Berry French and Brett Bolton (PCM student)
John 20:19-29
May 4, 2025
Introducing Brett (Brett)
Good morning dear hearts and, for those who celebrate, May the 4th Be With You! My name is Brett Bolton and I am a senior at UNC preparing to graduate in the coming week. A couple things I think you should know about are that I have an identical twin brother named Barrett. I am the Moderator of PCM, and am an official member here at UPC. And as the most observant among you may recognize, I am not usually here in the pulpit on Sunday morning.
However, this Sunday Berry extended an invitation to the pulpit and we’ve been wrestling with the Scripture together. I am excited and honored to be up here this morning.
Introduction to the Text (Berry)
Today’s narrative begins on the evening of the very first Easter. In the Gospel of John, only Mary Magdalene has seen the 2 angels in the tomb and encountered the risen Christ in the garden Easter morning. As John tells the story, no one else has seen Jesus since his crucifixion. No one else has seen any angels. Peter and another disciple have seen the empty tomb, but they didn’t stay long enough to encounter the angels nor Jesus. There is fear in the air. Importantly, Mary’s announcement of seeing the risen Jesus has not sunk in for the disciples.
Maybe they are too weighed down in their grief and fear, but we meet the disciples behind locked doors on that first Easter evening, likely still unpacking the events of Holy Week and Jesus’ death.
Before we hear Scripture, I invite you to join us in prayer:
Prayer for Illumination (Berry)
Living Lord, we too are weighed down by our fears and anxiety,
so meet us in this sacred text, as you have met us so many times.
Feed us again by your Word,
and fill us with your Spirit. Amen.
Scripture (Brett & Berry): John 20:19-29
Let us listen to God’s word to us today from John, chapter 20, verses 19-29.
When it was evening on that day, 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 Thomas 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.”
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
SERMON
“Fear Is in the Air” (Berry)
Though I have a LOT of respect for those that do, and many years I seriously consider it, I must confess … that most years I do not take on the Lenten practice of giving something up. However, this Lent, I stopped reading the news – as in I stopped scrolling news sites on my phone. And so I caught the major headlines by listening to my peers, colleagues, and the PCM students.
I stayed away from the news for all of Lent – and I have to tell you, it was nice. It was a good break from the headlines that are dominating these days.
After learning of the Pope’s death from Brett over lunch last Monday with a group of 4 PCM students who are all considering seminary, I decided to wade back into the news to at least read about Pope Francis. I was quite grateful to have news of a global leader who invested his power and influence inviting us to think about how to care for the vulnerable and advocate for the powerless, and who took seriously the responsibility of global leadership.
Today’s text starts on that very first Easter – but rather than greeting Easter with the alleluia chorus … we meet those early disciples gathered behind locked doors, deep in fear.
They were afraid, and when you consider it – of course they were afraid. Their leader and friend had been brutally put to death by the state; hope was in short supply; and fear was in the air.
Last Sunday, I gathered with about 25 of you for a Sunday school class on this Scripture passage. To open, Meg asked us what we’re scared of. The reply came pretty quickly, “if you’re asking that question for real … we’re afraid of the current political climate!” Much of the class nodded in agreement. If the question is to us collectively, as a nation – many of us are fearful of leadership that is not using power to care for the vulnerable nor protect the powerless. The landscape of our national politics has us scared.
If we are to turn to more locally and personally – we each have our own fears.
● Our PCM students are worrying they still haven’t heard back from any of those summer internships or job applications.
● Our Confirmands are not that far from thoughts of transition into high school – being on the top of middle school is fun but what’s it going to be like to be the youngest in high school in just a few months?
● Others might be asking what that medical report might show when it comes?
● How much longer will our grants last … and what will happen to my department if they get cut?
Fear is in the air!
(in character as a disciple)
… It’s as if our people have turned against us. We can’t trust them. Our own leaders have failed us. A week ago, as we came into Jerusalem with him, they were waving palms, shouting “Hosana!”
But now they’ve killed him.
Our religious leaders, our own people, and that cursed Roman Empire crucified him. You’re darn right we’re scared. They beat him and killed him as a criminal.
What’s to say they won’t turn on us. In fact, surely, they’ll turn on us. We are next.
Verse 19: When it was evening, two days after Jesus’ crucifixion, and the doors of the house 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. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you”
“Twins” (Brett)
I imagine the disciples were a little jumpy whenever Jesus offered this greeting. Flinching at the creaking of doors; wary of the outside world. But in their fear Jesus met them with this refrain, “Peace be with you.” The disciples would have recognized this phrase as a common greeting and approached it with a comfortable familiarity. But I think Jesus meant so much more than a simple ‘hello’. Rather, Jesus’ words alluded to the assurance echoed throughout the Gospel of John. A fulfilled promise in which Jesus has conquered death and overcome the fear that this world is so apt at cultivating. However, as scripture recounts, Thomas was not there. Thomas did not get to touch and feel the risen Lord. Thomas did not get to hear, “Peace be with You.”
Funnily enough, Thomas is identified throughout John’s Gospel as “Thomas the Twin,” but exactly whose twin he is is never mentioned. As a twin, I find this very strange. I mean, I even introduced myself this morning, leading with the fact that somewhere out there, at any given moment, there is someone who looks exactly like me. Strange indeed.
Some scholars suggest that this ‘twin’ identifier serves a more deliberate purpose of begging the question, well… “who is Thomas’ twin?”… and perhaps in this question we are invited to see ourselves as Thomas’ twin.
