Acts 4:32-35
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and
soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything
they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their
testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them
all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or
houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at
the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Psalm 133
How very good and pleasant it is when kindred
live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down
upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his
robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For
there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.
John 20:19-31
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." Now Jesus did many other signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are
written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of
God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
We find
ourselves in the second week of Easter.
A week after the drama of the foot washing, betrayal, crucifixion and
the mystery of the empty tomb… a week after our own festivities, after the
celebration of Easter Sunday… a day without the Easter Trumpets and the Easter
lilies…
And so we
hear about Thomas, one of the 12.
“Doubting Thomas”, as he has been labeled through the centuries. The truth is, Thomas was no different than
any of the other 12 – except that he wasn’t there on that day, that first day,
when the rest of the disciples were able to see. He wasn’t any more of a doubter than anyone
else. But, ‘doubting Thomas’ provides us
with a good opportunity for a lesson in faith.
When you
hear this text, do you get a visual for Thomas?
I don’t know about you, but for me, what arises is a stodgy, grumpy
character… arms crossed, frown firmly
entrenched…
“I’ll
believe it when I see it.”
I guess this
is always the ‘doubter’ image for me. In
my career as an organizer for liberal causes, you can imagine I see this a lot:
the ‘doubter’.
I saw it a
lot during the health care reform fight, when sharing stories of people denied
insurance due to pre-existing conditions.
Unless your family member had been there, you couldn’t fathom it. Or when I talk about the need for higher
minimum wage. ...How hard it is to manage
on $8.25 an hour. ...How much better the
economy would be if we insisted that all people to make a living wage.
People
retreat into one of two camps; the camp of fear – “we can’t afford it” – or the
camp of doubt:
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
We’ve all doubted…and we are comforted
by Thomas’ courage in saying it out loud.
Doubt is in
style, my friends. Except these days, most
doubt focuses on the need for compassion. We seem to be in an unprecedented age
of second-guessing compassion – to the point of doubting people’s common
humanity.
Rather than focusing on our own
state, where the Governor recently approved $26 million in funding cuts for
social services – including Illinois’ world class autism program on World
Autism Day – while giving $100 million in corporate tax breaks; rather than
focus on that -
Let’s go to Kansas. Last week the news reported that the Kansas
House and Senate have both approved a bill that will ban welfare recipientsfrom using their benefits in not only places like casinos but also movies and
swimming pools. In addition to where the
money can be spent, the Kansas legislature has decided how much can be spent at
one time. According to the article, “The legislation
is chock full of rules for assistance recipients, including a $25 cap on daily
ATM withdrawals designed to prohibit converting benefits for cash and thus
being spent on items deemed improper.” And to make
sure the recipients don’t take these benefits for granted, the legislature has
established a 3-year lifetime limit on benefits.
Imagine being the children in a
family whose breadwinners are between jobs and using TANF (which is Temporary
Aid to Needy Families). It’s summertime,
it’s hot, and your friends are going to the pool…but your parents say ‘no’
without any explanation, because all they have left for the month is money on
the TANF account. Or your classmate has
a birthday party at the movie theater, but you needed to put aside $15 from
your check to be sure they could go, and that check went to pay rent.
I once came across an
internet debate where some anonymous person calculated an anonymous budget; I
remember he said “I rent out a room for $365, so a person could find that
housing” and used this budget, complete with a less-than-$100 medical policy,
as evidence that minimum wage was high enough.
Perhaps he was right…as long as a minimum wage worker doesn’t have a
birthday, or a holiday present to buy, or a car repair, or a medical
scare. These parameters are livable as
long as they are temporary.
Unfortunately, that is not the situation for most minimum wage workers.
I take this personally because
for the last 6 months, I’ve been meeting with these people every day. In this, Year 2 of the Affordable Care Act,
providing enrollment assistance (which is my job) has been much more of a search for the
proverbial needle in a haystack; finding those last few uninsured who didn’t
take action last year because they didn’t need it, or didn’t understand it, or
just plain couldn’t afford it. And, in
Joliet, Illinois, do you know who these people are?
Minimum wage workers. Temp
workers. Warehouse workers. School bus
drivers. These people have so much stress in their daily lives.
Last week I met with a woman who works 38 hours a week at one job
for $8.65 and hour, and has another job, 13 hours a week at $8.65… that’s over
50 hours a week to take home – after taxes – under $400. This woman pays $1200
in rent.
Another woman, a school bus driver with two autistic children, comes
in barely above Medicaid when she does summer school driving. That, for a HH of 3, by the way, is $27000)
Since she was denied Medicaid last year but had required medical tests for her
CDL license, she is now paying too much from last year’s medical debt ($30 to
the doctor and $35 to the hospital each month) to afford the ACA insurance
premium (not counting the deductibles).
