Day: December 21, 2016

Sermons

Sermon for the Feast of St. Thomas

“And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not”

“Drive the dark of doubt away”. These are the familiar words from the Hymn to Joy, set to Beethoven’s masterpiece Ode to Joy in his Ninth Symphony, by the American author, Rev’d Henry Van Dyke. Darkness and doubt seem so inescapably entangled. And yet there is the wonderful paradox of The Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle which coincides with the winter solstice and heralds the Nativity of Christ. Light and darkness, doubt and certainty, faith and understanding are all wrapped up in the readings of this day.

Thomas the doubter, it seems, but equally, it is the Thomas the questioner whose questions belong to the mystery of Advent, itself the season of profound questions which challenge and illumine the mysteries of faith. “Art thou he that should come or do we seek another?” John the Baptist asked in the wilderness of prison, the victim/victor of truth which speaks to power. “How shall this be seeing I know not a man?” asked Mary, being “troubled at this saying” of the Angel’s salutation at the Annunciation, “cast[ing] in her mind what manner of salutation this should be”. A crescendo of questions pour down upon John the Baptist in the Gospel for The Fourth Sunday in Advent about him, questions which he turns about to point us to Christ as “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world”.

And here, on The Feast of St. Thomas? Just as The First Sunday in Advent recounts Christ’s triumphal entry in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with the question “Who is this?”, so the Gospel for The Feast of St. Thomas takes us to the Resurrection accounts in John’s Gospel by which Jesus makes himself known; in short, a testimony to the Incarnation through the Resurrection. Thomas hears about Jesus making himself known to the other disciples behind closed doors. He says that “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” He questions what others have said. He demands to know for himself.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Thomas the Apostle

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, who for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly, and without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved. Hear us, O Lord, through the same Jesus Christ, to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 2:19-22
The Gospel: St. John 20:24-29

Signorelli, Christ and Doubting ThomasSt. Thomas’s name is believed to come from an Aramaic word meaning twin, but it is not known whose twin he was. He is included in all the lists of the twelve apostles, but he is mentioned most often in St. John’s Gospel, where he is called “Didymus” (“twin” in Greek) three times (11:16; 20:24; 21:2).

St. Thomas appears to have been an impulsive man. He says he is prepared to go with Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus even if it means death (John 11:16). At the Last Supper, however, he confesses his ignorance about where Jesus is going and the way there (John 14:5). In response, Christ said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

After the resurrection, Thomas was unwilling to believe his fellow disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead (John 20:24). He would not believe, he declared, unless he actually touched the wounds. Eight days later, Jesus gave “Doubting Thomas” the evidence he had asked for, whereupon Thomas confessed him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus then pronounces a blessing on all who have not seen and yet believe.

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