Thomas G. Long - "Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen" (April 30, 2000)
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| - | The third reading is from the gospel | 0:08 |
| according to St. John, the 20th chapter. | 0:10 | |
| "When it was evening on that day, | 0:15 | |
| "the first day of the week. | 0:18 | |
| "And the doors of the house where the disciples admit | 0:19 | |
| "were locked for fear of the Jews | 0:22 | |
| "Jesus came and stood among them, and said, | 0:25 | |
| ""Peace be with you." | 0:28 | |
| "After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. | 0:31 | |
| "Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the lord. | 0:36 | |
| "Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. | 0:40 | |
| "As the father has sent me, so I send you." | 0:45 | |
| "When he had said this, he breathed on them, | 0:51 | |
| "and said to them, "Receive the holy spirit. | 0:54 | |
| "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. | 0:59 | |
| "If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." | 1:04 | |
| "But Thomas, who was called the twin, one of the 12, | 1:10 | |
| "was not with them when Jesus came. | 1:15 | |
| "So the other disciples told him, | 1:18 | |
| "We have seen the lord." | 1:20 | |
| "But he said to them, | 1:23 | |
| "Unless I see the mark of the nail in his hands, | 1:25 | |
| "and put my finger in the mark of the nails, | 1:30 | |
| "and my hand in his side, I will not believe." | 1:33 | |
| "A week later, his disciples were again in the house | 1:39 | |
| "and Thomas was with them. | 1:43 | |
| "Although the doors were shut, Jesus came | 1:46 | |
| "and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." | 1:49 | |
| "Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, | 1:54 | |
| "and see my hands. | 1:58 | |
| "Reach out your hand, and put it in my side. | 2:00 | |
| "Do not doubt, but believe. | 2:05 | |
| "Thomas answered him, "My lord, and my God." | 2:08 | |
| "Jesus said to him, | 2:13 | |
| ""Have you believed because you have seen me? | 2:15 | |
| "Blessed are those who have not seen, | 2:19 | |
| "and yet have come to believe." | 2:22 | |
| "Now Jesus did many other signs | 2:25 | |
| "in the presence of his disciples, | 2:28 | |
| "which are not written in this book. | 2:30 | |
| "But these are written, | 2:33 | |
| "so that you may come to believe, | 2:35 | |
| "that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. | 2:37 | |
| "And that through believing, you may have life in his name. | 2:41 | |
| "This is the word of the lord." | 2:48 | |
| (crowd murmuring) | 2:50 | |
| - | Let me take just a moment to say how | 3:03 |
| good it feels to be back in Duke Chapel. | 3:05 | |
| It's always good it be in Duke Chapel. | 3:09 | |
| It's especially good to be in Duke Chapel | 3:12 | |
| on the Sunday after Easter when the place is still alive | 3:15 | |
| with the symbols of Easter and the resurrection. | 3:19 | |
| It's also good to be in Duke Chapel on what amounts | 3:23 | |
| to the last Sunday of the academic year. | 3:27 | |
| The Sunday before final examinations. | 3:30 | |
| I don't know, prayer just seems to be more heartfelt | 3:34 | |
| on a day like this. | 3:37 | |
| (crowd laughs) | 3:38 | |
| But most of all, it's good to be with you in worship | 3:40 | |
| and I appreciate the privilege. | 3:43 | |
| And Jesus said to Thomas, "Have you believed in me | 3:47 | |
| "because you have seen me? | 3:52 | |
| "Blessed are those who have not seen | 3:56 | |
| "and yet who have come to believe." | 4:00 | |
| Early last week, I was out of town for a meeting, | 4:04 | |
| I was driving to the meeting in a rental car. | 4:08 | |
| And I ran into this terrible bumper to bumper traffic. | 4:11 | |
| I was already a little bit late, | 4:16 | |
| so I punched on the radio on scan | 4:18 | |
| to see if I could get a traffic report. | 4:21 | |
| As the radio is scanning, | 4:24 | |
| it happened to pause at a Christian talk station. | 4:27 | |
| Not generally my cup of tea, but I don't know, | 4:32 | |
| something made me want to listen to it. | 4:35 | |
| Maybe the traffic was really that bad. | 4:39 | |
| (crowd laughs) | 4:41 | |
| The host was taking calls from the listeners | 4:43 | |
| and a young woman named Barbra had called in | 4:46 | |
| and she had troubles. | 4:50 | |
