“Blessed are those who have not seen and
yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29)
I’m an old movie buff, but I’ve seen so
many flicks in my time that I can’t remember them all. I think the scene I’m
thinking of was in the 1937 version of The
Good Earth, which starred Paul Muni as the Chinese peasant farmer, Wang
Lung.
(Of course, there’s nothing like the old
Hollywood racism of casting an Austro-Hungarian Jew in the role of a Chinese
peasant. I do have to admit, however, that, Chinese or not, Muni was pretty
good in the part. He was always good, and won two Academy Awards to prove it.
Unfortunately, he is mostly forgotten these days. That’s a shame. But I
digress.)
If I remember rightly, there’s a scene in
the movie in which Wang or one of the characters goes begging for a job. An
employer demands, “Show me your hands.” Upon inspecting the smooth hands of the
supplicant, the employer turns him away declaring, “You have never worked.”
Sometimes folks just have to see the proof
before they can believe you. I think we’ve always given the apostle Thomas a
bad rap for not believing his buddies when they tell him that Jesus has risen
from the grave. I mean, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably
is, don’t you think? We are none of us much different from the “Doubting Thomas”
of this Sunday’s gospel lesson (John 20:19-31). In an era of “Fake News,” we
all want some way to know the truth. We all might be the ones to ask, “Show me
your hands.” I want to know if this Jesus thing is real. I want to see if you’ve
put work into your faith or if you’ve suffered like I have. I want to see the marks
of the nails.
The first disciples took this pretty seriously if you look at the First Lesson from this Sunday’s Revised Common Lectionary
(Acts 4:32-35). These guys really put their money where their mouth was.
“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.” (Acts 4:34-35)
This early
community of Christians probably never heard the word “socialism.” They wouldn’t
know a socialist if one bit them on the butt. What they did know was the love of Jesus of Nazareth. They knew the man who
gave up everything to die on a cross out of love for people he had never
physically met. So they knew how to sacrifice their possessions in order to
give life to others. In their generosity they revealed their faith, and the
proof was a community that did not have to fear hunger or neglect.
Today we
are told that about 20% of our American population has no religious affiliation.
Nevertheless, the same polls declare that of these “Nones,” many still believe
in God and many still pray. They just don’t want anything to do with the
organized church. Our friends at Wikipedia give three reasons for the decline
in American religiosity:
1.
There have always been a bunch irreligious
folks among us, but these days it’s okay to admit it.
2.
The changing culture, the internet, and other
societal shifts have made us more of a self-centered people than a
community-centered people (Note that church attendance isn’t the only thing that
has declined in recent decades. There’s also an overall decline in civic
involvement and membership in secular organizations, too.).
3.
Young people just don’t think too much about
eternal things like God, heaven, their souls, or the meaning of life.
But, maybe,
those irreligious “Nones” are just waiting for us to show them in real,
practical terms what faith in the resurrected Jesus can do. Maybe they want to
know that we, like the early believers, have enough faith to sacrifice part of
ourselves—our time, our treasure, our talents—to make a lasting change for the
healing of the world. Maybe they just want us to show them our hands.
May God
bless you and inspire you during this Easter season. Thanks for stopping by! Do
come again.
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