St. Thomas the Apostle gets a bum rap.  He is thought of in either one of two ways.  Sometimes he is thought of as a bold man of faith.  In the story about the raising of Lazarus, Jesus learns that his friend Lazarus is sick, but he delays going to visit him.  After Lazarus dies, Jesus then decides to go to Bethany where Lazarus lived with his sisters Martha and Mary.  Earlier Jesus and his disciples had withdrawn across the Jordan River to hide from the religious authorities who already were trying to kill Jesus.  When Jesus decides to go to Bethany, he and his disciples clearly are walking into a dangerous situation.  Thomas, therefore, says to the other disciples, “’Let us also go, that we may die with him.’”  So here we see Thomas as a man of faith and great bravery.

We are more familiar with Thomas, however, not as a man of faith and bravery but as a man who lacks faith.  After all, he is most commonly known as Doubting Thomas.  In today’s Gospel lesson, the disciples report to Thomas “’We have seen the Lord.’”   Not only had they seen the Lord, but he had shown up on the evening of Easter Day in the house where they were staying, even though the doors were lock.  He has an extensive conversation with the disciples, and he breaths the Holy Spirit on them, empowering them to forgive sins.  But Thomas is having none of it.  He refuses to believe their words, and he demands tangible proof: “’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.’”  For his skepticism, for demanding visual and physical proof, for refusing to believe the other disciples Thomas has been labeled Doubting Thomas.

Thomas gets labeled Doubting Thomas as if he lacks faith, but when you think about it, it’s the other disciples who seem to lack faith.  After Jesus appears to the disciples on the evening of Easter Day, speaks to them, shows them his wounds, and empowers them with the Holy Spirit, how do they respond?  Here’s how they respond: A week later they are still hiding in the house behind closed doors.  They don’t act like they’ve seen the risen Lord.  They don’t act like they have spoken to the risen Lord.  They don’t act like they are full of the Holy Spirit.  They act like it’s still Good Friday and that Jesus is dead and buried in the tomb.  It’s no wonder that Thomas doesn’t believe them.  Thomas can be forgiven for thinking that the disciples are full of hot air.  They certainly don’t act like they believe what they are saying.  If they believed what they are saying would they still be hiding in the same locked house as if nothing had changed?  Maybe if they acted differently Thomas would believe them.  The disciples’ words and actions contradict each other, so it’s understandable that Thomas doesn’t believe what the other disciples tell him.  Perhaps Thomas is not the one whose faith is lacking.

When Jesus appears to his disciples he says, “’As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’”  This may be the most significant line in the passage.   Jesus commissions his disciples to continue his ministry.  This means that for Jesus’ followers – that’s you and me – our words and actions have to match.  We can’t just say that we believe if we don’t put it into action.  If we say that we have experienced the risen Lord then we have to act like it too.  We can’t say we’ve met the risen Lord and then sit at home in a locked room.  We have to take the power and love of the risen Lord into everything we do.

My parish in Grand Rapids has a tradition of lavish floral decorations on Easter Day.  The church has a freestanding altar with a retable and rerodos behind it.  For Easter the top of the rerodos, the retable, and the floor of the chancel around the altar are covered with flowers of almost every variety: lilies, of course, but also azaleas, tulips, hyacinths, pussy willows, and forsythia.  The altar guild had to cut the stamens out of the lilies so our vestments would be stained, because there was no way to walk through the chancel without brushing against the flowers.  Half the choir members removed their inhalers only to sing the anthem – the fragrance and the pollen were intense.  It was our custom to leave the flowers up until the Sunday after Easter and then after the last service that day to invite parishioners to take the flowers home.  One year we had a wedding on the Saturday after Easter, so we invited the congregation to take the flowers home after the last service on Easter Day.  I kid you not, people almost came to blows over those flowers.  In particular, regular Grace Church parishioners seemed to mix it up with visitors: “Some lady I’ve never seen before took two flowers, and I’ve been coming here fifteen years and didn’t get one.”  Blah, blah, blah.  I heard about it for weeks.  It was hard to see what fighting over flowers had to do with Alleluia. Christ is risen.

I think that a lot of our churches are struggling because their actions don’t match their words.  We have beautiful liturgies; we know all the right words; but we have trouble putting them into action.  The problem in today’s Gospel lesson is not that Thomas doubted.  In fact, the theme of doubt runs through all the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection and seems to be a pretty normal reaction to the news that someone has risen from the dead.  The problem in today’s Gospel lesson is that the disciples don’t act like they believe what they say.  Our struggle is the same as the disciples’.  If we want our church to grow; if we want people to believe what we say, then we have to put our words into action. Amen.