by Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts

Acts 2:14a-22-32
Jn. 20:19-31

Poor Thomas--he's gotten the nickname doubting Thomas of course--a name by which he'll forever been known. And only because here, in this one instance, after his Master had been crucified and buried, he refused to believe that the other disciples had seen the Lord. But honestly, now--if you think about it--wouldn't you have doubted, too. In fact, now that you mention it, all of the disciples had trouble believing at first. And far from being a faithless person, Thomas went on to be one of the greatest early missionaries, spreading the faith in many lands. I know when I was in India for a year, in my high school days, we encountered there the people of what is still today called the Mar Thoma Church--named after Thomas. We were told that, at least according to legend, Christianity had first come to India long ago, brought by Thomas himself. So today, Christianity is one of the major religions in the Southern part of India, all thanks to a disciple we mostly know as the one who doubted.

But no, Thomas was a man of faith primarily, you see-- not doubt. He must've been, to spread the faith so far. And even though he doubted at first, he wasn't the only one. And if you think about it because he did doubt at first, and had to pursue a first hand experience with the Lord--to test his faith--the faith he had in the end may indeed have been all the stronger.

For us today, even farther removed from the first early signs of Jesus' resurrection, keeping an Easter faith is even harder than it was for Thomas. But that carries with it a very important message for us as Christians. It tells us does it not, that if we are to keep the faith, let alone spread it to others, it's vital for us to work hard at recognizing the presence of the Risen One, the presence of the divine, in our lives. It's vital for us to learn to see the signs of God's presence, to learn to sense and recognize the presence of the living Christ in midst of the spirit-filled loving community--we call church. We have to work at it--but if we will, keeping the faith can become less and less difficult for us--day by day.

Yes, being aware of the presence of the Lord, in our lives, yours and mine, does require a diligent, hard-working day by day, searching sometimes--a regular disciplined openness to the presence of God in our lives. But we will find and come to know that presence more and more, if we'll make a habit of looking for and listening for the Lord, even at times when the Lord seems hidden from us.
And I promise you, the more we practice a life of being in touch with Christ in our lives, from then on, noticing the Lord is there with us also becomes a lot easier. More and more we'll be tuned into the voice of Christ--we'll become familiar with the signs of God's presence all around us. We'll be aware of God with us, day by day, for we will have gotten to know the Lord--just as Thomas knew the Risen One immediately, when he saw the signs--the marks of the nails in Jesus hands, and indeed the Lord standing in front of him. He knew him in an instant, for he had gotten to know Christ, very well.

I've been privileged, a couple of times--including right here in Northampton, at the Smith College Chapel just this last year, to be able to hear, in person, some moving messages--a sermon at one time--and then a lecture here, delivered by The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, a prominent United Methodist Theologian, scholar, writer, and preacher . Recently, I read about her again--something she had written about an incident that taught her about being aware of, and becoming familiar with the signs of God's presence all around us. She said, "My husband, Edward, is devoted to hawks and especially to the golden eagles that are returning to our part of Georgia. Driving down the highway with him can be a test of nerves as he cranes over the steering wheel to peer at the wing feathers of a particularly large bird. Is it an eagle or just a turkey vulture? [He'll ask.) He has to know, even if it means weaving down the road for awhile, or running off it from time to time. My view's a bit different," she says: 'Keep your eyes on the road!' I yell at him. 'Who cares what it is? I'll buy you a bird book; I'll even buy you a bird--just watch where you're going.'"

Taylor then goes on to say, " A couple of summers ago, we spent two months apart, and I thought I'd get a break from hawks. Instead I began to see them everywhere--looping through the air, spiraling in rising thermals, hunkered down in the tops of trees. Seeing them, really seeing them for the first time in my life, I understood that I was not seeing with my own eyes, but with Edward's eyes. He was not there, so I was seeing them for him. He was absent--or was he? He was present in me." [Taylor, Barbara Brown; quoted in The Best Spiritual Writing; Phillip Zaleski, ed., Harper, 1999, p. 262.]

Isn't that what happens to us, as well, when in a disciplined way we work at becoming more and more open to the presence of God in our lives everyday. When we spend time in prayer, and studying the scriptures. When we look for the signs of God-with us--Emmanuel, the Christ. When we take the time away from all the clutter and busyness of our lives to worship the Lord, in the peace of the early morning, or the still of the night--or even look for him in the smiles and the love of people we meet on the street--he becomes present in us and through us. The more we seek out Christ's presence in our lives you see, the more we begin to see the world through his eyes, just as Taylor had learned to see the world through her husbands eyes, being present with him so often. When we seek out the Lord's presence more often, then indeed, day by day, we become more and more open to that presence, and keeping the faith, as Thomas did in his life, becomes much easier.

And then indeed, note that something else happens that's very important for keeping the faith. For as we seek out Christ in our lives more often, with more and more openness to his presence, that openness to noticing him in our lives, and out there in our world, also then opens us far more to others in that world, and their needs. As we see the world with his eyes anew--as faith-keepers, it begins to make us more and more want also to be peace-makers. Yes, being faith-keepers leads to being peace makers. After all, if we're to see the world as Christ sees it, does that not mean seeking to be involved in, and to love the world, with the peace of Christ. It's no accident that just as Jesus was alerting the disciples in the upper room to his presence, he said, each time, first of all"Peace be with you!"

