[Propertalk] 2 Easter b 2018 - part 2

[Robert P Morrison]

I suspect I may have to split this part also, so will conclude with a
third part...
Bob

	 Thank goodness, the ten, no matter how else they felt, didn’t
sideline Thomas. They didn’t push themselves to the forefront and
claim that it was because of them that the Gospel survived. 

	 No, they welcomed, first Thomas, and then, eventually, hundreds,
thousands, millions more, so that we may gather here this morning and
know that we all have an equal claim as brothers and sisters of Jesus,
and demonstrate to us that we, like those first friends, have to be
overjoyed to give pride of place, and power, and authority –to
others, even if they’re the ones who may seem to be inexperienced
newcomers, or less confident, or, in any number of ways, others who
may seem to be less steeped in the history of the family. 

	 The interesting thing is that Jesus spent all of His time with
Thomas on His second visit. 

	 Had Jesus sort of smiled at Thomas, then turned to focus on the
other ten, the “more experienced ones’, the Church – call it
Christian Civilisation, if you like – the Church might have
foundered on account of a lack of trust that newcomers, less
experienced, perhaps, people with more voices to ask questions –
trust that God uses and blesses them equally, and, in many situations,
uses and blesses them more than anyone else., at least for part of the
time; Had Jesus demonstrated anything less than complete focus on
Thomas and his questions, this family which we call one of the
branches of the Christian Church would not be as it is. 

	 Think further along this line for a minute, though. Let’s say
Thomas represents The Episcopal denomination within Christianity –
not the only denomination, or even the only one that looks like this.
But think about ourselves and how we present ourselves, individually
and communally. We’re fond of saying, “In The Episcopal Church, we
don’t ask you to check your mind at the door.” And this is true.
Questions are welcome, especially awkward ones, because they’re the
ones that compel us to think about answers that don’t trip off the
tongue in a rote manner. It this IS true, then we’re confessing that
we don’t get bothered by people who challenge everything which
we’ve come to accept as important to us. 

	 Maybe it’s like another of Stephen Hawking’s quote: “The next
time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may
be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would
exist.” 

	 As far as we know, when Jesus came into that room either on the day
of His resurrection or the following week, He didn’t say, “Trust
Me”. Yet everything He said and did was filled with that concept.
Trust, Jesus recognised, was at the heart of encouraging others. He
spent His whole life trying to be there for everyone whom He met,
everyone who had a problem to work, an illness with which to live, a
complication in a relationship to work through, and He did it in the
context of community, of drawing people in to engage with other people
and to finds ways in which they could live with their differences of
experience and opinion. 

	
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