Just imagine if it happened, here – the way things are today. The headlines might read this way:

That’s what might have happened if Jesus’ first disciples politicized their faith and tried to use power politics to advance their own personal agenda as happens so often in our society, these days. They could easily have ostracized Thomas for not accepting their point of view to coerce his conformity or demonize him for his difference. But they didn’t, and Jesus didn’t hold Thomas’ skepticism against him. That, coupled with Thomas’ willingness to continue affiliating with his peers in discipleship – even though he must have felt uncomfortable with their assertions -- led to unity instead of division and then shared experience instead of adversity.

You see people are different from each other. God made us that way. Our differences of personality, temperament, intellect, psychology and experience give rise to differences of perspective. Using what for this parish is a familiar tool -- Myers-Briggs typology -- can help. It’s pretty clear to me that Thomas – of today’s Gospel story – was very different from, oh say, Peter. Peter’s temperament was Feeling and Perceiving. Thomas’, on the other hand, was clearly Sensate, Thinking, and Judging. Peter was inclined to think from the right side of his brain, whereas Thomas was a left-brain thinker. And so, naturally, Thomas had a much more pragmatic, empirical bent, and more than that, was pretty blunt. You may recall, for example, when Jesus had decided to go from Galilee to Bethany, outside Jerusalem, to attend to Lazarus during the height of the authorities’ hostility toward Him, that Thomas was the one who said, loosely translated, "Sure, let’s all go down there to die." He was practical and sarcastic. Then, again, when Jesus said, "You know the way to where I’m going," it was Thomas, who said, "We don’t even know where you’re going, how can we possibly know how to get there?" He was very pragmatic. He wanted things to be clear and concrete. That’s the way God made him. That’s the way he was when Jesus called Him. And that’s the way Thomas was in today’s story when he responded to his friends’ tales of Jesus’ resurrection by saying, "I won’t believe it unless I examine His body for myself."

There’s a spirit of dogmatism, a spirit of divisiveness, a spirit of adversity all around us, these days. And it gravitates to everything from the war to the environment, from social security to health care, from Creationism to Evolution, from lotteries to land development, from sexuality to reproduction, from religion to ethics to politics to economics, even to personal family issues of life or death with dignity as in Terry Shiavo case. We’re a people torn apart by dogmatism and antagonism over the differences of our perspectives, rooted in our differences as people. But that’s not Jesus’ way. He called to His way of life and mission, people, who were different – including in their perspectives.

Jesus didn’t call us to become ideologues and political agitators, but to devote ourselves to His way -- loving God and others, inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Whenever the temptation – for the sake of consistency and purity – has seduced Christians to coerce others to live according to their own, personal interpretations, it’s been disastrous. That temptation is rooted in a spirit of pride and fear. It’s the same spirit that gave rise to the heresy trials of the 4^th century AD, the conflicts between the Eastern and Western Church, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the European wars between Catholics and Protestants – the 40-Year War, the 100—Year War, the failure of Calvin’s Geneva, the witch hunts of 17^th century Puritanism, and the reactions of the Enlightenment against Christian faith. And that spirit is not the Holy Spirit. The fruit of that spirit is dogmatism, discord, coercion, domination, distrust, mutual demonization, and revenge. That’s not the way of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, and it leads only to unnecessary rejection of Him by those who feel the dogmatism. It is, instead, what Jesus called the leaven of the Pharisees, which He cautioned His disciples against. As Jesus said, "Beware the leaven of the Pharisees," "By their fruit you will know them." He said. That isn’t the way our Risen Lord calls us to live – but to grow the fruit of the Holy Spirit, instead. St. Paul taught that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is opposite from that -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, and self-control.

While we’re not able to encounter the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, in quite the same way the apostles did, including Thomas, we can still see His body alive, hear Him speak, and touch Him – in each other, because those who believe in Him and follow His ways are the Lord’s ongoing physical presence in this world if only we follow His Spirit’s lead. The kind of community that meets the risen Lord and embodies Him for the world is described in our Gospel reading.

This is what it tells us:

These are some of the ways in which Jesus, the Risen Christ, still comes to us -- to stir up our faith, give us spiritual life, and unite us as His Body. They’re the signs that He’s still alive, well and active in the world -- so that others, like Thomas, can see Him among us for them selves and believe.