April 23, 2017 – John 20:19-31
John 20:19-31
The Next Level
Second Sunday of Easter – April 23, 2017
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
In an episode of the Canadian comedy Letterkenny last year,
there was a scene involving two of the town’s hockey players and their coach.
Coach was berating them for being lazy, not doing their workouts,
and not reaching their potential.
The hockey players listen gape-mouthed until the light turns on for them.
“So what you’re saying is, We’re at this level . . . and we need to get to THIS LEVEL!!!!”
That, essentially, summarizes what happens to Thomas this morning.
Now let’s just pump the brakes for a second.
Thomas gets a pretty bad rap.
He will probably forever be known as “doubting Thomas.”
The bad guy. The guy who just can’t bring himself to believe unless he has tangible proof.
Okay: for one thing, the word doubt, despite our translation, never once appears in this story.
More on that later.
For another thing, Thomas is not asking for anything more than the other disciples had.
He’s simply asking for exactly the same experience of the risen Christ that they had.
And another thing: on the first Sunday evening in question, where, exactly, is Thomas?
While the other disciples are locked behind closed doors for fear of the Temple Authorities as
known associates of a recently crucified criminal,
Thomas apparently displays no such fear.
He is out and about, doing the shopping, picking up a few things,
playing video games with his friends.
I don’t know: the point is, Thomas apparently has a level of faith or trust in the risen Christ
to protect him that that the others apparently don’t yet have.
Thomas apparently already has a certain amount of faith.
He is just not yet at fullest faith.
Now: about our translation.
The risen Jesus says to Thomas, “Do not doubt, but believe.”
That is a bad translation.
A literal translation is: Do not become without faith.
In other words, “Don’t become a faithless person.”
Thomas already has faith – a faith that is less fearful than the other disciples.
Still, in Jesus’ eyes, he is not yet at fullest faith – just like the others.
He is at this level – and he needs to get to this level.
And when you think about it, you realize that in John’s Gospel, this happens over and over
to people who are coming to fullest faith.
The pattern is this:
Someone encounters Jesus, then they share their experience with another person.
That person might show some reluctance, but then that person experiences Jesus personally and
becomes convinced about him and then, in turn, they share their experience with yet
another person, and so on.
When it comes to the resurrected Jesus, the same pattern emerges.
Mary Magdalene starts it off in John’s Gospel when she experiences the risen Jesus
at the garden tomb.
She tells the others but they don’t really buy it until Jesus comes among them himself
behind closed doors.
They in turn tell Thomas – who, remember, has a certain level of faith already –
who doesn’t get to the next level of faith until he himself experiences Jesus directly.
You see what I mean?
John is sensitive to the levels of faith we journey through in this life.
As Jamie Clark-Soles writes in a forth-coming book, Jesus says to Thomas,
“Don’t become a faithless person. Move from where you are to the next level.”
The Gospel of John moves through this sequence of people moving from one level of faith
to the next.
And then John makes his final move: you and I are up next in the sequence!
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to fuller faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have full life in his name.
The goal, in John, is what is often translated “eternal life,”
but a better rendering is “fullness of life.”
Jesus offers this gift to people who are still living – it is available to you now.
Fullness of life means living abundantly, living generously,
living to your absolute fullest potential as a creature that was fashioned by love
in order to love.
Fullness of life means becomes fully actualized with every single part of us engaged in
giving and living and loving and serving and
finding every last possible ounce of joy in that.
It means becoming who you truly are meant to be: a device that is made for loving.
What Jesus is saying is, We are at this level, and we need to get to this level.
The good news this morning is that Jesus doesn’t leave us on our own to attain the next level.
Notice how he graciously comes among the disciples in love.
Notice how he graciously returns to Thomas in love and shows him his scars.
Notice how he graciously gives a gift to the disciples,
a constant reminder of his presence and care: the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Okay: most of us – maybe all of us – have not experienced the risen Christ in
the same way the disciples did.
But most of us have probably experienced the Spirit of the risen Christ in some way.
Through the unconditional love some of our friends and family have for us.
Through the Spirit many of us witness at Food Bank, where everyone, miraculously,
is fed even though it never seems like there will be enough.
Through seeing our youth so engaged in service,
like I experienced at Food Bank last Wednesday.
Through our gatherings in worship – especially on a Sunday like last Sunday,
where many told me there was a tangible Spirit present that gave us all a lift.
Through our care for one another.
Through the same greeting of peace that Jesus shared with his disciples all those years ago;
he shares it with us again as we extend that peace to one another every Sunday.
Through his presence in communion, his loving sustaining grace of
full forgiveness and nourishment through the god-given gifts of bread and wine,
lovingly transformed by the loving labour of our own members from
wheat into bread and from grape juice into wine.
The risen Christ is very present in many ways. Grace is all around. Love is all around.
Look around! Let it take you to the next level!
Maybe we do not experience the risen Christ in the way the disciples did on that
Sunday evening long ago, but we experience him nonetheless, in different ways.
Ways that are no less powerful and moving.
And let’s face it: not all those who experienced the risen Christ the way the disciples did
came to faith – the Gospels tell us so.
That experience was no guarantee of coming to fullest faith – so don’t envy them.
Be grateful for the experiences you have had.
For you are blessed in them: when John says
“blessed are those who have not seen and yet come to believe” he means
Blessed are those whose experiences of the risen Christ are different from
the disciples and yet have moved from this level to this level.
For through your different experiences, Jesus is inviting you from this level to this level.
We are at this level, and, Jesus invites us to consider, we need to get to this level.
We are all at difference places and at different levels, just like Thomas was at
a different level than the other disciples on that Sunday long ago.
The question is: what would the next level look like for us? For you?
Many of you have gone to the next level by volunteering at our Food Banks or
Community Meals.
Many of you have gone to the next level in your workplaces and school by taking on a
new perspective of your role as a student and servant of the loving God.
Some of you have gone to the next level of financial giving this year, and for that
I am extremely grateful.
What does the next level look like for you?
I think the risen Jesus is inviting all of us into a new level of financial giving this year,
as we are facing a dramatic deficit early in the year.
I don’t really know why, and I may never know why, but I know Jesus is inviting us
to go from this level to this level.
So I am publicly announcing that I am going to increase my giving by 25% because
I cannot stand the thought of losing a single ministry of First Lutheran Church
or a staff position – and I invite you to join me.
The thing is: the disciples had one another, and we have one another to
support each and encourage one another in going to the next level that
the risen Christ is inviting us into, into greater and greater fullness of life.
He graciously comes among us again, in these inviting and challenging words.
He graciously comes among us and invites us to hold in our hands his wounded loving body.
He comes among us and invites through these words and through this touching to
go to the next level of fullness of life.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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