The Second Sunday of Easter and Doubting, Believing Thomas, anno Domini 2021

Collect of the Day

Almighty and ever-living God, You strengthened Your apostle Thomas with firm and certain faith in the resurrection of Your Son. Grant us such faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that we may never be found wanting in Your sight; through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  

All four Gospels mention St. Thomas as one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. John’s Gospel, which names him “the Twin,” uses Thomas’s questions to reveal truths about Jesus. It is Thomas who says, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?” To this question Jesus replies, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:5-6). John’s Gospel also tells how Thomas, on the evening of the day of Jesus’ resurrection, doubts the report of the disciples that they had seen Jesus. Later, “doubting Thomas” becomes “believing Thomas” when he confesses Jesus as “my Lord and my God” (John 20:24-29). According to tradition, Thomas traveled eastward after Pentecost, eventually reaching India, where still today a group of people call themselves “Christians of St. Thomas.” Thomas was martyred for the faith by being speared to death. (Collect and Intro from The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House)

 Reflection on St. Thomas and this Verse: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.  St. John 20: 29

 We may think that our Lord’s only Beatitudes are those recorded in St. Matthew 5 at the  beginning of His Sermon on the Mount.  No, they are throughout the Gospels including this one to Thomas and us all.  In a sense, Thomas was privileged in his doubt to be an example of the maxim “seeing is believing”.  But our Lord’s beatitude directs us to the more Biblical understanding of the centrality of the Word of God:  hearing is believing.

¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”  (Romans 10)

The Lord was preparing Thomas and his brethren for the apostolic Ministry of preaching and teaching the Word of God, the Word of His Gospel to repentant sinners for many to hear and so believe.  Even what Thomas and the apostles saw that first evening of the new creation were wounds of a crucifixion.  Not glorious by any stretch of worldly imaginations  but glorious in love’s pure light who died for sinners…as Thomas, as you, making faith.  His wounds are preached scars of our forgiveness in the One Who alone is the way, the truth and life, no one else, as Thomas also heard.  Pastors are called to preach the blood, preach the manger, preach the cross: preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  And Thomas was called to preach His wounds! From His side flowed water and blood (John 19:34), Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.  Pastors are called to administer the Sacraments.  Thomas’ eyes were blessed in seeing but his feet were beautiful in the sermon he preached: Jesus Christ.

Crown him the Lord of love.
Behold his hands and side,
Rich wounds, yet visible above, 
In beauty glorified.
No angels in the sky
Can fully bear that sight,
But downward bend their burning eyes
At mysteries so bright.

Rev. Edward Shillito was an English minister who survived the horrors of artillery, machine guns, and trench warfare during World War I. I think his poem “Jesus of the Scars ” is a fine commentary on Thomas and his faith in these dark days:

If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;
Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;
We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow;
We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars.

The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;
In all the universe we have no place.
Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?
Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars we claim Thy grace.

If when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine;
We know today what wounds are; have no fear;
Show us Thy Scars; we know the countersign.

The other gods were strong, but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

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The Festival of St. Thomas, Apostle and Martyr, 21 December and the Great O Antiphon for 21 December

                                                                                                                                                                                             

  Almighty and ever-living God, You strengthened Your apostle Thomas with firm and certain faith in the resurrection of Your Son. Grant us such faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that we may never be found wanting in Your sight; through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  

Appointed Scripture for this day:  

Judge 6:  36-40

Psalm 139: 1-12

Romans 10: 8b-15

St. John 1:  35-42a

All four Gospels mention St. Thomas as one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. John’s Gospel, which names him “the Twin,” uses Thomas’s questions to reveal truths about Jesus. It is Thomas who says, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?” To this question Jesus replies, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:5-6). John’s Gospel also tells how Thomas, on the evening of the day of Jesus’ resurrection, doubts the report of the disciples that they had seen Jesus. Later, “doubting Thomas” becomes “believing Thomas” when he confesses Jesus as “my Lord and my God” (John 20:24-29). According to tradition, Thomas traveled eastward after Pentecost, eventually reaching India, where still today a group of people call themselves “Christians of St. Thomas.” Thomas was martyred for the faith by being speared to death. (Collect and Intro from The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House)

Reflection:

The first Latin words  of this Great O Antiphon is: “O Oriens”.  “Oriens” can be variously translated,”Dawn”, “Rising Dawn”, “Rising Sun”, “Dayspring” etc. “Oriens” is the Latin basis of our words, both noun and verb, “orient”.  We are oriented facing the east…for from the East has come our Savior. “Orient” can mean both “east’ and the “rising sun”. I find it most interesting the ancient understanding that we are found facing East, from which has come the Light of the Word. The west has been considered in Church history as the haunt of the demonic.  In the eastern Orthodox Churches, in a Baptism, the catuchemen will face the west and the priest will physically turn him toward the east:

The sponsor, holding the child who is to be baptized, faces to the west (rear of the Church); as does the Priest, who asks the following questions thrice and they are to be answered each time by the sponsor.

PRIEST: Dost thou renounce Satan, and all his Angels, and all his works, and all his service, and all his pride?

SPONSOR: (Replies for the child) I do.

PRIEST: Hast thou renounced Satan?

SPONSOR: I have.

PRIEST: (Once) Breathe and spit upon him.

The sponsor, holding the child, then turns to face the east (toward the Altar); as does the Priest, who asks the following questions thrice and they are to be answered each time by the sponsor.

PRIEST: Dost thou unite thyself unto Christ?

SPONSOR: I do.

PRIEST: Hast thou united thyself unto Christ?

SPONSOR: I have.

PRIEST: (Once) Dost thou believe in Him?

SPONSOR: I believe in Him as King and God.

We all need to be so oriented.  We need to spit upon the devil and his empty promises (from the Lutheran Baptismal rite) who wants us lost, disbelieving in Christ and found in his unholy kingdom. Thomas was not with the apostles when the Lord  first appeared.  It was not until 8 days later that Thomas was  with the Apostles, the Church. Apart from Christ, Thomas was lost and in the dark.  Apart from the utter grace of God, we are lost.  Thomas was disoriented and firm in his disbelief and error. He was  in a sense a thoroughly going modern man.  The number 8 is the days of the week plus one and is a sign of fulfilllment. Thomas said he would not believe unless he could put his hands in the Savior’s wounds.  When the Lord appeared in the locked room, the Lord invited Thomas to put his hands in His Wounds.  Then Thomas cried out, My Lord and my God.  Thomas believed and he confessed Jesus is very God from very God who in His wounds bore the sin of the world:  the Lamb of God.  His Wounds are the light of the Savior and our salvation, “…to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death”.  We live in a disoriented time and culture that has lost its way, and lost its Way which chooses the way of death in its video games, its movies and in abortuaries.  May the Way of Christ, the truth and the life, be our light day by day orienting us toward His Kingdom!  Roman Catholic theologian,Hans urs von Balthassar wrote that in this dark,moonless night, it makes to sense not to use the flashlight the Lord has given us.  Oriens…East and Sun and Son:Christ was born for this.

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