Ramblings

Usability – 5/29/2011

John 14: 15-21

It has finally, happened an invention that will solve all our problems … Are you ready for it...a magic wand that replaces all of our remote controls. According to the web site "Think Geek" for $90.00 "the wand can learn from any remotes in your house and once you master its 13 movements, you can mastermind a symphony of electronic enjoyment from the comfort of your couch. Flick the wand from side to side to flip the channels, twist the wand to turn up the volume and a beam of light will shoot out the unicorn tail hair and magic will happen!"

Well, I don't know about you although the concept of ditching all our remote controls for a wand is kind of appealing in a geeky kind way, I do not think that is a good solution. I quite did not know why until I read about the rule of usability.

As many of us have experienced, less than a few decades back, when TVs and other electronic gadgets started arriving with remote controls, the buttons were few and controlled only a small number of functions. They were not too complicated to use. But with each new generation of consumer electronic devices the number of buttons has crept upward. And the increasing number of buttons has made such things as setting the time of day to adjusting the color too complicated for many people.

According to Jakob Nielsen, a user-interface expert, whether it is a remote control with buttons or a wand that you can flick, they all violate a primary rule of usability --- unless that gadget should first present users with a limited number of features, those likely to be the most useful, and then allow users to get to more advanced features if they want to access them. Nielsen suggests that many of today's electronic devices error because they either put every last feature and function on the hand-held controller or just the opposite, the device is so limited that makes them unusable over time --- instead devices should grow with us.

I have been wondering about this rule of usability as we approach Pentecost, because consider that concept in our gospel reading. We may not realize it but this primary and very important rule of usability plays a role in what Jesus says to his disciples at the Last Supper.

This is the sixth Sunday of Easter, two Sundays before Pentecost. Pentecost was when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, empowering Jesus' disciples for ministry. But here we are, a couple weeks ahead of time, where we are given a glimpse of what's coming --- a sort of preview of Pentecost. And what do we hear?

Well, today's gospel is a small piece of a lengthy message that Jesus is sharing with his disciples during his last evening with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion. Although Jesus knows that his time with them is about to come to an abrupt end, Jesus does not try to stuff a lot of final instructions into the conversation. To the casual observer, this might seem odd, for these followers are the ones on whom Jesus is going to rely to carry on with the spreading of the gospel, but they are not nearly ready. In fact, Jesus quite calmly tells them as much: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."

So Jesus is near his final days but he is between a rock and cross. Jesus is not saying that the disciples are resisting learning, or somehow Jesus is afraid that all is lost, but rather that the disciples have not yet had the experiences that will enable them even to perceive what knowledge they will need. Jesus know that there are encounters ahead for them where there are things they will need to know, but that from their present viewpoint, they cannot even imagine what those things are.

Think of it this way. Have you ever encountered a situation where you wished you could ask for example, the advice of a loved one who has died? Or if, while that loved one was alive, you could have anticipated that you were going to need his or her counsel for the particular conundrum you now face? But back then, you had no way of knowing what the future would hold, and so it never occurred to you to ask. That, in essence, is what Jesus is saying to his followers: "There are some things I need to tell you, but you are not yet in a position to comprehend them."

Jesus tells them something that does change everything, and it explains why Jesus is so calm in front of his disciples what we know to be coming on Pentecost. After he departs, Jesus says, the Advocate --- the word also gets translated "Comforter" or sometimes "Counselor" or "Teacher" or the transliterated Biblical Greek "paraclete" (παράκλητος) is used --- this Advocate will come to guide the disciples and convey to them what the Spirit hears from Jesus. "And I will ask the father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth."

But before we get to ahead of ourselves, to return for a moment, to that primary rule of usability, Jesus is introducing what he will be leaving his disciples with what they can handle at the moment and need for the present, but Jesus is also telling them that when they need more from him, the Advocate is the "mechanism" who will provide it.

