Thomas Sunday 2012

Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen.

Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen.

Christ is risen. Christ is risen. In the name

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Spirit. Amen. Just as the apostles gathered on

the first day, That is the day when Jesus rose.

We gather. And he says to us, peace be to you.

Just as the apostles again gathered eight days

later. So we've gathered eight days later after

Pascha. And we hear the words of the Lord, peace

be to you. And just as there are some, many,

who struggle with doubt. So the Lord comes to

each of us and says, peace, just as he said to

Thomas. And all those words that we heard in

the gospel today, St. John says, are written

so that you may believe and believing you may

have life. We think we have life because we have

biological life. That's not really life. So let's

talk about life. Rather, let's talk about death.

We Christians don't regard death as the end of

this life. Death as commonly understood, the

breakdown of the body, stopping of the heartbeat,

stopping of breathing. And for us, the separation

of the soul from the body. That's not, for us,

death. Not really. We call the separation of

the soul and the body, we call rest, the body's

resting. We call it a falling asleep in the Lord,

because the body is laid aside as a garment.

Here's how St. John Chrysostom says it, and I've

quoted this to you. probably every single year

on Thomas Sunday for the last five years. So

if it sounds familiar, that's why. If it doesn't

sound familiar, you haven't been listening. St.

John Chrysostom says, it is true, we still do

die, as before, but we do not remain in death.

And this is not to die. The power and the very

harshness of death is that a dead man has no

possibility of returning to life. This is what

Thomas understood. Never happened. Why should

I believe what you say? You haven't changed enough

for me to know it. And St. John goes on to say,

but if after death a person is to be bodily quickened

and moreover to be given a better bodily life,

without death and sickness and suffering and

sorrow and tears, then this is no longer death.

This is a falling asleep. And St. Paul wrote,

he said these words, We also eagerly wait for

the Savior. We wait for the Savior, the Lord

Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body

that it may be conformed to his glorious body.

It's Philippians 3. And to the congregation at

Corinth, he wrote these words. Now, Christ, risen

from the dead, has become the first fruits of

those who have fallen asleep. First fruits. For

since by man came death, by man also came the

resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam, the

first man, all die, even so in Christ, all shall

be made alive. And he says in another place about

death and about our bodies. When we see a body

here in the church, in the coffin, and then we

go to the cemetery and we're going to lower it

in the ground, we must think of this. What is

sown in corruption, that's breakdown, decay.

What is sown in corruption is raised in incorruption.

What is sown in dishonor is raised in glory.

What is sown in weakness is raised in power.

So then, what is death? Death is separation from

Christ. Death is separation from Jesus Christ.

And we call Christ our Savior because without

Him, this separation, we are perishing. I want

to quote to you some words of St. Theophan the

Reckless from just his daily entry. Thoughts

for every day. Thoughts for Thomas Sunday. The

feeling of salvation, he says, is closely related

to the feeling of perishing. Do you know what

it means to perish? Have any of you, before you

met Christ, felt as if you were perishing and

God saved you and you'd be dead without him?

Have any of you felt that? I know many of you

have. The feeling of salvation is closely related

to the feeling of perishing, out of which the

Savior pulls whomever he saves. For a man who

is life -loving by nature and who knows that

he cannot save himself, the feeling that he is

perishing forces him to seek the Savior. When

he finds him and feels the power of salvation

proceeding from Jesus Christ, the resurrected

one. He grasps him tightly and does not want

to be torn from him, though he be deprived of

life itself for this. In the spiritual life of

a Christian, such events are not only imagined

in the mind, but experienced in actuality. Then

both his faith and his union with Christ become

firm like life and death. Only such a person

can sincerely cry, who shall separate me from

Christ? Perishing, salvation, resurrection, death.

Our Orthodox faith isn't about accepting someone's

teaching about a spiritual afterlife. Our Orthodox

faith isn't about someone's teaching about some

sort of heavenly reward if we are good people.

Our Orthodox faith does not come from someone's

vision or someone's book of what religion ought

to be. Our faith is founded on one thing. Jesus

rose bodily from death after being beaten, crucified

by professional executioners who knew he was

dead for sure. They did it all the time and buried.

And his body, after rising, was the same in a

way. To say, he ate and he drank in Emmaus with

disciples. He made a fish breakfast for the apostles

on the shore. But he was totally and utterly

different. right because of that, that St. Thomas

was hesitant to simply accept someone's word

about something that had never happened before

in history that he knew of. He wanted to encounter,

if it's real, the real Jesus, just as we do.

St. John the Evangelist records at the end of

the Gospel account that he wrote, that Jesus

came to the disciples. This is John 20, verses

John 20:19

19 to the end of that. He wrote that Jesus came

to the disciples on the first day, and they believed.

Thomas was not there. But when he came at the

end of the week, and Jesus came and said, Peace

be unto you, Thomas' confession was, My Lord

and my God. Now, it's taken 20 chapters for St.

John to tell us of the things that happened to

Jesus and what he said and what he did. 20 chapters

from the time we heard last Sunday. In the beginning

was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word

was with God. And that this is Jesus. 20 chapters.

If you remember how we celebrated last week.

And now we hear St. Thomas saying finally. My

Lord and my God. Isn't this what we're all supposed

to experience? Isn't Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha

not religious holidays that we keep somehow with

kulich and cheese pascha and Easter eggs? Those

things are great, but that's not what it is.

The fasting, the prayers, this is all a walk.

with St. Thomas and the apostles, so we can hear

the Savior say, blessed are you that have not

seen, yet believed. Because belief does not come

from signs and wonders. It seems like that's

going to work, and that's what we want. And many

people say, if I had been there, I would have

believed. But that's just not true. The scribes

and the Pharisees knew all about the miracles

of Christ. And every time they were faced with

the divine work of forgiving, of healing, of

raising, they became more rooted in blasphemy.

Having found that Christ had healed the blind

man, instead of praising, they cursed. This man

is a sinner. And you'd know it, but you are in

your sin altogether. Having heard that Christ

had resurrected a four -day stinking dead man,

they decided they wanted to kill him, kill Christ

and Lazarus. You see, these aren't proofs that

enter the heart and the soul. They are signs

of God's power in this world. The disciples themselves

did not believe the report of the women who came

from the grave. Belief in Christ comes from knowing

you're perishing. That's why people who are rich,

for the most part, and Jesus says, a rich man,

it's very hard to enter the kingdom of heaven.

For the most part, they don't feel they are perishing.

Belief comes from suffering. And realizing that

sickness, ignorance, sin, and death are killing

us and that only Christ can save us. And encountering

Jesus Christ can come at a moment when we understand

that we are perishing. It's a different kind

of proof and it's a different kind of experience

than signs and wonders. We come. As the prayer,

the hymn that the choir sang last week. We come

to church for Holy Week. For all of Lent, for

Holy Week and Pascha. So we can say these words

and mean them. Let us purify our senses and we

shall see Christ. Shining in the unapproachable

light of the resurrection. We shall clearly hear

him say rejoice as we sing the song of victory.

But we must purify our senses to see Christ.

And then when we gather together and we hear

peace be unto you, we know it's the words of

the risen Lord that has changed us and saved

us from perishing. To our Lord who is risen and

glorified and sits at the right hand of the Father

be glory and dominion together with his Father

and the Holy Spirit now and ever. And to ages

and ages.