Ah the famous Doubting Thomas.  What a name to be saddled with eh?  Do we call Peter…Peter the denier because he denied Christ 3 times?  Or James, sleepy cause he fell asleep in the garden, no. Yet, we have doubting Thomas.

Why is this?  Likely because the average person recalls very little about Thomas, with this one exception.  That he doubted the resurrection of Christ and insisted on proof.  Also because, you may be interested to know, that the first three gospels say absolutely nothing at all about Thomas.

It’s only in John's Gospel that we find out about him, but even there, there are only 155 words about him. So little, yet he has formed such a strong presence in our imaginations, and been landed with an eternal and somewhat dubious nick name.   And not even the most accurate of nick names at that.

What we remember out of those 155 words in the gospel of John is very narrow indeed.  For instance, how many recall that when Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem and the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. It was Thomas who said: “let us go to Jerusalem as well, so that we may die with him”. It was Thomas who came forward with strong belief when others were doubting and questioning...yet we don't remember him for that.

It is simply the nickname that has stuck.  One moment of doubt and poor Thomas has been forever labelled.  Yet, to have volunteered to go to death with Christ proved that Thomas had much faith and much love.

We also fail to remember that in this story of Thomas' doubt we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. And it is interesting, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith.

A confession that is uttered nowhere else….”My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not simply Lord and Not even Messiah. But God!  The one who doubts and the one who proclaims absolute faith were the same person.  The same person who would have followed Christ to death, the same who had such faith and love. That was the same person whose faith received such a blow at Christ’s death, and whose experience of grief made it understandably difficult to believe the miracle of the resurrection.  Yet he too was the first person to name Christ …God.

These are certainly not the words of a doubter.  Yet, that is how we remember him … Thomas the doubter. It isn’t like all the other disciples didn’t experience their doubts.  At the beginning of our gospel reading we find the disciples, all of them save Thomas, cowering behind locked doors.  When Jesus appeared, he had to greet them twice, show them the wounds in his hands and side before they rejoiced in Christ’s resurrection.  Only then did they received the Holy Spirit.  Thomas asked for nothing less than the others had been given, no more proof than what had been received in that community of disciples.  Yet, it is Thomas we single out.  Thomas, the only one who was literally out when Christ first appeared.  I wonder why he wasn’t there, and why he came back.

Because I find that it is interesting that it is only when Thomas is reunited with the disciples that he is able to experience the resurrected Christ, to receive the Holy Spirit and to make his confession.

That it is in community that Thomas and the disciples are able to gain the strength and courage they need to overcome their fears, their insecurities and their doubts to become the foundational missionaries of the Christian faith.

As it becomes clear in the books of Acts, where we read that the disciples who at first cowered in fear behind locked doors, gained strength enough to preach the crucified Christ.  Not only to the faithful and familiar, but to all and sundry, to great crowds and important leaders.  Each of the disciples were changed by their encounter with the risen Christ, from fear to faith, from doubt to faith, from nothing to everything.

But what about us?  Christ said blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe.   We are all familiar with the story of Thomas, especially the doubting bit…and usually it is in that context that we can relate to him.

As we experience our own doubts we remember Thomas and how the Lord treated him.  That Christ did no rebuke or reject Thomas.   He did not accuse him of a lack of faith, nor did Christ chastise Thomas for his desire for proof.  Christ simply provided what Thomas needed.  ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’  Comforting and reassuring words for all of us who, each, from time to time, have our doubts.

But perhaps Thomas can inspire us in other directions as well.  Not just as a comfort in times of doubt, but as an encouragement for growth in community, for loyalty and fidelity and for strength in mission and evangelism.

Thomas can teach us that in times of doubt or difficulty… it is in community, in the church, that we will find the strength that we need to do God’s work in the world.

It is not when Thomas is alone in his doubts and fears that he received reassurance and strength, rather is in when he returns to the community of disciples… despite his fears and doubts that he experiences Christ and is strengthened in faith, in community.  And with the strength of his community and the experience of Christ, Doubting Thomas does great and faithful things.

Thomas can teach us that there is a time for being unsure, and a time to boldly proclaim who it is that you worship and why.  Thomas returned to his community and there received the faith he needed, the Spirit he needed, to go on and do great things.

And now…it is our turn.  We have a great future ahead of us.  We have doubts, and insecurities … but we have faith…and we have community.  The church is more than four walls with nice windows, the church is a family and the place where God invests his Spirit to do His work in the world.

There is no doubt that this is a community that welcomes doubters home, the faithful home and all and sundry home.  Yet, it is important to remember that Thomas did not return to the community to stay there.  The experience of the risen Christ empowered all the disciples to go out, to the ends of the earth.

We too have to be aware of God’s call to us to not only be strengthened in community but to be sent out empowered by the Spirit as well.  Sent out the ends of the world, or at least the wilds of St. James.  So that we can follow God’s call to us to proclaim God’s love to all whom we meet.  To increase our community, not simply in these walls, but to grow the whole community of Christ…regardless of whether they every actually step through the doors of St. Andrew’s.

To live out Christ’s mission, our baptismal vows and bring about God’s kingdom. So that this world that we are stewards of may be a safer, more loving and more righteous place to live.  So that God’s kingdom may come and God’s will be done.

It doesn’t matter if we entered this church today with faith enough to move mountains, or doubts so crippling it seemed barely worth the effort to show up.  God is moving within us, within this community and strengthened by our experience of Christ here in community we can do great things.  We can do God’s things.  If we, like Thomas, move from fear and doubt to great faith and powerful action. amen