The Advocate --- the Holy Spirit --- is not a gadget; rather in other words, there would be no one simple little button in Jesus' teaching of his disciples. Nor on the other had would there be no last-minute flurry of overwhelming instructions that the disciples could not possibly absorb. No. The law of usability would be observed. Jesus would leave them with what they had been able to grasp so far, and as they needed more and were able to receive it, the Holy Spirit would supply it.

Now let me very clear, some have suggested that today's gospel --- introducing the Advocate --- is somehow suggesting that there is another person coming who will interpret and help the disciples. Some Muslims have suggested this is the prophet Mohammed pbuh. Bahia's have suggested this is Bahaullah. With respect for both those faiths, that is not the case. The Holy Spirit will not bring someone else's teachings, but those of Jesus.

As Jesus explained it, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own ... He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you".

To us who follow Jesus today, there's great value in hearing these words about the future role of the Holy Spirit, for they remind us of two critical things: First, today's words remind us that at Pentecost, God will provide a way for Jesus to continue to speak to us and not just with things already taught and recorded in Scripture. But the Advocate will help us so that we can navigate a world that is quite different from the world the original disciples knew.

The Bible is the basis for our moral, ethical and spiritual decision-making. Paul for example, no doubt was thinking of the Old Testament when he wrote to Timothy, "... from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus," but we can surely apply those words to the New Testament as well. The Scriptures do contain what we need to know for salvation. But God did not stop speaking when the Bible was complete, and Jesus did not stop speaking when he ascended into heaven.

Thus we should look to the Bible as God's Living Word for our lives for our surface understanding of the Bible is not necessarily his last word on everything. Rather, the Holy Spirit takes the things that Jesus wants us to know today, and communicates those to us through many channels. Sometimes it is through new insight on the Scriptures we thought we already knew, but the Spirit also speaks through the power of inspiration, community, reason, insight, tradition, revelation and personal experience, especially as we seek to listen prayerfully.

The second valuable thing that Jesus' words about the role of the Advocate tell us is that not one of us understands all at once, all that Jesus Christ has for us. I love this quote by Mark Twain the American humorist who put it this way: "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years."

When we are baptized, we all can lay claim to the power of God's love and grace. Our responsibility is to listen to the power of the triune God faithfully so we can think more clearly, feel more deeply, speak more truthfully, love more extravagantly, serve more creatively, give more lavishly and live more fully. Because Jesus was preparing us for the fact that anytime that we stand up for another, anytime we act like Jesus, anytime that happens we will bear the love of Christ to another.

As Jesus well knew, it is simply impossible to anticipate all that we will need as we mature and encounter the twists and turns of life. In these last words Jesus introduces that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, operating by the primary rule of usability, declares to us what is Christ's, as we need it, as our experience of people, places, actions, touch, sight, sound, victories, failures, sleeplessness, devotion, love, faith and reverence makes us capable of hearing it. Let us listen as we act. Amen.

Full Life – 5/15/2011

John 10: 1-10

Have you ever had a miserable job --- one of those employment situations that drains all your energy and possibly your life? A poll from a year ago revealed that 55 percent of American employees hate their jobs. Work is not the only form of dissatisfaction. Relationships or ones health simmer as issues for many people. Unhappiness can span cultures and geography and ages.

Some simply throw up their hands, find blame, or look for a conspiracy as countless people do. Nevertheless this whole notion of discontent is important for us to consider as Christians. This is not only because of our task to follow Christ and live a new life forgiven and freed but because of what constitutes the opposite of discontent, "a full life." "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." While we can all seem to describe dissatisfaction, what is a "full life?"

We have many examples of skewed understandings of full life. You may recall hearing in the news back in August 2007 of New York billionaire Leona Helmsley's death. More likely you may remember the story that followed of her leaving $12 million to her Maltese dog to make sure that it was cared for … that amount was later decreased to $2 million. This is the same woman who, was convicted in 1988 of federal tax evasion for, among other things, fraudulently charging as business expenses her $1 million marble dance floor above a swimming pool and $45,000 silver clock. I remember thinking at the time that "living the good life" and "living a good life" are not the same thing --- a rich woman making sure that a dog lived out the good life rather than many people around her living a good life.

