postID: 6901; title: The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
groupKey: secondary
groupKey: other
The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee, mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the same Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 19)
Array
(
[date] => 2016-09-11 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1259
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => formatted
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2016-09-11 11:00:00
)
1 post(s) found for dateStr : 2016-09-11postID: 6901 (The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6901; date_type: variable; year: 2016
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6901
displayDates for postID: 6901/year: 2016
Array
(
[0] => 2016-09-11
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2016-09-11 with ID: 6901 (The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
Array
(
[date] => 2016-09-11 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1259
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => simple
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2016-09-11 11:00:00
)
1 post(s) found for dateStr : 2016-09-11postID: 6901 (The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6901; date_type: variable; year: 2016
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6901
displayDates for postID: 6901/year: 2016
Array
(
[0] => 2016-09-11
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2016-09-11 with ID: 6901 (The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The reading_id [73448] is already in the array.
No update needed.
Scripture citation(s): John 20:24-29
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
John 20:24-29
✛
Simply peace.
Array
(
[0] => 60758
)
book: [Array
(
[0] => 60758
)
] (reading_id: 73448)bbook_id: 60758
The bbook_id [60758] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.
In the late 1960’s/early 70’s a psychiatrist at the University of Chicago worked with hospital patients who had terminal illnesses, their families, and those who had experienced the death of a loved one. What Elisabeth Kübler Ross discovered was that, almost invariably, people who were given news of terminal illness, or who were dying themselves, or who had lost a loved one went through various ‘stages’ of grief[1] and that, no matter how short lived it was, it usually began with denial.
Poor old Thomas! So often described as ‘doubting Thomas’. I think it is probably more apt to say that he was not doubting but, rather, ‘in denial’. He had just spent three amazing years with Jesus – listening to him teach; seeing signs and miracles; watching him debate with the religious and secular rulers; being formed in a life of prayer and mission; feeling close to God. This experience of life with Jesus so changed Thomas that, in spite of the rumors and threats that Jesus would be killed, when Jesus went to Bethany near Jerusalem to see the family of Lazarus who had died, Thomas exclaimed to the other disciples, “Let us go with him, that we may also die with him.” (John 11:16)
But, of course, that’s not how it played out. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when the chips were down, Thomas fled with the other disciples; he deserted the one he loved and then, from a distance, watched him tortured and killed.
Three days later, the Risen Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene, then to the other disciples. Jerusalem was a buzz with excitement – everyone was in turmoil; the disciples were overjoyed…and Thomas had missed it! He had not been there. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus rushed back to tell the eleven that they had met Jesus and that their hearts had been burning as he talked with them. All Thomas had was the memory of Gethsemane and Good Friday; he was still in denial. Notice how Thomas asks to see the wounds…the wounds! The marks of the death of Jesus. He wanted to see the real Jesus, his friend – he wanted to know that he really was risen from the dead.
Today, many people will recall the senseless taking of lives 15 years ago and many victims’ families may enter again the despair of that fateful day in American history. Almost a year ago I attended a multi-faith service in the Foundation Hall of the 9/11-memorial museum with Pope Francis. Before the service began, the Pope had met with victims’ families and prayed at the memorial. He described the pools and the flowing water as ‘tears’. He said that “out of the wrongful and senseless loss of innocent lives”, out of “injustice, murder, and the failure to settle conflicts through dialogue”, would come something new and good. This ‘something good’ he summed up in two words: “Simply peace.”
Now, let’s go back to that Upper Room. Jesus appeared and what was the word that he used to greet Thomas?
“Peace”.
The same word used a week before when Jesus met the other disciples: “Peace”. That peace came from the risen Lord, but the risen Lord who still bore the marks of the nails and the spear. The peace that he gave to his disciples did not undo the awfulness of his death on the cross – neither did it make them forget the cruelty of those who brought about that death – but what it did was to show the disciples that God could bring hope out of despair; love out of hate; even life out of death.
Thomas did not need to reach out his hands and touch the wounds. Instead, his faith – itself a gift from God – was rekindled and his response to Jesus’ invitation was to give his brothers, to give the Church, to give each one of us here the vocabulary of hopeful living: “My Lord and my God!” One of the most important Christological statement of the Gospels, proclaimed not by Mary Magdalene or by Peter or even by the Blessed Mother herself, but by Thomas who had entered into the despair of losing the one whom he loved, and yet was brought out of that despair by the same one who brought peace back into his life.
Speaking at the service in the Foundation Hall at the 9-11 memorial, Pope Francis said this: “This place of death became a place of life too, a place of saved lives, a song that affirms that life will always triumph over the prophets of destruction and death, and good over evil, reconciliation and unity over hatred and division.”
Dr Kübler Ross saw that going through the stages of grief allowed people to move to a final stage, which is, acceptance. But for the Christian there is a further stage; hope – which will take us beyond the process of dying and even beyond death itself.
Writing to the Romans, Paul says this: “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” (Romans 5:1-5a)
Can this Jesus-peace really change things? It did for Thomas and, two thousand years later, it can again. Listen to the words of the wife of the pilot of Flight 93 whose passengers prevented the plane from reaching its target but lost their lives in doing so: “If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate.” (Sandy Dahl – 2002)
I think that such statements are inspired by Jesus, breathing again into creation his gift of peace.
As we leave this place we will do so strengthened in our faith by the presence of the one who is our peace and our hope. Jesus said to Thomas – or does he say to you and to me? “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” My friends, let us live our faith – in the peace of the risen Lord Jesus and, as a witness to all whom we shall meet with week, let us share that peace and live hopeful lives recognizing Jesus, the pioneer of our faith who is our Lord and our God.
_______________
[1]In her seminal book, ‘On death and dying’ first published in 1969, Dr Elisabeth Kübler Ross (1926-2004) shares many conversations with patients and their families and it is this conversational approach that is so striking. The so-called five ‘stages’ are categorized by the words Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance but are not necessarily fixed and may overlap and one or more ‘stages’ may even be missing. I am using the word hope as a kind of ‘stage’ in itself – that sees death not as an end but as a beginning – a stage on our journey to be closer to God.