| Boy did she have troubles. | 4:52 | |
| She had troubles at work, her marriage was under stress, | 4:54 | |
| she was having a feud with her parents and her siblings. | 4:59 | |
| She was rehearsing this litany of woe | 5:03 | |
| when suddenly the talk host got a little impatient | 5:06 | |
| and he interrupted her. | 5:10 | |
| "Barbra, Barbra, just a minute, let me ask you a question. | 5:11 | |
| "Are you a believer?" | 5:15 | |
| That set her back for a minute and she said, | 5:19 | |
| "Well, I don't know." | 5:22 | |
| He said, "Oh come on, Barbra, you outta know, | 5:25 | |
| "I mean if you're a believer, you know in your heart. | 5:27 | |
| "If you're going to solve your problems you've got to | 5:31 | |
| "be a believer, now Barbra are you a believer?" | 5:33 | |
| She said, "Well I'd like to be. | 5:38 | |
| "But I don't know, | 5:41 | |
| "honestly it seems like I'm more agnostic | 5:42 | |
| "at this point in my life." | 5:44 | |
| That got the host's juices going. | 5:47 | |
| He said, "Barbra, I've got a book I've written | 5:49 | |
| "I want to send to you. | 5:52 | |
| "And in this book, there is incontrovertible proof | 5:54 | |
| "that Jesus is God, and rose from the dead. | 5:58 | |
| "Now if I send this book to you, | 6:01 | |
| "will you become a believer?" | 6:02 | |
| She said, "I don't know | 6:06 | |
| "I've had a lot of trouble with preachers." | 6:07 | |
| He said, "I'm not talking about preachers, | 6:10 | |
| "I'm talking about proof. | 6:12 | |
| "I've got incontrovertible proof that Jesus is God | 6:15 | |
| "and that he rose from the dead, | 6:19 | |
| "and I'm going to give it to you. | 6:20 | |
| "Now will you become a believer?" | 6:22 | |
| "I'm having trouble trusting this," she said. | 6:26 | |
| "I've had some bad experiences with the church | 6:29 | |
| "and I don't trust very easily." | 6:31 | |
| "I'm not talking about trust" he said. | 6:33 | |
| "I'm talking about truth. | 6:35 | |
| "No leaps of faith, no blind faith. | 6:38 | |
| "I'm gonna give you evidence and proof. | 6:41 | |
| "Will you become a believer?" | 6:43 | |
| Finally she said, "Well, yes, sure, I'll become a believer." | 6:46 | |
| He put her on hold and went to a commercial. | 6:52 | |
| Now I know it sounds a little strange, | 6:55 | |
| but I'm kind of disappointed that Barbra | 6:58 | |
| threw in the towel so quickly. | 7:00 | |
| Now I know, I want her to become a believer too. | 7:05 | |
| And I agree, I think the gospel could provide some | 7:08 | |
| help for her in her trouble. | 7:11 | |
| But I know, and you know, | 7:14 | |
| that the talk show host was overstepping his case. | 7:16 | |
| There is no book within incontrovertible proof | 7:21 | |
| that Jesus is God and raised from the dead. | 7:25 | |
| Not even the Bible. | 7:29 | |
| Maybe most of all, the Bible. | 7:31 | |
| In fact, that seems to be one of the main points | 7:34 | |
| that old John is making in the 20th chapter of his gospel. | 7:38 | |
| A portion of which we have just heard read. | 7:43 | |
| This whole chapter, is about believing in the resurrection. | 7:47 | |
| But the last thing that Jesus says in it, is to Thomas. | 7:52 | |
| "Have you believed in me because you've seen?" | 7:56 | |
| and then lifting his eyes, | 8:00 | |
| as if to speak to all the generations who would follow | 8:02 | |
| to you, to me, to Barbra, he says, | 8:07 | |
| "Blessed are those of you who have not seen | 8:12 | |
| "but yet believe." | 8:19 | |
| As if to say, if we have gathered ourselves | 8:21 | |
| in this place this morning, clinging on | 8:24 | |
| to the hope of the resurrection which this gospel proclaims, | 8:28 | |
| we do so not because we have come here on the basis | 8:33 | |
| of evidence and prove things touched and seen. | 8:36 | |
| But to the contrary, on the basis of things | 8:40 | |
| we have not seen. | 8:45 | |
| Blessed are you. | 8:47 | |
| Well then how is it that people do come to believe | 8:51 | |
| in the resurrection? | 8:54 | |
| I mean what would John say | 8:56 | |
| if he had been the talk show host and Barbra called in | 8:58 | |
| and said, "I don't know, I'm just a little agnostic | 9:01 | |
| "at this point in my life, I'd like to believe." | 9:04 | |
| What would John have said? | 9:07 | |
| He's interested in the question you know, | 9:10 | |