On the other hand, according to Christ, we were all made to enjoy a fulfilling and life-giving relationship with God and with others. We were all created to live with purpose and to measure our lives not in terms of the dollars we earn or the amount of stuff we own or produce but by the amount of love we give and receive. Jesus came "that they may have life, and have it to the full." So, if there are markers for a miserable life, Jesus offers a completely different set of signs to indicate a life that is ultimately fulfilled and fulfilling. So what are they?

Before we explore signs of a full life we need to remember that when John 10 opens, Jesus is still engaged in a rather heated conversation with the Pharisees --- a conversation sparked by Jesus' healing of the man born blind on a Sabbath in John 9. The Pharisees were acting like the ultimate bad boss, engaging in religious ruthlessness rather than in compassion and amazement at the man's healing. One thing to remember from John 9 and the healing of the blind man is that he is never named — he is anonymous, and the Pharisees seem to care less about the man himself than about the legality of him being healed on the Sabbath. In response, Jesus draws on a different vocational metaphor to counter the misery-making legalism of the Pharisees --- the image of the Good Shepherd.

This is an interesting image, because it would have been hard to imagine a more mundane first-century job than shepherding sheep. Besides the boredom of moving sheep back and forth from water to pasture to sheepfold, shepherds faced long periods of time away from home and family. Living most of the time in the open, they were often pounded by harsh weather. Besides that, they and their flocks were in constant danger from animal predators like lions, bears and wolves and human predators like sheep-stealing thieves. Furthermore, a shepherd's job was the least important in society and they were thus among the poorest of the poor. For example, you may remember when Samuel was told by God to go to the family of Jesse to anoint the next King of Israel. Jesse had many children, all of whom Samuel examined to see if they would be king. None made the grade for God until Samuel asked Jesse and was told there was one more… but he was out with the sheep!

Back up a bit to verses 1-10, though, and you see that Jesus is setting up a contrast between the good shepherd who cares for the flock and the "thieves and bandits" who come only to "steal and kill and destroy." The Pharisees may have seen themselves as the benevolent bosses of the people, but Jesus makes it clear that their oppressive religious posturing is bringing the people nothing but misery. The Pharisees are clueless managers who just don't get it. Jesus, on the other hand, understands the needs of his flock and is invested in bringing "full life" to those in his care. But that takes us back to the question of what are the signs of a full life. I think we find three signs in our gospel.

The first sign of the full life is being known. No anonymity here. We do not blend into the cubicle or street. We are not nameless office workers or faces on the street. The full life has everything to do with the relationship of the shepherd to the sheep. For Jesus, the first and foremost sign of an abundant life has to do with knowing and being known by the other. "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out," says Jesus of the shepherd, "and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."

If a basic human need is to be valued by someone in authority, Jesus is all over this. We do not serve a dispassionate, disconnected God who sits in a divine corner office with big windows dispensing orders. In Jesus Christ, God knows us by name, values us, and cares for us. In a world that seems to always operate out of a sense of scarcity, where the operative principle is always wanting, doing or being more, Jesus offers an abundance of love, grace and hope.

The second sign of a full life found in our gospel is that love is not just a sentimental thought. God does not send cheap cards with a machine produced signature. Rather, Jesus would "lay down [his] life" and be the "gate" through whom all his sheep, his people, would "come in" and "be saved." Some Christians want Jesus as the gate to somehow become a "yes" to some and a "no" to others. But that is a total betrayal of today's words. The love and care of the Good Shepherd has a purpose. Every person is of value. We are not just saved from the dangers of life apart from God; we are also saved for the mission of sharing the abundant life in Christ with others. Jesus came to bring an abundant life and says to us, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

Our relevance in the world isn't based on our job title, on what we produce or how much we make. Rather a full life embraces a larger vision of life and our place in the world. No matter the life situation we find ourselves in, we find relevance when we see our connectedness to the purposes of God for the whole world.

