Giving Up The Comfort Blanket
Sermon
There's always one! Wherever you are, in a restaurant or a class somewhere or listening to a lecture, there's always one. There's always one person who's loud or awkward or difficult. Sometimes that can be really irritating, especially if a quiet meal is constantly interrupted by some noisy individual at the next table.
But at other times the awkward squad are so valuable. They're the ones who aren't afraid to challenge, the ones who ask those pertinent but embarrassing questions which nobody else dares ask, the ones who say straight out when they don't understand. Whether they're aware of it or not, they so often speak on behalf of other people, and are prepared to receive the flak which their boldness frequently produces. And the rest of us mostly sit back hoping someone like them will take on the challenge so that we don't have to.
Thomas seems to have been a member of the awkward squad. He refused to accept anything at face value, but prodded and poked and teased until he found an answer which was satisfactory to himself. When the disciples were gathered in the Upper Room after that first Easter, it was Thomas who brought them all down to earth by refusing to believe that Jesus could possibly be alive.
But it was his very questioning which allowed him to meet with Jesus. It was because he was determined to get to the truth of the matter that Thomas met with his risen Lord. He could have simply accepted what others told him, but he needed to be certain for himself. And through his questioning and his refusal to accept anything until he had tested it out for himself, Thomas has given all of us for the last 2000 years, permission to ask questions and to search for the truth no matter where that search leads.
In today's reading it's Thomas who asks the obvious question, but the question which no one else dared to voice. "You know the way to the place where I am going," said Jesus.
Thomas said, "Lord, we don't know where it you are going so how can we know the way?"
Then Jesus began to spell it out. He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Once Thomas had opened up the subject, discussion developed. The others began to discover their own questions, and it becomes apparent that not only Thomas, but none of them had much idea what Jesus was talking about. Philip put it into words. Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?"
And so Jesus is able to use the opportunity to give them some basic teaching about the Holy Spirit. He doesn't at this stage use the words 'Holy Spirit', but he begins to talk about God being within him, the God within. And he also talks about himself being within God. He says too that all his actions and words are determined by the God within, and so he gives us here a model for our own Christian lives.
Later he becomes more overt and specific, and refers to the God within as the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the advocate. And he promises that all his friends too will be able to experience the God within, although not until after he himself has moved on from this life.
Perhaps it wouldn't be possible for the disciples to experience the God within while Jesus was still with them. Perhaps they depended so entirely upon him that they would be unable to begin to rely upon resources within themselves while he was around. Perhaps they would be unable even to recognise resources within themselves as the God within, for Jesus carried all the God-like qualities for all of them. Why should they look any further than Jesus?
When life is relatively smooth and comfortable, it's very easy to cling to something or someone and to look no further. It's only when we're stripped that we're thrown back onto God, because there's nowhere else to turn. We all have comfort blankets of one sort or another - money, position, alcohol, sex, relationships, a favourite hobby, and so on. Perhaps the disciples used the physical presence of Jesus as a comfort blanket, and needed to be stripped even of that before they could begin to get to know the God within.
Jesus himself endured this stripping on the Cross. He was stripped of everything, even of the one thing you might have expected to remain, the presence of God. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" he cried as he hung there in agony. But he had nowhere else to turn. Even though at that moment he was unaware of God's presence with him, he was thrown back onto God because there was nothing else. And so he bowed his head and gave up his Spirit.
But the result of that final, total submission was that he experienced God in a completely new way. He was raised by God to a vibrant, exciting new life in a different dimension, a life in which he was one with God. And he has promised the same for all of us.
Stripping is invariably a painful process. Crucifixions, however small they are, are agonising. But it's through the stripping process, the crucifixions of this life, that we can grow towards the God within. And as every baby eventually discovers, there's much more freedom in life when you don't have to cart your comfort blanket around with you. For when you grow up, you can manage without a comfort blanket.
But at other times the awkward squad are so valuable. They're the ones who aren't afraid to challenge, the ones who ask those pertinent but embarrassing questions which nobody else dares ask, the ones who say straight out when they don't understand. Whether they're aware of it or not, they so often speak on behalf of other people, and are prepared to receive the flak which their boldness frequently produces. And the rest of us mostly sit back hoping someone like them will take on the challenge so that we don't have to.
Thomas seems to have been a member of the awkward squad. He refused to accept anything at face value, but prodded and poked and teased until he found an answer which was satisfactory to himself. When the disciples were gathered in the Upper Room after that first Easter, it was Thomas who brought them all down to earth by refusing to believe that Jesus could possibly be alive.
But it was his very questioning which allowed him to meet with Jesus. It was because he was determined to get to the truth of the matter that Thomas met with his risen Lord. He could have simply accepted what others told him, but he needed to be certain for himself. And through his questioning and his refusal to accept anything until he had tested it out for himself, Thomas has given all of us for the last 2000 years, permission to ask questions and to search for the truth no matter where that search leads.
In today's reading it's Thomas who asks the obvious question, but the question which no one else dared to voice. "You know the way to the place where I am going," said Jesus.
Thomas said, "Lord, we don't know where it you are going so how can we know the way?"
Then Jesus began to spell it out. He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Once Thomas had opened up the subject, discussion developed. The others began to discover their own questions, and it becomes apparent that not only Thomas, but none of them had much idea what Jesus was talking about. Philip put it into words. Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?"
And so Jesus is able to use the opportunity to give them some basic teaching about the Holy Spirit. He doesn't at this stage use the words 'Holy Spirit', but he begins to talk about God being within him, the God within. And he also talks about himself being within God. He says too that all his actions and words are determined by the God within, and so he gives us here a model for our own Christian lives.
Later he becomes more overt and specific, and refers to the God within as the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the advocate. And he promises that all his friends too will be able to experience the God within, although not until after he himself has moved on from this life.
Perhaps it wouldn't be possible for the disciples to experience the God within while Jesus was still with them. Perhaps they depended so entirely upon him that they would be unable to begin to rely upon resources within themselves while he was around. Perhaps they would be unable even to recognise resources within themselves as the God within, for Jesus carried all the God-like qualities for all of them. Why should they look any further than Jesus?
When life is relatively smooth and comfortable, it's very easy to cling to something or someone and to look no further. It's only when we're stripped that we're thrown back onto God, because there's nowhere else to turn. We all have comfort blankets of one sort or another - money, position, alcohol, sex, relationships, a favourite hobby, and so on. Perhaps the disciples used the physical presence of Jesus as a comfort blanket, and needed to be stripped even of that before they could begin to get to know the God within.
Jesus himself endured this stripping on the Cross. He was stripped of everything, even of the one thing you might have expected to remain, the presence of God. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" he cried as he hung there in agony. But he had nowhere else to turn. Even though at that moment he was unaware of God's presence with him, he was thrown back onto God because there was nothing else. And so he bowed his head and gave up his Spirit.
But the result of that final, total submission was that he experienced God in a completely new way. He was raised by God to a vibrant, exciting new life in a different dimension, a life in which he was one with God. And he has promised the same for all of us.
Stripping is invariably a painful process. Crucifixions, however small they are, are agonising. But it's through the stripping process, the crucifixions of this life, that we can grow towards the God within. And as every baby eventually discovers, there's much more freedom in life when you don't have to cart your comfort blanket around with you. For when you grow up, you can manage without a comfort blanket.
