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[This sermon also available in MS Word format]
Extraordinary Encounters of the Ordinary Kind
Rollins Chapel
April 15, 2004
John 20:19-29
Richard Crocker, College Chaplain
In the Easter season, we pay special attention to the appearances of the resurrected Christ. While there are many such stories, one of the most famous occurs on Easter evening, when all of the frightened disciples, except Thomas, were gathered in a locked upper room – perhaps the same room where the had celebrated the last supper. Suddenly they became aware that Jesus was there with them. Jesus spoke to them, bestowed the Holy Spirit on them, and, apparently disappeared. When the disciples told Thomas what had happened, he doubted them. He did not necessarily believe that they were lying, or that they had concocted a story to deceive him. Rather, he may have thought that they, in their grief, had imagined the appearance of Jesus. Group hallucinations are not unknown. Some scholars today continue to offer this phenomenon as explanation for the resurrection appearances. Thomas was apparently the first modern Christian, for whom empirical evidence was a pre-requisite for belief. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
But we all know what happened. A week later, the disciples, including Thomas, were gathered once in a closed room when Jesus came and stood among them. This time Thomas saw him too. Jesus spoke to him and invited him to touch him – to put his hands on his wounds. The story does not say whether or not Thomas actually touched Jesus, but it does say that Thomas was convinced that Jesus had been resurrected. Jesus told him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (v. 29)
The resurrection appearances are a great mystery. Some of us are skeptical – and it is helpful to know that we have a friend in St. Thomas. Doubt is for some of us a permanent condition. We are skeptical about everything. I think former Senator and Secretary of State Edmund Muskie captured the mood when he once said, in a speech at Bates College that I heard, “Don’t believe anything until it has been officially denied.” It is a great shame that most of us can not believe what our government leaders tell us. The general attitude of skepticism extends to all claims of truth – and particularly to grand claims made by all institutions, even, or especially, religious institutions.
So how are we to view and understand these stories? We can see them as expressions of faith rather than fact. or we can see them as literally true, happening just as they are told.
While I can not tell you what to make of these amazing stories, I can tell you that I find such encounters believable. Why? Because of their variety and their simplicity. Jesus appears to the women at the tomb. He appears to the frightened disciples in the upper room. He appears to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee cooking fish. He appears to two anonymous disciples as they sit and eat supper in Emmaus. In every case, the appearances are unexpected and somewhat puzzling. The disciples are not always sure who he is. If the stories had been invented, they would have been made more impressive and the disciples would have been made to look better. No, as frustrating as it may be to us, the appearances of Jesus, extraordinary as they are, appear to happen in very ordinary places. That was the case then, and it is the case now.
My encounters are the most important part of every day. I wake up and think about the people who are on my calendar for the day. And I hope that, in addition, I will run into people, have unexpected encounters and conversations. Sometimes those unexpected encounters provide the focus for the day.
A lady I know told one of the best stories I ever heard about a birthday gift. Her grown children live in widely scattered places – Wisconsin and Arizona and Oklahoma. On her son’s birthday, in Arizona, she arranged for his sisters to fly down for a surprise. But instead of having the sisters show up at his house, she arranged for them to go to the toothpaste aisle in a Walgreen’s in a shopping mall. Then she took her son to the drugstore on a false errand. While they were wandering around the store, he ran into his sisters, shopping for toothpaste in a Walgreen’s. Apparently he looked at them, dismissed the thought, and looked at them again, several times, until he realized in utter consternation that these were indeed his sisters and he was meeting them in a Walgreen’s in a shopping mall in Arizona. It’s an amazing story of an extraordinary encounter in a very ordinary place.
I think that most of us come to religious faith not as a result of mere instruction, but as a result of transforming encounter. We come to know someone who models faith for us in a challenging and compelling way. In the Christian tradition, those people who represent the living Christ are not just church officials, but unlikely everyday people. It is a blessing to encounter people who give us hope and courage – who enable us to resist evil and express love. The amazing thing is that the encounters keep happening. I am thankful for the encounters I have every day that increase my faith and call me to greater faithfulness. May it be so for us all. Amen.
Sermon © 2004 Richard R. Crocker. All rights reserved.
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