The third sign of a full life is that we are not about measurement. Measuring the full life in Christ involves a different kind of math than the rest of the world uses. All the things that typically mark success in the world --- job, house, salary, car, the latest technological gadgets --- or whatever else you think it is, don't add up to a hill of beans in the eyes of Jesus. Rather the abundant life is always outwardly focused, always concerned about how much one gives rather than gets. If there is a measuring stick for the followers of Jesus, then it has to be Jesus himself. We measure ourselves by asking, "How well d0 we represent Jesus? How do I reflect his presence in my life?

Ultimately, it is not so important how you and I see or define the Good Shepherd. Rather what is ultimately important is how the Good Shepherd sees and defines us. Namely, we are all people who belong to God and are loved so much that Jesus would lay down his life for us, and for the whole world. In turn, knowing who we are and whose we are gives us freedom and energy to be like the members of the early church, to praise God, joyfully breaking bread together and sharing our resources with glad and generous hearts.

"The glory of God is the person fully alive," said a famous early Christian Irenaeus. Jesus has come that we might have life, and have it to the full and it is in doing just that --- living fully --- that God is glorified by each moment of our existence. In the words of a prominent British Christian, John Henry Newman: "Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning." God loves us and we are loved for who we are. That is the only measure that matters. Let's us live out the full life. Amen.

Walking – 5/8/2011

On May 1^st, I began a part-time interim pastor position at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd. Their old web site is www.goodshepherdsa.org I am excited to be working again and look forward to sharing more about my work at a later date.

 

Luke 24: 13-35    

    On August 9, 2010, Edward Stafford plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil to cool off, pop open some champagne and celebrate. Other sun bathing tourists on the beach might have seen him as just another crazy Brit who soaked up a little too much South American sun and beer. Stafford would say he was, indeed, a little bit crazy … but not in the sense that many may believe.
    That's because when Stafford's toes hit the surf that morning, he officially became the first man known to ever walk the entire length of the Amazon River. His two-year, 4,200-mile trek began on April 2, 2008 in Peru and took him through some of the most dangerous terrain on earth. Stafford and his companion, Peruvian forestry worker "Cho" Sanchez Rivera, braved deadly snakes, 18-foot crocodiles, exotic tropical diseases, hostile villages and the daily potential of disaster to complete the trek entirely by walking and not using boats, as other expeditions had done.

    Why did he do it, you ask? Stafford is quick to tell you he is not an eco-warrior out to prove a point about the devastating deforestation of the Amazon's rain forest. Rather, it was a personal challenge for a man who was and is still perhaps searching. Quoted on the trip as saying, "The crux of it is, if this wasn't a selfish, boy's-own adventure, I don't think it would have worked," he said about his quest. "I am simply doing it because no one has done it before."

    Although we may consider his actions either admirable or crazy or perhaps a mix of the two, what I find interesting is that walking makes big news --- in other words, walking is not what we do --- that is why it makes the news! It seems that such an difficult, dangerous trek makes news today not only because it is quite a feat but because we are generally not used to walking very far, unlike our pre-automobile, pre-airline ancestors.

For example, part of my own culture shock returning to the US has been how much less I walk every day compared to my daily life in Japan. In Japan, although we did not own a car and used public transit, the reason I had to walk more often was that we would have to walk for nearly everything. Now, it takes a special effort to get out of home, office or car. In this country the issue has become so acute that we have to launch media campaigns to get people in our inactive culture to walk farther than the distance from the couch to the refrigerator for the good of our own health. Or we have to buy exercise machines so that we can walk but in the comfort of our own rooms. So, thinking about a two-year hike is more than a bit of a stretch it is newsworthy.

    For that reason, according to the gospels, we may forget that Jesus was himself an epic walker. Cari Haus, who writes for the web site www.ILuvWalking.com says Jesus traveled distances on foot that is mind-boggling to those of us who are used to moving while seated. For instance, based on her calculations, Jesus traveled 3,125 miles in his three-year or so public ministry not including his trips to Jerusalem and back. His disciples would have walked many of those miles with him.

