Collect

Almighty Father, you have given your only Son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification:  grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth;  through the merits of your only Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Sprit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen

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A reading from The Acts of the Apostles (2. 14a, 22-32):

On the day of Pentecost, Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, ‘You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know – this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law.  But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

‘For David says concerning him, “I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;  therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;  moreover my flesh will live in hope.  For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption.  You have made known to me the ways of life;  you will make me full of gladness with your presence.”

‘Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.  Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne.  Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, “He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.”  This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.’

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

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Psalm 16:

1. Preserve me, O God, for in you have I taken refuge;  I have said to the Lord, ‘You are my lord, all my good depends on you.’

2. All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land, upon those who are noble in heart.

3. Though the idols are legion that many run after, their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, neither make mention of their names upon my lips.

4. The Lord himself is my portion and my cup;  in your hands alone is my fortune.

5. My share has fallen in a fair land; indeed, I have a goodly heritage.

6. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel, and in the night watches he instructs my heart.

7. I have set the Lord always before me;  he is at my right hand;  I shall not fall.

8. Wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices;  my flesh also shall rest secure.

9. For you will not abandon my soul to Death, nor suffer your faithful one to see the Pit.

10. You will show me the path of life;  in your presence is the fullness of joy and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:

world without end.

Amen

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A reading from The First Letter of Peter (1. 3-9):

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith – being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Although you have not seen him, you love him;  and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

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The Gospel

Listen to the Gospel of Christ according to St John (20. 19-31):

Glory to you, O Lord

When it was evening on the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.  Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them;  if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’

But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.  Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’

Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt but believe.’

Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’

Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

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Reflection - DK

If we look at our triptych east window, we see two apostles, men with weaknesses that are well-described in the Bible.  They were real people like us and it’s their predisposition to failure that makes them good role models to help our difficulties in believing what we celebrated only a week ago.  On the left stands Peter, our impetuous patron saint who denied Christ and yet became the rock on which the future church would be founded.  On the right we have Thomas, the ‘Doubting Thomas’ of today’s gospel story.  It’s an account that isn’t recorded in any of the synoptic gospels, only in John.  And John, in that last sentence at the end of this penultimate chapter of his Gospel is crystal clear about his purpose – to make us believe.

 

Today’s readings deal with belief and the ways in which people come to believe.  Our first lesson from Acts jumps forward in time to a relevant section on belief from the speech made by Peter at Pentecost, which we won’t reach until the end of May.  Incidentally Pentecost (also known under that Greek name amongst Hellenised Jews of the time) was already an long established Jewish festival – in Hebrew known as Shavuot or the ‘Feast of Weeks.’  Prescribed in Leviticus, chapter 23 as a festival of first harvest, it was to be held 50 days or seven weeks following Passover.  Of course, events described in the same Acts chapter gave Pentecost a very particular Christian significance from then on!

 

Peter tells the crowd that they need to acknowledge their part in Jesus’ unjust death, but despite all that, Christ is alive.  The implication is that the possibility of belief in their witness testimony is open to them despite their failings, and the truth of it has been foretold by their own scriptures.

 

In the First letter of Peter, hopes and faith of its readers and listeners who haven’t directly seen Jesus are admitted to come with struggles and pains.  But the rewards are very great.

 

And so in our lessons we come to Thomas in John’s Gospel.  I guess some will assume, as I used to, that in this account, the risen Jesus not only reproves Thomas for his previously expressed doubts but that in doing so, he considers Thomas less worthy than the other disciples around him.  Let’s look again carefully.  Firstly, of course, Thomas is told by the others about Jesus’s earlier appearance and at which he wasn’t present.  He hasn’t had the advantage of the other disciples’ previous direct experience, including that of being shown the wounds.  Does Thomas’s declaration of incredulity perhaps imply disappointment and annoyance that he’s missed out on such an important earlier moment?  That would be quite understandable to most of us, if we’re honest.  Or is Thomas just more obdurate than the others anyway, and unable to accept mere words of his fellows?  I don’t feel it’s either of those things.  Certainly he may function with a bigger need to be shown rather than just told, but we find out he’s still open to revelation.

 

Jesus gladly offers Thomas the chance to feel inside the wound.  But does Thomas do so in the end?  Older paintings of the scene sometimes show this happening (for example in paintings by Carracci and Caravaggio) , but the Gospel doesn’t actually say that.  Understanding and lovingly accepting human limitations, and in using Thomas’s own words from the week before, Jesus offers to let him feel the wound.  But at this point it seems Thomas finds the visual evidence and that of Jesus’s risen presence compelling enough without having to go quite as far as touching.

 

And then Jesus’s question, which I think is said in the manner of a gentle tease: “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  All in that room have seen: not only Thomas but also all the others there with him.  The ones who have not are well away from the scene, including those yet to come and, amongst them, ourselves.

 

Post-Communion Prayer

Lord God our Father, through our Saviour Jesus Christ you have assured your children of eternal life and in baptism have made us one with him:  deliver us from the death of sin and raise us to new life in your love, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen