John
20:19-29
April 29, 2012
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 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.”
Do
you recognize this phrase? Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda! You should.
Well,… maybe you shouldn’t, but it is a phrase that lies at the heart of
what it means to be a Presbyterian. It’s
a phrase used not only by John Calvin at the time of the Protestant Reformation,
but it was coined by Martin Luther and became a catchphrase for much of the
Protestant movement of the early 16th century. It defined what Protestants believe, and it
was a shot against the Roman Catholic Church of the time.
The
phrase, “ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda” means “church reformed, always
reforming.” Sometimes the phrase has a
longer form, which is “ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda, verbi dei.” The additional phrase means, “according to
the word of God.” Basically, the idea
behind this phrase is a recognition that we Protestants, and especially we
Presbyterians, are a church that was reformed back in the 16th
century, but that always remains open to God’s continual reforming. We were renewed, and we are always undergoing
renewal.
The
phrase was a critique of the Catholic Church of the time. The Reformers had seen that the Catholic
Church never changed. The church was
doing things the same way in 1500 that it had in 500 A.D. The result was that the church had built up
defenses to maintain those ways, which included not letting lay people read the
Bible for themselves or think for themselves when it came to religious
matters. So, the Protestant reformers
reformed the church to allow the laity a greater role in the life and faith of
the church. But that wasn’t enough. Reformers like Luther and Calvin believed
that the church had to always be open to future reformation. It had to be open to what God was saying
today, and to adapt the church to modern realities. We can’t stay in the 16th
century. We have to be open to sharing
Christ and the Holy Spirit in a world that’s always changing.
As
Presbyterians, this idea of reformation that leads to renewal lies at the heart
of what we say we believe. Reformata, semper reformanda isn’t just
a church idea. It’s an idea for us as
individuals, too. It means that as a
church and as individuals we are never complete. In other words, the moment we as a church, or
as individuals, believe that we have arrived—that our understanding of God is
adequate, that our faith is complete—that’s the moment when we have turned away
from God. To be a Christian means to be
constantly open to being reformed and renewed.
For
us Presbyterians, we understand that reformation and renewal are at the center
of what it means to be a Christian. We
understand that Christians aren’t meant to have it all figured out, to be
perfect, or to never falter or fail. Instead,
we are called to be people who are ready to grow all the time. We’re called to take our mistakes, our
failures, and our misjudgments and to become like Thomas with them. We’re also called to learn new things,
especially those new things that God is leading us to discover through new
experiences.
I
doubt that you are like me in this, but the apostle Thomas is one of my
biblical heroes. He gets bad press all
the time because of what he said in our passage for this morning. To be called a “doubting Thomas” is a bad
thing, but this doubting Thomas ended up being the most courageous of all the apostles. And Christ sent him on the most dangerous
mission of all the apostles.
After
the Day of Pentecost, the apostles gathered together and cast lots to decide
who would go where to spread the Gospel.
Andrew was sent to the region that is now Armenia. Peter would stay in Jerusalem (and eventually
move to Damascus and then Antioch).
Later, Paul would go to what is now Turkey and Greece. Others were sent elsewhere. Thomas was given the lands that are now
Pakistan and India. Thomas did not want
to go to, complaining, “I don’t want to go.
I’m not healthy enough. I don’t
speak the languages. It’s too
dangerous. I’m the wrong person. I’m not going.” His refusal changed one day when he met Jesus
in the marketplace. The tradition says
that Jesus told him that he wanted him to go to India. Again, Thomas complained. So Jesus approached a traveling merchant in
the marketplace named Abbanes and sold Thomas to him as a slave. He told Abbanes that Thomas had the carpentry
skills he needed. The price was agreed
upon, and Abbanes approached Thomas and said, “Is that your master over there?”
pointing to Jesus. When Thomas said yes,
Abbanes, said, “He has just sold you to me.
You are now my servant.”
First
as Abbanes’ servant, and later as a free man, Thomas spread the Gospel in what
is modern-day Pakistan, settling in the Indus River valley. From there he moved south and preached
throughout India. It was a difficult
mission because many parts of India were ungoverned and dangerous. Over the course of twenty years, Thomas
faithfully traveled throughout India, spreading the Gospel. He eventually settled near Madras, where he
was tortured and killed because of what he was preaching. The church started by Thomas, the Mar-Thoma
Orthodox Church, still exists today, and has about 2.5 million members
world-wide.
Thomas,
even though he doubted, also served with tremendous courage in places that were
dangerous. Thomas is my hero because he
points the way to being an “authentic” Christian. He is the model for the struggling Christian
who has doubts and questions, but never lets them get in the way of coming to
God. Thomas’ doubts and questions led
him to constant renewal and reformation.
He constantly became a new man because of his willingness to grapple
with faith. Thomas had questions, which led to doubts, which led to seeking,
which led to answers, which led to growth, which led his renewal and
reformation, which led to him doing amazing things
Each
of us is called to live a life of constant renewal and reformation, just as our
church is called to constant reformation and renewal. The problem is that so many people resist
growth. We don’t want to grow. We don’t
want to change. But whether we like it
or not, growth is inevitable. That’s the
rule of life: nothing remains
constant. Our bodies are a great example
of this. I’ve read that the cells of our
bodies die and are renewed every three to five years. We are constantly being renewed and reformed
as human beings. We might not like that
reformation as we get older, but it takes place whether we like it or not.
When
I think of renewal and reform, especially as a Christian in every day life, I
can’t think of a better example of this than R. A. Dickey. Do you know who he is? Dickey is a pitcher for the New York
Mets. In fact, he’s a very rare
pitcher. He’s the only knuckleballer
actively pitching in the major leagues.