    But what I also find interesting as I read the news article on Stafford's long walk was that it allowed him to see and experience things that most people fly over, ignore or forget. The same holds for Jesus for during his lifetime of long walks it allowed him the opportunity to see faces, hear stories, experience the hospitality of strangers and feel the connection between the land and its people. Jesus led his disciples on a journey that gave them the best kind of laboratory for learning what God was doing in Jesus' own ministry and their part in it. We might call it "ministry by walking around."

    This is a lengthy but important prelude to a very important but simple aspect of our lesson this Sunday. The seven-mile stretch from Jerusalem to Emmaus was the last walk of the walking journey of Jesus and the beginning of a new walk for his disciples, according to Luke.

Two disciples of Jesus, one named Cleopas and an unnamed other are walking away from the disaster of Good Friday and the puzzlement of Easter. Luke doesn't tell us why Emmaus is their destination. Just like we discussed last week regarding Tardy Thomas, we do know the reasons for these disciples journey. Are today's disciples fleeing to a hiding place? Do they have relatives there? Is it simply a place to hole up and think about what just happened? Most of the other disciples had decided to hunker down and stay put in Jerusalem, but for whatever reason these two keep walking, and the risen Jesus, who is still walking, joins them on the road.

    However in this lesson rather than strangers coming up to Jesus and his disciples during their three year walk, it is the other way around, Jesus comes to them as a stranger who joins them on the way. Jesus becomes a traveling companion for a time and gets in on the idle conversation. "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" he asks. Cleopas responds to this stranger, wondering if he has been living in a cave for the last several days and goes on to tell him the story of what happened to Jesus of Nazareth, from their hope about him as "the one to redeem Israel" to his tragic crucifixion and their puzzlement of the empty tomb. These two men had a fundamental belief and very high expectations for Jesus. Cleopas and this nameless disciple had walked with Jesus on at least some of those 3,125 miles, and all that time they thought they were moving toward a promised destination. Now they seemed to be just walking with no real purpose in mind.

    The story continues for we find out that as the stranger walks with them on this road to nowhere, the stranger begins to tell them about a longer journey they'd all been on. The stranger begins to help them put their journey as disciples into perspective. Starting with the journey of God's people from liberation in Egypt under Moses to the time of the prophets and through all the signs along the way, this stranger walked them through God's plan for his people and meaning of Jesus' own death and resurrection as both a destination and a new beginning.

    The two disciples intrigued, invite this stranger to stay with them and, when sitting at table together, they suddenly recognize it has been the risen Jesus they have been walking with all along. Jesus disappears, but they start walking back to Jerusalem and into a new future. Emmaus we come to find out … was not their finish line after all, just another stop on the journey of following the Lord.

    This lesson is good reminder that perhaps we need to remind ourselves about what it means to walk with Jesus. If there's anything the Emmaus Road story teaches us, it is that the disciples of Jesus we are at our best when we keep walking, because the destination is irrelevant. It is a good reminder that to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ, is never a drive-by or fly-by process, in which we can look for instant results and ignore the people and places, we whiz by every day. Rather as followers of Jesus we recognize that our lives are a journey of following and learning but also looking for Jesus in the faces of all who join us on the way.

On one hand, we are often reminded that as followers of Jesus we are to be willing to follow Jesus despite the dangers and potential pitfalls with the full knowledge we do not walk the journey alone. Stafford needed Cho Rivera at his side to finish. For example, in one episode in particular close to the end of the destination, Stafford wanted to quit, but it was Cho who got him back on his feet, dusted him off and got him on the road again. Jesus, himself sent his disciples out two by two and it was two who traveled together on the road that day. Discipleship is a long-haul process, and we need each other along the way.

    But on the other hand, in walking we may forget that like today, there are those moments when God himself may come upon us or even …. may knock us down. Saul of Tarsus first met Jesus on another road. On the Road to Damascus Jesus got Saul's attention by knocking him to the ground. Perhaps we need that at times as well.

Regardless, Jesus did walk along with the disciples, warming their hearts with scripture, and would have walked on if they had not asked him to come in.

