He'll Come Back For You, Leonard Sweet, Premiered 11 April 2021, Lectionary LenTalk #56

About this sermon

Jesus came back for Thomas . . . not to scold him, or rebuke him, but to embrace him and do what it took for him to believe. He’ll come back for you too. He gave Thomas that grace. He'll give you that "great grace" too. Thomas is my patron saint . . And the patron saint of all of us who can’t stop asking questions, like Jesus. Thomas should be known less as "Doubting Thomas" than as "Confessing Thomas" since the first confession of faith after the resurrection comes from his mouth. Thomas didn’t have to touch him on his body, because Jesus touched him in his heart to the point of confession: "My Lord and my God." Lectionary Passages Acts 4:32-35 Psalm 133 1 John 1:1-2:2 John 20:19-31 I suspect Thomas was one of Jesus’ favorite disciples because he saw so much of himself in Thomas (hence his nickname "The Twin"???). Jesus is always asking questions .. . and keeps asking questions . . Questions are as sacred as Answers. So we too should keep asking questions and embracing our doubts, for it is those "doubts" that lead to "confessions." I love how the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai compares the sterility of certainty and the fertility of doubts and questions. It is doubts and questions that dig up the world like a mole. See Alison Elliot, The Miraculous Everyday (Edinburgh, Scotland: Covenanters’ Press, 2005), 23. Thomas didn’t doubt Jesus. Thomas doubted the disciples; Thomas doubted the church. Thomas didn’t believe their words that he is alive. But he stays in the conversation. He is still with the disciples a week later . . . and the disciples didn’t expel or excommunicate him for his doubts and demands and questions. There is a semiotics of words and wounds in these two post-resurrection stories. They didn’t recognize Jesus from his words; they recognized Jesus from his wounds. Jesus took the wounds of torture and death with him into his resurrected life. What if we touched our wounds through the wounds of Jesus? What if we touched the wounds of our world through the wounds of Jesus? If you want to see Jesus, look at the saints, right? No, if you want to see Jesus, look at the sinners . . . If you want to see Jesus, Look more for the scars and the wounds, not so much the halos and canonizations. Look less to the victors and more to the vulnerable and vanquished. One possible soundtrack: the group "I Am They" song "Scars" that repeats "I'm thankful for Your scars Cause without them I wouldn't know Your heart And with my life I'll tell of who You are So forever I am thankful" Subscribe to the Leonard Sweet YouTube Channel by hitting the red subscribe button. Thank you. All Len's resources now (except books) are donation not subscription based. So please help us with as little or as much as you can. There are multiple ways to do it. Support Len’s Ministry through his 501-c-3 “SpiritVenture Ministries” (SVM) https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted... Become a SpiritVenture Ministries (SVM) Supporter at $9/month https://preachthestory.com/cart/ Become a Tribe of Issachar Member at $49/month https://preachthestory.com/cart/ Follow Leonard Sweet on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leonard.sweet Twitter: https://twitter.com/lensweet (Sweet’s daily micro-blogs) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lensweet (Sweet’s daily blogs) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/preachthestory Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/preac... (Specifically for preachers and others who love and pray for those who preach) Access sermons, conferences, and more Leonard Sweet activities: https://preachthestory.com/ (hundreds of written sermons) https://www.facebook.com/thesalishsea... (Sweet’s newest publications) https://salishsea.press/ https://the-salish.com (Orcas Island getaway cottages for board, staff and church advances [aka “retreats”]) #LeonardSweet, #DoubtingThomas #Wounds