GEOFFREY BOYCOTT'S GRANDMUTHER AND 'ER STICK O' RHUBARB
A sermon preached at Saint .Wulfran’s church, Ovingdean on 11th April 2021, the second Sunday of Easter Text: John chapter 20 verses 19-31
Like we have been for much of the last year, the disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus and the disappearance of His body are in lock-down. In their case, they have formed a bubble in the room where they have met to hide.
Like us, they are afraid – in their case not of catching a horrible virus but of being hunted and arrested by the authorities who had seen to it that Jesus was crucified.
Jesus has, as they are given to understand, risen from the dead but they don’t quite know what this means or what is going to happen next.
Picture the scene. Ten of them (Judas has gone and Thomas is absent) sit wondering. All they know is the tomb is apparently empty. And then suddenly, bang, behind the locked doors, they see the dead Christ standing in their midst!!
The only trouble is Thomas happens to be elsewhere. Oh well, never mind. Surely he’ll take their word for it. Really? Don’t count on it.
“Not so fast! Until I’ve seen the mark of the nails on His hands, until I’ve put my hand into His side, you’ll never make me believe.” Try to hear that last bit spoken in a Yorkshire accent.
You see the trouble is Thomas always reminds me of that Yorkshire cricketing legend GEOFFREY BOYCOTT. Stubborn at the crease and highly derogatory in the commentary box – a loose full toss from the hapless bowler would be greeted with “My grandmuther could have hit thut wi’ a stick o rhubarb! And so on.
“Doubting Thomas”, as he is known in the church was an awkward, stubborn cuss who won’t take anything for granted until it’s proved to his own satisfaction.
We’ve already seen the cut of his jib at the Last Supper. He couldn’t let it go when Jesus said “You know the way to the place where I am going”.
Hang on a minute, interrupts Thomas, Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. So how can we know the way?
That was the previous Thursday evening. Now we’ve moved on beyond the crucifixion. But doubting Thomas is at it again!
Do you know, I honestly wonder if this incident isn’t a divine set-up - God is doing a bit of stage-management. I don’t think it was any accident or coincidence that Thomas happened not to be there when the Risen Lord first appeared.
God knows very well how we all tick and He knows caution is a very human characteristic. It’s even widely regarded as a virtue. As in for example - You really ought to take out house and other insurances against what are characterized as perils and risks.
But that sort of safety-first approach is not very helpful in inspiring the leap of faith which God wants us to make. As far as religion is concerned, caution is something which should be thrown to the winds.
So perhaps Thomas’s absence, followed by his obstinate caution are intended to teach us a lesson.
You see,
Because Thomas doubted, Jesus was obliged to appear a second time in the hide-away room.
Because Thomas doubted, the rest of the assembled company were invited to inspect the wounds.
The 1st letter of John bears exact witness: ….what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands...........
So for our sakes it is a very good thing that Thomas doubted. We see that his doubts were unjustified and we learn to be more trusting ourselves.
And for Thomas himself of course, there was a painful lesson to be learned: Have you believed ONLY because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have NOT seen and yet believe.
It certainly sounds as if he is being told off. But our Lord doesn’t condemn Thomas except with this very gentle rebuke. He’s not like us when we catch somebody out, prove somebody wrong. He didn’t go around crowing after the resurrection and chanting “Told you so!”
Instead Our Dear Lord looks down the centuries and tells you and me that we are blessed because we have had no chance of poking His wounds and yet we still manage to echo Thomas’s belated and shame-faced cry of belief “My Lord and My God.”
It’s fascinating, isn’t it? I’ve heard so many people say that, for them, believing in an afterlife is just wishful thinking. They point out that humans are the only living species on earth who know they are going to die, so that, faced with this unique awareness, they make up fairy stories to comfort themselves.
Well that’s an interesting idea but I reckon they’ve got it the wrong way round! Like the great theologian Austin Farrer, I would say they should have come to the opposite conclusion:
the very fact that we are given the knowledge, unlike the animal kingdom, that our lives will come to an end is a case of the Creator “showing his hand” – hinting to us that He has more in store for us.
Still, I’m not surprised that some people can’t bring themselves to believe in the resurrection. Scepticism is a healthy tool in this accursed media world of fake news, half truths and downright lies.
But in matters of religion, scepticism is a limiting and negative attitude. In the end you have to overcome it if you are ever to make a precious leap of faith and allow hope and meaning into your life.
The capacity for faith is the definition of a Christian. The faith of the other apostles, the faith of the persecuted Middle-Eastern Christians in 80ad and again today. And our faith, yours and mine.
In a sense our Lady the Blessed Virgin Mary was the first Christian. Not after her Son was crucified but because, even before she had given birth, her cousin Elizabeth saluted her with the words: Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.
St.Paul wrote to the Corinthians that, if Christ be not risen, we are the most to be pitied of all peoples.
But I look around me at our anxious, angry, floundering world and something in me wants to shout to the rooftops “since Christ is risen, those with no faith are the most to be pitied of all peoples.”
Yes, I do believe that in my heart. But I also know that faith is something which can ebb and flow in all of us, however devout we are. We are at least as frail as the disciples and sometimes, in these extraordinary days we are living through, despair can get a grip.
But despair is lack of hope. And if we abandon hope, then faith will disappear as well..
Siren voices whisper in our ear “Are you sure you’re right about all this religious nonsense, all this “take up your cross and follow him” business? All this heavenly kingdom claptrap? Are you sure you’re not wasting your time?”
And we struggle, and wrestle with doubts.
It’s all very well (we say to ourselves) but if only I could see some concrete evidence of God’s presence.....if only I could see............and touch............... If I could just put my hands in your wounds for a moment, Lord. Can’t be too careful, you know
So God bless St.Thomas for being such an awkward cuss. Because of Thomas whom He loved, God has said to us whom He also loves: “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN AND YET BELIEVE”.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!