    And there is something else in our lesson about walking, that we may miss if we do not study that lesson more thoroughly. In verse 21, it mentions that the three day period prophesied by Jesus is now over without the reappearance of Jesus that Cleopas and his companion had been hoping for. It seems that the disciples had waited for their long walk to Emmaus as long as it made sense according to Jesus' own words.  Now, that time period was drawing to an end and there was nothing much left to do but go.  Yet, then we hear in verse 33, that after they have recognized Jesus, Cleopas and his companion rush back to Jerusalem where they discover that the third day had not quite ended, the prophecy had not been wrong, rather their own timing had been a little rushed.

Stafford finished his long walk with a dip in the water. We begin our journey with Jesus when we are dipped in the waters of baptism. Like Stafford, we also need nourishment along the way, which the breaking of bread in the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, offers us all through Christ's gracious sacrifice. And like Stafford, we have companions to help us get up and dust off and continue on our way. But as followers of Jesus Christ we may need to recognize that perhaps we may need a figurative "knocking down" or may need a stranger to wake us up along the way. As followers we may occasionally need our hearts warmed, or may need to slow down because we are in such a rush. Regardless we need to walk. There is no Christian way of flying or bicycling or driving. Instead we need to walk.

It took Cleopas and his companion all day to plod out to an inn near Emmaus, but they got back to Jerusalem a lot faster. So just remember, in the walk, after meeting Jesus, time took on new meaning and as they hasten back to Jerusalem, they don't remember their sadness, but instead their burning hearts. So let us get up and walk. Amen.

Tardy Thomas – 5/1/2011

John 20: 19-31

There have been a number of occasions in my life where I have had the opportunity to make a complete fool of myself, and sad to say, I have generally taken full advantage of each one of those opportunities as they came along. I suppose I could prove the point by entertaining you with dozens of related stories, but for the sake of preserving your time, my dignity, and the fact that I don't know you all very well, I will tell you just one where I am not the fool!

It was at another congregation somewhat like this one in that I was an interim pastor. The senior pastor of the congregation needed some help so, I was asked to lend a hand through the spring, summer until the fall when they anticipated a called pastor was to begin. And like today it was my first Sunday there. Rather than the second Sunday of Easter, it was Easter Sunday.

Well, I arrived early that Easter Sunday, had some time to prepare myself and greet people at the entrance. As the time for worship approached I got my robes on, and then joined in the procession line with the choir. Just minutes before the organ and brass choir were going to begin to play, one of the choir members asked, "Do you know where Pastor Terry is?"

To be honest, I had been wondering that to myself, but since this was my first Sunday, and I really didn't know what Pastor Terry was like or the customs of the community, all I was worried about was making sure I didn't look the fool. I responded honestly, "I haven't seen him." At which point the choir member quickly told the usher to communicate to the organist and delay the service. The choir member hurriedly walked to the church office and called the pastor's home phone. Pastor Terry's alarm had been accidentally turned off and he had overslept for this early Easter worship service.

Thankfully he arrived just as I finished reading the Gospel, the slowest reading of the Bible ever done! But, I still remember my fear at how foolish I would sound trying to preach unprepared. And I still remember the shy and foolish look Pastor Terry gave me when he rushed into worship.

Of course, I am not the only person ever to feel foolish, nor was Pastor Terry the only person ever to be late for something. On any given day people around the world are not only late for school but late for work. People are late for everything from doctors' appointments to graduation ceremonies, and occasionally they are even late for a funeral! I was once involved in a funeral where we had to sit around waiting for the hearse to arrive … which never did!

But perhaps the all-time, most significant example of being late and looking foolish is found in our gospel and belongs to a much-maligned disciple named Thomas. That's right --- the man usually called "Doubting Thomas" --- should more accurately be called "Tardy Thomas," because our lesson begins by telling us that Thomas was not with the other disciples when the Resurrected Jesus appeared that first Easter. "Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord!'"

