QUASIMODO GENITI
19 April Anno + Domini 2009
"Gathered Together on the 1st and 8th Dayâ€
John 20:19-31
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
He Is Risen! (He Is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!)
Did you catch the pattern in the Gospel lesson? Sunday. Disciples gathered. Doors shut. Jesus. The sight of His wounds in a living body. Overflowing joy. A commission to carry forgiveness out into the world.
But Thomas missed the gathering. Maybe he was golfing. Maybe he was fishing. Maybe he was moping. Maybe his siesta lasted a bit longer than usual. Maybe he just had better things to do with his time. We're not told why he wasn't there, and there's a reason for that. Because it doesn't matter WHY he wasn't there. The only thing that matters is that he missed out. And look at what happened because he missed out on that special gathering: Thomas refuses to believe. The other disciples filled him in. They told him that they had seen the Lord; that He had appeared to them, forgiven them, breathed the Holy Spirit into them, and commissioned them to carry forgiveness out into the world. But, Thomas will not believe it. In his unbelief, he lays down his conditions: He's got to see with his own eyes those wounds and touch them. Then he'll see about believing.
And the Lord could have appeared to Thomas by himself on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Any of those days would have worked. But the Lord didn't. He let Thomas stew in his unbelief for a solid week. And then look at what happened. Deja vu! Sunday. Disciples gathered. Doors shut. Jesus. The sight of His wounds. Overflowing joy. This time Thomas, the truant, was present and the presence of Jesus in the midst of the gathered disciples brings him from unbelief to full-blast confession: "My Lord and my God!â€
Jesus responds to that. Thomas had been brought to faith by seeing. By seeing the wounds in Jesus' hands and side, Thomas came to confess that his Lord and his God had been raised from the dead, just as He had promised He would be. But Jesus is setting a pattern now and He is thinking of more than Thomas on that night. He is thinking of you. And so He says to Thomas: "You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.â€
But if it isn't the seeing that brings to faith, then what? The Gospel holds the answer. It's all about what happens on the First Day of the week, which is also the 8th day, the day beyond all our sevens - one of which will carry us to death. On the First and 8th Day, a miracle happens. The disciples of Jesus gather. And into their midst comes the Risen One. He comes with His wounds, His Spirit, His breath, AND His Words. "These have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.â€
Beloved in the Lord, this same pattern continues to this day. We, the disciples of Jesus, gather together on the First and 8th Day. And as we, His people, gather, the miracle happens again and again. Even though there is more Jesus than can ever be fit into a book, nevertheless He has given His people a book around which to gather. A book where the breath of Jesus that IS the Spirit of God still blows and calls from unbelief to faith. A book that is opened and read. Words. Concrete words. Words about Jesus. Jesus' own words. The Spirit breathed them all. They all come from and are all about Jesus. We read them, and when we do, it is not just a matter of remembering our Lord. No. We confess that Jesus is with us in His Words. He still speaks to us! That's why we stand for the reading of the Holy Gospel. That's why we sing out: "Alleluia!†in greeting to the One who comes to us in His words; the One who has promised: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words and My Father will love Him and We will come to Him and make Our home with him.†(Jn 14:23) That's why we sing, as we did a few moments ago, "Alleluia! Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life! Alleluia! Allelluia!â€
And the One who comes to us in His words is the One who comes to show us His wounds and speak peace to us and bring us joy. And so when the words of Jesus are spoken over bread and wine, then we have what those words promise: This is my Body, given for you. This is my Blood, shed for you. For the forgiveness of sin. Thomas was invited to touch and believe. You are invited to taste and believe. As it is written: "Taste and see that the Lord is good!â€
Body and blood correspond to the wounds, for you only get body and blood separated from one another when there is a wound. So it is His death that is proclaimed every time we gather at this Holy Table and the Resurrected One feeds us with His Body and His Blood. You can't see it from where you sit, but a reminder of this is always upon the altar. Underneath the main altar cloth, there is another cloth which lies directly on top of the altar. It's called the fair linen cloth. And, upon that fair linen cloth, there are five little crosses, one on each of the four corners and one in the middle. Why are they there? To be pretty? For mere decoration? Hardly! They are there by way of confession that what is placed upon this altar is that which resulted from five piercings, the five wounds Jesus suffered: two in His hands, two in His feet, and one in His side. They are there to confess that on this altar is the very Body and Blood which hung upon the cross for you; that this very Body and Blood is what is given you to eat and to drink. And with the sight and taste of the wounds comes the word of peace. That's why the pastor turns to face you, holding the Body and Blood of Jesus before you, and proclaims, "The peace of the Lord be with you always.†That's why, after you have seen and tasted the wounds of Jesus in His Body and Blood, the pastor says, "Depart in His peace.†And, having received this peace, which truly surpasses all understanding, we are filled with joy.
And, dear friends, when does all of this take place? On the Lord's Day. On the First and 8th Day. Whenever two or three are gathered in Jesus' Name around His Holy Word and Sacraments, there Jesus comes into their midst to speak His word of peace to them, to bring them the joy of sins forgiven, to feed them with the Blessed results of His wounds, to call them from unbelief to faith, to strengthen them for the journey, and to keep them in His Kingdom, which has no end.
Sunday. Disciples gathered. Doors shut. Jesus. The sight of His wounds. Overflowing joy. That's the pattern, and it continues to this day, and it will continue until that Day to come, when our Lord will return in great glory. Blessed are those who have not seen Jesus in the same manner in which Thomas and the rest of the disciples saw Him, and yet believe that He is truly present to gift them with eternal blessings through His precious means of grace. Blessed are you who realize that our gathering together in this Holy Place on the Lord's Day is more than a social event, more than going through the motions, more than a mere obligation, but is, in fact, a privileged honor and enormous blessing to be gathered by our Holy Lord in His Holy House to receive His Holy Gifts. That Christians choose to stay away from the Lord's House on the Lord's Day indicates that they don't fully grasp the miraculous happenings that occur on the First and 8th Day. Like Thomas, who was absent that first Easter evening, they're missing out.
Tell them, dear friends. That's the final part of the Lord's message to us this morning. Disciples of Jesus go out and announce - as those first disciples did to Thomas - "We have seen the Lord!†So we are sent out from this gathering where Jesus has come to be with us, where we have known Him in His Words and in His Wounds, His Body and Blood. We are sent forth to tell people like Thomas who are left in the sadness of thinking that death is the end of the road, that there is One who went farther. We are sent to tell people like Thomas who think that their sins still hang around their own neck, that there is One who lifted that burden and carried it Himself long ago to give them peace and joy. We are sent to tell one and all. And we are sent not just to tell them about the One who has won forgiveness for them and opened the way to everlasting life for them. We are sent to tell them WHERE That One, Jesus, can be found, and where He comes to give faith, forgiveness, joy, and peace. We are sent to tell them about the secret of the First and 8th day, the Lord's Day, when our Savior Jesus still comes to be with us as we gather together in His name, around His words, and His wounds.
May the Holy Spirit empower us by the Holy Gospel to go and tell one and all: "We have seen the Lord! We have seen and tasted that He is good. Come, let us show you where He may be found.†In Jesus' Holy and Precious Name. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.