John 20:19-31
“From Inside”
April 19, 2020
It was the 20th century poet Carl Sandburg who wrote,
An open door says, “Come in.” A shut door says, “Who are you?”
There are so many closed doors around us and its not just because of the fickle weather that teeters between winter’s last gasp and the warm promise of spring.
A drive down Main Street in Bennington midday offers a glimpse of the many doors whose openness had previously been assumed. Now those stores and service providers who are doing curbside pickup have huge signs out front with phone numbers to call so that the invitation is guarded.
Face to face contact with the person who brings out your pizza or your book is over a mask with only the eyes left to communicate the welcome or apology that previously we would have relied on a whole face to tell us.
Right now “Open” does not mean come on in, look around, make yourself comfortable. It instead means we are trying our best under bizarre circumstances and we truly appreciate your help in making it possible for us to stay in business. We have substituted shouts from a distance for an invitation to step inside.
A locked door so often now is signaling a struggle, leaving those of us on the outside wondering will they survive this pandemic? In this small state of ours where we consider each other neighbors even if we live miles from one another, our concern for those with locked doors is real. How are they holding up? What do they need?
In this time when we can relate to the sense of relative safety we hope to create by staying behind our respective locked doors, maybe it is not so hard for us to imagine how those frightened disciples felt.
There they were hiding not from a deadly virus but from the authorities, fearful that they may suffer the same fate as Jesus. Mary Magdalene had already shared her encounter with the risen Christ and still they were afraid.
Thomas went out alone, maybe he drew the short straw and was the one who had to go out for the food and drink they would need in order to stay at home barricaded and by the way, was there some secret knock on the door that they knew it was Thomas to let back in? Jesus didn’t need a secret password but instead just lets himself in, not once but twice.
And what peace-bearing Jesus encounters is fear and disbelief. Thomas has his doubts but so do the other frightened disciples or they wouldn’t be hiding, given that they already know that Jesus did what he said he would do.
They locked themselves in because they doubted what Mary had told them and surely being hunkered down in that house probably just made room for more doubt and fear and worry.
Sound familiar? The longer our self-isolation goes on, the greater our doubt has room to grow. The thing that I love about Jesus’ approach with Thomas is that he doesn’t dismiss him or play down his doubt but he acknowledges it and gives Thomas what he needs. Even with the doubts, Jesus stays in relationship with him.
Could this mean we can bring our doubt and worry about what is to come to Jesus, the one who comes bearing peace, in spite of the horrible suffering and pain and feeling of abandonment he experienced? Jesus comes bearing shalom, a vision of how the Kingdom might be – one marked by justice and mercy and reconciliation and begins with forgiveness. This peace that he repeatedly proclaims is not thrown around lightly. Rather it is intended to be a way of life.
As we envision what will happen next while balancing all of the fear and uncertainty felt for a world that has been turned upside down, let us lean into these disciples, including Thomas.
Their next move will turn out to be about spreading the teachings of Jesus who will soon enough leave them again, empowering them to take what they’ve learned about a new world order and the importance of looking out for those most in need of care and for loving every other one deeply. That was their post-resurrection lesson to live by. What will be ours when the doors of our church are once again open? What will we have learned while they were closed about who and whose we are?
What these disciples knew for sure was that they were not to do this work alone. We are together apart right now but soon we will be able to serve a new and changed world in great need of healing united together, as beloved children of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to follow the lead of our teacher Jesus, the one in whose name we have life abundant. Amen.