By Rev. Dr. Henry Langknecht, preached at Earth Ministry’s 15th Annual Celebration of St. Francis: Creation-Care Sermon Contest on September 26, 2009.
Text: John 20:19-31
19When 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.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
24But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So 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.”
26A 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.” 27Then 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.” 28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But 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.
How much did Thomas see before he believed?
How much of the whole cosmic story did he grasp …
… before he worshipped:
“my Lord and my God”?
He’s given the opportunity to touch the scars …
So he knows that Jesus is a body.
And he knows that the Jesus standing in front of him is the same Jesus who hung on the cross.
The same Jesus … with the same open wounds.
Obviously, Thomas saw at least that much before he believed.
But he didn’t say,
“GOD, Lord, it’s good to see you again.”
He worshipped: “My Lord and my God!”
Did he see more than just
That “this body was that body”?
Did Thomas also see what it means for God to share in human life and suffering?
God comes to earth …
God is scarred …
God dies …
God lives again …
Did Thomas see the deeper truth?
Did Thomas see that every human scar … and every one of Thomas’s own scars was raised up … was there to be touched as well?
Did Thomas the scar left on him by an abusive father.
Did Thomas see the scars he had inflicted on others because of his pragmatic existentialism … whatcha call “DOUBT”?
Did Thomas see all of his psychological scars
… all his spiritual scars
… and know that they were all right there to be touched?
Not that they lose their pain …
But borne here, now, on the resurrected Jesus they lose their power to define him.
They lose their power to threaten the end of anything.
Jesus has borne every scar …
And Jesus is risen …
And in that rising,
Jesus becomes the guarantee that God’s life-creating power defines the cosmos …
Every human hurt … every human scar is borne and raised and ultimately overcome.
That begins to be reason to worship!
Did Thomas see all of that before he believed?
Or did he see even more?
Maybe Thomas saw all the way to Colossians chapter one …
15Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16For in Christ all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible
all things …. created through him and for him.
19For in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to God’s self all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Did Thomas see that the scars he was invited to touch included:
… not only Jesus’s own scars …
… not only Thomas’s scars …
… not only every human scar …
… but also:
… the scarred landscapes of Kentucky and West Virginia …
… the napalmed forests of Viet Nam …
… obliterated Hiroshima …
… the tin American flag sitting on the moon …
… and even the sediment of Budd Inlet?
Did Thomas see that Jesus … raised from the dead is also hope for the earth …
hope for the solar system …
hope for the cosmos?
… for through Christ God was please to reconcile God’s self to all things.
Here’s what I really want to know:
Did Thomas see how deep God’s intimacy with the cosmos runs?
Did Thomas see that the scarred resurrected Jesus bears witness that nothing will stop God’s will from being done?
God’s will for creation is that it will evolve into its essence … that the whole universe is becoming what God intends it to be.
And the risen Jesus is the guarantee that it will be so!
Jesus died bearing the hurts of
every human heart, and
every old growth forest, and
every supernova, and
every thing in between …
And Jesus is raised!
To us … human, carbon-based life forms …
To us, to me …the fact that God’s mission in the universe includes
Our forgiveness and
Our reconciliation and
Our wholeness …
To us … that is good news … big news.
But in terms of God’s overall purpose for the cosmos, we’re just along for the ride.
I wonder if Thomas saw all of that?
I’m going to say he did … because that is reason to worship!
I mean, heck …
A good social worker can heal human hurts.
But supernovas … that takes God.
I want to come clean here and tell you that I am a rookie when it comes to living green.
I’m a suburban kid … a city kid …
I have left too many scars on nature.
I can list three dozen things that are within my budget and ability to do … and I just don’t.
But my relationship to nature is evolving. Slowly.
At times in my life I’ve been sentimental about nature …
… posters of the Grand Canyon;
… stunned by beautiful sunsets;
… puppy calendars.
At other times in my life I’ve been enthralled … and terrified by nature
… by hurricanes
… by floods
… by fire
… by venomous snakes
And in all these ways I make “nature” the “other” …
In all these ways I objectify nature …
… nature as inspiration … for me.
… as entertainment.
… as object of adoration for me.
In all these ways I have stupidly and proudly bought into the idea …
(an idea supported by some aspects of the Christian story)
That we are creation’s “crowning glory”
We are creation’s “pinnacle”
We are the creator’s pride and joy.
What arrogance …
But my relationship is evolving
And I want to testify to two important events:
One was reading an article in Harper’s magazine in August of 1993:
It was entitled, “Get a Load of Those Tetons!”
Here are two sentences from that article (paraphrased):
“The parallels between landscape photography and girlie calendars are illuminating and deeply disturbing to anyone concerned about the environment: Like a pin-up girl … the towering peak, the swells of the ocean … or any other monumental form of nature is posed in an intimate setting … with provocative lighting—dawn … sunset … and if at all possible, a bolt of lightning.”
Reading that article I realized how complicit I was and still am in the “objectifying” of nature … the “using” of nature …
The second event happened at the home of our friends Eric and Wendolyn Trozzo.
It was a profound, simple observation that arose out of a wide-ranging conversation:
“What audacity for human beings to presume that we ever left nature.”
What an arrogant paradox when a human being dares to point to
… an artifact … a “lava lamp for example, or
… a Hostess Twinkie .. or (worst of all)
… to another human being and say:
“That’s not natural.”
What audacity.
We don’t stand apart from nature …
We are not qualified to make that judgment!
We human beings have more in common with
… garden slugs …
… red bud trees …
… and even with Twinkies …than we do with God …
The calcium atom at the point of my left elbow was once doing time in a glass of goat milk drunk by a 3rd century Bedouin.
Do you know where the water molecules in you saliva have been?
Everything we are …
Everything we’ve fashioned …
from stone axe heads to
polyvinyl chloride …
It all comes from what we’ve been given …
Everything we do and
everything we use to do it with
comes from the earth …
and will return to the earth …
We’ve fashioned it all in some wonderful ways and horrible ways …
… but at no time have we reached out and created anything from nothing …
Everything comes from what we’ve been given in nature …
Our bodies are made from the dust of stars;
Our imaginations
Our intellect
Our souls are complex exchanges of cells and chemicals …
… not “merely” cells and chemicals … but never not cells and chemicals …
… the same cells and chemicals shared by gophers and sand sharks!
My relationship to nature is slowly evolving.
Nature is not an object …
Nature is sister … brother … home.
We never left nature …
But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to return.
Here’s what I know …
Our way back …
My way back …
Is to see the scars … the open wounds around me …
And to believer that on that night in the upper room, Thomas saw them all … borne by the risen Jesus Christ.
… every lilac branch I prune
… every military battle we fight
… every toilet we flush
… every ton of coal we mine
… every soul we crush
… every piece of space junk we leave floating around out there
Every wound we create …
Every wound we suffer …
… is borne by the risen and still rising Christ …
… Christ who comes to us … even today … with his scars … AND RISEN … AND RISING!
All our scars …
All of nature’s scars …
All of them are borne here and now, by Jesus.
The pain of the wounds of those scars will never be gone … and they cannot be undone.
But by his rising Jesus has taken away their power to define anything.
By his rising Jesus has taken away their power to threaten the end of anything.
The resurrected Jesus Christ is the eternal witness that the defining power of the cosmos is God’s ever-creative power to heal … to bring life …
God is at work in the universe …
… and also, by the way, in us.
God is at work in the universe …
… and also, by the way, in you.
And nothing will stop God from doing what God wills.