Wednesday, April 4, 2018

"Show Me Your Hands" (Reflections on Easter 2, Year B)


“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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