| as a matter of fact, in the 20th chapter of his gospel | 9:12 | |
| he gives four quick snapshots, | 9:15 | |
| of people who do come to believe in the resurrection. | 9:19 | |
| And the fascinating thing about them | 9:24 | |
| is that they're all different. | 9:27 | |
| It's as if he's saying we don't come into this chapel | 9:29 | |
| through the same doorway. | 9:34 | |
| There are many pathways to the alter of belief. | 9:36 | |
| The first snapshot he gives, | 9:42 | |
| is a snapshot of the beloved disciple. | 9:44 | |
| He describes him as the disciple Jesus loved. | 9:47 | |
| Now Jesus loves all of his disciples, | 9:51 | |
| but there was this special bond of intimacy with one of them | 9:53 | |
| maybe it was old John himself. | 9:57 | |
| So much so, that their probably was rivalry between | 10:00 | |
| the beloved disciple and Peter. | 10:05 | |
| For Jesus' attention and ear. | 10:07 | |
| When the disciple that Jesus loves | 10:10 | |
| comes to the empty tomb, he looks into the empty tomb, | 10:13 | |
| and he sees nothing. | 10:18 | |
| And he believes everything. | 10:25 | |
| He sees nothing in there but rolled up grave clothes. | 10:28 | |
| But he believes everything. | 10:34 | |
| And there are some people in this sanctuary this morning | 10:36 | |
| who are like that. | 10:41 | |
| You have always believed and you don't know how. | 10:43 | |
| It's as if you've been given the gift of belief. | 10:47 | |
| Your faith is like a sunny day on a calm sea. | 10:50 | |
| There's a woman named Kathleen, | 10:57 | |
| she is a public health nurse and a faithful Christian | 10:58 | |
| who lives in Asbury Park, New Jersey. | 11:02 | |
| If you're familiar with Asbury Park, New Jersey | 11:05 | |
| you know it is a Jersey Shore town | 11:07 | |
| and in the 40's it was the place to go. | 11:09 | |
| It had a boardwalk that rivaled Atlantic City's. | 11:13 | |
| It had an arcade, it had beautiful beaches, lavish hotels. | 11:16 | |
| But now Asbury Park looks like bombed out Berlin. | 11:21 | |
| The boardwalk is decaying. | 11:27 | |
| The shops have left. | 11:29 | |
| Leaving behind crime, poverty, abandoned buildings, | 11:31 | |
| and absolutely corrupt government. | 11:34 | |
| One of the old hotels has become a warehouse | 11:38 | |
| of human misery. | 11:41 | |
| It is a senior citizen's welfare center. | 11:43 | |
| And in there are dozens of people, | 11:48 | |
| all of them old, many of them abandoned, | 11:51 | |
| many of them sick and dying. | 11:53 | |
| They need public health but Kathleen knows | 11:55 | |
| they will not let any public health nurse | 11:58 | |
| inside that hotel because the owners don't want the squalor | 12:02 | |
| and filth and disease to become public knowledge. | 12:06 | |
| So Kathleen took a leave of absence | 12:11 | |
| from her public health job | 12:13 | |
| and she applied to be a chambermaid in the hotel. | 12:15 | |
| She wears the tattered little gown, | 12:21 | |
| she moves everyday from room to room to room | 12:24 | |
| not only cleaning the room, | 12:27 | |
| but bathing the people inside, dressing their wounds, | 12:30 | |
| making sure they have the right medication, | 12:34 | |
| making sure they take it. | 12:36 | |
| She moves from room to room to room, | 12:38 | |
| from empty tomb to empty tomb to empty tomb, | 12:41 | |
| where most of us would look inside and see nothing. | 12:47 | |
| She looks in every room, and she sees the resurrection. | 12:51 | |
| Some people, are like that here today. | 12:57 | |
| But not everybody. | 13:02 | |
| Some of the rest of us are more like Mary | 13:04 | |
| that's the second snapshot. | 13:06 | |
| Mary who went to the cemetery to grieve | 13:08 | |
| and when she looked in the empty tomb she saw angels. | 13:10 | |
| But that didn't make her a believer, took more than angels. | 13:14 | |
| She even saw the risen lord but that didn't do it either. | 13:18 | |
| She thought he was the gardener. | 13:22 | |
| It was when the risen Christ called her name, "Mary." | 13:25 | |
| it was when the resurrection become personal she believed. | 13:33 | |
| Some of us are here because the gospel has become personal. | 13:39 | |
| In a secret place in our lives. | 13:46 | |
| There's a woman named Maryanne Bird, you don't know her, | 13:51 | |
| she published a little mimeographed autobiography | 13:54 | |
