Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church

Texts: Acts 4:32-25; John 20:19-31

Question 6, hour 1: When a person bears physical marks on their hands and feet that are similar to the marks Jesus bore from the crucifixion, those marks are known by what name?

People are known by all sorts of titles: the Gospel passage this morning tells us that Thomas is known as the Twin, but most of us remember him as “Doubting Thomas”.

The answer to question 6, hour 1 for one point is stigmata. When a person bears physical marks on their hands and feet that are similar to the marks Jesus bore from the crucifixion, those marks are known as stigmata. This is the plural of the word stigma, which means a mark of disgrace or infamy, a stain or reproach – as on one’s reputation. “Doubting Thomas” shows the stigma that has attached to Thomas arising from the Gospel passage we read this morning – his reputation has been tarnished by this one episode. Down through the ages, Thomas has been Doubting Thomas to us. As for so many people, his stigma became his identity.

A good friend and colleague in Indiana first shared with me the concept of basement voices and balcony voices. Almost three years ago I shared this with you, but it bears repeating. Basement voices are the voices that tell us that we’re failures, remind us of our flaws, and tell us that these are who we are. Basement voices often echo actual voices of people in our past – the coach who asked us if we’d ever get it right… the relative who told us that people in our family were never good at math, or art, or sports… the peers who teased us for being clumsy, or unhip, or having skinny legs or frizzy hair…the parent who asked why we couldn’t be like our more perfect sibling – these are the voices that bring us down, that make us feel like imposters, these are the voices that are basement voices for us…they lie to us about who we are, and they rob us of hope.

My colleague also spoke of balcony voices – those are the voices that affirm our gifts, that remind us of our best selves, and give us the confidence to keep on becoming who we were born to become. Balcony voices call us to hope, they see gifts in us that we haven’t identified yet, they see us clearly when all we can see are the images spoken by the basement voices.

No matter how confident we appear, no matter how gifted we are, most of us can easily hear the basement voices…and sometimes they are our own. We remember our failures, we fear that setbacks will be where we’ll stay, and these are some of the wounds we carry, hidden. Some of us grow to think that we are the wounds – we let ourselves be defined by a job loss, or a divorce, or something we don’t like about our looks – we have a hard time seeing past our wounds and we think no one else can either. They become our private identity, our secret self.

Question 7, hour 1: For one point, the music that Michael played as the prelude and that the choir sang as an anthem is known as “Lord of the Dance” or “I Danced in the Morning” but it was originally a Shaker melody known by what title?
They were afraid, in a locked room, and Jesus was with them, and he showed them his wounds. His wounds were part of how they knew he was really real – our wounds are part of who we really are. They are real, but when we try to hide them, or hide from them, they become more than part of who we are – they become our identity. Jesus was not his wounds, but they were a part of him. And when Thomas saw him, he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” His words are not a statement of belief so much as a statement of relationship – he was at a crossroads, holding himself back, but when he sees the wounds of Jesus, he gives himself fully to that relationship.

We who are afraid that our own wounds will keep people away from us, may be surprised to find that often it is our wounds that create a pathway to relationship – when we can share our wounds with others who are similarly wounded. When we can allow others to touch and be touched by our wounds, sometimes relationship becomes possible. Our willingness to share our own fear, or our mistakes, or our experiences allows people to see that we are real, and that sometimes creates openness. Christian community isn’t a place where everyone is perfect – it’s a place where we accept our imperfections, and the imperfections of each other.

The answer to question 7, hour 1 is: the melody name for the hymn Lord of the Dance is Simple Gifts – from an old Shaker tune: “Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free, ‘tis a gift to come down where you ought to be, and when you find yourself in a place just right…’twill be in the valley of love and delight.”

Knowing who we are is a simple gift, perhaps, but it is a great gift. Being able to accept ourselves, flaws and all, without being overwhelmed by our wounds, without the basement voices drowning out the voices of our better angels – this is a place of love and delight.

Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest in India – while he was Christian, he drew from other wisdom traditions in his teachings. In his book One Minute Wisdom, he tells this story:

One day the Master asked, “What, in your opinion, is the most important of all religious questions?”

He got many answers:

“Does God exist?”

“What is the path to God?”

“Is there a life after death?”

“No,” said the Master. “The most important question is: ‘Who am I?’”