I am no stranger to imagining what it would be like to be someone else. The whole twin thing keeps me privy to that sort of self-awareness, and it reminds me of one of my favorite childhood stories. One thing you must know as I tell this story is that there comes a time in every twin’s life that they are assigned a color. Red, Blue, or Green. This is not an arbitrary choice though, but rather, one made out of practicality.
See, when you are buying things for twins, everything comes in pairs. I get a shirt, Barrett gets a shirt. I need new shoes for school, Barrett also needs new shoes for school. But… they can’t be the same and, from an early age, it was decided that Barrett was the red-twin, and I was the blue-twin. Those shirts we got. I got it in blue, and Barrett got it in the red. Those shoes, well… I got the blue light-up sketchers and Barrett got the red ones.
When Barrett and I were younger – 3 or 4 years old, our mom took us as she went grocery shopping one day, and when we got to the grocery store, naturally, Barrett and I assumed our prime positions in the grocery cart. As we were toted along through the aisles, Barrett and I began to mess around and talk and play with one another.
All seemed normal, nothing out of the ordinary, when out of the blue, my mom overhears me ask Barrett a strange question. I turn to Barrett and I say, “Barrett, what is it like to be you?” And not to toot my own horn or anything, but that was a pretty profound question from a 4 year old.
Well, Barrett thought about it and thought about it and he responded, “Well, it’s like being you… just red.”
Just as Barrett saw himself in me while we were in the grocery cart, we can see ourselves mirrored through Thomas. We also fear. We also doubt. Perhaps we are also scared that inviting that same living hope into our lives could crush us if it’s not exactly what we imagine it to be.
Upon hearing the too good to be true news from his friends, I think Thomas wanted to believe… I mean who wouldn’t. Thomas’ response is much like how I would imagine my own response. Reaching out and grasping for a tether to reality and empirical truth. “There is no way I will believe unless I see it for myself”
But, maybe there is a faithfulness in Thomas’ response to the revolutionary hope of the risen Christ.
Reclaiming Doubt (Berry)
Theologian Paul Tillich wrote, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty.”
The bible gave him the nickname Thomas the twin. But poor Thomas picked up a terrible nickname early in the Common Era and it’s stayed with him for centuries now … Doubting Thomas. Scripture tells us he’s Thomas the Twin, but it’s the worst nicknames that stick.
If you read the story carefully, faithful Thomas the twin might be the exemplar disciple. He’s the only one who, after seeing the risen Christ exclaims: “My Lord and My God!” Thomas is the one who responds with a faith statement. Let’s give the guy a chance.
You see Mary had seen the risen Lord in the garden Easter morning, and she’d told the disciples about it. And yet, all the other disciples are still fearfully huddling behind locked doors. Thomas isn’t locked inside, he’s out and about.
● Was he out trying to determine if what Mary had said was true?
● Was he checking in on others?
● We don’t know where Thomas was, but give him this: he was not locked away in fear.
Paying attention to the Gospel of John’s words, we realize what Mary says to the disciples is the exact same thing that the disciples later say to Thomas: “I have seen the Lord.” (verse 18 AND 25). Well, the disciples’ response to Mary’s proclamation is to lock themselves in a room. Thomas’ response – to the disciples’ same proclamation – is “I must see the marks of the nails and put my hand in his side.”
Thomas might be an exemplar disciple … maybe we should all strive to be Thomas’s twin.
You see, if we zoom out and think about the role of Thomas for the entire Gospel of John … the era when folks can know Jesus as he walked on earth has ended. Everyone who could touch Jesus in human form has died by the time John’s gospel is in written form.
So like you and me – those who have come to faith after the first century have to do it WITHOUT touching and seeing Jesus in his physical earthly form. You might say Thomas paved the way for us.
The gospel writer sure seems to think so. Biblical scholars point out that in the Gospel of John – Thomas’s “My Lord and My God” is the most powerful and complete confession of Jesus in the entire Gospel. Jesus is Lord AND God … Word of God made flesh (as John’s gospel opens) … and Thomas is the one who says so. So for the gospel writer – Thomas is no doubter, he is the one whose lips proclaim Jesus as fully Divine!
Doubting the Community (Brett)
I think we all have been a little too hard on Thomas. However, I also think we are still prompted to single out Thomas’ lapse of faith in the text, but not for his need to see and touch Jesus. I think the moral of Thomas’ story is not his lack of faith in the resurrection, but the lack of faith in his community. The same community that he had trusted and traveled with for so long was no longer enough. The witness of Thomas’ friends was… insufficient.
The community of the early church is threatened at its very beginning. Thomas’ skepticism extends past his own faith, and strikes at the core of this support system that Jesus left behind. It is this same distrust that chips away at the foundation of our churches and communities today. As one scholar puts it, “It is this community-shattering doubt that the Gospel of John rejects. For at some point, if our churches are to be faithful to the risen Christ, we must stop distrusting our friends in Christ.”
Though Thomas doubted his community, he was still with the disciples a week later; and then again a week after that when the disciples were fishing and Jesus appeared to them from the shore. See, Thomas didn’t give up on his community.
As we have seen ourselves through Thomas’ fear and doubt, I also challenge us to see ourselves in his commitment to that faithful community that surrounded him. That community that surrounds us. Even when fear is in the air and we are confronted with the strangest of news, “We have seen the risen Lord”.
Amen!