I rarely meet a person who makes
over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level – that’s around $23000 a year – but
usually they are just over the Medicaid level of $1342 a month – which is where
you land on minimum wage. Since Joliet was once a manufacturing center, but that has died out - these are the only jobs available.
The thing these people’s lives lack the most – besides money – is
stability. They start a job, it ends,
they start another, but the hours aren’t regular and they can’t make plans for
child care, or meals, or time with friends more than 1 week in advance. Even worse, to get the assistance they
desperately need often requires visiting the government agency for half a day
during business hours. The bus driver
had to take a sick day– in a job where she’s only allowed 3 but given a black
mark if she takes any – just to be told that she didn’t qualify for Medicaid.
And yet, we as a society continue to take success as the mark of
morals and misfortune as a lack of discipline and hard work. If we’ve had success, their financial crises
must be a personal failing.
The doubter says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Doubting is a refuge. Andrea Denney, my CTS classmate and a gifted
preacher, proclaimed this once in preaching class on the same text; to doubt is
to allow yourself to take refuge in your corner of fear and never have to make
a courageous claim. Doubt is a cop-out. Doubt
allows us to be comfortable in our indecision, our inaction, or our lack of
compassion.
It can be more comfortable To Doubt
God than to proclaim faith;
To Doubt Hope in our future takes
less action than to believe in positive change;
It is unfortunately easier To
Doubt the worth of others
And self-validating To doubt the
necessity for compassion.
Doubt allows you to avoid being
vulnerable. It requires courage to
proclaim faith. It requires courage to
proclaim hope in our common future. It requires
courage to put your love and trust in others.
Let’s not be mistaken; what
Thomas did required courage; because to speak your doubt is to be open to
belief. But to codify your doubt in a set of laws is
not courageous.
The Acts scripture we read today describes
the life of the early, early Christian communities. Acts is the only book we have in the bible
which details what happened after the first Easter – after Jesus was
crucified. The Apostles continued Jesus’
work. We read about a community where
all things are shared. Everything they owned was held in common. When one owns
property, they sell it and distribute the proceeds.
We are told the People were of
‘one heart and soul’. And there was not a
needy person among them. And great grace was upon them all. Great Grace. I believe that is what it is like when God breaks in and compassion overflows; Great Grace lives there.
Is this not what Jesus spent all
his ministry doing? Healing, giving, feeding, exhausting his bodily resources
to answer every request and every doubt? Jesus came to bring “good news to the poor” –
not new rules.
This was a dangerous idea…and Jesus was a dangerous man. Jesus was God’s compassion
personified. So great is God’s
compassion that Jesus died for it.
And then, when he met with the 12, resurrected, he breathed
on them and sent them to do likewise. And sent us to do likewise.
In Kansas, when asked the
rationale behind House Bill 2258, they said,
“We’re trying to make sure those benefits are used the way they
were intended,” said the Vice Chairman
of the state Senate.
“This is about prosperity. This is about having a great life.” Another House Member said, "This is serious, good policy for the state of Kansas,"… "There's nothing better to get these people back on their
feet than getting them a job and getting them back to work."
Read between the lines, and that
says “I don’t trust that they have the smarts, intention or discipline to find
prosperity on their own."
In contrast, my mother volunteers
with the non-profit CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) an organization that assigns volunteers to accompany children who are in the foster system. CASA
has a motto: 'Treat each person like they ARE already the person that you
want them to BECOME.' Isn’t that just like giving someone the benefit of
the doubt? Isn’t that a lot like how
Jesus behaved? What would our society look like if government treated people as if they were already the person they should be?
Jesus welcomed doubt. In Our Gospel, Jesus says to Thomas, “Come. Put your fingers on my hands. Put your hand in my side. Touch and
believe.” And then take up courage and
go out and do what needs to be done, for you are sent.
If our policy-makers had the same
courage as Thomas, to put their hands in the work gloves and their feet in the
work shoes of my clients in Joliet, and live awhile in their place…I believe
their doubt would disappear, and we’d have laws lifted rather than added
burdens. That encouraged rather than
chastised. That treated people like a
worthy adult, not a child you can’t trusted.
You are also sent, my
friends. As the ones ‘sent’ by Jesus’
breath, we can follow that rule – to treat each person like they are already
the person you want them to become.
Trust their intentions as Jesus trusted Thomas’ intentions. We’ve been touched by Jesus, and believe, and
then we see it.
Amen.
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