John 20:19-31 (NRSV). When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked 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, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Welcome to this Sunday, April 3rd, only 2 days after April Fool's Day. One day isn't enough, is it? For me, one day of jokes just isn't enough. You see, in my family, we didn't celebrate just one day. I come from a family of people who love to laugh and play practical jokes on each other. So, that first day of April often dragged into three, frequently a week and, sometimes, up to a full month. One of us would play a joke on another which led to the need to reciprocate and on and on and on.
So, today it just seemed right to play an April Fool’s joke on you. It also seemed right because, in my home parish in Pasadena, this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter is always celebrated as Holy Hilarity Sunday. A Sunday where we are invited to bring jokes -- respectful jokes, of course -- to share, and to laugh with each other.
Celebrating laughter on this second Easter Sunday is actually a long and very rich tradition in the church. There is much history of congregations celebrating this day, sharing jokes and fun stories and engaging in pranks on each other. The tradition comes from some of the church’s early theologians, where they reflected on Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as a huge practical joke that God played on Satan. They called it the risus paschalis, meaning the Easter laugh.
And, so, it seems very appropriate today for us to laugh. For us to celebrate the joy of Easter in a fun way the week after we’ve celebrated it in a glorious way. To mix faith and humor and to stir both deeply into our lives so that we might live more fully into being and sharing ourselves as people of the resurrection.
I think God must have an amazing sense of humor. After all, look at the characters, in the Bible and here in this congregation, who God has gathered together as his people. From those in the Hebrew scripture, to the disciples of Jesus, to us here today, God has a way of finding very imperfect people and forming and shaping all of us into people very well-suited to do the Church’s work--the work of sharing the good news of that Easter resurrection.
Notice that I used the word “imperfect.” Often, I think that we get this notion in our heads that, in order to share the Gospel, you must have led a perfect life. That, to be called, one must have lived in a way that is completely faithful and above reproach. Well, I, for one, know better than that. And all one needs to do to further disprove that theory is to look at the characters--the imperfect characters--in our reading today.
Let’s look at the disciples. That first Easter morning, we know that Mary, after discovering that the gardener was, in fact, Jesus, runs back to the disciples and announces to them that she had seen the Lord. And, then, proceeded to share with them everything Jesus had said.
And, their response? Well, they hid! They went behind closed doors and hid because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Why? The story doesn’t say. Perhaps they thought they might be accused of stealing Jesus’ body so they could start rumors of his resurrection. Or perhaps they were afraid to rejoice publicly--to show joy over Jesus’ resurrection and incur the wrath of the authorities. Whatever it was, they were afraid and they hid. And, my guess was that, as they hid away, there was not much laughing. Until, of course, Jesus appeared and showed them the marks of his resurrection. Only then were they filled with joy. Only then did they actually come of out of their own tomb of fear and truly enter into the resurrection.
And, then, there’s Thomas. Oh, poor Thomas. You see, I kind of get Thomas. He was the realistic one, wasn’t he? He was evidence-driven. He wanted proof. He wanted facts. "Prove it to me." (Aren’t we all a little bit like him? How do I know God exists? Why would God allow something like that to happen? We are always looking for the proof, for the facts, for the answers.) And, then, just like with the disciples, Jesus appears. And tells Thomas to put his finger in his hands and his hands into his side. Here, Thomas! Here’s your proof!
And Thomas, without even having to put his fingers into the nail holes or into the sword slice in Jesus’ side--without touching the actual proof, he gets it. He gets Jesus’ resurrection and immediately confesses, “My Lord and my God!” Out of his tomb of doubt and into the resurrection.
Aren’t we so like Thomas and the rest of the disciples? You see, I think sometimes the immensity of the resurrection is way too much for us to fully grasp. That it’s way too big for us to truly understand. And so, piece by piece. Bit by bit. Just like with the disciples, Christ comes into our presence and, little by little, we enter into the resurrection, into our own resurrection from fear and doubt.
In February of 2008, my sister was dying. She had fought cancer over a lifetime, but had reached a point where she was tired of fighting. She was ready to die. Ready to be reunited with Christ. Over the six months that she was in and out of the hospital, I urged her on. In the midst of my own fear and doubt at losing her and what life would be like without her, I urged her to continue to fight.
When she made the decision to come home to my house on hospice, I was devastated. But, I was also determined that those last days would be the best for her. So, I asked her what she wanted to eat, what her favorite foods were. All she wanted were Drumstick ice cream cones.
Over the next 7 days, friends and family came to visit, to gather around her and cry and laugh and share stories of amazing memories we had together. And all the while, we ate Drumstick ice cream comes--4 boxes of Drumstick ice cream cones to be exact! In that week--in the sharing of stories and ice cream, I experienced Christ’s presence. And my own resurrection. A resurrection out of my own tomb of fear and doubt and into the hope and joy of the resurrection with the knowledge that, no matter what, Christ would continue to be present with me.
You see fear and doubt and joy and gladness often walk hand-in-hand with each other. All we have to do is open the Psalms to see this. Yet, in their midst, our resurrected Lord is present, welcoming us into a new life, a resurrected life. A life of joy and laughter, a life of love and freedom, a life of peace and wholeness, a life together with him as part of the body of Christ. That, my friends, is the joy of the resurrection. That is the basis for our laughter.
And that is the reason that it is we, and not death or the devil, who ultimately have the last laugh!
Thanks be to God! Amen.
Preached on Sunday, April 3, 2016, at Chatfield Lutheran Church.
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