure about all this Easter business. If so, then I ask that you go ahead and give yourself permission to be a Thomas. Go ahead and doubt. Insist on proof. Wait and see. But wait with us. Don't leave. There's room for doubters among us and we will give you that room. Wait and see and we'll wait with you. Because a lot can happen in a week. A lot can happen this week.
And just imagine what can happen in seven weeks . . .
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