Rowan Williams, a few years ago, wrote these words: “A really holy person is someone like a great artist or musician or poet. They help us see what we would otherwise miss; dimensions and depths in the world that we might not otherwise spot.” I like that. I have met people like that.
I am a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists. The Society of Ordained Scientists. With members from all around the planet, it is a group of folks who enjoy connecting with other people with a background in science who also have a devout faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ. They are people in the realm of science who help us see dimensions and depths in the world that we might not otherwise spot.
Science for much of history was linked to the study of faith, the two were seen as connected and not separated. But in the latter years, with particular advances in scientific thought and the speed with which science has developed, a barrier between the two seems to have formed. Evolution, advances in psychology, geology, astronomy, physics, medicine, pharmacology and so many other areas have seemed to separate the two. Many have come to think that if they see the world around us with a more scientific thought process related to genetics or adaptation or biochemistry or thermodynamics or chemistry… then there is no way they could have a faith in God. The two are saying completely opposite things… or so the story goes.
But as I said I am a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists which is a group of scientists NOT trying to shoehorn their science to fit with a particularly rigid faith, no these are scientists doing research on cancer, or for NASA, or in quantum physics, or anaesthetics in medicine and many other areas of research and study. They are looking at Artificial Intelligence and its impact on the world. They are seeking ways to understand the universe and its ability to continue to expand. But they are also a group of people who have come to a place where they see the importance of the science they study and its link to a Creator of this world. They understand the link between a resurrected Jesus Christ and our own freedom from sin and death, leading to new life and new hope. They understand that there is a presence of God all around, known as the Holy Spirit who leads to new possibility and breaks open a deeper understanding of love and how it guides human beings in this world.
But we in British Columbia live in a place that is known to be a centre for secularism. We live in an area where it seems difficult for people to link science and faith, or a curiosity about the world with a trust in God.
Unfortunately, only a certain kind of rigid religion seems to make the headlines rather than a faith that discovers God in our midst, in the middle of our scientific study and our examination of this planet. Best to keep science and faith apart. And yet… when we look around we recognize that so many people are feeling more and more lonely, more and more stressed by the events of our times, more and more aware that the violence we see on our screens is not what we are called to be and do. There is a desperate desire to find a deep sense of peace, knowing that we are loved and known. We crave this. As have people in every generation.
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” While most people have moved along from our celebrations of Easter a week ago… the Church is still hovering over that one day, that one Easter Day long ago, and recognizing that the significance of it all is not limited to only one day of the year. And so when we gather here this morning and in churches all around the world, we are still on that same day. The women encountered the risen Christ at the tomb. And later in the day Jesus appeared to these other disciples who were hiding in fear. He came into their midst. And notice what he said to them. It was not a long lecture about the meaning of resurrection, it was not a rethink of a whole theology of God, it was not a study on the link between science and faith, art and spirituality or the meaning of Christology in the world of their times. None of that. No, he came into their midst and spoke to their desperation and their confusion about what they are supposed to believe now that their understanding of God had been shattered. Jesus came and stood among them and said, and hear these words for they are meant for you as well, he said, “Peace be with you.” Peace be with you.
All of your angst, all your fear, all your doubt, all your grief, all your confusion, all your broken hearts, all your need for closer relationship, all your hope of a new vision of this world, all your wondering of how science and faith can be connected, all your desperate searching for deeper purpose… into all of that and so much more, Jesus said “Peace be with you.”
Now Thomas wasn’t there at the time. He had skipped out. He had gone searching for answers. He had trouble accepting what was being said. He could not connect the dots. He struggled to see how resurrection was possible, how forgiveness was possible, how acceptance was possible, how self-love was possible, how trust was possible, how God might be known in this. He was not going to believe just because others were telling him he should. He is more the scientist in the group, set up a study, examine the results and then present a theory.
Jesus came once again and stood beside Thomas and all the others who had gathered. And this time as well, he did not lecture on atonement or grace or acts or creationism or liberal theology or Protestantism or a whole host of other things that were for another day. No, he offered once again four simple words: Peace be with you. And in them we discover Jesus’ prayer for those followers of long ago and the followers for now. Peace be with you. Discover what those words mean for you. Discover how they speak to your relationship with God, with your deepest craving in terms of knowing God in your life, with your understanding of observing this world and noticing the presence of God, with your deepest desire to know love in your soul, calm in your mind, and peace in your being. For we need to know those words in these times in our world and in this time in your life and in this place of encounter.
This morning we have a number of people who are committing themselves to a deeper connection to the holiness of life, to a relationship with Jesus Christ, to recognizing the Holy Spirit in their midst. They are seeking confirmation, reception and baptism, a new connection or renewing a connection to the God of all. They are pushing against some of the things being offered as important in this world and are seeking what is truly at the centre of life. They are seeking a renewed vision of the risen Jesus Christ. They are like Thomas, who thought he needed a scientific approach to his faith only to discover that he needed a deeper awareness of how God was calling him to walk in his life. He needed to hear those words of “peace be with you” and let them reshape his view of the world and God and his neighbour. And all of us this morning, those being confirmed, received or baptized but all of us are the Thomases of this world pushing aside a fact-based view of our world to one where we discover that we crave the peace that Jesus is praying for us. A peace that is for this life and the next, a peace that shapes us and renews us to be people of the resurrection, confident in God’s complete and total and unlimited love for us.
You see Thomas discovered what he was looking for and it was not when he was invited to touch the wounds from the cross. No it was when Jesus looked him in the eyes and understood his deepest quest. His quest to be loved by God and to live into that love all of his days. It was when he discovered that the resurrection of Jesus was about breaking down any barriers between us and God, and inviting us closer into relationship with the one who first breathed life into this world and into us.
Rowan Williams, a few year ago, wrote these words: “A really holy person is someone like a great artist or musician or poet. They help us see what we would otherwise miss; dimensions and depths in the world that we might not otherwise spot.” May all of us here at St. Thomas Church today be ones who discover those dimensions and depths in the world and may we be part of helping others to discover them as well. For they are places where we realise what “peace be with you” really means.