I suspect there’s not much truth in this particular story, but I heard it said the other day, that when Nikita Khrushchev died in 1971, his country literally faced a grave problem. Khrushchev, the former leader of the Soviet Union, had fallen from grace and the Communist Party was now uneasy with the idea of burying his body on Soviet soil.
So, they called President Richard Nixon and asked if the United States would take Khrushchev’s corpse. But Nixon had his own problems at the time and politely declined. Then the Soviet leaders tried Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel. Mrs. Meir was agreeable, but she added, “I must warn you that this country has the world’s highest resurrection rate…”
My Lord and my God
The resurrected Christ prompted these words: ‘My Lord and my God’. Nowhere else in Scripture is that affirmation, those words of witness, made. And they were drawn from the mouth of the much maligned, Thomas. Courageous Thomas, questioning Thomas. But doubting? I doubt it.
This is the second Sunday of Easter and, depending on your Christian heritage, it’s variously called White Sunday, Low Sunday, Bright Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday, the Vicar-goes-on-holiday Sunday, New Sunday – and Thomas Sunday. In the Catholic Church, it’s even called Quasimodo Sunday from the Latin words sung as the priest approaches the altar for mass. And yes, it’s from this use that Victor Hugo named his Notre Dame character.
We’re in Year C, which is a Luke year – but the Lectionary now gives us John till Trinity Sunday in mid-June. We also get a mini-series from Acts and Revelation, books which we don’t get to see so much of at other times of the year. So, today’s sermon is something of an introduction for what’s to come.
Declaring belief
There’s a theme linking today’s readings – and that is witness, declaring belief in a resurrected Jesus. This is the ‘so what’ moment, or the ‘now what’ moment after the resurrection on Easter Sunday. We’re being asked to get to grips with what last Sunday was all about.
In the Gospel, the doors are locked, and they are locked for fear. Jesus comes and finds his disciples. He wishes them peace, shalom, just as he did at their last meal together before his arrest. And then we get John’s version of Pentecost, as Jesus breathes his Spirit into the disciples. Jesus finds us in our locked rooms too. What would it be like for Jesus to come and find you, where perhaps you’re hiding, and give you his peace, his shalom?
Missing
And Thomas is missing that first time. Perhaps he needed some fresh air or maybe he was out getting some food and supplies. We don’t know. But he was without not within. Thomas had the courage to go out when the rest were locked in through fear.
And, so, he misses Jesus. And I don’t think that it’s doubt that we see in what follows. Rather unbelief. There’s a difference. He wants what the others have. To see what Mary Magdalene had seen and what the other disciples had seen. A first-hand not a second-hand experience.
Thomas has ‘previous’ for asking for what he needs. Before the arrest, he’d asked Jesus to show the way – and now, after Jesus’ death he asks for proof of the resurrection. Thomas had a good enough relationship, the trust, to ask for what he needed. Do we? Do we ask God for what we need?
Intimacy
A week later they are still locked in when Jesus comes back a second time, and it’s just for Thomas. It’s a moment of great intimacy. Jesus offers his body, again. Thomas gets to get his encounter and to say those wonderful words of witness: ‘My Lord and my God’. Jesus, both man and God. God incarnate. The Word become flesh and dwelling among us.
And I don’t think Jesus is telling Thomas off when he says: ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen yet have come to believe.’ I imagine Jesus saying that with a smile and a laugh. ‘You think you’ve got it tough, Thomas. Think of those folks in Christ Church Walmersley two thousand years from now.’
Our Gospel finishes with the words: ‘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’. But the verb sense is uncertain. It could mean: ‘so that you may come to believe’ but it might also mean ‘so that you may keep on believing.’ Maybe it was deliberately vague to cover both. That wherever you are in your spiritual journey you can have, or can continue to have, a living encounter with Christ. And that’s true both then and now.
Arrested
For the immediate impact of that we get our passage from Acts. We only see snippets of Acts and Revelation through the liturgical year and it’s a problem with both of them when you get verses taken out of context.
We’re in Chapter 5 of Acts. The High Priest and the Council are looking after the shop and trying to keep the peace with the Roman authorities. Pilate is probably back in Caesarea by now after spending Passover in Jerusalem.
Peter and John had already contrived to get themselves arrested on 3 separate occasions and today we get a scene from the third trial, which came after an angel had busted them out of prison. It wasn’t difficult for the police to find them. They weren’t locked away in an upper room but preaching in plain sight in the Temple, the most high-profile of all locations.
Transformation
The Ascension and Pentecost have come and gone. And the apostles, no longer in hiding, have undergone a startling, radical transformation from the fearful disciples that we saw earlier – and are telling the High Priest to his face, and in no uncertain terms, that they answer to a higher authority than him.
I believe Harvie asked last week: if you were arrested for being a Christian, then would there be enough evidence to convict you? There certainly was for Peter and John, many times over, but the question remains for you and me…
Who is in charge
The trial becomes a showdown about leadership and who is really in charge. In the risen Christ, God has shown his authority over death – and even over the local politicians and religious hierarchy too… you can fill in your own blanks on that one!
Peter’s confession, his witness, links the cross and resurrection with forgiveness and the giving of the Spirit. The old authorities are gone. God is making all things new through Jesus. Thomas had made his confession in private. Peter makes his very publicly. Acts reminded the early Christians – and us too – that following Christ could mean civil disobedience if local laws cut across what God is asking us to do. Are we prepared for that now?
Revelation
A little time passes, and the Book of Revelation is written after the early Church had begun to establish itself in countries across the region – and it was also likely to have been after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, where Peter and John had been arrested earlier.
It’s the revelation to John but ‘the revelation of Jesus Christ…’ It gives an account of what God has done, and is doing, in Jesus. The book is often maligned and misunderstood. If you question the presence and power of God, then this book is to show that he is here now and present now.
And it’s written to seven churches, churches who experience the kind of things that we experience. Each with their particular internal and external pressures. Their circumstances are similar to churches that we know today. And, in our verses, the author wishes them the peace, the shalom of God.
Images and language
And all this is done through a letter. The revelation of Jesus Christ through something as mundane as a letter. But the same communication to seven churches, for each to pick out what they need.
The letter asks how the church, the community of believers, was meant to behave when it served a God who raised Jesus from the dead. We’ve had two thousand years to get used to that idea, but this was still a radical concept then. A God who was not content to let the powers of the world stand. A God who raised from the dead.
Revelation gives us the images and language to articulate that, to bear witness to that. God is the Alpha and Omega, the author and finisher, the one who was and who is and who is to come. God is here and now, fighting a cosmic battle for us. Revelation asks what it meant to be a Christian, a Christ-like person, in a community at the time of Rome. And the book challenges us how we are meant to be Christians, Christ-like people, now.
Praise
We’ll hopefully see some of the answers to that in the weeks to come as our preachers explore these books further. But, if we’ve only even partly understood what God has done through Jesus Christ, then that response will include praise like that found in our psalm today, Psalm 150.
Because all the readings today should take us by the hand to that Psalm, to praise God with whatever musical instruments come to hand, to praise God for his mighty acts – as we join with Thomas, and with everything that has breath, to praise our (resurrected) Lord and our God. Amen
‘Witness Statement’ was delivered by Ian Banks at Christ Church Walmersley on Sunday 27th April 2025. It was based on John 20:19-end; Acts 5:27-32 and Revelation 1:4-8
References:
https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/841-second-sunday-of-easter-c-apr-24-2022