As the disciples encountered the living God in the resurrected Jesus, they were empowered to come to new understandings of themselves. And the phrase that is usually translated as Jesus saying to Thomas, “Do not doubt, only believe” actually has a slightly different sense to it. First of all, it does not contain the word for doubt. It actually has the negative of the word πιστου, whose primary meaning is trust, so its negative would mean something like not having trust. And the word translated “be” also means “become” so Jesus is actually saying something like: Do not become untrusting, but trusting. Or do not be untrusting, but trusting. Jesus is talking about relationship more than doctrinal certainty. And about who Thomas will become in his relationship with God. And unlike our doubts and our beliefs which we cannot choose, we can choose our relationships. Our relationships are not separate from who we are, they are part of who we are.

Question 8, hour 1: What are the names of the persons on your right and on your left for one point each? Get up right now, find someone whom you don’t know, and introduce yourself, and give yourself two points.

But we are held back in relationships often because of our own sense of woundedness – because of the basement voices that we have believed. De Mello tells another story about the Master:

“What shall I do to love my neighbor?”

The Master replied “Stop hating yourself.”

The disciple pondered those words long and seriously and came back to say, “But I love myself too much, for I am selfish and self-centered. How do I get rid of that?”

”Be friendly to yourself and your self will be contented and it will set you free to love your neighbor.”

Question 9, hour 1 for one point: What is the difference between the Great Commandment and the New Commandment in the New Testament?

Jesus went on to tell the disciples to embody forgiveness – to be a community of forgiving, forgiven people. Sometimes people think that Jesus was actually giving the Church authority to forgive or not forgive moral transgressions, but the full sense of the paragraph includes the sentence before: “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.” This is how we bear witness to the reality of Christ – we forgive and we accept forgiveness from others. Forgiveness may seem like a simple gift, but often it is quite complex. Forgiveness isn’t forgetting – it is not letting the past become a barrier to relationships in the future. And the key to being a community of ongoing forgiveness, is being gentle with ourselves, realizing that God deeply and delightedly loves us. When we can accept the forgiveness God offers US, accept who we are, and begin to understand that we are beloved children of God…then we can begin to help others understand that too. When we fail to accept forgiveness, or to forgive, this is when we allow our wounds to become our identity – we choose to live under the power of our mistakes instead of in the breath of God’s spirit.

Answer to question 9, hour 1: the great commandment is “love your neighbor as you love yourself” and the new commandment is “love one another as I have loved you.”

There’s nothing abstract about Christianity. It’s all about the particulars: God loving us, in particular, just as we are. Us, living in that love, and learning to treat ourselves with that same level of deep acceptance and delight. Loving others, in particular, just as they are. Robert Capon writes, “…The church is not in the morals business.” That’s right – the Church is in the forgiveness business. It was at the center of the teachings of Jesus, it is at the center of living gently, and it is at the center of loving both ourselves and others. Once we really understand God’s love for us, then loving others as we love ourselves and loving others as Jesus loves us will be the same thing.

Question 10, hour 1, for four points: what other books in the New Testament are attributed to the author of the Gospel of John?

There’s nothing trivial about forgiveness – it offers new life to us, in our understanding of ourselves, and in our relationships with others. It offers us hope, because it frees us from the past and thus offers us the capacity to change. Deep acceptance of ourselves will release us from any stigma…and release us to accept others as well. When we can see ourselves clearly, and accept ourselves as God accepts us, then we can be gentle with others as well. And when our wounds are no longer our identity, we are freed to fully embrace our gifts. For many of us, the idea of loving ourselves seems selfish, but actually, it’s the first step to freeing ourselves from ourselves. When we fully accept ourselves as we are – forgiving our mistakes and delighting in our gifts – we are freed from defensiveness and the needy little self who was always trying to overcome the wounds. When we truly love ourselves, we really are freed from ourselves, and find ourselves free to delight in others and offer genuine, generous compassion.

A final story from Anthony DeMello – this one from his book Taking Flight: An old woman in the village was said to be receiving divine apparitions. The local priest demanded proof of their authenticity. “When God next appears to you,” he said, “ask Him to tell you my sins, which are known to Him alone. That should be evidence enough.”

The woman returned a month later and the priest asked if God had appeared to her again. She said He had. “Did you put the question to Him?”

“I did.”

”And what did He say?”

“He said, ‘Tell your priest I have forgotten his sins.’”

The answer to question 10, hour 1 is the author of the Gospel of John is also understood to be the author of the three letters of John, as well as the Revelation of John.
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are,” wrote John in his first letter, and he continues “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” Let that be our identity. Amen. .