Last year he was one of the best pitchers, having compiled the
thirteenth lowest ERA in the major leagues.
The
knuckleball pitch is incredibly difficult to learn how to do well, which is why
there are no other knuckleballers in the major leagues. When it is pitched well, it is virtually
unhittable. When it isn’t pitched well,
it leads to home runs. Most other
pitches are pitched with the first two fingers stretched over the top of the
ball. A fastball is a pitch in which the
pitcher throws with force, forcing the ball to leave the fingers spinning furiously
backwards, which causes the ball to move through the air with little
friction. A good fastball goes between
90 and 100 miles an hour. When throwing
a curveball, the pitcher lets go of the ball by twisting his fingers to the
side, creating both a backwards and a sideways spin. That causes the ball to curve. Most other pitches are variations of these
two. The knuckleball is their
opposite. The knuckleballer digs his
nails under the horseshoe of the ball’s stitches in such a way that the nails
to the first knuckle rest atop the ball.
The thumb and ring finger are on either side to stabilize the ball. Then the pitcher lets go, with the result
being that there is almost no spin on the ball.
A good knuckleball will spin no more than a quarter turn between the
pitcher’s mound and home plate. The
result of having no spin is that the ball is unpredictable. It goes up, down, and side-to-sde, depending
on the wind conditions. A good
knuckleball pitch goes only about 60 to 70 miles per hour. When it’s thrown well, it makes batters look
foolish, often causing them to swing before the ball even gets to the
plate. You can imagine that batters hate
knuckleball pitchers.
R.
A. Dickey took a long path to becoming the dominant knuckleballer he is
today. As a high schooler he was a
phenom. He was a can’t-miss
prospect. Scouts fell in love with his
fastball and his other pitches. He was
drafted 18th overall in the first round of the 1996 draft by the
Texas Rangers. He was expected to sign a
four-year contract for $4 million and a $1 million signing bonus. Unfortunately it was found, during his
medical examination, that he did not have a key ligament in his elbow. They didn’t want to take a chance on
him. He went from can’t-miss
multimillionaire prospect to the pitcher no one wanted. He was devastated. A few months later the Rangers did make an
offer: a standard minor-league contract
with a $75,000 signing bonus.
From
there Dickey toiled in the minor leagues for 12 years. He eventually became known as a four A
pitcher. What’s that? It means that you are too good for triple A
baseball, but not good enough for major league baseball. You’re a pitcher in limbo.
At
age 31, realizing he had to do something to realize his dream of becoming only
a major league pitcher, he decided to learn the knuckleball. It didn’t go great. He would alternate between being wildly
successful and just plain wild. He
continued to go back and forth between the major leagues and AAA baseball.
Things
changed dramatically in 2006 when he had a baptismal experience of sorts. He was pitching for the Oklahoma AAA team,
and they were playing the Omaha Royals.
The hotel they stayed in had a glass elevator that overlooked the
Missouri River. Every year they stayed
there, Dickey looked out over the river and wondered if anyone had ever swam
across it. He decided that this was the
year he would do it. He told his
teammates about his plan, and they all gathered by the river as he plunged in
and started swimming.
He
learned three things about the river very quickly. First, it was filthy, and you couldn’t see
more than an inch in front of you underwater.
Second, it was incredibly swift moving.
Third, there was a heavy undertow.
He swam furiously for about five or ten minutes, thinking that he must
be most of the way across. When he looked
back to see where he was, he realized that he was barely halfway across, and
that the current had taken him ¼ of a mile downstream. He was now in danger of drowning.
He
tried to swim back to his side of the shore, but soon it was obvious that he
wasn’t going to make it. In utter
exhaustion, he stopped and decided to give the river his life. He prayed for God to take care of his wife
and kids, and he slowly sank. He said
that it was a weird experience to weep underwater. As he prepared to suck into his lungs the
water that surrounded him, giving himself over the death and to God, his feet
hit bottom. That rejuvenated him. He pushed back up to the surface, and using a
combination of doggy paddling and pushing up from the bottom, he made it back
to shore, where a teammate dragged him out.
He was a changed man.
Before
he went into the river, he had a 1-4 record with a 6.80 ERA. From that point on he finished the season
11-2 with a 2.80 ERA. The next season he
made it to the major leagues for good.
It wasn’t just his pitching that changed. So did his attitude about life. He began to treat life more as precious,
living completely in the moment. This
impacted his pitching because instead of worrying about the strike count, who
was batting, or what the score was, he focused on each pitch as something
special. All that mattered was the
pitch, nothing else.
In
his life, he started seeing a counselor to help him unshackle his life from the
physical and sexual abuse he had experienced as a child from a babysitter and
an older boy. He worked on his marriage
and other relationships, learning to trust others now with the burdens of his
life. And he focused more on trusting
God. He was renewed and it led to a
reformation of his life.
Whether
it has to do with growing in our understanding God, or growing in how we live
life, we are called to constant renewal and reformation. I have a phrase that I’ve applied to the life
of a church, but I think it’s just as applicable to our lives, too. “If we aren’t growing, we’re dying.” I believe this about churches, and I used to
say this a lot in the first few years I was here at Calvin Presbyterian Church. I believe that if you are just trying to stay
where you are, you are engaging in the first steps of moving toward death. I think nature backs me up in this. Look at any plant or tree. It is always growing, and the moment it stops
growing, it begins to die. We are called
to constant life through renewal and reformation.
The
question for us is which direction we’re moving in?
Amen.
