Trust and Obey

Scriptures:  Acts 5:12-42,  Psalm 150  Revelation 1:4-8    John 20:19-31

Our readings from John’s Gospel and from Acts give us two wildly-contrasting portraits of the Apostles.  In John’s Gospel, we read that on the evening of the resurrection, the disciples were locked behind closed doors “for fear of the Jews” – we should understand this to mean “for fear of the Jewish authorities” because the disciples themselves were all Jewish.  Jesus appears to them, and they rejoice – and a week later they’re back in the same place, behind the same closed doors – and of course Thomas is with them this time, when Jesus appears to them a second time.  By contrast, in Acts, the apostles, led by Peter, are boldly facing down those very same authorities, telling the high priest, “We must obey God rather than man” – or, more to the point, “we must obey God rather than you” – doubly galling because the high priest supposedly spoke and acted on God’s behalf, and yet the apostles were all but thumbing their noses at him, all but saying, “God has spoken to us, and not to you”.

How did these apostles who for two Sundays in a row locked themselves behind closed doors get the gumption not only to come out from behind closed doors, but to heal and teach and preach in defiance of the authorities?  How did this happen?  What changed?  What shifted inside of these followers of Jesus?

We’d want to start by pointing out the role of the Holy Spirit. In Acts, it was on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, that the Holy Spirit came with the sound of a mighty wind, and with divided tongues of fire that rested on each of them.  Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples met together for prayer faithfully, and you might say they did some organizational housekeeping, by appointing a person named Matthias to replace Judas, who had betrayed Jesus.  But it was only after the coming of the Holy Spirit that the disciples were able to go out and proclaim the good news of Jesus with holy boldness, in the face of opposition and persecution.

True enough.  But it’s striking that John’s gospel gives us a much quieter story about the conferring of the Holy Spirit.  In John’s Gospel, on the evening of the resurrection, Jesus came amid the disciples who were locked behind closed doors for fear of the religious leaders, and after he had greeted them with words of peace – “Peace be with you” - and commissioned them – “As the Father sent me, so I send you” – Jesus breathed on them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 

And yet, the next Sunday, they were back in the same place – back in the same holy huddle, back behind the same closed doors.  Only Thomas was with them this time.  The others had told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, but Thomas told them that he needed to see for himself.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and can touch the mark in his hands and put my hand in his side – where the spear had gone – I will not believe.”

Of course, Thomas has been stuck with the name “Doubting Thomas” ever since, but I think Thomas gets a bad rap.  He wasn’t any more unbelieving than the others – remember that before Christ appeared to the men, he had appeared to the women, and the other disciples had doubted the women’s testimony to Christ’s resurrection.  Thomas only wanted what the other disciples had experienced, to see and touch the Risen Christ. 

So, at least for me, today’s Gospel reading isn’t so much a story about a “Doubting Thomas” as it is about a “Generous Jesus” who did not want to leave Thomas behind, but was willing to circle back and give Thomas what he needed to believe.  And indeed, after Thomas comes to believe, we read no more about the disciples feeling a need to gather behind closed doors.  Perhaps Jesus appearing the second time for Thomas strengthened not only the faith of Thomas, but of the others as well.

I’d like to focus on those words of Jesus, “Do not be unbelieving but believing.”  What does it mean to be believing?

Of course, every Sunday we recite a creed – almost always the Apostles Creed, occasionally the Nicene Creed or the UCC Statement of Faith.   These creeds and statements of faith give us some contours and boundaries for our beliefs.  But when Jesus told Thomas, “Be not unbelieving but believing”, did was he just asking Thomas to recite a creed?  Or was Jesus asking something more?

It may seem to be a bit of a detour, but I’ll take it anyway…..the young’uns among us might know the term “Beliebers” – these are the fans of Justin Bieber, who buy Justin Bieber’s music and other merchandise and go to Justin Bieber’s concerts.   I think a lot of Christians hear Jesus’ words “be not unbelieving but believing” and hear them as a call to become, in a  sense, beliebers – to be Jesus’ fan club,  to come to church and know the hymns and creeds.  But I think Jesus was maybe asking even more than that.  When he was on this earth, Jesus didn’t sign a lot of autographs, didn’t sell T-shirts and CD’s, and didn’t ask his disciples to either.  Jesus wasn’t asking people to join his fan club, but to follow him. 

