Imagine if the disciples had Twitter.
Things would’ve been different for Thomas. The disciples, upon encountering the Risen Christ in the locked house where they were huddled out of fear, would have whipped out their Blackberrys and twittered the missing Thomas: “Where R U? Women told truth, not lie. Jesus raised. Touched wounds. Life conquers death. Get over here!”
Thomas might have replied: “Stop pulling my leg. Touched wounds? LOL. I’ll believe if I can see wounds too. LOL. See you next week.”
The account of the Risen Christ appearing to the scared disciples, and giving them the Spirit to take on the world and the work of forgiveness, documents that belief in the Resurrection is a communal event. Thomas, who is missing, cannot grasp the resurrection, I think, because he is alone. I am not sure that anyone can see the Resurrection alone. It happens in community.
A Church, such as ours here at Christ Church, is a community formed in the Resurrection. Whereas we might struggle with resurrection faith in our individual lives, we gather with each other to show each other the wounds of life and how we overcome them. We show each other the resurrection, so that we might go out and testify to its power in a world that dismisses the power of resurrection quite easily.
I am so glad that the Nicene Creed now begins, “We believe. . . .” Many people who come into my orbit here often tell me they have problems with the Nicene Creed. They ask, “Why was our faith determined by committee in the 4th century? Isn’t there a creed a little more modern.” Many will say, “I can’t believe all of the things in the Nicene Creed.”
My reply, “You don’t say, ‘I believe.’ We say, ‘We believe.’ Is there some part of the creed you can give your heart to? Are there portions that stir a passion for the possible? Give voice to what you can give voice to. The community, past, present and future, will give voice to the rest.”
When Thomas is in the fold of the community, he can believe in the Resurrection. It is pretty much the same for me. And you?