But whatever the doubts or struggles, like Thomas we are here today, seeking a deeper relationship with our Lord and our faith community! Sermon in a sentence: Lenny Green is an example of how the love, acceptance and encoragement of our Church Family can truly transform and bless our lives.
Why are you here today? Oh, I know. You are here to worship God and to celebrate the fellowship we enjoy with Him and one another, for that is the central purpose for our gathering. But why is that purpose important to you? Because we are a diverse group there would be many responses to that question but it is my belief that if we were to explore and discuss this question in an Adult Ed Conversation, we would eventually reach a strong, if not unanimous consensus that one of the primary reasons we have heard and accepted God's call to make participation in church an important priority in our lives is because we have experienced and are continuing to experience the transforming power of our faith community!
We can, and we will shortly, sing the words that express our gratitude to God for the gift of His Amazing Grace, but it truly is the people who God has blessed our lives with who have and continue to serve as instruments of that Amazing Grace! Think about this question for a moment. Whether you are young or old or somewhere in between, who are the people who have inspired you to be in these pews today? You might want to answer Jesus, or Mary, or Peter, or some other Biblical Character but in truth, you would have never heard those names if there were not a host of less famous saints who first brought you to church and who have been part of your faith journey all along the way.
Parents and Grandparents would be on that list; friends who you are happy to see each week; a favorite Sunday School teacher or youth leader and a host of others. These beloved family and friends may not even be here today physically for one reason or another but as I speak these words and you think about the question who has been an instrument of God's grace in your life, their faces are beaming within your spirit for these are the people God has blessed our lives and faith journey with.
These are the people King David was thinking about when in Psalm 133 he wrote: "How very good and pleasant it is when we live together in Unity"! Yes, the Transforming Power of our faith community is a wonderful experience but as today's Gospel Lesson reminds us, it is an experience that is not automatic or guaranteed. So let us look at some of the earliest gatherings of our Lord's first disciples following our Lord's resurrection and see what their experience says to us.
We begin our reflection by asking the question: Where was the disciple Thomas on the first occasion when our Lord appeared to His disciples in the Upper Room? After all, Malls hadn't been invented yet, and there were no post Easter sales going on, but Thomas was not there. Why not?
We can speculate and make many different suggestions but perhaps the best thing for us to say is that Thomas illustrates the fact that as I have already said, experiencing the transforming power of our faith community is not automatic or guaranteed. He could have been away for any number of reasons. He could even have been in the midst of a mission of mercy or some other noble purpose, but the Easter Gospel is clear our Lord had told His disciples to go to Galilee and wait for Him. All the disciples had gathered on that first day of the week, but Thomas was no where to be seen.
You know it is only natural on this week after Easter which is called Low Sunday to look around and wonder where are all of those folks who were here last Sunday? But you know what is a far more positive and spiritually uplifting attitude? It is to say thank God I am here and thank God for the family and friends who are part of my faith journey and faith community. For to use the language of Amazing Grace, we all have been blind at times to our need for the transforming power of our faith community but now, we recognize and see that our participation in our faith community plays an important part in our experience of God's Amazing Grace and we are blessed to be here and to have people in our lives who share our faith and our commitment to serve as instruments of God's grace in one another's lives.
But if we are to be possibly critical of the fact that Thomas was not there on the first occasion when our Lord appeared to His disciples, we need to affirm him for being there on that second occasion. Again, we have no idea where he was the first time. His absence, along with his statements about not believing that our Lord had risen unless he saw Him himself and touched His wounds have earned him the less then flattering name "Doubting Thomas" but for whatever doubts or weaknesses he had, Thomas was there.
He had exercised his free will by not being there on occasion one, but this time he exercised that same free will and made the decision to be there. And because he was there, he saw the Lord, he spoke his affirmation of faith in the risen Lord by saying "My Lord and My God" before anyone else had made that affirmation and tradition tells us that he was the disciple that took the Gospel all the way to India.
Yes, like ourselves, Thomas had his doubts and struggles but he experienced the transforming power of his faith community and he continued to grow. He was lost, perhaps many times, but he also was found and so on that second occasion Thomas was there! Isn't Thomas one of the easiest Biblical Characters for us to identify with? For as we look back at our faith journey, haven't we all had times when we have struggled with our faith? Times, when we felt less connected with God? Times when challenges we or our loved ones were experiencing left us struggling with our own doubts and disappointments? But whatever the doubts or struggles, like Thomas we are here today, seeking a deeper relationship with our Lord and our faith community!
But as important as it is for us to have the faith and wisdom to return to our faith community, it is equally important that our faith community is a place where love and encouragement are available. Think about it. There must have been a few raised eyebrows when Thomas was missing for the Evening Worship, when the Lord had first appeared to His disciples. And then, can you imagine how great the other disciples felt when Thomas rejected their witness that they had seen the Lord. They could have been ready to throw him out on his ear but they weren't. Rather, they welcomed and accepted Thomas, along with his doubts and struggles and so on that second occasion when the Lord appeared again, Thomas was there!
Friends, I believe deeply that this is the type of faith community we are. Not a group of self-righteous Pharisees but a group of people who are grateful for the gift of God's grace and committed to sharing that gift with others. I still remember my first successful Pastoral intervention. It's more then 30 years ago and I am sure Lenny has gone to glory so I can share his story with you.
I was on my first Summer Assignment and I was working and living at a Church in Newark. It was early on a Saturday morning when my peaceful sleep was disturbed by a powerful rendition of Amazing Grace. I looked out the Parsonage window and there hanging on a telephone pole that was the only thing that kept him upright was Lenny Green. I could tell that Lenny could use some coffee and so I invited him into the Parsonage and we shared a cup of coffee. I started to try to get Lenny to talk about his drinking problem but he quickly finished his coffee and left. The same routine repeated itself for 3 weeks and I don't know if it was my coffee or the fact that I had kept inviting Lenny in but finally on week number 4 Lenny shared his story and our conversation led to him entering a Program at the VA Hospital.
Talk about a transformation. Within that same month, Lenny had completed his program, started a rigorous schedule of AA Meetings and now was the lead Tenor in our Church choir. One day I asked Lenny, why had he kept coming back to that phone pole to sing that song Amazing Grace? His answer has stayed with me ever since.
He said Pastor, "I wasn't coming back to a phone pole, I was coming back to my church. The doors were locked so I had an out door service and I did that because I knew that I was welcomed at my church. I had fallen from grace but God's Amazing Grace was still available to me!"
That my friends is the Transforming power of our faith community and let it be said of our Church that the words on our bulletin board that state: "All are welcomed" are words that describe our shared commitment to be a community of faith that welcomes, loves and encourages all to grow in God's grace with us!
Pastor Stephen Giordano — April 19, 2009