| telling about her life and faith. | 13:58 | |
| She was born with multiple birth defects, | 14:01 | |
| her face deformed, a split lip, deaf in one ear, disfigured. | 14:03 | |
| She said, "I was always the girl who was different. | 14:10 | |
| "The girl who was ugly, the girl who was deformed. | 14:12 | |
| "I suffered the taunts and stares of the other children." | 14:17 | |
| "What happened to you Maryanne?" | 14:20 | |
| "I fell on some glass and cut my face | 14:23 | |
| "I would always lie." | 14:26 | |
| "One of the worst days every year in school," she said | 14:30 | |
| "was the day we had a hearing test." | 14:32 | |
| The way they did it in those days, | 14:35 | |
| the teacher would call each student | 14:37 | |
| one at a time to her desk, | 14:39 | |
| and you would put one hand over each ear | 14:41 | |
| and she would say something to you | 14:44 | |
| and if you could repeat it, | 14:46 | |
| hear it and repeat it, you passed the test. | 14:47 | |
| "Whenever I had to put my had over my one good ear | 14:50 | |
| "I would cheat," she said. | 14:54 | |
| "And cup my hand just ever so slightly | 14:55 | |
| "so I wouldn't experience the shame of failing the test." | 14:57 | |
| "One year we had a new teacher, | 15:02 | |
| "a woman of great kindness, a woman of great faith, | 15:05 | |
| "and when hearing test time came, | 15:10 | |
| "she called me to her desk, | 15:13 | |
| "and as I put my hand over my good ear, | 15:16 | |
| "she said the thing that changed my life forever. | 15:19 | |
| "She did not say, as they usually said | 15:25 | |
| "you have new shoes or the sky is blue | 15:28 | |
| "she leaned over her desk and said, | 15:31 | |
| "I wish you were my little girl." | 15:34 | |
| "And for the first time, kindness and faith came close." | 15:39 | |
| Some of us are here because the gospel has become personal. | 15:46 | |
| Mary, but not all of us. | 15:51 | |
| The third snapshot are the disciples | 15:54 | |
| they're in a house and everything | 15:57 | |
| about this vignette breathes of the church, | 15:59 | |
| the community of faith, | 16:02 | |
| the risen Christ comes and says, "Peace be with you." | 16:03 | |
| That's the way worship starts. | 16:06 | |
| "As the father has sent me so I send you," that's mission. | 16:09 | |
| "If you forgive one another's sins they will be forgiven. | 16:14 | |
| "If you retain them they will be retained." | 16:17 | |
| That's church discipline and common life. | 16:20 | |
| There are some people who experience the resurrection | 16:24 | |
| by participating in the mission, worship, sacraments, | 16:28 | |
| and common life of the Christian community. | 16:33 | |
| Couple of years ago, I was preaching in a little town | 16:39 | |
| north of Charlotte. | 16:42 | |
| I had been there years before as a student pastor. | 16:44 | |
| Kind of homecoming for me. | 16:48 | |
| After the service, we had a potluck lunch | 16:50 | |
| and I was sitting at the table and talking to a woman | 16:53 | |
| I hadn't seen in over 20 years. | 16:56 | |
| At one point I said, "How's your father? | 16:58 | |
| "You know I loved your father." | 17:01 | |
| "We lost him last year," she said | 17:03 | |
| "I'm sorry to say, but you know | 17:05 | |
| "a remarkable thing happened on the day that he died." | 17:07 | |
| "What?" | 17:11 | |
| "My brother and sister and I were in his hospital room, | 17:13 | |
| "he was dying of cancer. | 17:16 | |
| "He had a stroke during the week | 17:17 | |
| "and had lost his speech and that was terribly | 17:20 | |
| "frustrating for him, he couldn't communicate, | 17:23 | |
| "we could tell his strength was ebbing, he wanted | 17:25 | |
| "to say something to us, he couldn't say it. | 17:28 | |
| "Finally he just pointed at the sink. | 17:31 | |
| "And then pointed to his lips, | 17:35 | |
| "my brother said "He's thirsty, he wants a drink of water." | 17:37 | |
| "So he went over to the sink and he filled up a glass | 17:41 | |
| "and he brought it back over to my father. | 17:44 | |
| "And when he put it to his lips, | 17:46 | |
| "my father waved him off and pointed at my brother | 17:48 | |
| "as if to say, 'you drink it.' | 17:52 | |
| "Puzzled, my brother took a sip, | 17:56 | |
| "and then my father motioned to him as if, | 18:00 | |
| "now give it to your sister. | 18:03 | |
