In this morning's Gospel lesson we hear John's account of Jesus handing out a Mission Statement to his disciples. It is that first Easter Day. Jesus has appeared out of thin air into a locked room. He breathes on the them and says, "As the Father sent me, so I send you." A week later, they haven't moved very far. Jesus once again enters the closed and locked room to find his followers huddled up. The Mission Statement Jesus gave had only one measurable; they needed to be spread out. It seems pretty simple, to be sent is to be called to leave where you are. After one week, the followers of Jesus had not yet started their work. They were afraid.
Well not all of them. One of them wasn't there to receive the mission statement. He missed the ideating workshop. For most of Christian history, he has been given a bad wrap for his absence. Doubting Thomas he gets called; he wasn't with the rest on Easter, he missed out. Having grown up in St. Thomas Episcopal Church I have heard this story a thousand times, and I don't buy it. I think there is something else at work here. It seems to me as though Thomas is the only one who has lived into the new Mission Statement for the Way. The text offers no suggestions for where Thomas was or what he might have been doing, but I like Thomas and so I think that maybe, just maybe, he was out doing what Jesus had done. Just as the Father had sent Jesus, Thomas was sent; and go he did. He didn't need to hear the new Mission Statement, he had figured it out on his own. Thomas had asked Jesus to show him the way. Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And so Thomas followed that way, the Way of Jesus.
What Thomas got right that the rest of the group missed was that Jesus had already told them how to live. Despite the circumstances of the past few days, Thomas was going to keep on keeping on. He was out there doing the work of Christ. For a moment, Thomas comes back. He wants or perhaps even needs to touch the wounds of Jesus. What he doesn't realize is that in living the Mission, by being out in the world, he has already felt those wounds. The wounds of the God-man are still open to this day. Every time a child dies of malnutrition, every time a mother dies needlessly in childbirth, every time a person turns to drugs to hide from their pain, and on and on. The wounds of Jesus are not far from us. They are very much within our reach.
Over the coming weeks and months we will be given the opportunity to touch those wounds. As we strive to live out our own mission statement it is imperative that we reach up, reach in, AND reach out. As we work hard to follow the Way of Jesus we are being sent, as he was, into the world. "If you want to touch Jesus, if you want to KNOW that God is real, that Christ is alive and at work in the world, the best place for you to be is out there, in the world."
We can reach out by writing checks and saying prayers. Or we can be like Thomas and reach out by being there. We can take seriously the Mission Statement for the Way and feel ourselves being sent into the world to proclaim by word AND deed the Good News that Jesus is risen. Parker Palmer once wrote that “the mission of the church is not to enlarge its membership, not to bring outsiders to accept its terms, but simply to love the world in every possible way – to love the world as God did and does” (In the Company of Strangers). This, I think, is what it means to be sent by Jesus as the Father sent him. We are to be in the world, loving it despite its failings, working to heal it, despite our role in its wounding; and its role in ours.
The easy thing to do would be to turn in and lock the doors. But this is clearly not what Jesus calls his followers to do. We must move beyond the fear of being hurt; physically and emotionally, and live into the promise that Jesus is with us in our suffering. We are called to get dirty with sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, prisoners, beggars, orphans, widows, those who are sick, those who are alone, those who's minds have long since left them. We are called this Sunday to be like Thomas. To see the invisibly poor here in Foley. To help those who for whatever reason can not help themselves. To show that God's love doesn't come with strings attached or manifest itself only in nice homes and comfortable clothing. To live in constant pursuit of the One who was and is the way, the truth, and the life.
St. Paul's is a ministering community, reaching up in worship, reaching in to serve, reaching out in love, to the glory of Jesus Christ. In a year where it seems like all we hear is that finances are tight, we have a unique opportunity to be imaginative in how we live out our common mission. Jesus continues to offer peace to those who follow him. He wants for us a life lived following his example as the way, the truth, and the life. He is risen to new life so that we might know that our faith is not just about where we go after we die, but rather it is about how we live the life God has given us here and now. We have the chance to reach out and touch the wounds of Jesus. It will hurt. Like Thomas, it might mean that we miss some things. But it is where Christ would have us go. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." The risen Lord is out there waiting to serve along side us. Get up. Get out. Get moving. Amen.
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