Fans versus followers – a key difference.  I suppose being one of Justin Bieber’s beliebers will affect your life, in that you will have lots of CD’s and fan merchandise and a poster on your bedroom wall, and maybe less money than otherwise.  But will it really make a difference in your life on a day-to-day basis? – probably not.  But Jesus is asking us not only to like him – not only to hit a “like” button on Facebook, for example - but to be like him, to live as he lived, so far as we’re able.  To believe in Jesus is not only to know a creed, not only to be a fan of Jesus, but to be a follower – to trust Jesus enough to allow our lives to begin to look like his.  In three words, the title of our offertory hymn – “Trust and Obey”.  If we believe – if we trust Jesus – enough to obey Jesus, it will transform our lives.  Trusting and obeying Jesus got the disciples out from that stuffy room with the locked doors, out into the world to proclaim the Gospel, even if it mean getting in faces of the religious establishment.  We don’t hear a lot more about Thomas in Scripture, but tradition tells us that it was Thomas who brought the Gospel to India, and there are Indian churches in Philadelphia who trace their faith to St. Thomas. 

What does it look like when people today follow Jesus?   Some churches put an emphasis on personal behavior – don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t curse.  Do pray, do go to church on Sunday.  And all of these are good things to do – certainly, in our society in which addiction runs rampant, in which heroin addiction is showing up not only in Camden and Kensington but in Chalfont and Chadds Ford, in our society in which the life expectancies of working class people has actually been dropping in recent years due to addiction and obesity and depression and despair, we need to pray for strength to avoid addiction ourselves and to steer our children away from addiction.  But while following Jesus begins with personal transformation, it may not end there – because following Jesus always leads us back to our neighbors, especially those neighbors we like least, the ones who make us most uncomfortable.  Because when we follow Jesus, he always introduces us to his friends – the last, the least, and the lost.

Trust and obey.  Peter told the high priest, “We must obey God rather than man.”  What would this look like in our day?

There are examples from recent history in other countries – for example, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor in Germany who was executed for his opposition to Hitler, or Archbishop Oscar Romero, executed for opposing the government in El Salvador. But there are examples closer to home.

It might look like 90-year old Arnold Abbott, a man in Ft Lauderdale, Florida who fed homeless people despite an ordinance against feeding the homeless.  As Abbott and two other pastors were feeding homeless people in a park, a police officer tried to stop them.  According to Abbott, “The officer said, ‘Drop that plate right now – like I had a weapon.’”  Abbott went on, “"These are the poorest of the poor. They have nothing. They don't have a roof over their head," he said. "Who can turn them away?"  He said the threat of charges won't stop him from doing it again.  "I'm not afraid of jail. I'm not looking to go, but if I have to, I will," he said.[1]

Or we might end up in the place of the Berrigan brothers, Phil and Dan, who famously obeyed God rather than man in going up against the military-industrial complex during and after the Vietnam era.  In 1968, the Berrigans were among nine Roman Catholic activists who went to the draft board in Catonville, MD, took almost 400 draft files to the parking lot in wire baskets, poured napalm on them, and set them on fire.  Their statement at the time is a masterpiece, very much worth reading in full.  Part of it reads as follows:

Our apologies  good friends

for the fracture of good order  the burning of paper

instead of children  the angering of the orderlies

in the front parlor of the charnel house

We could not  so help us God  do otherwise

For we are sick at heart   our hearts

give us no rest for thinking of the Land of Burning Children

The time is past when good men may be silent

when obedience

can segregate men from public risk

when the poor can die without defense[2]

Be not unbelieving, but believing. We must obey God rather than man.  Trust and obey.  May the Risen Christ meet us at our points of unbelief and, like Thomas, give us what we need to move from unbelief to belief….and may the Holy Spirit bring us from belief into words of kindness and deeds of love for our neighbors.  Amen.

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[1] http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/04/justice/florida-feeding-homeless-charges/index.html

[2] http://www.tomjoad.org/catonsville9.htm