| "He gave it to my sister and she took a sip. | 18:06 | |
| "Then he motioned give it to me. | 18:09 | |
| "And my sister gave it to me | 18:13 | |
| "and at that point my brother said "My lord, | 18:14 | |
| "he's serving communion." | 18:18 | |
| "We thought we were gathered at a death bed. | 18:22 | |
| "What he was communicating was | 18:25 | |
| "that we were at the Lord's table." | 18:27 | |
| There's some people who believe in the resurrection | 18:30 | |
| because they have participated | 18:33 | |
| in the worship and common life of the church. | 18:36 | |
| But not everybody. | 18:40 | |
| The last picture is of Thomas. | 18:44 | |
| We call him Doubting Thomas but that's probably not right. | 18:47 | |
| Nowhere does John say he's a doubter, he's a tester, | 18:51 | |
| he's a wrestler, his struggle is deeper | 18:55 | |
| and goes on longer than the others. | 18:58 | |
| Barbra would have appreciated him. | 19:01 | |
| "I'd like to be a believer, | 19:04 | |
| "but at this point in my life, I'm kind of agnostic." | 19:05 | |
| Unless I see for myself. | 19:09 | |
| There's a man in Atlanta | 19:14 | |
| if I named him you'd probably recognize him, | 19:15 | |
| he is involved because if his Christian faith | 19:18 | |
| in almost every good program in that city | 19:21 | |
| fair housing, he's there. | 19:24 | |
| Racial reconciliation, he is there. | 19:26 | |
| It was not always the case. | 19:29 | |
| As a matter of fact, | 19:33 | |
| after being raised in the church he left it. | 19:34 | |
| Hated it, wrestled with it, | 19:37 | |
| struggled, tested, pushed, probed. | 19:39 | |
| One day, he had an appointment to take a client | 19:45 | |
| to a Braves game. | 19:49 | |
| He left his office to get his car to drive to the stadium, | 19:51 | |
| and taking a shortcut to the parking lot through an alley, | 19:55 | |
| he was surrounded by three street toughs | 19:58 | |
| who hustled him. | 20:02 | |
| He thought he was going to lose his life for a moment, | 20:05 | |
| he lost some money. | 20:07 | |
| When he got to the stadium, | 20:11 | |
| he was still shaken by this of course | 20:12 | |
| and he said to the client whom he met there, | 20:14 | |
| "I know we're here to talk business, | 20:16 | |
| "I shouldn't tell you about this but I'm really upset." | 20:18 | |
| And he told him what had happened and he said, | 20:21 | |
| "You know, I think I'm gonna move out of this town | 20:22 | |
| "this town has gone to the Devil. | 20:26 | |
| "It's more like this all the time, | 20:27 | |
| "I can't stand it anymore." | 20:29 | |
| The client said, "I know how you feel but before you do that | 20:32 | |
| "there's a group I would like you to meet. | 20:37 | |
| "Will you have breakfast with us next Thursday?" | 20:40 | |
| He did. | 20:44 | |
| It was a group of power brokers in town who had decided | 20:46 | |
| to try to do good to create a just environment | 20:50 | |
| in the city of Atlanta. | 20:55 | |
| He was astonished to hear them talk about it | 20:57 | |
| and finally he said, "Why do you do this?" | 20:59 | |
| And one of them said, "Because of my faith in Jesus Christ." | 21:03 | |
| The client said, "Fred, how about skipping the Jesus stuff | 21:09 | |
| "let's just stick with the civics stuff." | 21:13 | |
| And George said, "No, | 21:16 | |
| "don't skip the Jesus stuff, I want to hear it." | 21:20 | |
| And because of the Jesus stuff, | 21:26 | |
| hard won, he is now living out his faith in all these ways. | 21:28 | |
| "There are many doors to this chapel," says John. | 21:36 | |
| And we all get here by various ways. | 21:40 | |
| And when we get here we don't have | 21:43 | |
| incontrovertible proof, hard evidence. | 21:46 | |
| All we have are these stories. | 21:52 | |
| And we are persuaded that when we tell them, | 21:56 | |
| the stories of the beloved disciple and Mary, | 22:00 | |
| the stories of Maryanne and Kathleen and George, | 22:04 | |
| that when we tell them, | 22:08 | |
| the risen Christ himself is with us. | 22:10 | |
| Gathering us in love, calling us by name, | 22:16 | |
| saying, "Peace be with you, and give me your hardest test." | 22:21 | |
| Do you believe that? | 22:29 | |
| Are you a believer? | 22:34 | |
| Then blessed are you, | 22:39 | |
| who have not seen and yet who have come to believe. | 22:43 |