And of course they needed peace. Their lives were in a turmoil. They were hiding, after all--afraid that what had happened to Jesus, his crucifixion, would also happen to them, so he brings them peace first of all. But as he calms their fears, note that he also makes it possible for them to have a more peace-seeking view of the world. Yes, if we're going to share his peace with the world, we need first to find his peace in our own lives. Yesterday, I attended a meeting with our bishop, Bishop Pete Weaver, along with other pastors on our District. And while sharing with us, the bishop suggested that just as Jesus first of all breathed the spirit into his disciples, to give them, inside, the peace of God that they need--it was only then that he could get them to unlock those doors. (Remember, the Risen Christ appeared and stood among them, even though they were in a locked room--in fear of the crowds.) They needed the breath of God first, the empowerment of he spirit, in order to have the faith to open the doors and go out to share a resurrection faith with a world that needed it so.

And so too do we need to help the people of our community discover here the new breath of life--to find an inner peace, from God (that breath of the Spirit) that will enable our people and our community to then to share that peace of Christ out there in the world. Bishop Weaver suggested to us yesterday that maybe we need a sign out in front of our churches that says--"Come in and catch your breath." Not a bad idea, don't you think. Yes, we and so many in our community, need the assurance of the God with us, to have the courage then to open the door to the world.

Then with that breath of life from the risen one--experienced here in community, we come alive, too--are resurrected, now not just as selfish individuals, but as representatives of Christ for the world. So perhaps we can understand how empowered the disciples were. The Risen One was there before them! With his resurrection, now there was nothing to fear from the world--in fact even death itself had been vanquished; so now people, like the disciples and those with whom they went out into the world to share the faith--people hurting one another, and fearing one another, could instead now have a new stance--peace was possible. And so the disciples became not only faith-keepers but peace-makers. And so can we.

Like the newly empowered disciples,--with the breath of God in our hearts, we need not just keep the faith for ourselves; they now, as those early disciples did, we can spread the faith with love and peace-making. And note I say not peace-keeping but peacemaker. Can you see the difference. Peacekeepers can be very defensive, which is a stance toward the world that far from loving and open, is more of a locked door, protective stance. Armies can be peacekeepers. But churches are about being peacemakers. Com-pared to peacemaking, peacekeeping is more of a defensive stance, while peacemaking is more of an outgoing, open, spreading of love. Creating more peace in the world. And that's what we are called to be, and can be now, without fear, you see, as resurrection people--peace makers, who spread resurrection--the new life of God's peace, with the world.

Now I know, it may seem a daunting task, for you and me, by ourselves, to try to make peace for our whole world, but one thing we can and must do is seek to be peacemakers in our corner of the world. And then as the word of peace, and actions of peace and love are spread and shared by more and more people, and since this is also God's resurrection world, behold the world slowly begins to know more and more peace.

In what ways have you been a peacemaker. I know as a pastor, I've found, over and over again, that even in church communities there are occasions where we need to begin there to make peace, right within those small communities, if we're ever to be able then to begin to make peace in the world beyond our communities.

In one of the parishes we served, years ago, it was a 2-point charge, kind of a big church/little church situation. And since they shared a pastor--me--they also shared, of course the expense for the pastor's salary and for the par-sonage, and so forth. Since one was a larger church than the other, they naturally paid more. The only trouble was, since the people in the 2 churches didn' t meet together that often, there developed, over time, a disagreement over the exact formula for the expenses. One church thought it should be 1/3 -- 2/3 split, and the other church that it was supposed to be one fourth, three-fourths. Well between this and some other grumbling about "that other church" in each case, finally, something had to be done, so one night we arranged a joint meeting between all the Trustees and Finance Committee members from both churches, bringing them together around one table. Well when the night came for the meeting, as people arrived, I noticed a real tension in the air, and people gathered not together, but on different sides of the room, and only in their own church groups as they chatted informally before the meeting. So we sat them down, and of course they sat on opposite sides of the table--representatives of one of the churches at one end, and the group from the other church at the opposite end, and we started the meeting.

But, as we got to talking about the reason why each group felt the way they did about the issues before us, gradually they began to understand each other. To see things from the perspective of not just one side of the table but both sides. So gradually we worked out a compromise formula, one that took both positions, the concerns of both groups, into account; until finally, by the end of the meeting, all in attendance were visiting and laughing and joking with each other across the old dividing lines, and as they parted many said spontaneously," Hey! We ought to get together more often!"

What a difference it makes when, empowered by and opened up to others with our resurrection faith, we seek to be peacemakers and learn in the process to be open to the worlds of those around us--and to the perspective that they have from their side of the table. For then you see we are seeing the world through resurrection eyes--through the eyes of the Risen Christ. And behold our own eyes then become loving eyes. We learn more and more how to be both--faith-keepers and peace-makers, through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.