We can only speculate as to where Thomas was when the other disciples were gathered behind locked doors. Maybe, after hearing about Jesus' trial and execution, Thomas had gone off somewhere seeking solitude in his grief with a long walk through the streets of Jerusalem or in the country. Or perhaps he felt safe away from the other disciples. Maybe Thomas had started on his way home. Or maybe Thomas had simply decided to reevaluate the direction of his life.

Yet, for whatever nameless reason Thomas may have had for not being present when Christ first appeared to the other disciples, the bottom line is that Thomas was late. Although he did not miss the beginning of the story on the shores of Galilee three or so years prior, Thomas did miss a critical part of a continuing story.

And because he was late for Easter, Thomas had his questions about what the others were saying, Jesus is alive! A Resurrection! Thankfully, the other disciples searched Thomas out and found him, telling him in excited tones that they had seen the Risen Savior. But as you can imagine, Thomas responded with disbelief. "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Of course, we know the rest of story, Jesus appears, has Thomas touch his hands and his side where he had been stabbed and says to Thomas: "Stop doubting and believe." However, the word in Greek apistos is usually given the translation of "doubt" but it actually is "unbelieving." While that doesn't have the same ring to it as the usual nickname, it is certainly truer for tardy Thomas.

Because you see "unbelieving" is a verb and thus when Thomas was late for Easter, had his doubts about the Resurrection, Thomas was still the same disillusioned, terrified, and confused disciple he had been on Good Friday. The other disciples, once forlorn and confused themselves, were now filled with the breath of power and grace because they had experienced Easter Sunday.

Yet, another reason "unbelieving" is a better translation is because of the words of Thomas after being able to see for himself that Jesus was truly resurrected. "Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Notice the pronoun -- "my" Lord and "my" God, not "the" Lord and "the" God. This is a personal claim about a relationship. It is Thomas, not the other disciples, expressing his faith.

So, at this point we could say that truly, it is better late than never. Right? Well not exactly. What can you and I learn from the last chapter of the Gospel of John.

I do not know about you but sometimes circumstances arise and events intervene to oppress our spirits, or perhaps make us feel like fools, leaving us inwardly unprepared to believe the Risen Lord who stands before us. Sometimes, like Thomas, we may not get the good news of Easter on the day God chooses to give it.

Yet, it is important here to notice that no one criticizes or rebukes Thomas for being late, for feeling the fool, for his "unbelieving" or for his skepticism. The passage does not tell us that the disciples went out and ridiculed Thomas or put Thomas in his place, rather it tells us how the disciples made the effort to find Thomas and that Thomas was surprised! Nor does Jesus berate Thomas for not being there in the first place, for being late or for his unbelief. We do not read that Jesus' voice booms through the room, rebuking Thomas and imposing some penalty on him. Instead, we read how Christ appears with words of "peace."

We also see that Jesus is not afraid to call Thomas' bluff. Thomas declares that he will only believe when he can touch the wounds of Christ himself. Christ appears to Thomas and invites him to touch and believe. Not only is the bluff called, we learn that Jesus understands tardiness, human unbelieving and allows room to find belief. The resurrected Jesus meets us in our unbelieving and reveals himself to us in a way that bolsters our belief.

Finally, the words of Christ to Thomas help us to understand that our faith is indeed based on mysteries that may never have earthly resolutions. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." So, our tardy, unbelieving faith in Christ can be lauded because we believe without the opportunity of seeing or touching the resurrected Lord.

Furthermore, we celebrate Easter two thousand plus years later never having physically experienced the Risen Christ. We believe without having touched the scarred hand and pierced side.

Regardless of when you or I "see" the Risen Christ through the eyes of faith --- whether the reality of Easter takes hold of us early in the morning or very late in the day, whether as a youth or years later, whether our journey is one day yes, and one day no --- resurrection faith is as the writer of Hebrews testified when he wrote "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

This is the eighth day after the resurrection. It's a good day to be late to the resurrection, to celebrate our unbelief, and see it as a prelude to a deep, abiding and mature faith so that we can become the living hands and feet of Jesus and show that Jesus is alive, real, and touching others as Jesus seeks to touch us. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Amen.